Can Pikmin 3 take the series to better sales?

[Michael-5]

Cold-Flipper said:

Michael-5 said:

It's only looking to sell about 100k week 1 in Japan according to COMG pre-orders

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I see no reason to expect this game to sell better then Pikmin 1 or 2. It could do fairly well in North America, so because of strong sales outside of Japan, I could see the game breaking 2 million, but it's always going to be one of Nintendo's good, yet niche franchises. No different from Metroid or Fire Emblem.

Still, it could push hardware sales quite a bit. Had I not had Wii games to beat, Pikmin 3 would look like the first real reason to buy a WiiU.

100K seems like a pretty good start considering the low Wii U sales. Pikmin (1) debuted with similar #'s and sold over 500K in the end. Pikmin normally has decent longevity in Japan.

Another reason why I see potential in Pikmin is that unlike Metroid or Fire Emblem, Pikmin has that classic Nintendo charm. Metroid & FE get high reviews and are considered to be great high quality games but lack Nintendo style. (Seems to be why people like them) Pikmin has Nintendo written all over it. 

 

Actually, I think quite the opposite. Metroid Prime, like Zelda, is full of puzzles and defined its own genre (First Person Adventure). It has unique Boss battles which involve more then just straight shooting, and many of Samus' power ups are just as silly as Mario or Links. The game is more closely comparable to a Zelda or Mario game then Halo.