Despite House of the Dead: Overkill and MadWorld failing to sell as many copies as hoped, president Mike Hayes has said that new hardcore titles will still be crafted for the console.

Hayes tells Wired that Sega are investigating why the game didn't do too well at retail, but are still confident that 'proper' games can succeed on the Wii. The Conduit, for example, seems to be doing rather better despite more mixed reviews.

"It's difficult because it was a critically acclaimed title; it was extreme but good. The thing that we're saying is, Sega would be extremely arrogant to have a title that didn't do as well as we thought on a platform and then say, 'Those kind of games don't sell on that platform.' I think if you take our slew of more mature games - House of the Dead Overkill did really well in Europe, and for some reason even though it's a big (intellectual property) it did less well in North America," Hayes offered.

"So that's kind of like a win and a miss that's kind of come out neutral. MadWorld were very disappointing, but was that to do with the platform? Was it that people didn't like the art style? Or that people didn't like the way the game played through? It could be many things, which we're obviously researching."

The executive concludes that lower costs also allow publishers to take more risks on the Wii, which boasts a userbase so large that firms like Sega are still keen to try and crack it.

By Luke Guttridge