Reviews Xenoblade Chronicles 3 | Review Thread (see staff post)

[Dunban]

Looking at historic data a lot of (J)RPG's do not sell crazy numbers in general. So I do find a million+ gap between sales quite a big thing. Xenoblade Chronicles initially released on the Wii which was at time the best selling console of Nintendo and the Wii U was also backward compatible.

Moreover, you are adding Xenoblade Chronicles of three different systems together. I am quite sure that people that bought Xenoblade Chronicles on the Wii bought it again on the Switch and some of them on the 3DS. I found it weird you are undermining the Wii as a platform. As that platform had several 10 million and even 30 million sellers. So there was an audience there as well. Xenoblade Chronicles 2 only was released on one system.

So, I feel my earlier mentioned narrative makes sense .

Excuse me? Are we playing a game of revisionist history here? Not only was it a struggle to get Xenoblade out in North America, but it was extremely limited in the way it was sold. Even if you don't wish to believe that Operation Rainfall played any part in getting it over here, there's little reason to believe it had an ideal environment to sell because it was released on the Wii. Not only did Xenoblade have an unfavorable release schedule when Wii software sales were going down, but Wii software sales were also unkind to games like Xenoblade overall due to Nintendo's aggressive pursuit of Blue Ocean style games in that era. Plus I really hope I don't have to explain why Wii U was no help to that situation. And lastly, your second assumption is just as pointless as simply add up the numbers from each release. There's no reason to believe there's some very large overlap in those buying multiple versions. The answer obviously lies somewhere in the middle, which is an extremely large gap to close.

 

[Crusters]

Looking at historic data a lot of (J)RPG's do not sell crazy numbers in general. So I do find a million+ gap between sales quite a big thing. Xenoblade Chronicles initially released on the Wii which was at time the best selling console of Nintendo and the Wii U was also backward compatible.

Looking at the historic data of games, a lot of games don't sell crazy numbers. This is meaningless fluff to sell a narrative.

Moreover, you are adding Xenoblade Chronicles of three different systems together.

Obviously, it was released 3 times.

I am quite sure that people that bought Xenoblade Chronicles on the Wii bought it again on the Switch and some of them on the 3DS.

This is meaningless, and coming from the person who said this:

"Finally, stating that Xenoblade 2 was disappointing for many is an assumption."

Smacks of double standard to push a narrative instead of looking at what is.

I found it weird you are undermining the Wii as a platform.

The Wii was dead in 2012. The Wii u literally came out that year. Xenoblade came out over 2 years late in NA.

As that platform had several 10 million and even 30 million sellers.

Not by the time Xenoblade released in NA, it's best selling territory, the system was dead and even support from Nintendo themselves had dried up over a year beforehand, as Nintendo had been preparing for the release of the Wii u that came out a couple months after Xenoblade in NA.

Xb2 released in the prime of the systems launch, this isn't as hard a concept to figure out as you are trying to sell.

Xenoblade Chronicles 2 only was released on one system.

And? That's reality chum. You can't handwave it because it's inconvenient to the story you are trying to tell.

So, I feel my earlier mentioned narrative makes sense .

You just called it a narrative.

 

[Dardan Sandiego]

Most recent numbers put seminal JRPG Xenoblade 2 at 2,35m actually.

 

[Kartina]

You know, if a billion lions came down from the sky they could easily crash every pokemon and win the battle.

 

[Crusters]

Most recent numbers put seminal JRPG Xenoblade 2 at 2,35m actually.

These numbers are not hard, which is why I don't use them. I expect xb2 to be a minimum baseline of 2.5 million when the next white paper drops. I don't feel that increase is statistically relevant to the context at hand though.

 

[Dardan Sandiego]

These numbers are not hard, which is why I don't use them. I expect xb2 to be a minimum baseline of 2.5 million when the next white paper drops. I don't feel that increase is statistically relevant to the context at hand though.

