Famitsu Sales: Week 16, 2020 (Apr 13 - Apr 19)

[JWeinCom]

The_Liquid_Laser said:

Metallox said:

Different games, different circumstances, different scenarios. VII Remake was released in a time where interest in Final Fantasy in general has dropped in Japan, whereas Animal Crossing got bigger after New Leaf. New Horizons also resembles the games that are more along the current tastes of Japanese gaming, and it also released on a machine that has been huge for Nintendo so far. 

I think it doesn't matter if VII was insanely popular in its time. If VII Remake doesn't appeal to the current tastes, which it clearly doesn't, it will never have a comparable sales growth to Animal Crossing. 

Let's go back a couple of months ago before either game was released.  What indication would you have that Animal Crossing got bigger after New Leaf?  Sales from Wild World to New Leaf went down.

Also, what do you mean by changing tastes?  The only obvious change in taste for Japan is the growth of handhelds and the shrinking of home consoles.

Sales from Wild World to New Leaf actually went up.  Shipment figures from Nintendo, which include digital, have the game at 12.5 million to about 12.1 for Wild World, and New Leaf is actually still selling, at least in Japan.  This is despite the overall trend of games declining from DS to 3DS, which indicates that the franchise is on the rise.  Meanwhile, basically every major Nintendo franchise (Zelda, 3D Mario, Mario Party, Mario Kart, Pokemon, Smash) are outperforming 3DS versions, mostly by really wide margin.  So, there was plenty of reason to think that New Horizons would outperform New Leaf.