Study: Wii Games Hit Bargain Bins Faster

— -- When it comes to game sales metrics, feelings are irrelevant and data is king. Research group EEDAR claims to have rather provocative data from a study conducted on "price protection" that reveals Wii games are landing in bargain bins at a rate, compared to Xbox 360 and PS3 titles, of nearly 2 to 1, according to Cinema Blend.

"Over 7.5% of Xbox 360 and 9.09% PS3 third-party published titles go into price protection early," said EEDAR analyst Jesse Divinich. "The Wii, however, nearly doubles the Xbox 360 and PS3's average at 15.1%." Divinich attributes this to a surfeit of mainstream and casual games released simultaneously. "Aside from the often congested holiday release schedule," he said. "Most publishers typically avoid releasing their big AAA core targeted titles against other AAA titles, whereas it is common to see many mainstream/casual titles, targeting similar markets, released in the same week."

But wait, isn't "price protection" that thing retailers do to insulate you against near-term price drops? Yes it is, and EEDAR's simply using the term differently. In their study, it describes a practice in which publishers drop the wholesale cost of a game because it's underperforming and retailers want it gone.

Divinich adds: "What is most astonishing from this dataset is that games that achieve quality scores above 91% have never been price protected early on the PlayStation 3, the Wii or the Xbox 360."

Translation: Stop with the crappy toss-away cash-in-on-the-Wii's-success games, third-party publishers.

Lest you accuse me of enthusiast bias, know that I say that as someone who actually enjoyed the Wii version of Dancing With The Stars.