Nintendo quarterly sales update (To June 30th 2021) Switch 89.04 m

[VideoGameAccountant]

Wyrdness said:

VideoGameAccountant said:

There's another post I want to address but I wanted to tackle this because I think people look too much at total sales and not the change of. First off, all Switch titles are doing better than their Wii/3DS/Wii U counterparts. So yeah, I would expect the Switch Pokemon to do well. Metroid Dread will do well for the same reason. There are more Switch users and Switch users tend to buy a lot of software. Moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic was kind to Nintendo as people flocked to Switch for entertainment. So yeah, I'd expect Pokemon sale's be be high relative to games on the other systems.

However, when you compare the change in titles, it's not as favorable for Pokemon. As of 12/31/19, the game sold 16.06 million. So it total, it sold 5.79 million (between then as 6/30/21). While that seems good, compare it to the growth of other titles. Breath of the Wild sold an additional 6.86 million. Smash Ultimate sold 7.09 million. Mario Kart sold 14.12 million. Ring Fit sold 9.09 million more. Mario Party sold 6.60 million more. Even Mario Odyssey isn't that far behind Pokemon as it sold 4.81 million more. All of these games came out before Pokemon, many of them at least 2 years before. Pokemon should have sold more during this time as it was a newer title and Nintendo Switch software sold incredibly well during that time. But Pokemon grew by less than other major Nintendo series. Keep in mind that Pokemon Sword and Shield includes both versions, and sales of that title can include someone buying the game twice. The fact it's sales have tapered off more than other Nintendo series is telling. All of this is before even considering Animal Crossing's meteoric rise which dwarfed Pokemon despite coming out around the same time. 

The fact is Pokemon isn't keeping pace with other series. Part of that is because of the quality of some of these titles, but the fact Pokemon didn't see similar growth for being as big of a series as it is tells me the series isn't as hot as people want to say it is. In regards to the Diamond and Pearl remakes, the remakes always do worse than the main titles. This was true for the DS and 3DS games. These title will do worse than Sword and Shield. If people are choosing other games over Pokemon, then I don't expect the next two titles to do incredibly well without a substantial increase in quality.

Except what you are arguing is null and void for a start your opinion on the quality of a game or series doesn't override objective data SW/SH are still heavily up in sales over prior games that alone debunks your whole brand decline angle people complain about FIFA games but guess what the sales keep rolling in which highlight opinions on their quality and the objectivity of the strength of the brand are two separate concepts, sales will always be a factor because as an objective factor it's data that is removed from subjective nature of any view of any group. SW/SH moved 16m in one month of the games that have sold more than it only AC and Smash have matched that and they're comparable franchises in brand power as is MK which has had brand power before Pokemon leaving only BOTW as the odd one out, selling a further 5m after moving 16m is really good because games like RFA still have not even matched SW/SH's first month numbers which gives that extra 5m better context fact is trying to paint it as a decline for the brand is factually wrong as even Pokemon Go had its best year prior to the pandemic, Mario Odyssey was out years before SW/SH and the latter caught up and outsold it.

This also brings us to the point that other games experiencing growth doesn't offset growth of a series and equal a decline that's flawed logic because under that Mario is on a decline because it's not the best selling game on a Nintendo console, all that says is the other games have more focused handling before in comparison to before the Switch and that Nintendo's marketing is far better now days. Fact is the whole decline angle is based on your own opinion as SW/SH going on to become the second best selling in the franchise only means an increase in the brand that doesn't support your view, as for the remakes remember when people were sure Pokemon LG was going to be a disaster yet it still sits comfortably in the top 10 sellers.

Like I said it's okay to have an opinion on the games but don't start mixing opinions and objectives.

This is just flat out wrong and it's something I addressed in my previous post. Looking at raw sales is misleading because ALL Switch software is doing better than previous iterations. This goes for Mario, Zelda, Splatoon, Smash, Mario Party, Fire Emblem and Kirby. We should expect this to be true of Pokemon. So Pokemon selling more than the 3DS games is expected. Moreover, the pandemic helped Nintendo as people bought Nintendo Switches to play during lockdowns. This is why ALL software went up. 

The reason I'm looking at growth is because customer dissatisfaction will be seen in the long term trend of sales and not the initial release. Pokemon Sword and Shield sold 16 million in its first quarter, so the quality of the actual game was not a major factor for these purchases. Folks bought the game early on and most were not aware of the controversy. Moreover, there was a lot of hype because this was an HD Pokemon and also the fact that some people who may not have owned a 3DS owned a Switch. But the games aren't keeping pace with the sales trends of other titles. 

You're second paragraph tells me you didn't understand what I was doing. I'm comparing sales of games across a set period and showing how Pokemon sold less than other titles. Pokemon is a massive series and outsold similar integrations on the 3DS. The Pokemon games were newer than the other games I compared and, as such, I would expect Pokemon to outsell those games. But Pokemon is not outselling titles that were released 2 years previously. Instead, it's lagging behind. What this tells me is the disappointment with Pokemon Sword and Shield became evident after the initial honeymoon phase with the game, which resulted in slower growth when compared with other major titles. If you want a better comparison, go look at Nintendo's 2020 results and look at the number of titles that outsold Pokemon during the year. 

Its not that I'm mixing opinion and "objectives" (think you meant facts here). It's more you don't understand what I'm talking about.