What is the relationship between the first party output on a console/PC platform and other game success rates?

[Mnementh]

IcaroRibeiro said:

Mnementh said:

Actually...

We don't have too much data on Switch titles as VGC stopped tracking, but we do have data for WiiU. Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed is a multiplatform Kart racer, and it did sell according to VGC the following:

1. X360: 580K
2. WiiU: 530K
3. PS3: 500K
4. Vita: 440K
5. 3DS: 300K

So WiiU is quite good. Given, that the game came late in the life of PS3 and X360, but still a year to the successors and as games often sell frontloaded, they should've had the majority of their sales.

Another datapoint would be Rayman Legends. This has more platforms. PS4 version with 1.5M is far ahead of WiiU version with 680K and the late port for Switch is counted with 690K just ahead, but everything else falls behind: PS3 (610K), X360 (460K), XOne (380K), PSV (160K).

Compare that to other genres. Deus Ex: Human Revolution sold only 110K on WiiU, less than 10% of the 1.38M on both PS3 and X360. Batman Arkham City sold 370K, again less than 10% of the 4.75M on X360 and 5.54 on PS3. Assassin's Creed III sold 360K against 5.31M on 360 and 6.5M on PS3.

Even Resident Evil Revelations, which originated on a Nintendo platform and where WiiU isn't the only one getting a late port of: WiiU only 220K, X360 with 260K and PS3 with 760K. The original 3DS release sold 890K.

So WiiU while not selling a lot and generally not having great sales in comparison to other platforms for multiplat games, was still competitive withKart racers and platformers. So there is at least a hint, that this theory could have some base in reality.

Great points. If platformers and racers were doing well on Wii U despite the system dreadful sales, this maybe has a hint Switch owners are more inclined to buy those genres.

About the other games you mentioned, we need more material evidence still. We something released at all systems at the same time, late ports are overall a bad way to gauge sales

The only good instance to prove your point is indeed RE Revelations where all 3 systems got a year late port. Interesting to point that Xbox performing much worse than PS3 is more noteworthy for me than Wii U sales here (which was actually good considering it's very small userbase). Resident Evil is a very strong brand in Japan, and a classical game for Playstation ecosystem since the 90's, while not quite as big on Xbox 

I'm very inclined to believe sometimes it's more like a console userbase has more familiarity with a specific brand or set franchises than with a specific genre

I agree, that other reasons might result in these numbers. For instance WiiU also had Mario+Sonic at the Olympic games and an exclusive Sonic game, that ight have helped with the Kart racer. My main point is, that I wouldn't throw the theory of the OP out of the window. Problem is obviously, that we have no easy way of comparison. Every game sale comparison has downsides. So it will not be easy to decide if an effect like the one described in the OP is real or not.