The compromises Metroid would have to make to be a 10 million seller would be awful. Metroid's particular USP that makes it so special to its fans also guarantees it'll never sell that.
This is something I've noticed a lot with Metroid over the years. When the topic comes up, it often shifts to the idea that Metroid should become something it isn't, or perhaps something even antithesis to what it is, so that it can sell more.
I'm going to assume
LoneRanger is simply hyped up on the success of Dread and not actually suggesting Metroid take a full-on turn into becoming something else, but it's a suggestion I've seen in earnest, with people saying it needs to happen. But to change it to something else, as has been suggested in various locations over the years, is to remove the essence of what people like from the series to start with.
If you lose the soul of the series to prop up the shell, is it worth the trade?
Even in forums I’ve felt I had to defend metroid against other Nintendo fans claiming the series wasn’t worth making etc.
Well this is the first time a Metroid game has been an actual notable seller since, what, the NES game? I don't think it was wrong to point out that Metroid was a rather niche franchise and thus it's understandable why it doesn't get the same treatment as their big ones. If anything, I'd say it was Metroid fans that were overzealous at how Metroid is being abandoned or betrayed or whatever. I'd argue Nintendo treated Metroid better than most other companies would've as most would've dropped a series like that, like how we're unlikely to get the sort of stuff Team Ico used to make from Sony
I pulled this up, really, to mention the disconnect between claiming the series isn't worth making and suggesting it should be expected this lower-selling series wouldn't receive the same treatment as larger ones. One is a much stronger statement than the other.
But there's also the wording of being a "notable seller," which you've already argued against Prime being one of the best selling GameCube titles qualifying.
Not exactly a lot of stiff competition on the GC for that and neither of the sequels sold as well
But it could be noted that the lack of stiff competition also means you could expect the audience who might have picked it up to be elsewhere as well, where their desires might be a bit better met.
Also, Prime here was being compared to all GameCube games; there was certainly less competition in that way than there might be on other systems, but it still means people picked up Prime instead of a number of other games one might expect had been more tailored to the audience.
As for the sequels, well, a sequel on the same system doesn't usually sell as well as the first game. Prime 3 launched for Wii, leaning actually a bit more in the direction a lot of people seem to think is necessary for the series to sell and be worth making, but the potential audience for such a direction was better served on other systems. I'd say being one of the best selling titles on the platform is "notable," even if only for the context we find it in.
And none of them did particularly well
I've referenced Prime 3, a later-numbered entry that leaned further from the typical core of Metroid, toward a direction that had an audience more centered on other consoles. But then there was also Other M, which, it might be worth noting, was largely reviled by the Metroid fanbase and really considered to be just not very good (I personally think that was overblown as far as gameplay goes, though there were some issues there, but other elements did put in the work to elicit an unfavorable response).
Prime 3, maybe, should have been able to pick up more sales despite its hurdles (and I do wonder if the more "casual" bent of Wii-era advertising hurt it more than helped), but Other M especially doesn't seem like a good barometer for what is generally hailed as a quality series (and was, itself, a divergence in many ways from the series' core).
But this wasn't what I was initially intending to address, and I don't think we entirely disagree at the core: Metroid is historically less profitable as a series than some of Nintendo's other franchises -- especially in Japan -- and can be expected to be handled somewhat differently. Though, even there, it seems much of your distaste is a resentment of the fandom, more than anything dealing with the franchise itself -- Generally, fandoms bring out the worst in people (Though, even then, I suspect the Donkey Kong debacle was less about Metroid itself and more that Donkey Kong wasn't considered "core" or "mature" enough, and the sparks-to-flame of that situation was also fanned by the games media. Similar to Splatoon, which has nothing to do with Metroid whatsoever, but also doesn't match that mature/core vibe).
I meant more to look at the idea that Metroid isn't worth making or needs to drastically change so it is. The question is well set up here:
almost every other videogame company would have put Samus out to pasture many years ago. Opportunity cost is a thing; Metroid games were generally expensive to make and they don't sell as much as other franchises. Why spend x amount of money making Metroid when you can spend the same sort of money and sell Mario or Zelda numbers?
And it's answered in the idea of a prestige title, one that props up the system to diversify its offerings, which can be a basis for a consumerbase that other publishers can latch on to, a concept that really only makes sense for a platform holder like Ninendo -- or just someone with absolutely ludicrous amounts of capital to throw around.
Look at Bayonetta, for instance. It wasn't a huge seller when it came out, though respectable, perhaps. But Nintendo took on that opportunity cost to fund the sequel. Why?
Likewise, Metroid isn't typically a loss for Nintendo, and it diversifies their output and what their systems have to offer. It caters to a base that, as mentioned earlier in the thread, much of the Nintendo fanbase might not be a part of -- but which does overlap.
Beyond that, most of what Nintendo puts out likely won't sell Mario or Zelda numbers, and the games that will certainly aren't being displaced by Metroid.
In conjunction with that, but clearly not the most influential aspect on its own, is the question of legacy. Where makes sense, Nintendo has built up and maintained its legacy franchises. Some have met fates, so far, that leave them behind, and others have felt the threat of such. But, while the super major hits might be at the top, there are going to be "lesser" franchises beneath them.
I've always considered Mario, Zelda, and Metroid to be the TriForce of Nintendo, more or less, not because of sales but because of a combination of legacy and prestige.
Let's look at Dark Souls for a moment, which isn't even a prestige title by a platform holder. And this isn't a "what can Metroid learn from Dark Souls" sort of thing in that I think one series should become like the other (though the first Dark Souls does share some amount of DNA). But Dark Souls knows what it is, and it plays toward that. It developed a following such that you might be forgiven for thinking it's actually massive.
If Metroid keeps in mind what it is, holds to some core elements that constitute its soul, and plays toward the strengths of that in design and in marketing, it can manage similar. But it also has the benefit of being a legacy franchise and a prestige title for a platform holder.
Which I guess is my point. Metroid doesn't need to become something else. It needs to know and develop what it is.
It doesn't need to sell to the extent of some of Nintendo's mega-sellers, though it's great for it to punch above its weight.
If it became something else, divorced from everything that actually makes the series what it is, what does it truly matter that the name is the same? Perhaps a rose by any other name might smell as sweet, but if bestowed to such as the titan-arum, the name of rose does not bring with it that same aromatic essence.