Wii’s Excitebots Sells Just 13,000 In The U.S.

Despite message board buzz and strong reviews, the Wii-exclusive Excitebots: Trick Racing sold just 13,000 units in the U.S. for its April debut, research firm NPD Group told Gamasutra on Friday. The Nintendo-published game launched in the latter half of NPD’s retail calendar on April 20, so the game has yet to reach even a full month of availability on store shelves. (NPD's retail calendar for April ended on May 2.) But the amount of units sold is still low, considering the popularity of the game’s predecessor, Excite Truck, the strong reviews, and the buzz amongst the press and hardcore fans. NPD said the game wasn’t even able to crack the top 100 games by unit sales during the month of April. In name, Excitebots also has heritage in the classic franchise started by the 1980s NES classic Excitebike. Developed by Monster Games, the same studio behind the well-received Wii launch title Excite Truck, Excitebots took the fast-paced, motion-controlled arcade racing formula and added robot vehicles. The game has so far garnered an 82 percent review average on Metacritic. News of Excitebots’ initial sales comes after NPD said that the M-rated Wii exclusive Madworld from Sega sold 66,000 units in the U.S. in its March debut. In February, Sega's other gory M-rated Wii game, the light gun shooter House of the Dead: Overkill, sold 45,000 units in its debut month in the U.S., according to NPD.