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

[Joe]

Wild how Metroid Prime Remastered is still #3 in the US eShop whereas Bayonetta Origins isn't even on the top 30 at all. I know it's not the most fair comparison but Bayonetta Origins got a pretty heavy marketing push for the last few months and seemed like Nintendo was treating it as its big March release.

 

[Leo]

I never commented on Bayonetta Origins because I know many people were excited for it and I didn't want to sound pessimistic, but to me it was clear it was going to be a flop from the moment it was conceived.

The game is niche of a niche, it's a spin off from a niche franchise that picked a niche genre that has nothing to do with the main game and is magnitudes less appealing to the mass market than the latter. It also positions itself like an important part of the lore of the main series so it pushes away people who never played Bayonetta and know nothing about the story but could be interested in the gameplay. So it's not particularly interesting to either Bayonetta fans, because they are interested in the Bayonetta gameplay and aesthetic which this is a huge depart from, nor the general audience because it's positioned as a Bayonetta game which already fails to gather a larger audience even with the main titles. It's also 60 dollars even having all of that going against it.

 

[Magic-Man]

Metroid absorbed Bayonettas sales

 

[Linkstrikesback]

I never commented on Bayonetta Origins because I know many people were excited for it and I didn't want to sound pessimistic, but to me it was clear it was going to be a flop from the moment it was conceived

If you define anything as less than a million sales as a flop, sure, I guess, it never was going to reach that. But that's fine. I bet Nintendo and platinum had a reasonable expectation for it, and that it will have ended up meeting them. I doubt they expected it to do even half of what 3 sold.

 

[Leo]

If you define anything as less than a million sales as a flop, sure, I guess, it never was going to reach that. But that's fine. I bet Nintendo and platinum had a reasonable expectation for it, and that it will have ended up meeting them. I doubt they expected it to do even half of what 3 sold.

I think it's gonna do much much less than a million, and less than what they were expecting judging by how the game was slotted and the amount of marketing it got.

 

[Linkstrikesback]

I think it's gonna do much much less than a million, and less than what they were expecting judging by how the game was slotted and the amount of marketing it got.

Well, yes, half of a game that just barely made it over the million line would be a lot less than a million.

 

[LonkFromPA]

I think what really killed Bayo Origins was that $60 price tag. Had it launched at $39.99 it might have picked up some traction

 

[Magic-Man]

I think what really killed Bayo Origins was that $60 price tag. Had it launched at $39.99 it might have picked up some traction

Yeah Platinum kinda screwed themselves here.

 

[Joe]

I know Bayonetta Origins has a much more niche appeal but I genuinely expected it to at least make the top 30 for a game with such a heavy marketing push.

 

[Raysu Delight]

Bayonetta Origins is a great game honestly. It's kind of scratching that 2D Zelda itch for me and I don't regret buying it at all, but yeah it was never gonna sell.

 

[Mr Doggo]

Where did the massive pessimism come from? The thread was on fire saying it would easily surpass dread?

I havent seen any news that would imply any sort of pessimism. Where has been said that nintendo send out a ljmited supply? It has pretty much been implied otherwise (MPR had a physical opening as good as Hogwarts Legacy in the UK and the fsct they did confirm that they sent out a healthy supply)


So ill ask again does the sudden pessimism come from?

 

[Mbolibombo]

I think it's gonna do much much less than a million, and less than what they were expecting judging by how the game was slotted and the amount of marketing it got.

Vanilla Bayo games barely sells a million, I'm really not sure what people were expecting for this game.
I'm sure Nintendo and PG didnt expect it to light a fire - not every Nintendo franchise is a multi million seller.

Yeah Platinum kinda screwed themselves here.

Nintendo specifically asked for an Origin Bayonetta story, they're funding and publishing the game - I think Nintendo decided how to price this game, not PG.

 

[Joe]

Where did the massive pessimism come from? The thread was on fire saying it would easily surpass dread?

I havent seen any news that would imply any sort of pessimism. Where has been said that nintendo send out a ljmited supply? It has pretty much been implied otherwise (MPR had a physical opening as good as Hogwarts Legacy in the UK and the fsct they did confirm that they sent out a healthy supply)


So ill ask again does the sudden pessimism come from?

The only pessimism I see here is about Bayonetta Origins, not Metroid Prime.

 

[Hero of Hyrule]

Where did the massive pessimism come from? The thread was on fire saying it would easily surpass dread?

I havent seen any news that would imply any sort of pessimism. Where has been said that nintendo send out a ljmited supply? It has pretty much been implied otherwise (MPR had a physical opening as good as Hogwarts Legacy in the UK and the fsct they did confirm that they sent out a healthy supply)


So ill ask again does the sudden pessimism come from?

