| Kyuu said: Pokemon is near annual, I think you'll agree that individual game comparison to BotW doesn't quite represent each title's significance. It'd be like arguging GTA is several times bigger than CoD because GTA5 will over 250 million lifetime vs CoD's average 30-35 million (and like 15-20 million on Playstation). BotW was definitely a big deal that contributed to Switch's success, it's foolish to argue otherwise. But it wasn't bigger than MK8D or Animal Crossing. It's also safe to say that it's the kind of game that appeals to consumers outside Nintendo's typical fanbase, who will not necessarily spend much time or money on the ecosystem. I neither played it nor bought a Switch for it, but I did buy Tears of the Kingdom day 1 and played it on sister's Switch. Core gamers tend to oversell Zelda's impact and undersell Mario Kart's. |
MK is a system seller yes but the issue is that would it have sold the platform as well if BOTW wasn't present as it was the game that generated that initial massive momentum which the other games were able to build on as the thing about MK is that it's a game everyone will eventually get anyway that's why it does such high numbers it occupies a weird spot as a system seller as it's more a complimentary type of system seller.
BOTW bringing in consumers who are outside the typical fanbase is why it's the game that has contributed the most as the Switch platform itself is majority outside of the typical fanbase that's why it's done so well on all fronts and the gaming habits of the userbase differ to the point it impacted third parties on S2 as theses consumers are contributing to the ecosystem. The issue Nintendo had before was their platform's were for the typical fanbase that's why success between their platforms could go from hot to cold and vice versa, BOTW brought in non typical fans on a level only GTA does this is something that's questionable on whether MK would do the same despite doing higher numbers. AC and Pokemon do so although as the context of the topic goes BOTW set the stage for what followed.