Yeah, it's a pretty big gap either way.

 

[BradenAndEggs]

This animosity between XC1 and 2 disguised as sales comparison discussion in this thread is actually a metaphor for the conflict between Agnus and Keves in XC3.

The hyper-intelligent Xenoblade community even elevates their sales discussions along Takahashi meta-narratives. Truly a sight to behold. Fans of other Nintendo IP wish they could have discussions about entries on this level.

Spoiler

lol

 

[Ahmed]

She's originally from England and had been at Mitsuda's studio for a while now. She did some arrangements and orchestration on the Xenoblade 2 soundtrack.

Mariam Abounnasr - VGMdb

Born on Jan 10, 1990 in London, England, United Kingdom, credited in 53 albums and 11 products.

vgmdb.net

She's worked on a lot of stuff according to her credits. I think she might be mixed race. Japanese/Arab from London.

 

[Dragoncaine]

Up to 88 on OpenCritic from 86 yesterday, good shit!

 

[Crusters]

Yeah, it's a pretty big gap either way.

It's not, and I wouldn't consider xb3 breaking this barrier either if it just sells a million or so more than xb2. I also won't think It means anything statistically relevant if it sells less, beyond Xenoblade still hasn't had a breakout game, and is still in the same general sales ballpark. These things don't exist in a vacuum apart from everything else in existence.

 

[Kartina]

It's not, and I wouldn't consider xb3 breaking this barrier either if it just sells a million or so more than xb2. I also won't think It means anything statistically relevant if it sells less, beyond Xenoblade still hasn't had a breakout game, and is still in the same general sales ballpark. These things don't exist in a vacuum apart from everything else in existence.

ok question, what would be a breakout performance for the xenoblade series?

 

[Crusters]

ok question, what would be a breakout performance for the xenoblade series?

For me?

I would consider 4-5 million needed for xb3, on the switch as it is right now, to be a break from the current bracket beyond just changes in sales environment, and a retention or increase from the next brand entry to show it's not a fluke.

Ultimately, I share Takahashi's sentiment that 10 million plus is the end goal that's needed to secure the budget monolithsoft desires to truly make the xeno games they want.

 

[Kartina]

For me?

I would consider 4-5 million needed for xb3, on the switch as it is right now, to be a break from the current bracket beyond just changes in sales environment, and a retention or increase from the next brand entry to show it's not a fluke.

Ultimately, I share Takahashi's sentiment that 10 million plus is the end goal that's needed to secure the budget monolithsoft desires to truly make the xeno games they want.

that's for xenoblade 3 which is starting from a baseline of 2.5+ mil that xenoblade 2 got.
But let's talk about xenoblade 2 instead coming from no games in the series that even reached a million. Do you think that xenoblade 2 needed to sell 4-5 million to become a breakout hit when no other game in the series reached a milion?

 

[Warlord]

Up to 88 on OpenCritic from 86 yesterday, good shit!

Good, there should still be around 60 reviews left for OC and 24 for MC if it gets the same ammount as 2 and DE

 

[mazi]

Up to 88 on OpenCritic from 86 yesterday, good shit!

climbing up in the hall of fame

 

[Kartina]

climbing up in the hall of fame

below horizon forbidden west, sony always wins babyyyyy

 

[mazi]

below horizon forbidden west, sony always wins babyyyyy

period house down boots

 

[lexony]

Not sure if I should be putting in the effort going by your tone, but just for my own conscience:

We can debate taste all day, but that's not going anywhere. I prefer BotW's more elegant, less "hyped" art style, but can see why people like X3. I'm not trying to take anything away from their enjoyment.

We can also debate technicalities all day. X3 has per object motion blur. BotW has dynamic world shadows. X3 has more characters on screen. BotW has a single seamless open world. Both have procedural cloud cover. I didn't intend to start a stick measuring contest. Different stuff has different priorities for people.

