Zelda: Breath of the Wild Sales Predictions

[curl-6]

Wyrdness said:

curl-6 said:

I just don't buy that there's millions upon millions of portable gamers who never bought prior console Zeldas but will run out and buy Breath of the Wild. Time will tell of course, but while over 11 million is not impossible, it does seem highly unlikely to me. Yes, it looks like a great game, yes it has hype, but to pass the 11 million mark you need more than that, you need the kind of mass market pop culture appeal of something like Skyrim or Mario Kart.

Why not portables have always heavily outsold their console counterparts it's very likely in that sense, BOTW will be available to them on a platform they'll buy as the successor to what they currently play on so why wouldn't they buy it, the requirement of having to buy another platform has been removed.

Whose to say BOTW can't gain that appeal? The aren't really any games out there like Zelda even adventure games, the closest Okami is also only vaguely similar, this is how games like MK and Skyrim gain that appeal. Passing 11m to me is more a question of the Switch taking off and Nintendo putting BOTW in as many people's faces off that momentum.

Because if those millions of gamers were interested in console Zeldas, they would have bought past ones.

And the Zelda series has been around for over 30 years but has never had the casual appeal needed to reach the 11 million plus range. It's a hardcore gamer's series, it appeals primarily to Nintendo fans and to the kind of gamers like us who take the hobby very seriously and frequent video game forums. That's enough for a game to sell in the 3-8 million range, but to blow passed 11 million you really need to get the casuals on board in droves, and I just don't think BotW is trendy or hip enough to do so.