JR436
Probably looks better in a dress.
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To be fair, the definitive edition of XB1 released in 2020. We haven't gone more than 2.5 years without Xenoblade in the Switch era.
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Sales Data Updated sales numbers for Switch titles: Fire Emblem Engage (1.61M), Kirby's RtDL DX (1.46M), Metroid Prime Remastered (1.09M), and more
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To be fair, the definitive edition of XB1 released in 2020. We haven't gone more than 2.5 years without Xenoblade in the Switch era.
PixelKnight
Observing the process
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I suspect they mean that Torna was a decent campaign on its own, plus the re-release of Xenoblade 1 that plenty of Switch owners likely hadn’t played on Wii or N3DS. That’s a fair amount of Xenoblade if players started with XB2 and then played through the next couple of boxed releases on Switch too, just less so for players that played XB1 over a decade ago and skipped Torna.
Exactly. Nintendo’s projections for Fire Emblem and Xenoblade are different for something like Mario. They don’t need every single one of their IPs to sell gangbusters. They just need to cater to their respective demographics.
Xenoblade DE came out right in-between 2 and 3 and was practically a new game to most audiences. Not to mention 2 had substantial DLC through 2018. 2 also had the benefit of launching during the Switch's first holiday season and being many people's first exposure to the series. 3 looking like another story-driven open world JRPG with a big grassy field is definitely more of the same to most. You've played that game possibly twice already on your Switch.
Fire Emblem just had a Warriors spinoff less than a year before Engage, and 3H wasn't that long ago.
There's also just the fact same-console sequels typically sell worse (OOT/MM, MGS2/3, Prime 1/2, Galaxy 1/2, etc.)
space_dragon
Cunning Commander
I'm pretty happy with Prime's sales. Especially for such a quick turnaround from announcement to release. I'm always hopeful for that 3-5 million range, but I don't think that's really going to happen until Prime 4. (Though Dread has likely hit 3 million by this point.)
Yamanoi
I paid $70 for this tag
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Yea grand scheme. TOTK will just come and go. No one will be talking about it after a month and it will not make any difference to the current gaming landscape. Apologies for thinking it would do much for Nintendo.
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Metroid Prime seems like the game everyone online praises and talks about, and then proceeds to not buy lol. I’m sure I saw some people thinking it might be closer to Dreads launch numbers so this seems a bit disappointing.
P.Scoop
Mostly lurk, talk sometimes.
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For the record, Metroid Prime Remastered only sold 50,000 copies in Japan since released to March 31.
Metroid's popularity almost entirely came from outside Japan, and that definitely didn't help it sell more (again, not to say it didn't sold well)
Metroid's popularity almost entirely came from outside Japan, and that definitely didn't help it sell more (again, not to say it didn't sold well)
YoboD
Koopa
Yeah, as much as I like that the creators are happy to mix up the series I can’t say I’m disappointed to see Engage lagging behind Three Houses in sales. I do think writing and world building is important for a series that’s fundamentally about getting you invested in your anime chess pieces so hopefully they’re able to go back to what made TH such a breakout.
Raysu Delight
Boo
What I don't understand is why it seems to be talked about as if there has to be some sort of trade off between gameplay and story/characters in FE games? People are talking about how they were experimenting with a different direction with Engage, but why is better gameplay even considered an alternative direction? FE Engage gameplay blows Three Houses out of the water, just give me that again but with a more grounded story and fleshed out characters & relationship building like 3H had.
(By gameplay I'm mostly referring to battles/combat here FWIW).
(By gameplay I'm mostly referring to battles/combat here FWIW).
Kartina
theprocessbroke
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The only one who actually understand metroid potential as a series is Nintendo, i'm already seeing doom and gloom for the series because a 40 dollar remastered shadowdrop sold just 1 million. The series full potential will be seen with metroid prime 4, expecting a remastered to be doing dread numbers was foolish.
And tbh metroid fans need to accept that the series will never be on the same level sales wise as Mario or zelda and not even in splatoon or Luigi's mansion tier.
It will stay between that xeno fire emblem range unless metroid prime 4 is a true slam dunk.
And tbh metroid fans need to accept that the series will never be on the same level sales wise as Mario or zelda and not even in splatoon or Luigi's mansion tier.
It will stay between that xeno fire emblem range unless metroid prime 4 is a true slam dunk.
Galgavias
Koopa
People seemingly forget with Nintendo that as a console producer, it's in their interests to create a gaming ecosystem that appeals to as many gamers as possible, which is why 'prestige' titles like Metroid will never really die. So what if it only sells a million or so? If even half of those sales are from people who would buy a Switch just for that game, then it's still half a million consoles sold, and more likely than not more software sales on other games going forward.
