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curl-6 on 30 November 2025
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Otter said:
curl-6 said:

It didn't bomb, or even really do badly, it's more that it deserved better sales given how high quality it was.

I feel like if the same game had released on Switch/2 as an exclusive it would have sold 20 million plus just cos that audience is more amenable to cartoony platformers.

This certainly wouldn't happen but I get why people feel this way. 

People take for granted the power Nintendo's reputation, IP and design plays in the success of their games. If Astrobot was on the Nintendo Switch/Switch 2, it would still be made by Playstation (3rd party) and although it has Nintendo's charm gameplay wise, it's not 1:1 match for how Nintendo builds characters and IP (Think Kirby, Donkey Kong etc).

In actuality Astrobot would probably sell the same if not worse on Nintendo compared to playstation because:
1. It's not made by Nintendo
2. It would have more competition (would have to compete  directly with Nintendo's releases)

We can look at other big platformer releases for reference. They've all opened to bigger numbers on Playstation (globally), although the Switch versions tend to have better legs at retail meaning it may even out but there is no clear sales advantage on Nintendo. Even in Japan where Switch has 3:1 userbase lead, the actual sales of 3rd party platformers do not suggest there is a clear preference for the genre on Nintendo's platform 

Sonic Generations

  1. [NSW] Sonic X Shadow Generations (SEGA, 10/25/24) – 7,021 (New)
  2. [PS5] Sonic X Shadow Generations (SEGA, 10/25/24) – 3,629 (New)

Sonic Frontiers

  • Switch: 26,067
  • PS5: 11,111
  • PS4: 9,098


Meaning Sonic Generations In the UK

  • PlayStation 5: 50% of sales
  • Nintendo Switch: 29% of sales

For sure a family friendly game which is likely to be bought for kids will attract a longer shelf life on Switch, so that's not to say there is no advantage. And if it was a multiplat game with parity, I'm sure more people would enjoy the option for portability but I don't think the actual audience for the game would be much bigger on Nintendo compared to playstation. People would still just stick to Nintendo 1st party releases.

I meant more as in "if was a Nintendo game".

Sonic and the like are multiplat, while in the scenario I referred to it'd be exclusive, so all sales would be concentrated on one platform instead of shared.