You gotta reread those posts to get the full context friend

 

[Mr Doggo]

You gotta reread those posts to get the full context friend

the thing i saw was something about nintendo not having faith on mpr and purposefully sending limited supply, which unless there have been new news completely contradicts what they actually said.

 

[Tentacle-tropes]

I know Bayonetta Origins has a much more niche appeal but I genuinely expected it to at least make the top 30 for a game with such a heavy marketing push.

If the game doesn’t have appeal to people then it doesn’t have appeal. No amount of marketing is gonna move the needle on that.

 

[Hailinel]

Why are people freaking out about Bayonetta Origins sales in a thread dedicated to freaking out about Metroid Prime sales?

 

[Zeal543]

A thought just popped up in my head; this is the first time metroid prime has been widely available to the public. GC and WiiU sold poorly and an extremely small amount of copies were made for the wii trilogy version. It's like a xenoblade/xenoblade DE situation.

 

[Linkstrikesback]

A thought just popped up in my head; this is the first time metroid prime has been widely available to the public. GC and WiiU sold poorly and an extremely small amount of copies were made for the wii trilogy version. It's like a xenoblade/xenoblade DE situation.

Eh, in America perhaps, iirc they did some gamestop exclusive nonsense there, right? but I don't think Metroid prime trilogy was that undershipped at the time in Europe and Japan, having a pretty standard release (well, 1 and 2 were released separately in Japan), the demand for Metroid just wasn't as high at the time.

Trilogy seemingly sold comparably to the other New Play control titles, where only mario tennis got over the million copy line, and prime 3 only did 1.4m on the platform.

I think part of the success is, when combined with the type of base cultivated for Metroid on switch being a better match than the Wii, more the absence of the prime series for 15 years making the heart grow fonder and all that. Still will be interesting to see just how much that is.

 

[Hailinel]

A thought just popped up in my head; this is the first time metroid prime has been widely available to the public. GC and WiiU sold poorly and an extremely small amount of copies were made for the wii trilogy version. It's like a xenoblade/xenoblade DE situation.

The game that was a major holiday retail release on the GameCube was not widely available?

Yes, the release was staggered across territories, but let's not pretend MP1 failed to sell because it was treated like Path of Radiance and only five copies were printed.

 

[Zeal543]

The game that was a major holiday retail release on the GameCube was not widely available?

Yes, the release was staggered across territories, but let's not pretend MP1 failed to sell because it was treated like Path of Radiance and only five copies were printed.

GC had limited sales

 

[Hailinel]

GC had limited sales

I'm sorry, but no. Stop.

Metroid Prime 1 was a successful game. That the GameCube itself wasn't the dominant console of its generation doesn't in any way negate that, and it doesn't mean Metroid Prime was not widely available. It absolutely was.

 

[Leo]

The game sold 2,8 million on the GC, that's a huge success. I don't know why people seem to think ~3 million is a low number when talking about Metroid.

Sega was celebrating that Sonic Frontiers hit 3 million this week, and that's Sonic and the best received game in the franchise in a long time.

 

[Mr Doggo]

The game sold 2,8 million on the GC, that's a huge success. I don't know why people seem to think ~3 million is a low number when talking about Metroid.

Sega was celebrating that Sonic Frontiers hit 3 million this week, and that's Sonic and the best received game in the franchise in a long time.

People have bizarre standards for the franchise. Its not even the fans who do this because the fans were overjoyed at dread's sales. The ones who do this are haters and concern trolls.

 

[Hero of Hyrule]

Prime was a huge success at the time, but I think it would be accurate to say that the Switch, with its install base and audience makeup, provides the best shot at broader exposure the series and this game in particular have ever had. Previously, you either had the right type of audience (GameCube) or the massive install base (Wii). Never both.

Again, this obviously doesn't take away from Prime being a huge hit back in the day. Just that the Switch is the first time it can reach the kind of success it should have had all along.

 

[Branduil]

Well 2 million is still possible I suppose.

 

[Skittzo]

I voted 2-3M, still definitely possible.

 

[Dark Cloud]

Some people gotta come back down to earth lol. Living in that moment. Metroid Prime 4 will hit the highest numbers.

 

[Linkstrikesback]

 

[ProteusRidley]

2 million is still in the realm of possibility, it's been out for just over 2 months guys.

 

[Tentacle-tropes]

I voted 2-3M, still definitely possible.

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.

 

[Linkstrikesback]

2 million is still in the realm of possibility, it's been out for just over 2 months guys.

With how frontloaded sales of software of this type are, that's a real longshot now.

Some games have significant legs, but there's no real way for a 2 decade old remaster with no post launch support to end up being one of them

 

[Leo]

Well, looks like my initial prediction of 1-2m was on point. The hype bubble ended up convincing me otherwise, but I really think the marketing strategy for this game wasn't ideal.

