I´m surprised by how many people are underestimating this game!
New Super Mario Bros Wii should have thought us how big a classic 2d sidescroller can sell in Japan. Sure Donkey Kong is not as big as Mario but it IS still huge. Let´s have a look at two facts:
1. 2d platformers with big Nintendo characters usually sell much better than their 3d cousins. Therefore 2d is bigger in this case than 3d in Japan.
Donkey Kong Country: 3 million
Donkey Kong Country 2: 2,2 million
Donkey Kong 64: 900k
New Super Mario Bros Wii: 4 million
Super Mario Galaxy: 1 million
2. Wii has proven that it´s biggest games can sell as much or MORE than the biggest on SNES with:
New Super Mario Bros WIi : 4 million
Super Mario World: 3,5 million
This is despite the smaller userbase. Also brandname is very important in Japan as we can see with NSMB and Donkey Kong Country Returns has the brandname. I´m actually surprised that some think Kirby well sell more than this. Kirby has never sold much more than a million while Donkey Kong Country has...
I´m not saying that this game will beat 3 million like the original, I´m not saying that it will beat Kirby for sure, I´m not even saying it will sell 1,5-2 million copies (even if I expect that at least). It is afterall a long time since the Donkey Kong Country series was in in´s glorydays, but I WILL say that many of you are underestimating the sellpotentional of this game. It could sell anything in between 1 million and 3,5 million in my opinion. The potentional of this title is huge, one of the biggest Wii still has to go of the classic Nintendo franchises. I think many of you should be prepared for a big surprise come this holiday in Japan (just like many were with NSMBW).
