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Forums - Nintendo Discussion - Nintendo has numerous million sellers this year, but none are on 3DS.

zippy said:
Surely Pokémon will reach a million?

Definitely, but it'll be the only one despite Nintendo releasing many games for the 3DS this year.



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zippy said:
Surely Pokémon will reach a million?

According to VGchartz numbers, Pokemon Sun/Moon already sold 2.5 millions this year,



Lonely_Dolphin said:
zippy said:
Surely Pokémon will reach a million?

Definitely, but it'll be the only one despite Nintendo releasing many games for the 3DS this year.

Many smaller games or remakes. No flagship title except Pokemon, which is likely to outsell anything on Switch.



Well in terms of quality games both fire emblem echos & Metroid SR are among the best 3DS games, but sales wise I think you are right Nintendo should at least port those games to switch, not gonna happen though, you want to play them remove the dust from the old machine



Lucas-Rio said:
zippy said:
Surely Pokémon will reach a million?

According to VGchartz numbers, Pokemon Sun/Moon already sold 2.5 millions this year,

This thread is about Nintendo games released in 2017.



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Those 3DS games basically acted as a lifeline for Nintendo in case the Switch didn't take off. I doubt they were expected to sell in the millions and once Nintendo knew the Switch was a success they also knew there was no reason to put lots of marketing money into these titles. The 2DS XL release also acted as a lifeline: Nintendo did the same thing with the Gameboy Micro back in the day when they weren't sure about the DS's success.

My excuse for not buying these games: I prefer to play on the Switch. I would've bought Metroid, Mario Party, Pokémon and Mario & Luigi if they were on the Switch.



Lonely_Dolphin said:

Switch already has multi million sellers in Zelda, Mario Kart, and Splatoon, with 1-2 Switch and ARMS soon breaching a million and Odyssey guaranteed to join their ranks. Meanwhile, on 3DS...

Mario Sports Superstars - 0.32m

Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia - 0.53m

Miitopia - 0.46m

Ever Oasis - 0.13m

Hey! Pikmin - 0.25m

There's still Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga, Metroid Samus Returns, Mario Party Top 100, Pokemon Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon, and Kirby Battle Royale, but besides US/UM, it's safe to say the rest wont reach 1 million either, if they can even pass the 500k mark. The vast majority of 3DS gamers just don't seem to care for the continued support, even though most of these games are actually good.

I've not bought a single 3DS game released this year and don't plan to, so I guess I'm among those who don't care. Many of those games simply don't interest me at all, namely Pikmin n Mario Party. For Pokemon n Fire Emblem, two series I am very much interested in, I had just got done playing their previous installments this year, and Switch sequels were announced, so I'm content waiting for those. Perhaps the Switch in general is why 3DS software sales are suffering, but there are still way more 3DS owners without Switches than with so I find that hard to believe.

Anyway, what's yals excuse for not buying these games?

Shadow of valentia - Remake, Mario & Luigi superstar saga - Remake, Metroid 2 - Remake. The others are small budget titles except for Pokémon which will sell easily more than 1 million. 3/4 of the top games are remake on an hardware not so powerful so i didn't expect them to sell a lot.



mZuzek said:
Kerotan said:
Switch install base is still small so Norway that's why people are not buying them.

what

It's thursday morning, so I'd say he's drunk.



Lonely_Dolphin said:
zippy said:
Surely Pokémon will reach a million?

Definitely, but it'll be the only one despite Nintendo releasing many games for the 3DS this year.

Dragon Quest 11 and Monster Hunter XX sold over 1 million in Japan.
Metroid will probably reach 1 million too.
Miitopia may come close to it lifetime.



The sales do seem low, but I wouldn't rule out Samus Returns hitting the 1 million mark. Personally, having been unable to afford a Switch, I've bought a few 3DS titles this year. I've caught up on older games - Alpha Sapphire, Mario Maker (for the single player), Dragon Quest VII - but also bought Dragon Quest VIII, Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia (which I loved) and Metroid: Samus Returns. I might get the Superstar Saga remake and Ultra Sun (I skipped the initial release), too.

Some of it can be explained by mixed reviews - Ever Oasis and Miitopia come to mind. Some of it can be explained by franchise fatigue/limited appeal - which I think is the case with Echoes, I do wonder if the complex release and scope of Fates limited the market for Echoes on 3DS. It's certainly true that my 3DS owning friends (who bought Awakening and Fates) skipped Echoes due to being a little burnt out on Fire Emblem. As for Samus Returns, part of it can be explained by Metroid's limited appeal (1 million sales for a remake would be a good result for this franchise), but it might also be the only title that's really suffered from people buying a Switch. It's Nintendo's absolute core fans who enjoy Metroid, and it's Nintendo's absolute core fans who will be buying the Switch this year.

Overall though I don't think Nintendo will be too concerned. 3DS production costs will be very low by now, and if you look at the 2017 releases, they're a mixture of remakes, upgraded releases, titles made using existing assets/engines, and outsourced games. Add to that ongoing sales from Nintendo's older titles, strong sales from Dragon Quest XI in Japan, and decent hardware sales, and Nintendo's 3DS business is probably chugging along nicely for them. The system is still on track to ship around 5 million for the financial year, which is easy money for Nintendo - even if they just sit back and rely on legacy and third party software sales from 2018 onwards.