There are only a select few instances in which a Nintendo IP becomes properly dormant. 1, a lack of development resources (lets pop Starfox and Kid Icarus in this category currently). 2, sales of the franchise absolutely tank to the point they don't even work as 'prestige' titles (F-Zero and Chibi Robo for now). 3, personal circumstances which makes a new game pretty much impossible (Mother and Eternal Darkness). And even then, I would argue that only in circumstance 3 is a franchise truly considered dead to Nintendo.
Advance Wars is a pretty good example of this, dormant for a very long time but suddenly back with sales which seem decent by the current metrics we have. Provided it doesn't absolutely tank there should be enough evidence for Nintendo to justify WayForward making another if they wanted to.
SpaceGodzilla
Did You Get that Thing I Sent You?
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Deeply unimpressed with these software numbers, outside of totk or a possible new 2d mario game, looks like no new Nintendo game will even pass 4 million this year. Really hoping switch 2 is first half 2024 more then ever now
That’s always been the case.
Yup, it’s not like IS only has the option of doing one or the other. They can evaluate what worked for both 3H and Engage and work from there.
PixelKnight
Observing the process
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Absolutely. There’s also an element of the portable back catalogue as an asset too- high regard for old portable classics means that they can effectively put out remakes of a pair of old GBA games as a full price title. That’s quite attractive when the core of the games mechanics are like 99% untouched as they are a beautiful piece of game design to begin with. Why not get that going again to test the water, it’s not a massive risk in terms of investment compared to the potential gains. People can always argue ‘but opportunity cost says ‘why Advance Wars’. But I think variety and quality across genres and across their back catalogue has a lot of value too, especially when these are highly regarded, critically acclaimed games a huge portion of their fanbase won’t have played.
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Linkstrikesback
Bounty Hunter
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It's because people had their hopes up, if Metroid was ever going to break through the glass ceiling of sales, like several franchises have done on switch, it was going to be now or never. Apparently it's never.
It probably doesn't help that it got dunked on by a 2D kirby remaster at full price
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I'm getting huge Wii in 2011 vibes.
It seems like the Switch effect is wearing off.
It used to be, that if Nintendo released a quality game on Switch, it would do absolute gangbusters compared with what it used to be.
Now it seems like software is going back to the 3DS and Wii U days.
It doesn't help that games like FE Engage was divisive. But I think Switch is losing steam.
I think if they haven't already been finalizing new hardware, they are hitting the new hardware panic button now.
It seems like the Switch effect is wearing off.
It used to be, that if Nintendo released a quality game on Switch, it would do absolute gangbusters compared with what it used to be.
Now it seems like software is going back to the 3DS and Wii U days.
It doesn't help that games like FE Engage was divisive. But I think Switch is losing steam.
I think if they haven't already been finalizing new hardware, they are hitting the new hardware panic button now.
The Return to Dreamland Remaster outselling Prime 1 at a higher price point is testament to how poor the marketing was for Metroid
Not only was RTD higher priced, it was a less substantial remastering effort of a much more recent game. But got featured in multiple Directs and was actually marketed, so it sold more.
Raysu Delight
Boo
I kind of agree, but at the end of the day they tried something different with it, which you can't fault too much for a franchise that has never historically sold huge amounts. We don't really know what their expectations for Prime 1 were, but I do think the game would've sold more if it got a proper marketing cycle like the Kirby game.
Mr Doggo
Anti oof
What we can learn from all this is that shadowdrops are a mistake, like, this is the ONLY lesson we can learn from all of this lol
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Lost in this Engage talk is it's still one of the best selling games in the franchise. The wii comparisons are absolutely nonsense as the wii wishes it's hardware and software was selling this well in year 7. The Wii's 6th fiscal year saw it do a bit under 10 million units, it's 7th fiscal year (the year the wiiu launched) it sold less then 4 million units (as did the wiiu, for a combined less then 8 million).
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Also like, Prime almost had 0 marketing, it was shadow-dropped during a Direct as a budget game. Adding a cool million to series-wide sales in 3 months with that kind of release is very good.
The game was very incremental and I am under the imnpression that it did nothing to expand the audience.
Speaking for myself only, I was a big fan of Splatoon 2 but stopped playing around 2020. I bought Splat3 on release and had tons of fun, but I haven't touched it since January.
I believe that Splat 4 is ways off and they will need to somehow go back to the drawing board to offer something which will feel fresher. The licence can still grow but it will require more effort from Nintendo.
