Discussion How much do you think Metroid Prime Remastered will sell?

[Leo]

Whelp. The question is, did it only hit 1-2 because of Nintendo's marketing and meager physical supply, or was this as good as it ever would have done?

I'm leaning towards the former, but we'll never know.

After actually playing the game, I think it definitely had a low ceiling from the go. I think the game is much less appealing to nowdays sensibilities than Metroid Dread, even if it's 3D. It feels more like an enthusiast kind of game than something that could resonate with a wider audience like 2D Metroidvanias do.

That said, I think the launch strategy definitely hurt it a bit.

 

[ILikeFeet]

Acknowledging the reality of the situation: while it's obviously true Metroid is niche, I do think it's logical to figure proper marketing would've at least helped some. The shadow drop was awesome for existing fans, but seems to have landed like a soggy paper bag for everyone else. I don't think it ended up being a worthwhile play for Nintendo. Maybe they trusted the wrong process.

I think the product itself was superb, and easily one of the most impeccable remaster efforts of the past several years, deserving of all the critical claim it yet again garnered. I can't praise it enough. Business is business though, and Metroid devs having to go above and beyond so it can justify its mere existence (on purely a sales level, at least) is no new story. At the very least, it overwhelmingly pleased fans, and maintained the "prestige" of the series (in an unironic, non-meme way). I wouldn't be surprised if that's all Nintendo was looking for out of this release.

shadow drops are for people in the know, like the core audience. you don't do this if you want to reach a wider group. so saying it's not worthwhile is more damning of the Metroid base this move plays to than to Nintendo. and we know that's not true because Metroid has had bigger sales. if it legs it out, that's just a bonus, but I think Nintendo knew damn well what they were getting into. remember that they sat on this game for a long time, so it's not a last minute decision.

it's possible MP4 is coming sooner than later and by dropping MP1 now, they can avoid the two games being too close together

 

[Aurc]

shadow drops are for people in the know, like the core audience. you don't do this if you want to reach a wider group. so saying it's not worthwhile is more damning of the Metroid base this move plays to than to Nintendo.

I'm not sure I agree with this part. Like... if you have the ability to advertise to a wider audience (like that of The Game Awards), but you willingly choose not to, in order to go "We only want our game to sell to the small, existing audience of Jim Bob the Metroid fan and his buddies!", that seems to me like something worth chalking up as an error of the company itself.

We now have the numbers, and they're not awful, but not great, either. Again: marketing wouldn't have magically propelled MPR to 3 mil, but it certainly couldn't have hurt, right? Nintendo works in mysterious ways, I guess.

 

[Instro]

I think if Metroid/Metroid Prime is going to reach a larger audience, they should probably be looking to shift the series to TPS. The FPS genre is not what it once was, particularly for single player experiences, whereas pretty much all the most popular games outside of CoD and a couple multiplayer games are third person right now.

 

[ILikeFeet]

I'm not sure I agree with this part. Like... if you have the ability to advertise to a wider audience (like that of The Game Awards), but you willingly choose not to, in order to go "We only want our game to sell to the small, existing audience of Jim Bob the Metroid fan and his buddies!", that seems to me like something worth chalking up as an error of the company itself.

We now have the numbers, and they're not awful, but not great, either. Again: marketing wouldn't have magically propelled MPR to 3 mil, but it certainly couldn't have hurt, right? Nintendo works in mysterious ways, I guess.

Less that and more they don't expect it to do much better. Marketing costs has an inflection point. Why spend more if the gains won't be there? How much more marketing does it need to hit 2M units? Is it OK if it hits that number over time? Because it's not like the game will drop in price anytime soon (or ever)

 

[afternoon delight]

I'm talking lifetime sales, not short time, kid.

 

[Sampdoria]

The CESA White Paper will be out next update. We’ll see if it has legs or not along with an updated Dread number. I think it may ultimately fall near XCDE with not so great legs after but I’ve always thought that even before these new numbers.

The CESA White Paper releasing in a few months will only cover sales until December 2022. We probably won't know about Metroid Prime Remastered updated sales until 2024.

 

[Tentacle-tropes]

The CESA White Paper releasing in a few months will only cover sales until December 2022. We probably won't know about Metroid Prime Remastered updated sales until 2024.

The only other update then would be crossing the 1mil threshold for the current FY

 

[ILikeFeet]

I'm talking lifetime sales, not short time, kid.

2M lifetime isn't out of the cards. Metroid Prime 4 might cap the game though

 

[terrornaught]

I’m struggling to grasp how a £35 State of the art (for Switch), 3D game, that is basically the first game in the series gets outsold so much by a £50 2d game that is the 5th game in the series.
I’m thinking maybe where prime is so revered that a lot of people who love the game have played it so much they had no interest in playing essentially the exact same game again, or the late physical release hurt sales as Nintendo gamers are known for loving their physical games.

 

[10k]

I say it tops out at 3M copies, more likely between 2-3M though.

 

[Thunder84]

I’m struggling to grasp how a £35 State of the art (for Switch), 3D game, that is basically the first game in the series gets outsold so much by a £50 2d game that is the 5th game in the series.
I’m thinking maybe where prime is so revered that a lot of people who love the game have played it so much they had no interest in playing essentially the exact same game again, or the late physical release hurt sales as Nintendo gamers are known for loving their physical games.

The actual spot in the series timeline didn’t factor in at all. What did matter was that Dread was an entirely new game with a big marketing cycle, whereas Prime was a shadowdropped remaster. Of course the former sold better.

 

[Dolce]

I’m struggling to grasp how a £35 State of the art (for Switch), 3D game, that is basically the first game in the series gets outsold so much by a £50 2d game that is the 5th game in the series.
I’m thinking maybe where prime is so revered that a lot of people who love the game have played it so much they had no interest in playing essentially the exact same game again, or the late physical release hurt sales as Nintendo gamers are known for loving their physical games.

Prime has never been particularly popular. It's just not that appealing to a lot of people. I don't really know why people can't get that.

 

[ILikeFeet]

I’m struggling to grasp how a £35 State of the art (for Switch), 3D game, that is basically the first game in the series gets outsold so much by a £50 2d game that is the 5th game in the series.
I’m thinking maybe where prime is so revered that a lot of people who love the game have played it so much they had no interest in playing essentially the exact same game again, or the late physical release hurt sales as Nintendo gamers are known for loving their physical games.

brand new game with months of marketing

vs

remake that was shadow dropped and had a physical that came later and was supply constrained