That's what happens when you make a game that, visually, appeals to kids that are 8 years old. The people with money are too embarassed to buy it.

There happens to be a lack of appeal for me as a Wii owner to pick up this game.  Also, consider that Mario Kart sold last year.  Not everyone is going to change for this game, even if it was better.

I don't think the game had any marketing behind it.  Like most great Nintendo games that have come out on the Wii.

coughcoughmetroidcoughprimecoughcoughthreecoughcoughcough

Honestly i don't have the urge to ever buy a Wii game i rent most of the games that are meant for more hardcore people. The Wii is a party machine and its hard to get people to play more gamer focused games with you

It doesn't appeal to hardcore gamers that much, and not to casuals that much either... it's in a sort of limbo.
If I get a Wii, I'll at least try it out.

Is anyone suprised by this? It got no exposure in the mainstream press or advertisements, and most gamers know it's essentially excite truck, so this game gives us an example of how NOT to promote your game

It wouldn't surprise me if they are aiming for high sales on the long runs. Great game, really need more people online so I'll have less trouble winning stars. 

I am not very surprised. It just looks way too similar, aesthetically, to Excite Truck, and it has had very poor marketing behind it. Shame.

If they had called it Mario-a-Truck it probably would have sold 15 billion units like mario kart wii sold.

I still want to buy EXITE-TRUCK, but I cannot find it for less than $50.

Jim Sterling sums it up really well

They didn't really build it up though did they? I mean - suddenly it was announced, there was a trailer and then it was out. It was weird.

It does look really fun and, had it actually come out in Europe, I would have bought it. It's a shame in that sense.

Wii sales are all over the place these days. I mean, Wii Fit STILL consistently tops the UK sales charts, and you still get the likes of Wii Play and Mario Kart lingering. Particularly with the appeal of Mario Kart I thought this game would have done much better.

EDIT: I'm not saying Wii Fit, Wii Play or Mario Kart are bad games; I particularly think Wii Fit is excellent for what it is. I just find it strange that virtually every Wii game that comes out essentially has to compete with games that came out years previous. It's almost like - "Want a racing game on Wii? Get Mario Kart, nothing else matters." -- which is stupid. It would be like not buying Burnout on PS3/360 because the system already has Motorstorm/PGR4.

It's such a radically different and unpredictable market that I don't think anyone really understands it. I don't see how developers can put resources behind the Wii when the success-fail ratio is so all over the place. On one hand you have games like Raving Rabids that's got lucky and continued to sell well, but on the other hand you have something like ExciteBots that has just bombed for no real reason. It ticks all the boxes: family friendly, critically well received, attractive concept, easy to pick up and play, playable by the hardcore and the casual -- I can only assume that the lack of build-up is what caused the game to bomb.

Well that sucks.

It's only something like a week to ten days of sales... Wii games have long legs. We constantly hear of Wii games bombing then after a year half of them turn out to have been half or full million sellers. If anything it will at least get similar sales to Truck which eventually accumulated something like half a million sales also? Sure, it was a launch title, but then again the install base has increased considerably since then so it should even out. It's also bundled with the wheel, that should help it keep up, as long as it actually stays on shelves. It's a word of mouth type of game, much like Truck. People see it and look away if they don't know the franchise.. Then a friend who has played it or they play it with convinces them otherwise because it's just that good. Also, it's $40 without the wheel yeah? Go buy it people.

Yeah, piracy isn't the main reason. Checking on the most popular torrent website (out of curiocity, my Wii isn't even homebrewed) it's got less than 155 seeders and 65 leechers (more seeders than leechers?!), which is pretty much zero by piracy standards and shows there's simply no interest in the title (and that Wii piracy really isn't that widespread, despite how easy people say it is -- after all, it was just as easy on PSOne and PS2, but it didn't stop the multi million sellers on those, and it hasn't stopped them on the Wii). The problem is even gamers don't know it's been released judging by responses on various websites. And of them, half just go "looks shitty anyway" like they haven't even checked out any previews, impressions or reviews on the very same websites they saw this bit of news on. I still see a prominent "wtf they should keep trucks" mentality which I thought would be gone after all the positive press that should have reassured fans this sequel is in the same spirit, and a lot better too. I guess many missed the memo, somehow. So, for the reasons in my last response, it should get better as more people realise it's released, and is actually damn good. It's not destined to be a hit, but perhaps a cult hit just like Truck was. Also, piracy isn't awesome.

No marketing, that was the problem. If the game had some commericals, it would sell pretty good. I mean Transformers, and Cars. Come on, instant sucess. 

Wow, BOOM!

Nintendo has pursued a strategy of pissing off the hardcore gamers/Nintendo fans who stood by them during the N64/Gamecube years by focusing on "casual" gamers.  It's not my fault that I could care less at this point about new Wii releases and haven't turned on my Wii in 4 months while I use my PS3 almost daily.  I guess the only thing Nintendo has to comfort themselves is their billions and billions of dollars.