I see a lot of people discussing whether splatoon 2 will be a success or not because it's a "wii u port", at first i didn't believe it would be as big as some people claim (tbone) but after thinking about it for a while i could see why Splatoon 2 can be huge in japan, maybe even surpassing some big franchises in the long run, the reasons aren't anything new or mindblowing but are still big, here's why:
- it's on a much more desirable system and popular.
- Different from the wii u version this will be the first portable splatoon.
- Multiplayer matches on the go using your phone as a hotspot.
- Local play with 8 switches.
- New coop mode with 8 switches.
Reading my arguments might not seem huge differences but do you know what franchise splatoon is similar to in the past? My most beloved Capcom franchise, Monster Hunter.
Monster hunter 1 and 2 was first released on the playstation 2, it had great potential but it never moved over 1 million units, their first entry reached a lifetime sales of 500k units while the second game reached 600k.
That's when Capcom decided to give another chance to it and what did they do? exactly what nintendo is doing with splatoon 2 right now, they added coop mode and local play. Capcom did that and released the monster hunter 2nd generation on japan (called mh freedom unite on US and EU), and what happened? On a portable with a userbase 3~4 lower than PS2, named PSP, MHFU managed to surpass 5 million units WW and became a hit bringing psp sales up on japan again, a true system seller.
That's one of the reasons when whenever someone says a new MH will come exclusive to a home console, i laugh hard af, they tried with ps2, the biggest selling sony console and the best MH sold was 600k with MH2, they tried again, this time with the most successful nintendo home console, Wii, but stil...only managed to sell a bit more than 1 million units WW.
My point is... portability and coop multiplayer made the MH franchise become what it is in japan and it might as well turn splatoon 2 into the big next thing on portable systems.
Those are my points, let's discuss about it and apologies if my writing is anyhow off, i'm still learning english so...
“On my business card, I am a corporate president. In my mind, I am a game developer. But in my heart, I am a gamer.” - Satoru Iwata