Personally I haven't seen a more impressive game on Switch since BotW in 2017, and that's kind of a shame because I'd hoped BotW to be a starting point and not a continuous shining example. Xeno's low resolution has more of that "impossible port" feeling than something that feels like it suits the Switch.

EDIT: added two BotW screenshots of my own because the two you provided are obviously selected to prove your point.

While I think this is more of a preference of art style (BOTW art is much more forgiving, grass for example has the same color as the ground which makes its draw distance almost invisible and the pop in less visible because of the muddy textures), Xenoblade 3 is technically definitely more advanced. Which is a good thing, for all Nintendo games. Difference between Xeno 1 and 2 are almost night and day. I think we‘ll see a lot of stuff like the temporal upscaling solution in BOTW 2 too.

 

[Crusters]

that's for xenoblade 3 which is starting from a baseline of 2.5+ mil that xenoblade 2 got.
But let's talk about xenoblade 2 instead coming from no games in the series that even reached a million. Do you think that xenoblade 2 needed to sell 4-5 million to become a breakout hit when no other game in the series reached a milion?

Both Xb1 and XcX were so close to a million tracked (xb1 had 3-4 GameStop print runs after the tracked numbers stopped at .9 million) 'breaking a million' is a completely irrelevant milestone. You're talking at the very most, 0.16 mil sales to get XcX up to a million, and for xb,1 tracked run, 0.09. This is even without considering the 800 lb sales environment elephant.

That metric is only applicable for for Xenoblade 3, right now, because it's the upcoming entry. The ship has sailed for the others. It's the next shot. The metric is for the franchise, which covers all entries.

 

[Comic Obsessed]

below horizon forbidden west, sony always wins babyyyyy

I haven't played Forbidden West yet but based on everything I have heard, I really hope XC3 doesn't end up being as much of a boring and derivative entry.

 

[Deleted member 2]

period house down boots

are u ok

 

[Kartina]

Both Xb1 and XcX were so close to a million tracked (xb1 had 3-4 GameStop print runs after the tracked numbers stopped at .9 million) 'breaking a million' is a completely irrelevant milestone. You're talking at the very most, 0.16 mil sales to get XcX up to a million, and for xb,1 tracked run, 0.09. This is even without considering the 800 lb sales environment elephant.

That metric is only applicable for for Xenoblade 3, right now, because it's the upcoming entry. The ship has sailed for the others. It's the next shot. The metric is for the franchise, which covers all entries.

you still didn't answer though, you said that to be a breakout hit you expect the game to sell 4-5 million copies, that's a 4-5x boost from what the first 2 games did. That's what you would have expected from xenoblade 2 to become a breakout hit for the franchise, right?

I haven't played Forbidden West yet but based on everything I have heard, I really hope XC3 doesn't end up being as much of a boring and derivative entry.

I mean, it is THE low budget iterative sequel famiboards TM

 

[Vash]

climbing up in the hall of fame

it would be so funny to me if it beats horizon

 

[Blue Monty]

I mean, it is THE low budget iterative sequel famiboards TM

That is now BOTW2
Only sequels accepted here are Pikmin 4 and Prime 4

 

[Crusters]

you still didn't answer though, you said that to be a breakout hit you expect the game to sell 4-5 million copies, that's a 4-5x boost from what the first 2 games did. That's what you would have expected from xenoblade 2 to become a breakout hit for the franchise, right?

I did, I specifically stated that metric was for any and every entry in the franchise, so yes.

That's to breakout from the series current sales bracket. Also it needs to show sustained or improved numbers from the next brand entry after that.

The series is already 'a hit', if it weren't there would not be 4 entries, and 3 rereleases. Please do not put words and phrases I did not use, Into my mouth.

 

[Deleted member 2551]

Both Xb1 and XcX were so close to a million tracked (xb1 had 3-4 GameStop print runs after the tracked numbers stopped at .9 million) 'breaking a million' is a completely irrelevant milestone. You're talking at the very most, 0.16 mil sales to get XcX up to a million, and for xb,1 tracked run, 0.09. This is even without considering the 800 lb sales environment elephant.

