IcaroRibeiro said:
(1) How have you arrived in such conclusion? There is nothing even remotely close to animosity or any sort of gaming wars in this thread (2) The argument about pricing is relevant because this is the context of the market. Metroid is for a large part of Switch userbase a fairly unknown franchise and none of their titles released in the last 10 years have seen any sort of commotion The most popular Metroidvanias in the market are indies, it was indies the ones to start a new wave in the genre, most of those indies are available on Switch and most of those indies are cheaper without comprising their quality Nintendo brand and reselling value can maybe justify the 60 USD price tag, but to say the pricing and the fact this is a 2D release don't impact sales is nothing but delusion. Why are exactly people bringing up Link's Awakening to this discussion when even with the Switch brand and the release just after BOTW this game barely managed to outsold a Phantom Hourglass, a game released when Zelda franchise was much less popular? There was a precedent for a 2D non mainline Zelda selling about 5 million copies, and even Switch push couldn't make another 2D Zelda sell much more than that, maybe LA end selling 6 million once Switch is done but even then it's a increase of about 27% over Phantom Hourglass. It's surely a great increase, but not quite what was expected after BOTW elevated the IP for a whole other level. Why? Because LA is a 2D, a remake of a Game Boy game and is 60 USD A increase of about 27% for Dread using a 1.8 million baseline would lead to ~2.3 million. Surely enough to a record breaking number, but there is a underlining indicator this could just go beyond if the price was more attractive. And unlike Zelda, there is no Metroid Prime 4 hype catapulting the IPs popularity, Metroid will need to fight with their existing strength alone. |
(1) I'm not talking about this thread, but the argument is brought up on Twitter and Youtube often by persons not caring about Switch or Metroid in the slightest.
(2) The whole argument is based somehow on the idea, that 2D is somehow cheaper or something. But the reality is, 2D gameplay and 3D gameplay are just two different genres. New Super Mario Bros and NSMB Wii sold about 30 million copies, because the 3D Mario releases before just aren't the same. Nintendo then milked it to death so sales fell. The situation for Metroid is similar now. There was no 2D Metroid in nearly two decades, just Metroid games in a different genre (Metroid Prime). These are not the same genres, as Mario Odyssey and Mario Kart are not the same genre. The idea that 2D is bizarre, but explainable, as many publishers over the last years pushed the idea that graphical fidelity is innovation, because they lacked ideas in gameplay innovation. But the reality is, that 2D games are valid and distinct to 3D games. And similar to 3D games you can make simple and cheap ones or polished and expensive ones. So the idea that a game is not worth full price because of 2D is broken. I would say that a fully 3D game like Skyward Sword has a much harder way to explain the pricepoint than Metroid Dread. Because it doesn't add much. It is the same game. Every instance of FIFA makes incremental changes and new roster, but besides is the same game. And EA ask for full price and microtransactions on top. Metroid Dread is completely new game and looks quite polished. Full price for that is fine.