Still a good success for what the game is, I'm sure Prime 4 will do close to Dread numbers and that's more or less what Nintendo is probably expecting. The next 2D entry could see some growth over Dread if the next hardware keeps up the Switch's momentum.

 

[T.Rygra]

A tad above 1 mil is great, but I had honestly expected more given the reduced price. A shadow drop was an awesome move for fans after years and years of rumors and speculation, but I don't think it was the optimal strategy for maximizing sales. Game could have been featured in at least one more direct. Still, many people got to experience Prime for the first time with beautiful visuals, and that makes me happy.

 

[Gartooth]

I voted 1 to 2m back then so I guess I was on the money. Seems possible this is where it ends since Metroid games seem to be more frontloaded than other Nintendo IP. Cross promoting it alongside Prime 4 could help it later get close to that 2m milestone I suppose.

 

[tender]

i am going to guess 1-2 million.

 

[Jahranimo]

I said what I said lol.

 

[Zeal543]

Voted 1-2 million but I definitely was expecting more on the 2 million side

 

[Lord Azrael]

Roundabouts 1.09m I'm thinking

Spoiler

Well that's just first quarter, though the 2-3m option I voted for isn't looking likely anymore

 

[DittoM]

That first page is really sad now. People were really out here believing it would hit 5 million copies with pretty much no marketing, just WoM for a super niche series. 1 million in a little over a month ain’t bad tho. Just wish it was more.

So how do we expect Metroid Prime 4 to do if it only launches on the current Switch? Will people say 4-5 million again or will people lower their expectations back to 1-2 million?

 

[Mekanos]

Don't think 2 million is happening, Metroid games are very frontloaded and a 20 year old game has little chance to expand its audience. Maybe 1.5m or so.

That first page is really sad now. People were really out here believing it would hit 5 million copies with pretty much no marketing, just WoM for a super niche series. 1 million in a little over a month ain’t bad tho. Just wish it was more.

So how do we expect Metroid Prime 4 to do if it only launches on the current Switch? Will people say 4-5 million again or will people lower their expectations back to 1-2 million?

I think Prime 4 will do Dread numbers unless I see something that tells me otherwise.

 

[Hailinel]

I'm not making any predictions about Prime 4 until I see what it actually looks like.

 

[Instro]

The April NPD charts will help a bit to see what kind of legs it might have. It had such a weird release, with a delayed physical launch that was then under shipped. Might lead it to have some better than expected legs. Definitely not going to blow the doors off, but put up some more respectable numbers.

 

[Deleted member 1108]

I wonder if the staggered digital and physical release didn't help.

Completely anecdotal but a friend was waiting for the physical release, then got hit with the game being out of stock and he simply lost interest in the game altogether.

 

[Sailor Moon]

I wish it had done better, but I’m not surprised that it didn’t. Shadowdropping it and bungling the physical release probably hurt the game’s sales pretty badly.

Oh well. Metroid Prime, I’ll always love you

 

[terrornaught]

Damn, hopefully echoes and corruption were already in development before these sales figures came in. Game looks too expensive to move only a millions units. Then again they keep making Xenoblade games so fingers crossed.

 

[Marce-chan]

Damn, hopefully echoes and corruption were already in development before these sales figures came in. Game looks too expensive to move only a millions units. Then again they keep making Xenoblade games so fingers crossed.

I don't think Nintendo expected even that tbh. It's 1,09M shipped + digital. It's super likely digital sold more than physical by a huge margin because a) it released first; b) physical sold out fast and even Nintendo acknowledged that.
I believe they made a really conservative Q1 shipment of physical.
So if there ever were plans for MP2/3 on the future, they wouldn't be hurt by how well MPR would sell or not, because if so, they'd at least give it a marketing push similar to Dread, not just shadowdrop it on a crowded period with it being only a headline on the Direct.
They'd also have shipped more physical units; guess they're aiming for a more spread out plan to make it have legs, as opposed to Dread being super front loaded than falling off a cliff.
AND SPEAKING OF... Anybody knows when CESA White Papers will be out? It's this month right? I wanna know how past of 3M Dread got. Because we usually judge its first to second quarter drop and presume it almost never shifted anything afterwards but we know games like FETH and Xenoblade 2 ended up selling way north of that after a couple years.

 

[karmitt]

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.

 

[Aurc]

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.

 

[Dolce]

Damn, hopefully echoes and corruption were already in development before these sales figures came in. Game looks too expensive to move only a millions units. Then again they keep making Xenoblade games so fingers crossed.

the remaster isn't THAT drastic, if 1m units isn't profitable for MP1, that would be silly.