That metric is only applicable for for Xenoblade 3, right now, because it's the upcoming entry. The ship has sailed for the others. It's the next shot. The metric is for the franchise, which covers all entries.

Source on this numbers?

 

[Sorbete]

why is this thread still about Xeno2? Can we go back to drooling all over Xeno 3 instead?

 

[Crusters]

Source on this numbers?

Vantell used the current hard numbers in post 574, the citations came along with the copypasta as functioning links.

 

[Kartina]

Source on this numbers?

they're all from vgchartz so they're pretty much worthless

I did, I specifically stated that metric was for any and every entry in the franchise, so yes.

That's to breakout from the series current sales bracket. Also it needs to show sustained or improved numbers from the next brand entry after that.

The series is already 'a hit', if it weren't there would not be 4 entries, and 3 rereleases. Please do not put words and phrases I did not use, Into my mouth.

I just asked questions, how could I put words in your mouth if I was just asking what you think.
I'll just say your expectations are way off from reality if you think a game needs to sell over 4 millions to breakout, that's like saying that persona 5 or fire emblem awakening weren't breakout hits which is just wrong on every level. That's it.

 

[Crusters]

they're all vgchartz so they're pretty much worthless


I just asked questions, how could I put words in your mouth if I was just asking what you think.
I'll just say your expectations are way off from reality if you think a game need to sell over 4 millions to breakout, that's like saying that persona 5 or fire emblem awakening weren't a breakout hit which is just wrong on every level. That's it.

Vgchartz contemporary 'sales modeling formula' is dubious. when real numbers come out, they update them to match, which is why I'm not dismissing Vantell using the 'vgchartz' numbers, as they match everything else that's confirmed as of right now. Until the next white papers drop.

The last part of your paragraph is a blatant false equivalence, particularly fire emblem, who's series sales history I am intimately familiar with, and is so far removed from Xenoblades situation I am hard pressed to not think this attempt is purposeful misdirection.

I would advise against 'JAQing off' Its not something I take kindly to.

Just asking questions

Just asking questions (also known as JAQing off, or as emojis: "🤔🤔🤔"[1]) is a way of attempting to make wild accusations acceptable (and hopefully not legally actionable) by framing them as questions rather than statements. It shifts the burden of proof to one's opponent; rather than laboriously...

rationalwiki.org

I said it needs 4-5 million to break out from it's current sales environment, into the next bracket. If your only interest is a bad faith argument seeking to make sensationalist strawman arguments instead of discussing things I actually say, just let me know so I can end this here.

 

[Clix]

Yeah those number are meaningless and that it needs to hit a certain number to breakout. See Fire Emblem. Very select Nintendo series are juggernauts. Those are the exceptions, not the norm. The ultimate evergreens.

Hell, BoTW was the exception as well for the series when you look at the average sales for each entry. I don’t think BoTW 2 will match what BoTW did in sales and that’s not on the prestige or quality of the series, just reality. BoTW was a praised launch game on a hot system. It brought in many new fans. Which I am sure said fans will carry over, but fans who were not sold on it may not carry over. Same with fans of the classic 3D formula who did not jive with BoTW.

Or look at Kirby. A consistent solid seller despite never gaining the sales status of Mario, but still a mainstream staple.

For a pretty young series, and a JRPG not called Final Fantasy or even Dragon Quest, and a single console exclusive, that is more than respectable.

And we cannot compare to the expected sales metrics Nintendo has for a game as opposed to Sony or MS, which have ever increasing ballooning budgets and marketing.

 

[mazi]

are u ok

 

[Kartina]

Vgchartz contemporary 'sales modeling formula' is dubious. when real numbers come out, they update them to match, which is why I'm not dismissing Vantell using the 'vgchartz' numbers, as they match everything else that's confirmed as of right now. Until the next white papers drop.

