| VanceIX said: You don't think Twilight Princess being heralded by the fanbase as the second coming of OoT due to the art style and adult Link had anything to do with actual sales? I'll give you this- Majora's Mask didn't do as well because it was released at the end of the generation. But you have to keep in mind that it still did amazing for an N64 game (seeing as that there weren't that many N64s sold anyway, at least compared to the Wii). Nintendo's Gamecube had already been announced by the time the game came out as well, taking some steam away from it. Now, Skyward Sword launched before the Wii U had launched, and at a time when 90+ million people owned the console. And it still flopped. For comparison, 1/10 N64 owners bought MM. 1/30 Wii owners bought SS. When Twilight Princess came out, it was released on a fledgling system, just like how WW was when it first came out. (TP also came out on GC, but it sold much, much more on Wii). TP did much better in sales and ended up moving more units. Why? I was a huge member of the Zelda community and I remember going on forums where people were excited about the OoT-esque art style. The similarities to OoT, especially in the graphics department, certainly helped the sales a considerable amount. Adventure of Link just wasn't that great to begin with. It's suprising that it even sold that much seeing as that it was completely different from the original in every single way but the original. I truly believe that the Wii U has the potential to reach 25 million units. A realistic Zelda alone would probably push 500,000 more units than a cartoon one. Now don't get me wrong, once again, I'm really liking this art style. In the end though, the game may see relatively bad sales for a 3D Zelda title, as many people will ignore it outright for the SS graphics, as sad as it is. |
That is correct, I don't think that had as large of an effect as being a massively praised launch title on the Wii did. I think if it had released solely on Gamecube in 2005 sales would be less than Wind Waker's. In 2006 they would have been even lower, I think a little ower than Skyward Sword's (which is going to end up like 3.85). Though it's hard to deny it obviously had some effect, Ocarina was fondly remembered by millions and anyone saying "this game is like Ocarina of Time again" would indeed draw attention. Maybe more than I'm accounting for. But I really don't think realistic Zelda 3.0 would have the same effect. I don't think the same "Return of OoT" situation would happen and so I don't think there would be a buzzword trigger like that to drive sales this time.
Skyward Sword was launched right when Wii really lost its steam. Even without a new console announced more attention was turned towards the HD twins. And that doesn't change the fact that it required an additional peripheral and had the other characteristics I mentioned earlier. To be honest SS didn't feel all that technically impressive visually, not like Mario Galaxy did in 2007 for example, (or feel as clean as WW did to me in 2003) which this new Zelda game still does feel like to me even with cel shading.
1/10 N64 owners may have bought MM, but not even 1/10 Wii owners bought TP, so I don't think the Zelda sales base scales with install base accurately. Also Wind Waker did not exactly launch on a fledgling system. A full year after release in Japan and a year and a half later in the US. And the GCN system did a lot poorer than the Wii or even N64 so I'm still not sure it did bad relatively, especially with all the changes NOT related to art style.
I know, I'm always kinda surprised AoL sold even that much. I'm going to chock it up to many fans generated by LoZ and information/reviews not being as freely available as today.
I understand that you like the art style. But I don't think, especially in WiiU's situation, that a realistic Zelda would give that much more of a push. I'll admit I might be wrong, but it looks like I won't get the chance to find out. And the signs I see say it would not be reliable to bet on dark Zelda being a savior. I think we all want this game to sell a lot of copies, so I think the good thing to do is advocate to friends to get interested. Word of mouth still does things, it's why I bought a WiiU.
