Why games like Smash selling like they are helps the industry...

[Shiken]

As most of you all know, Smash is breaking sales records left and right and destroyed expectations for how it would be as a system seller.  This is not only good for Nintendo however, but good for everyone.  When we look at how games are performing on Switch, the best selling games have one thing in common...they are complete games that offer value for what you are paying for them with high quality.

 

Zelda Breath of the Wild

Mario Odyssey

Mario Kart 8 Delux

Super Mario Bros U Delux

Splatoon 2

 

All of these offer a complete range of content and if they get DLC, it serves as more of a legit expansion pack that the nickle and dime micro transaction strategy we see abused so much these days.  Not only that, but there are instances of other successful titles that include excellent content that, while they may not sell like Mario or Zelda, have greatly surpassed sales expectations.

 

Octopath Teaveler and Xenoblade Chronicles 2 comes to mind as no one saw Octopath taking off the way it did and Xenoblade 2 is currently the highest selling game in its franchise.  In fact, it even got its own stand alone expansion that offers more than many 60 dollar games found elsewhere in Xenoblade 2 Torna: The Golden Country.

 

On that note lets look at how port performance has been doing and put it into perspective across all 3 consoles, as this is integral to the point I wish to make.

 

Skyrim and GTAV alongside the WiiU ports I mentioned are selling phenomenally despite being older games, but there is a reason for this.  These games are massive and offer a ton of quality content.  But what does all of this mean...

 

In a world where AAA publishers are trying to give us less content for the same prices with either watered down gameplay or tons of micro transactions, sales show developers just how big the demand still is for quality and complete experiences.  For example a game like Street Fighter V was sold for 60 dollars with the promise of free content being added overtime.  Despite being one of the biggest names in fighting, the title tanks hard as it should have.

 

Enter Smash, a fighter with 72 characters, a ton of stages, and a massive single player mode, and we see sales not only shattered, but systems flying off of store shelves.  Likewise we see the best Dragonball game released in a long time with Dragonball FighterZ, and the game sells far better than projected across all platforms as well.  Even when you look at the side of things outside of what we see on Nintendo...

 

God of War

Horizon Zero Dawn

Assassin's Creed ORIGINS

Red Dead Redemption 2

Spiderman

 

All of these games have either far surpassed sales expectations, or have just outright dominated their respective release windows.  Once again, score one for complete retail gaming experiences.

 

Now lets look at games that have lost a ton of money...

 

Battlefront 2

Destiny 2

Street Fighter V

Battlefield V

Fallout 76

 

All of these are huge names that fell flat for one reason or another.  Even CoD BO4, despite having good initial reception, is being called out for adding a grindy micro transaction system after reviews were set in stone.  It seems that maybe what companies like EA THOUGHT was what consumers wanted was way off base afterall.

 

Now I am not saying big publishers will shift away from the greedy online micro transactions completely.  They all want that Fortnite money afterall.  However the trends are showing that while many of the big boys are focusing on the wrong things, those that are more in tune with what the consumer really wants have less competition when it comes to more complete, quality single player experiences.  There is a lot of success to be had in this area, and it seems more developers are catching on to that fact.

 

What this does is give gamers a bit of reassurance that there will still be a healthy balance between both single player and multiplayer experiences in the future, as the numbers do not lie.  It even adds a bit of hope that multiplayer strategies may improve as well.  After all, a company can only lose money for so long before they are forced to try something different.