I would advise against 'JAQing off' Its not something I take kindly too.

Just asking questions

Just asking questions (also known as JAQing off, or as emojis: "🤔🤔🤔"[1]) is a way of attempting to make wild accusations acceptable (and hopefully not legally actionable) by framing them as questions rather than statements. It shifts the burden of proof to one's opponent; rather than laboriously...

rationalwiki.org

I said it needs 4-5 million to break out from it's current sales environment, into the next bracket. If your only interest is a bad faith argument seeking to make sensationalist strawman arguments instead of discussing things I actually say, just let me know so I can end this here.

I asked you how much xenoblade 2 needed to sell to become a breakout hit, you said 4-5 mil, if you meant to say that xenoblade 3 needs 4-5 mil to breakout after xenoblade 2 you just answered the wrong question, no bad faith arguments here.
I'll ask again if you want, how much xenoblade 2 needed to sell to become a breakout hit in your opinion?

 

[Crusters]

I asked you how much xenoblade 2 needed to sell to become a breakout hit, you said 4-5 mil, if you meant to say that xenoblade 3 needs 4-5 mil to breakout after xenoblade 2 you just answered the wrong question, no bad faith arguments here.
I'll ask again if you want, how much xenoblade 2 needed to sell to become a breakout hit in your opinion?

Ok, you are clearly intent on shoving strawman down my throat, and disregarding everything I say, to purposefully replace it with your own charged and leading strawman versions.

You have shown you have zero intent of stopping this behavior, despite being directly asked multiple times. Blocked.

 

[Blue Monty]

XC2 sales in Japan were great but expected and in Europe/NA overperformed Nintendo’s and Monolith Soft’s expectations, XC2 overperformed.

 

[Toad King]

She's worked on a lot of stuff according to her credits. I think she might be mixed race. Japanese/Arab from London.

Yeah she's done tons of work on Procyon Studio stuff. A majority of it so far has been arrangement and orchestration with her only composition roles so far have been in mobile games (Another Eden, Revolve8) and Oninaki. Super excited to see her original compositions because tracks she arranged on in XC2 were some of my favorites like "The Tomorrow With You", "Shadow of the Lowlands", and "Praetor Amalthus - The Acting God -" (spoiler trackname).

 

[Deleted member 2]

thnk you for showing me this and also now it makes sense.

 

[Deleted member 2]

shoving strawman down my throat

Ew, nswf.

 

[AranPrime]

Did Takahashi really say their aim is 10 million? If so, then I think they'll have a long journey to get there. But I'm sure they'll get there. If FromSoft can make a 20 million seller, then MonolithSoft can surely do 10.

 

[Crusters]

Yeah those number are meaningless and that it needs to hit a certain number to breakout. See Fire Emblem. Very select Nintendo series are juggernauts. Those are the exceptions, not the norm. The ultimate evergreens.

Yes. Obviously. That is what is desired. Not sure why anyone would think anything less would be.

Takahashi wants 10 million plus. That's his next goal, he believes with that, he can request the kind of budget from nintendo, his ambitious games truly need In fact, he was specifically referring to BotW in that interview. In my interpretation, that's roughly 2 steps away.

Hell, BoTW was the exception as well for the series when you look at the average sales for each entry. I don’t think BoTW 2 will match what BoTW did in sales and that’s not on the prestige or quality of the series, just reality. BoTW was a praised launch game on a hot system. It brought in many new fans. Which I am sure said fans will carry over, but fans who were not sold on it may not carry over. Same with fans of the classic 3D formula who did not jive with BoTW.

I don't think botw2 will exceed botw either. I also don't think it will drop anywhere near previous series numbers either, see the previous several times I mentioned:

That's to breakout from the series current sales bracket. Also it needs to show sustained or improved numbers from the next brand entry after that.

