Soundwave said:
Their 2010 lineup for Japan (I must stress I am speaking only about the Japanese market here) is not very good right now. Super Mario Galaxy was a hit in Japan but not really a blockbuster. NSMB Wii in 2009 will be much bigger than SMG2 in 2010. Metroid hasn't been relevant in Japan since Michael Jackson was still black. Zelda even if it makes it out next year, is a series that's in a decline in Japan (Twilight Princess I don't think even managed 500k in Japan). The one ace that I think Nintendo may have for next year is that Wii Vitality Sensor. If that could take off like Wii Fit, it could buy them a chance to do ... something. Square-Enix *must* help Nintendo next year. The Wii must have at least a Dragon Quest VII Remake or something like that. |
The problem isn't so much that all those indavidual series are dying (though Metroid has always done bad in Japan), its that console games in Japan are on a sharp decline. Handhelds and software for handhelds are selling at a rate of 8-10x better than consoles in Japan. There's a reason Mario Galaxy and Twilight Princess didn't sell that well in Japan. They were too busy playing New Super Mario Brothers and Phantom Hourglass.
Dragon Quest X however is a different story. It has a set fanbase that buys almost the same amount of games every major title. They will buy the game no matter what system it is on. The only amount of sales they'll lose is possible 'extra' sales, like they're gaining from DQIX being on the DS now. But it will probably still be better for them to make the next game on a console.
Six upcoming games you should look into:
