More details about Nintendo's fall 3rd party line-up for Japan, this time it's Koei with the help of the Zelda team.
Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, adds to the growing list of 3rd Party titles this fall for Japan. We are also set to see what type of boost Breath of the Wild might provide to the Warriors formula. I've said it many times but Warriors games are stale and there needs to be a different approach from Koei if they intend to continue being successful. Still, I believe this game will be pretty huge overseas because of the collaboration on the Story elements with the Zelda team and good alignment with both Breath of the Wild and the sequel which could be released early next year.
Hyrule Warriors games themselves haven't been massively popular in Japan with the Wii U version selling the most at 126K. Combined the Wii U, 3DS and Switch versions sold over 284K.
The biggest Koei Tecmo games in Japan for the last decade are One Piece: Pirate Warriors which they did for Bandai and sold over 828K, and Dynasty Warriors 7 which sold over 478K both released on the PS3 nearly a decade ago. Their best selling game in recent years was Dynasty Warriors 9 on the PS4 which sold only 176K.
It will be interesting to track how this game is going to perform in Japan, I'm expecting it to approach DW7 levels during its lifetime if it's received well. But the bigger story will probably be in the West, this is where I think Koei will really make a lot of money with Age of Calamity. Overall it's a decent move for Nintendo as it also might be a satisfying bit of story content that would have otherwise not seen the light of day, while aligning closely with one of their Japanese partners. Right now every Japanese publisher who has mid-to-big games scheduled for the fall on the Switch is in good shape. Koei now has two Atelier 2 and Age of Calamity, so they are going to end up having a great year in all likelihood. I don't see how this game doesn't end up outselling Nioh 2 by the end of their fiscal year in March.