Or look at Kirby. A consistent solid seller despite never gaining the sales status of Mario, but still a mainstream staple.

Why are we looking at Kirby?

For a pretty young series, and a JRPG not called Final Fantasy or even Dragon Quest, and a single console exclusive, that is more than respectable.

This has nothing to do with making it to 'respectable' Xenoblade started at 'respectable', it's why it got 4 entries and 3 rereleases. This is about reaching the next step.

And we cannot compare to the expected sales metrics Nintendo has for a game as opposed to Sony or MS, which have ever increasing ballooning budgets and marketing.

Where is this even coming from? I mean if we're being honest, a whole lot of those games with ballooning budgets and marketing can only dream of reaching the sales a whole bunch of crazy ass switch games have reached. This system is kinda nuts.

 

[Kartina]

Ew, nswf.

like xenoblade 2

 

[Tentacle-tropes]

VGchartz can be fun to look at but trying to use them for extrapolating data is unhelpful. While they may update their numbers afterwards their predictive model &, at times, making numbers up is bad.

We’ll just have to wait & see both from Nintendo & White Papers for any data that we can glean The only things we have any information on:

• XC1 sold ~200k by 2013. In an Iwata Ask we learned it did “better in the West than JP.” Which without a time timeframe or even ability to guesstimate numbers is a large range to pick from. IMO I don’t think it came close to a mil falling short by quite a bit but still ultimately doing okay overall
• XCX as of Dec 2015 sold ~377k between France, USA, JP. Those are the only numbers we have. I think it safe to say that it also didn’t come close to a mil by a fair margin but also did okay overall or at least covered itself.

While the goal may eventually be 10mil I think people are jumping the shark a bit to say it is the next goal. How about they try & get 3mil & 5mil first or even sustain a sales baseline after growth. DS was able to hit those milestones first before ER shot the series high into the stratosphere.

 

[Kartina]

VGchartz can be fun to look at but trying to use them for extrapolating data is unhelpful. While they may update their numbers afterwards their predictive model &, at times, making numbers up is bad.

We’ll just have to wait & see both from Nintendo & White Papers for any data that we need. The only things we have data:

• XC1 was it sold ~200k by 2013. In an Iwata Ask we learned it did “better in the West than JP.” Which without a time timeframe or even ability to guesstimate numbers is a large range to pick from. IMO I don’t think it came close to a mil falling short by quite a bit but still ultimately doing okay overall
• XCX as of Dec 2015 sold ~377k between France, USA, JP. Those are the only numbers we have. I think it safe to say that it also didn’t come close to a mil by a fair margin but also did okay overall or at least covered itself.

While the goal may eventually be 10mil I think people are jumping the shark a bit to say it is the next goal. How about they try & get 3mil & 5mil first or even sustain a sales baseline after growth. DS was able to hit those milestones first before ER shot the series high into the stratosphere.

I actually never heard of this interview from takahashi where he says he wants to make a game that sells 10 million copies to get the budget that he wants.

 

[uncleoptimus]

I'll just say one thing about the xenoblade 2 discourse.
It reminds me of the fucking "every pokemon vs 1 billion lions" discussion.
It happens everywhere, it never leads to anything and everyone is tired of it

I just want to thank you because now I have googled "what is every pokemon vs 1 billion lions" and I am delighted

About XB3.
It looks great!!
3 million + sales, here we come choochoo

 

[Kartina]

I just want to thank you because now I have googled "what is every pokemon vs 1 billion lions" and I am delighted

About XB3.
It looks great!!
3 million + sales, here we come choochoo

Happy for you, but I hope you never hear a debate about that topic in public

VGchartz can be fun to look at but trying to use them for extrapolating data is unhelpful. While they may update their numbers afterwards their predictive model &, at times, making numbers up is bad.

