What does that means for Retro?

A game developed by a garage team, in a few time, and with many content locked at launch has done the job. Nintendo is up YoY in Japan thanks to the success of the shooter Splatoon. The surprise has come with the announcement of 4.06M shipped+digital sold copies of the game since it's release in May 31th 2015.

On the other hand, the well knowed developer Retro Studios (Metroid Prime) released a sequel in the Donkey Kong franchise subtitled Tropical Freeze since February 2014 that has sold less than 1/3 of Splatoon.

A clear message to Retro Studios that they missed his opportunity to shine with the console? We have sales success like Mario Kart 8, or impressive games like Xenoblade Chronicles X. But Tropical Freeze is like the sad story: overlooked and with dissapointing sales considering the predecessor sold more than 6M copies.

As we must remember, back in the day I pointed how DKTropical Freeze failed to move any console, unlike games like the recent Splatoon game. Now with 2 years on shelves, it's safe to confirm this new DK game failure.

So, what is the lesson to learn this time? Would a new IP could have better sales? Could Metroid have retained at least the recognition or catalogued as an impressive game in the small Wii U library?

I guess it was too similar to Returns to make some impact. I thought of saying there's a 2D platformers flood on the Wii U, making most of them sell bad, but Yoshi sold over a million already.

Yep, basically Yoshi and the constant sales of NSMBU has proved the theory wrong. I stick to my view that this was not what people wasked for and thus the dissapointment.

Even when Prime was not a system seller, it was useful to brag about an impressive game. Unlike DK.

Every thread you make starts with "So, " why is that?

OT: Metroid would have done no better in any way, but we all know that already. Regardless of it's sales DKCTF is a fine game that I'm glad got made.

I mostly agree with this reasoning. I did love Tropical Freeze a crazy amount, but those games don't feel like system sellers. Just games that normally sell well on established systems. Granted I still feel the sales for this is a bit low, should be closer to 2million :(

People wanted a new Metroid and they released another Donkey Kong that looked too similar to Returns. The game is great no doubt, but I'm sure it killed the hype around Retro for this gen, especially since their other unnanounced projects probably have been switched to NX already.

Donkey Kong never was that popular of a game anyways. Maybe it sold more than 6 million on the Wii. But Splatoon on the Wii would've sold probably more than 10.

So does that mean that Splatoon is bigger? Yes.
Does this mean this is the end of Donkey Kong? of course not.

XCX is a more impressive game than DK, that's for sure.

Metroid would probably have sold about the same..

Great critical reception, but only decent sales

Yeah to put it simply Retro doesn't make system sellers they make great games first and foremost... wait a minute, the whole reason they made DK over Metroid was because of sales!