Metroid prime 2 VS Metroid prime 3. (Saleswise).

[Sullla]

jhlennon1 said:
It's expectations were high because Nintendo fans labeled it one of the "Big 3" and when you consider what Galaxy and Brawl are going to sell... MP3 is nothing but a dirt stain sale wise.

The whole "Big Three" thing was conceived by Nintendo fans, without an accurate understanding of the sales history of each franchise. Let's look at the previous installments in the (main) series for Mario, Smash Brothers, and Metroid:

Super Mario 64

Nintendo

1.92

6.87

3.10

11.89

Super Mario Sunshine

Nintendo

0.87

3.73

1.31

5.91

	Super Smash Bros Melee	Nintendo	1.44	4.06	1.08	6.58
	Super Smash Bros	Nintendo	1.97	2.93	0.65	5.55

Every 3D Mario game, and both Smash Brothers games, have sold at least 5m copies. In contrast, no Metroid game has ever sold even 3m units:

	Metroid Prime	Nintendo	0.12	1.92	0.73	2.77
	Metroid	Nintendo	1.04	1.35	0.34	2.73
	Metroid II: Return of Samus	Nintendo	0.56	0.86	0.34	1.76
	Metroid Fusion	Nintendo	0.18	1.08	0.29	1.55
	Super Metroid	Nintendo	0.71	0.58	0.13	1.42
	Metroid Prime 2: Echoes	Nintendo	0.07	0.80	0.37	1.24

Metroid is simply not as big of a series. Like God of War, Metal Gear Solid, and many other titles, it's a "hardcore" franchise that receives Internet press far out of proportion to its actual popularity. Compared to the standard of other recent Metroid games, Corruption looks like a fairly average entry in the series. I agree that it's underperformed - I expected about 2m, and it's clearly going to end up well short of that - but this game never belonged in the same category as Galaxy or Brawl. Only diehard Nintendo fans could have seriously expected this game to sell 5m units.