We’ll just have to wait & see both from Nintendo & White Papers for any data that we can glean The only things we have any information on:

• XC1 sold ~200k by 2013. In an Iwata Ask we learned it did “better in the West than JP.” Which without a time timeframe or even ability to guesstimate numbers is a large range to pick from. IMO I don’t think it came close to a mil falling short by quite a bit but still ultimately doing okay overall
• XCX as of Dec 2015 sold ~377k between France, USA, JP. Those are the only numbers we have. I think it safe to say that it also didn’t come close to a mil by a fair margin but also did okay overall or at least covered itself.

While the goal may eventually be 10mil I think people are jumping the shark a bit to say it is the next goal. How about they try & get 3mil & 5mil first or even sustain a sales baseline after growth. DS was able to hit those milestones first before ER shot the series high into the stratosphere.

actually while searching I found out what he's talking about, it's this interview

Takahashi: I think we are gradually adapting. Thanks to that Xenoblade Chronicles 2 reached worldwide sales of 1.73 million units at the end of March 2019. But I get the feeling that those sort of figures might be our limit right now. Whereas I feel like if we were releasing a Nintendo first-party title we’d be hitting sales more in the region of 10 million.

Harada: …That’s true. Breath of the Wild, which Monolith had a hand in developing, was pretty incredible sales-wise. The IP itself obviously has power, but there was also so much inside the game that caught people’s imaginations.

Takahashi: The power if the IP is definitely huge. Then there is the sheer amount of material resources – I think that’s just the engineering potential of Nintendo.

Harada: Exactly. So you could say it was necessary to have that financial clout in order to make Breath of the Wild a reality in the first place. Obviously being able to handle that budget well is down to the skills of the development team though.

Takahashi: That’s right. But even if we were to ask for that same amount of investment, surely we would be told: ‘show us the practical results first’.

which doesn't actually mean that takahashi plan is to make a game that sells 10 mil copies

 

[Tentacle-tropes]

Happy for you, but I hope you never hear a debate about that topic in public

actually while searching I found out what he's talking about, it's this interview

Takahashi: I think we are gradually adapting. Thanks to that Xenoblade Chronicles 2 reached worldwide sales of 1.73 million units at the end of March 2019. But I get the feeling that those sort of figures might be our limit right now. Whereas I feel like if we were releasing a Nintendo first-party title we’d be hitting sales more in the region of 10 million.

Harada: …That’s true. Breath of the Wild, which Monolith had a hand in developing, was pretty incredible sales-wise. The IP itself obviously has power, but there was also so much inside the game that caught people’s imaginations.

Takahashi: The power if the IP is definitely huge. Then there is the sheer amount of material resources – I think that’s just the engineering potential of Nintendo.

Harada: Exactly. So you could say it was necessary to have that financial clout in order to make Breath of the Wild a reality in the first place. Obviously being able to handle that budget well is down to the skills of the development team though.

Takahashi: That’s right. But even if we were to ask for that same amount of investment, surely we would be told: ‘show us the practical results first’.

which doesn't actually mean that takahashi plan is to make a game that sells 10 mil copies

Which interview is that since I think that was the one I was thinking of. Regardless “show us the practical results first” is right.

Currently XC is in a growth phase however we don’t know what that looks like once it stops growing. Does it have a stable sales bracket? Will it lose people? Will it continue to grow. Is that steady? Or is that slow? Etc. I think we’ll have our answers in the next 2 releases. Also you could steadily increase the budget to allow more freedom until the gravy train halts.

 

[Síriocaz]

This animosity between XC1 and 2 disguised as sales comparison discussion in this thread is actually a metaphor for the conflict between Agnus and Keves in XC3.

The hyper-intelligent Xenoblade community even elevates their sales discussions along Takahashi meta-narratives. Truly a sight to behold. Fans of other Nintendo IP wish they could have discussions about entries on this level.

Spoiler

lol

Us Pikmin fans have already reached Elysium and walk towards the future hand in hand. No need to fight and no need to have such frivolous discussions puts cup of tea on the table

 

[Clix]

Yes. Obviously. That is what is desired. Not sure why anyone would think anything less would be.

