Samus Aran on 01 September 2015
| guiduc said: Metroid is NOT a good option saleswise. It just doesn't have the selling power of about... let's say every other Nintendo franchises. It costs lots to produce and I'm pretty sure there is no financial viability. It's not cost-efficient like Pikmin (smaller scale) or Splatoon. |
It sells more than a lot of Nintendo franchises that keep getting new games... As for Pikmin, it uses very realistic graphics, so I doubt it's as cost-efficient as you think. The latest game had a much longer development time than any Metroid game ever had.
In fact, it took Retro Studios longer to make the Donkey Kong Country games than it did with the Metroid Prime games. I seriously doubt making the Prime games was more expensive.
Metroid Prime 1: 2002
Metroid Prime 2: 2004 (2 year gap)
Metroid Prime 3: 2007 (3 year gap)
Donkey Kong Country Returns: 2010 (3 year gap)
Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze: 2014 (3.5 years gap)
The development teams of the DKC games were also bigger than the teams working on Metroid Prime 1-3.
