Metroid: Other M sales predictions thread

[trestres]

Killiana1a said:

As far as individuals saying "How did it come to this, where one of Nintendo's flagship franchises is selling so low?" I have an opinion.

First, Metroid compared to Mario and Zelda has always sold lower from the first iteration of the series. Here are the numbers according to VGChartz, and I am not using arcade games with Mario and Donkey Kong, but am including one title from SNES:

Mario

Super Mario Bros. (NES) - 40.24 million

Super Mario Bros. 2 (NES) - 7.46 million

Super Mario Bros. 3 (NES) - 17.28 million

Super Mario World (SNES) - 20.61 million

Source: http://www.vgchartz.com/worldtotals.php?name=Mario

Zelda

The Legend of Zelda (NES) - 6.51 million

Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link (NES) - 4.38 million

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (SNES) - 4.61 million

Source: http://www.vgchartz.com/worldtotals.php?name=Zelda

Metroid

Metroid (NES) - 2.73 million

Metroid 2: The Return of Samus (GB) - 1.76 million

Super Metroid (SNES) - 1.42 million

Source: http://www.vgchartz.com/worldtotals.php?name=Metroid

Conclusions

The Metroid series has been the bottom of Nintendo's barrel when thrown in with Mario and Zelda. The lowest selling console Metroid was Super Metroid. Metroid: Other M's low sales is on par with the history of the series. Fans expecting Other M to sell 5 million has not shown by history in the Metroid series. No single Metroid game (console or otherwise) has ever sold 3 million or more.

Mario and Zelda went through a sophomore slump with Mario 2 and Zelda 2 selling well less than their predecessor, then eclipsed by their successor.

The expectations for Other M are unfounded. If you study up on your Metroid history, your best educated guess or sales prediction should have been at the 1 to 1.5 million mark. Every Metroid game, with the exception of Metroid Prime (considered noncanon by Sakamoto), has followed a pattern of declining sales starting with Metroid 2 on.

The question remains, why were sales predictions drastically higher than expected by the history of the Metroid franchise?

Funny how you chose to ignore anything that was SNES and onwards.

Plus you gotta ask Reggie why he expected those kinds of sales, and Nintendo themselves, who made it seem that this was a very important game for them during E3 2009.