Gingerbread Man
Paratroopa
Alternatively, Kirby has a broader audience than Metroid.
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Both things can be true
Kirby has a larger market and Kirby remasters should outsell Metroid remasters
Metroid hurt it's sales potential with it's bizarre shadow drop physical later no marketing stunt
I would also argue that Nintendo should have pushed back Kirby's Return to Dreamland DX and made it a holiday 2023 game, especially now that we know Switch 2 isn't happening this FY. It was too soon for another Kirby game.
Kirby has a larger market and Kirby remasters should outsell Metroid remasters
Metroid hurt it's sales potential with it's bizarre shadow drop physical later no marketing stunt
I would also argue that Nintendo should have pushed back Kirby's Return to Dreamland DX and made it a holiday 2023 game, especially now that we know Switch 2 isn't happening this FY. It was too soon for another Kirby game.
Linkstrikesback
Bounty Hunter
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The Kirby remaster did substantially more than prime in every way except graphics though. And even then, they still made significant changes to be more in line with modern Kirby than how it was in the Wii era.
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Worth noting that Metroid Prime Remastered evidently exceeded Nintendo's expectations unless you think they intentionally put a lot of effort into a remaster they expected to underperform. Once Metroid Prime 4 releases the regular way and fails to hit some arbitrary sales number that Metroid fans set for it we're gonna hear how they should have shadowdropped it to generate more excitement.
Kartina
theprocessbroke
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See you in a week when totk will show you how not like 2011 wii the switch is.
There's a perfect comparison between skyward sword performance and totk performance, both late era zelda games.
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No doubt, TOTK will either sell as well a BotW, or outsell it.
However, anything else that is newly released, is not going to do that well honestly.
I think Pikmin 4 is in a bit of dire straights to be honest.
Again, comparing the Switch to the Wii is nonsense. Switch has far better hardware, software, engagement, all the metrics.
Mr Doggo
Anti oof
Despite a lot of metroid fans being crazed, fact is that there is sooo much goal moving from concern trolls too, certainly isnt an effort just from thr metroid fanbase.
Oh yeah, good point, lets see how pikmin 4 performs after months of hype and a big update in how it feels to play.
Kartina
theprocessbroke
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That still means that it won't be in the same situation as the wii in 2011 since at that time even a new zelda game underperformed.
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Even ignoring how much better Switch hardware/software/engagement is compared to late era Wii. There are other things lost on people making the awful "late wii era" comparisons.
Nintendo was in the late wii era splitting it's teams 4 ways (wii, wiiu, ds, 3ds) compared to only 2 now (switch and it's successor).
Nintendo had actual competition in the motion control casual game space (kinect and move) and in the portable gaming space (psp). Nobody is seriously trying to compete in the hybrid or portable gaming space (don't even bring up Steam Deck as real competition, Switch in the next fy alone will outsell SD's lifetime sales at the end of the next year).
Nintendo is doing far more to expand their brand outside of just gaming between the Mario movie (billion at the box office) and the creation of a theme park at Universal.
The late Wii era Nintendo discovered what the rest of the industry had figured out 5 years earlier, that making games in HD is really hard and requires additional effort they had not planned for. Switch 2 and it's development tools should scale easily from the work being done on the current Switch, which will help to ensure a smoother transition.
(This one is purely speculative) I doubt Nintendo is going to try and get cute with the Switch successor the way they did with the wiiu and 3ds. The Switch 2 will be a more powerful Switch and it'll be easily marketed/understood as such. No confusion about if it's an accessory for the current system (wiiu) or an inflated price due to a gimmick most people didn't want (3ds).
Mr Doggo
Anti oof
i think this one is super easy to bet
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My initial thoughts
NSMBUD sold better this quarter than Odyssey or 3D World. 2D Mario is still very appealing.
Xenoblade 3 looks to have weak legs, those are the sales I would expect XBCDE and XBC2 to have had this quarter. DLC will probably help, but 2 million seems to be a ceiling now.
Fire Emblem Engage is also kinda disappointing, I think Three Houses had really struck a chord with audiences, and the talk around in engage seemed to drop off in comparison much more quickly, so I’m not surprised.
Evergreens still looked very strong (heck, BotW doing almost a million last quarter is nuts!) so I think overall software sales aren’t too dire.
I think there’s some gas still in the tank, but boy are we keeping our eyes open for a gas station at this point.
NSMBUD sold better this quarter than Odyssey or 3D World. 2D Mario is still very appealing.
Xenoblade 3 looks to have weak legs, those are the sales I would expect XBCDE and XBC2 to have had this quarter. DLC will probably help, but 2 million seems to be a ceiling now.