Takahashi wants 10 million plus. That's his next goal, he believes with that, he can request the kind of budget from nintendo, his ambitious games truly need In fact, he was specifically referring to BotW in that interview. In my interpretation, that's roughly 2 steps away.

I don't think botw2 will exceed botw either. I also don't think it will drop anywhere near previous series numbers either, see the previous several times I mentioned:




Why are we looking at Kirby?



This has nothing to do with making it to 'respectable' Xenoblade started at 'respectable', it's why it got 4 entries and 3 rereleases. This is about reaching the next step.



Where is this even coming from? I mean if we're being honest, a whole lot of those games with ballooning budgets and marketing can only dream of reaching the sales a whole bunch of crazy ass switch games have reached. This system is kinda nuts.

Takhashi may want 10 million plus. Not going to happen. It would be great, but he is also setting some really darn lofty expectations.

I want many things too personally, but I am also realistic.

And respectable, as in breaking out the way Fire Emblem did and each entry maintaining momentum. To be a consistent seller with a strong following, even if not a 10 million seller.

Looking at Kirby because it is a classic example of a beloved and popular series that consistently sells well, but will never sell what Mario or hell, even Mario Party ever will. Or even Fire Emblem for the most part with its resurgence.

And hard to say with BoTW. It may be a middle ground between BotW and Ocarina or Twilight Princess. So 15-17 million I am going to bet.

 

[Crusters]

VGchartz can be fun to look at but trying to use them for extrapolating data is unhelpful. While they may update their numbers afterwards their predictive model &, at times, making numbers up is bad.

They are. Those problems should not be at play here, with numbers this old, which is why I have no problem using vantells provided numbers. They match everything else that is currently known, until the next white paper drops.

We’ll just have to wait & see both from Nintendo & White Papers for any data that we need. The only things we have data:

• XC1 was it sold ~200k by 2013. In an Iwata Ask we learned it did “better in the West than JP.” Which without a time timeframe or even ability to guesstimate numbers is a large range to pick from. IMO I don’t think it came close to a mil falling short by quite a bit but still ultimately doing okay overall
• XCX as of Dec 2015 sold ~377k between France, USA, JP. Those are the only numbers we have. I think it safe to say that it also didn’t come close to a mil by a fair margin but also did okay overall or at least covered itself.

I thought those numbers were extrapolated from a Nintendo investor meeting back in 2020, after XBDE hit it's launch 1.3 mil, when the Xenoblade franchise broke 5 million unit sales.
If that's not the case, then I guess we'd have to throw vantells numbers out.

While the goal may eventually be 10mil I think people are jumping the shark a bit to say it is the next goal. How about they try & get 3mil & 5mil first or even sustain a sales baseline after growth. DS was able to hit those
milestones first before ER shot the series high into the stratosphere.

I stated that was Takahashi's next goal, to get the budget he wants. Which it is. That's what he said. You can tell him he's jumping the shark if you want to. I'm not going to tell him. I'll watch though. From like around a corner or something.

As for me, I stated it was 2 steps, or, in this context general ballpark sales brackets from where Xenoblade currently is. So not sure where you are getting shark jumping from.

Takahashi wants 10 million plus. That's his next goal, he believes with that, he can request the kind of budget from nintendo, his ambitious games truly need In fact, he was specifically referring to BotW in that interview. In my interpretation, that's roughly 2 steps away.

Of course that doesn't mean it HAS to take 2 times to get there, it can be, 3 or 4 monolithsoft games. Or even a wild xb3 switch ride that makes it in one go. Who knows. This system is unpredictable.

 

[uncleoptimus]

Happy for you, but I hope you never hear a debate about that topic in public

I actually really hope I do

But on the sales topic, you know what these scores and y'all's exuberance has me feeling the hype.

3.5+ million here we come
(~30% boost over the previous?)