It’s a shame, really. Nintendo’s Wii and DS systems finally see some quality M-rated titles, and they sell poorly.

Sega’s bloody black-and-white brawler MadWorld, which released in North America on March 10 for the Wii, sold roughly 66,000 copies. While this is a pretty low number, Sega has stated that it is encouraged by the sales figures, perhaps counting on longevity versus initial rush.

Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, which released in North America on March 17 for the DS, sold slightly better with just under 90,000 copies so far. However, given the strong brand of GTA, as well as the incredibly high review scores, the sales can be seen as a disappointment.

Analysts had been predicting between 200,000 and 450,000 copies to be sold within the first month.

The sales of the two well-received games points to a bigger, more troubling trend for Nintendo’s platforms: the inability for M-rated games to sell on its systems, despite brand name recognition and the largest install bases for the current generation of consoles.

At the same time, video game sales have dipped in March compared with the previous year, so perhaps a couple more months will yield better sales that, in turn, may prevent other developers from shying away from putting out more mature titles on Nintendo’s systems.