Fire Emblem Engage is also kinda disappointing, I think Three Houses had really struck a chord with audiences, and the talk around in engage seemed to drop off in comparison much more quickly, so I’m not surprised.
Evergreens still looked very strong (heck, BotW doing almost a million last quarter is nuts!) so I think overall software sales aren’t too dire.
I think there’s some gas still in the tank, but boy are we keeping our eyes open for a gas station at this point.
Bobo
Moblin
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Yeah I mean I can’t believe Nintendo is promoting 3 DLCs as if they were full games.Nintendo has so little games announced atm that they need to also reffer with DLC's
Gingerbread Man
Paratroopa
Wasn't Metroid Prime sold out in several US stores? This suggests that the game exceeded Nintendo's expectations. I think that the shadow drop + budget price combo generated a good buzz among hardcore gamers, that is, the kind of audience that might be interested in Metroid Prime. Why did Dread sell a lot more? Maybe because it had demo, maybe because "2D Metroidvania" is now a relatively popular genre thanks to indie games, maybe because it was more action-focused. I think "2D Action Metroidvania" is an easier sell than "First Person Adventure, that is, an FPS focused on exploring and... scanning things, but you also shoot, and there are good bosses and enemies".
Ultimately, we don't know. But I think Nintendo made peace with the fact that Metroid (and especially Metroid Prime) is a relatively niche franchise. What it doesn't bring in terms of sales and perhaps money, it brings in terms of prestige. On the other hand, every Kirby game sells many copies among the general public, and that's without considering Kirby's merchandise. 99% of high-profile Western outlets don't care about Kirby or even have a dismissive attitude towards it, though.
Ultimately, we don't know. But I think Nintendo made peace with the fact that Metroid (and especially Metroid Prime) is a relatively niche franchise. What it doesn't bring in terms of sales and perhaps money, it brings in terms of prestige. On the other hand, every Kirby game sells many copies among the general public, and that's without considering Kirby's merchandise. 99% of high-profile Western outlets don't care about Kirby or even have a dismissive attitude towards it, though.
All very good points, and thank you for providing more thoughts about this “this reminds me of Wii” nonsense.”
I mean, we just had Dread.
We need to remember that remakes don't usually sell that much better, and we still see this on Switch.
rickyson33
Paratroopa
it really is remarkable just how much staying power Xenoblade 2 controversy has with some people
to this day if you open up a Xenoblade discussion somewhere there will be people complaining about 2 or that random picture that was there for like two seconds in 3
Kartina
theprocessbroke
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2d mario is prone to be a huge mega seller if we're getting a new one this year, it could hit and surpass the ds and wii games.
I think the xenoblade series has hit its ceiling for the switch, it's now a comfortable 2mil+ series which is not a small feat for the series, having so many games on the switch was probably a bit too much but we'll see with the next entry on the next switch if it will keep on growing.
For engage I think the reviews and general tone of the game were the deciding factors for the game not hitting the same heights as Threehouses, Threehouses was also the highest rated game made by Nintendo in 2019 so that was probably a big deal and big factor in it's success.
Djehuty
Koopa
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There are millions of paper Mario fans boycotting the new games, just you wait for ttyd remasters 10mil is the floor
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Given this comparison, I wouldn’t be surprised if XC2 actually sold more last quarter than XC3
www.installbaseforum.com
A Sales Story | E05 | Xenoblade Chronicles 2
XENOBLADE CHRONICLES 2 - Its sales and why they are relevant 2007 - The Acquisition It's 2007 and the Nintendo Wii is rocking the videogame world with its novelty/gimmick, but also thanks to its huge sales numbers. Among all the news, there is something that somehow goes undernoticed, at least...
www.installbaseforum.com
Djehuty
Koopa
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It was Genshin before Genshin, but hardcore.
Anyone who’s says the artstyle hurt xenoblade is an idiot, it should go back to that.
Adulfzen
Like Like
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poor marketing is just copium at this point for the fact that there seems to be a hard limit for Metroid as a franchise to grow (unless it wildly changes to the point of being unrecognizable from what it used to be) which doesn't mean they can't still keep making those games since Nintendo does a good job of budgeting those releases usually.
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I say we wait until next quarter to see Prime Remastered numbers. The late physical release compared to digital plus the inability to get a copy due to seemingly low initial print probably artificially deflated the numbers. I know a lot of people waited for the boxed copy and the. Couldn’t find it. The game has been much more readily available as of late, so makes me think that the retail shipped numbers will be decent next quarter. Not saying gangbusters, but the release strategy sort of blunted the sales of this game.
