Koei Tecmo confirms Hyrule Warriors has shipped 1m copies

[curl-6]

Mr Puggsly said:

curl-6 said:

Third party games can sell without a Nintendo IP if they are desirable enough, as we saw with games like Monster Hunter Tri, Resident Evil 4, Sonic Colours, and Goldeneye 007 on Wii. Problem is, nearly all the third party games on Wii U are either low priority ports, or just lack broad appeal.

I'd argue its the Wii U lacks broad appeal, the 3rd party software support was solid. Its obvious the people buying Wii U are primarily 1st party Nintendo fans. People who really want 3rd party games are buying Xbox or Playstation.

You ignore the most obvious reason OG Wii had multiple 3rd party million sellers. The OG Wii sold significantly better so it sold more software. If the CoD games on Wii U struggle to break 300K then there is little hope for most developers. They will instead focus on Xbox and Playstation.

Anyhow, Hyrule Warriors demonstrates Wii U owners will buy a game if it simply uses a Nintendo IP. 3rd party games that don't use a Nintendo IP actually need to great and still struggle to achieve numbers like Hyrule Warriors.

There really haven't been enough third party games with actual appeal to prove they wouldn't sell on Wii U; ZombiU/Wonderful 101/Bayonetta are niche, Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate was a port of a port of a 3 year old game, AAA multiplats were either late, sloppy ports, or both.

Although now that I look at the best sellers list, LEGO City Undercover isn't a Nintendo franchise, and that has sold pretty well; 900k at present not counting digital.