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Samus Aran on 01 September 2015
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guiduc said:
Samus Aran said:
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.

The highest-selling Metroid game is Metroid Prime at a whopping 2.82 million copies... It is clearly not the juggernaut that are Animal Crossing, Mario Kart, Zelda, Donkey Kong, Pokemon... even Kirby sells better. Only 6 other franchises sold less, most of them being newer (Pikmin, Tomodachi) and of courses Fire Emblem (but this one's seems to sell better now).

I still don't think it's much of a viable choice. Yes, the gap was bigger for the Donkey Kong Country games, but Returns sold 6.40 million copies, and Tropical Freeze is sitting now at 1.20 on a 10M userbase (VS MP3 on 100 million with 1.80 million games sold). Look, I know by your username that you must be a pretty serious fan, and I like Metroid, but Metroid, let's be honest, is far from being Nintendo's most profitable franchise. If I'd be in an investors' meeting, and someone would pitch the idea of a new Metroid game, I'd be very, very skeptical about his selling potential.

Metroid would need somehow a stronger argument to sell. Like a big online Halo-style community. Maybe it would attract more people.

Kirby sells less nowadays... Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze sold less than Metroid U would have... Star Fox sells less. Fire Emblem still sells less on a much bigger userbase. Fatal Frame sells less. Xenoblade Chronicles (X) sells less. Yoshi's New Island and Yoshi's Woolly World sell less (and had double the development time of a Metroid game). Codename Steam sells less. Pikmin sells less. SMT X FE will sell less. F-Zero sells less. Bayonetta sells less. TW101 sells less. Lego City Undercover sells less. Wii Fit sells less (look at the latest game's  sales). Mario & Sonic games sell less as well nowadays. Sonic Lost World & Boom sold less (funded by Nintendo). If Nintendo greenlit those games why not Metroid? Let's not pretend that Metroid games are so much more expensive to produce, especially the 2D ones.

Also Metroid Prime Trilogy is doing extremely well in the eshop rankings on the Wii U. Much better than let's say Xenoblade Chronicles in Europe or Donkey Kong Country: Returns (probably outsold it 10 to 1).

Metroid Prime 1 & 2 outsold DKC: TF. Metroid sales aren't all that affected by big userbase, that Wii example is dumb. The HC Metroid games outsold the HH Metroid games despite the latter having much bigger userbases. Wii was filled with casuals that are gone now. You can't rely on them.