I'm just going to wade into this debate a little bit and point out a little mistake some of you are making. PSN is region-free, right? Like, Japanese PS4/Vita/PS3 owners can play Shovel Knight, I think?

Because the game has only been released on the NA and PAL eShop for Nintendo systems. Now maybe you're already thinking Japanese sales probably aren't a huge factor for a Western-made indie game, and I'd be inclined to agree. However, on the first page there are users claiming that the game is available to the 3DS's full install base of over 50 million... which is incorrect. Back when Shovel Knight was actually released in each region, the 3DS had a combined install base between NA and Europe of -- let's be optimistic and phrase this as "under 30 million." Wii U sales in the same regions at the same times combined for... yeesh... under 5 million. VGChartz numbers, of course.

So no, the Nintendo platforms didn't have some kind of massive install base advantage over Sony platforms (which include PS3) and XBO, or even over PS4 + XBO. But they certainly did have a healthy head-start.

If you really want to see something interesting, just compare Wii U and 3DS sales. 3DS has only 50% more sales on an install base 6x as large as Wii U's. Pretty sure this is more of a good thing for Wii U than a bad thing for 3DS, considering how close the 3DS is to overtaking Steam sales despite Steam having over 100 million active users and having exclusivity for Shovel Knight in Europe for 5 months.

Seriously, from my perspective the story here is Wii U vs 3DS, because it's the only like-for-like comparison possible given the staggered releases.

Congrats to Shovel Knight

Oh, that's why NMH and Tales of Grace didn't do well on a Nintendo system and had to shift to other platforms to sell better - they are dudebro games.

Let's be serious here:

- The game is 10 months late and those that were interested in it already got it.

- There a lot of games to compete against on the other platforms.

- It's cross-buy on the PS systems so your argument about 14% on PS4, PS3 and Vita doesn't work.

Lol if you actually believe that.

- Your cross-buy argument doesn't work, those buying it on a PS3 won't have the PS4 and very few PS4 owners have a Vita.

- That's why the top 20 PS4 games on metacritic are dominated by remasters and cross-gen ports. That's why broken games at launch like Driveclub sold so well. Or how Knack sold over a million.

- The PS4 + PS3 + PS Vita userbase is much bigger than the Wii U + 3DS (and keep in mind the game didn't release in Japan and Nintendo consoles are region locked)

- Weren't Sony fans gloating about the 5 million sales Rocket League got? Saying it wasn't to do with the free PSN+ stuff and that it sold so well because of its quality alone. I guess that doesn't apply to other indie games...

- Steam has 75M users and a lot of the same games as PS4 + XBONE yet the 3DS, with its much smaller userbase, is able to almost equal it.

- Why did TW101, Kirby: RC and Codename Steam bomb so hard if the Wii U/3DS really is so starved for games?

- Are you saying that there are no overlapping between the different system owners? I think it's safe to assume that there is a decent amount of overlapping between the different system owners.

- Not sure what your point is here. My point remains that there are plenty of games on the PS3 and PS4.

- Again with your user base point. The number of games on the Sony systems invalidate your argument. Why would people pick a Shovel Knight when there are hundreds other games to buy?

- Rocket League was free on PS+ so you must have read wrong if you thought someone was gloating about its sales.

This isn't surprising. People flock to Nintendo's systems for these kinds of games. These games are also marketed more aggressively on Nintendo systems than they are on PlayStation and Xbox.

62% of the game's revenue came from Steam and 3DS. Please stop making up excuses for the PS4 and XBO like "they have so many games to compete with." Besides, if an indie game can't draw much attention on those platforms for one reason or another, wouldn't that be a bad thing? I mean if this is your excuse for Shovel Knight selling under 40k on XBO in 5 months, why should any other indie dev expect better?

All you need is the release window gap. That's big.

The situation is what it is. Nintendo pushed the game a lot and got it first on consoles. They were very supportive and offered two appealing platforms to Yacht Club. These are good things. They are the main reasons the game sold best on their platforms. There's nothing wrong with that. All of this means Yacht Club will be likely to support Nintendo platforms in the future... isn't that the whole point??

Capy's whole presentation was about how porting to as many consoles as possible is beneficial to indie developers. 18% of Shovel Knight's sales came from late ports. That's not negligible. Surely those extra ~150k sales more than covered the cost of porting.

Wow, that's something. So sequel may release on NX too...