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KrspaceT said:
The_Liquid_Laser said:
curl-6 said:

I recall them saying that BOTW needed to sell 2 million copies to break even: https://www.forbes.com/sites/olliebarder/2016/06/30/zelda-breath-of-the-wild-needs-to-sell-2-million-copies-to-break-even/?sh=2a751ec1615f

Hahah!  This is why Nintendo is awesome.  They budget games so that they would be profitable even on a dud system like the Wii U.  And on a really successful system, like the Switch, they make crazy profits.

Of course, the real profit making potential on a game like BotW is it's ability to sell hardware.  The biggest profits come from multiplication and not addition.  Calculate the profits on 20m copies of BotW and that is thinking in "addition" terms.  But a bigger install base increases the sales of every new game that is released.  That is thinking in "multiplication" terms.  Also a bigger install base means more titles will come to the system.  That is also multiplication.  On a system like the Switch, it's profitable even if you only count revenue from third party royalties.  And then when you also count first party sales, hardware sales, subscriptions, etc... then it's ridiculously profitable.

The real measure of a first party game is not if it generated a profit.  The real measure is in how well it moves hardware.  Profits on a single game is money addition.  Having a bigger install base is money multiplication.  So Nintendo probably broke even or made a minor profit on systems like the Gamecube or Wii U, but they are still duds, because their games didn't move hardware.  Why break even when you can make mad, stupid profits?  This is the idea of opportunity cost.  Nintendo wastes time and money when they make games that don't move hardware.  Games that move hardware are a good investment.

So if a game makes a profit, that alone doesn't make it a good candidate for a sequel.  Almost every Nintendo published game makes a profit.  But there is still a big difference between a system like the Switch and a system like the Wii U.  They need to make games that move hardware so they keep having Switch-like sales instead of Wii U-like sales.

I'm a bit curious on the '1st party got to sell hardware to be worth it' part as I....have to question if Kirby or Yoshi, for example, really sell consoles the way Mario or Bayonetta do (and yes I intentionally used those two as they both do it despite one being VASTLY more mainstream). It honestly seems more like games like that are more about adding value to the console purchase than to sell the console....


Or maybe I'm vastly underestimating the power of Yarn Yoshi in selling stuff. Though there is the fact those games are likely a heck more cheap to make. 

...Though on a third thing the merchandise they make is also a factor. Real easy to make plushies of those guys than say, Marth or Shulk.

I think Kirby is more popular in Japan (comparatively) than in other regions.  I believe it actually does sell hardware there.  Kirby games also tend to be on the easy side which actually makes them unique compared to other Nintendo games.  It's similar to Bayonetta in that, even though these games don't sell mega millions, they offer something that no other game on the system offers.  You can also put Xenoblade Chronicles and Fire Emblem in that same category.  None of these games sell a huge amount, but they are unique and don't have a huge budget, so they are worth offering. 

I kind of agree on Yoshi though.  I'm not convinced that Yoshi games really sell hardware.  Or at the very least they fill the same niche that Kirby games do.  Nintendo could probably make one of these games or the other, but I'm not convinced they need both.