N64 & Cube are abominations

happydolphin

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happydolphin on 06 March 2012

RolStoppable said:

Yeah, try this. It should lead to fairly straight lines between the actual data points. I really want to see the blue line starting with SMB, not somewhere above SMB2 where it makes no sense.

I agree. Here is what I got.

Data (with manual interpolations):

Below trends are in perspective, so a flat trend segment would line up with the gridlines that are along the chart title.

Japan Trends:

Global Trends:

Keep in mind, in the blue trend above (Mario 2D Global), Only SMB and SMW were bundled. The others were not (of course, you know that).

happydolphin

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happydolphin on 06 March 2012

RolStoppable said:

happydolphin said:

Keep in mind, in the blue trend above, Only SMB and SMW were bundled. The others were not (of course, you know that).

Now that's more like it. Regarding SMW, I don't think it was bundled in Japan, just like any other game on this chart never was. Since it sold similarly to SMB3 in Japan, there's no reason to assume that it would have suffered from a severe drop in the Western markets and thus should have sold about 15m copies globally minimum, if it hadn't been bundled.

As for the individual lines which are similar on both graphs:

1) The blue line shows a phenomenon that was followed up by a bad sequel and went back up again when better games were released afterwards (SMB3 and SMW). The following two games exceed those sales numbers, although NSMB Wii doesn't fare as well in Japan as in the Western markets. Aside from the for Mario standards atrocious SMB2, all games have done very well.

2) The red line shows both 2D and 3D Mario games which leads to massive fluctuations on the graph when both kinds of games are released close to each other.

3) The purple line shows only the 3D games which have quite a consistent sales pattern, a notably lower one than the 2D titles.

4) The green line shows your interpretation of an ever declining series to make the 3D games a part of the Super Mario Bros. series. However, the two NSMB games don't fit into this and it makes no sense to exclude them, because they are far closer to the NES/SNES games than any one of the 3D titles.

@bold. Yeah, it was strictly concening the Global Trends graph. In Japan you are right as I was aware. Though the trend is downward in Japan for SMB3 to SMW, it is so only slightly.

For the blue line, your interpretation is correct, but it does not account for the fact that SM3 and SMW are both dips relative to the retro NSMB and NSBMWii offerings.

Also, when bringing back the Pokemon series, you'll see the green trend is the most faithful one to a traditional sequel phenomenon. If going by data, that's the best interpretation we can take in light of such a similar series (big entry boom at pokemon R/G/B, then regular series stagnation).

(Despite how fitting Pokemon is to the Mario comparison, I would think analysis of other main series of various genres such as Donkey Kong, Excitebike, Mega Man, Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Sonic, Street Fighter and such follow similar sales trends, bar a few exceptions)

Bottom line, at best, NSMB and NSMBWii are outliers. I like to classify them as retro celebrations of a nostalgic title: SMB. That's why they exploded. Mario Kart is also different. With multiplayer capabilities and mass appeal, there was much more than series faithfulness to propel its sales.

(Here is the Data Table with Manual Interpolations for the Pokemon trends)

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Byclop on 06 March 2012

Stop the nonsense, Mario 64is the GOAT and Sunshine the 2nd one, sales dont matter

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happydolphin on 06 March 2012

Byclop said:
Stop the nonsense, Mario 64is the GOAT and Sunshine the 2nd one, sales dont matter

Did you mean to beget B- ? Sunshine had excellent physics and very very fun gameplay, but in terms of themes and music/artstyle, it is the laughingstock of the series (no pun intended).

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oniyide on 06 March 2012

amp316 said:

oniyide said:

amp316 said:

MontanaHatchet said:

amp316 said:
If the N64 was an abomination, then I must be one of Satan's spawn as much as I've enjoyed playing the games on that thing.

The reason that it failed was because it used an outdated format (cartridges), and Sony did an excellent job of marketing itself as the "cooler" system to the beer drinking jocks of the world.

There are some points I agree and disagree with in this post.

The N64 was certainly a great system with some obviously fantastic games, so it's hardly an abomination. And having cartridges definitely did not contribute to its success.

However, a huge aspect of the Playstation's success wasn't just in appealing to jocks. If you look at the hardware totals, the PS1 and NES are basically on par in terms of hardware sales in NA and Japan. The vast majority of the growth came from Europe and the developing markets. The most important thing that Sony did in terms of growing the gaming market was making millions of gamers in the PAL region enter the home console market through games that appealed to the market (e.g. Gran Turismo).

Truth be told, some of my post might have been tongue in cheek.

I do agree with you that Sony definitely expanded the market. Many of it was due to it's advertising to the developing markets. Another thing that Sony did well was to be the first system to usher in the new generation of substantially better graphics. While the N64 was more powerful, Sony did it first. Which brings me to another point. Sony used being first strongly to it's advantage. They made it seem like their Playstation was the only gaming system to have.

They didnt make it seem like anything, for all intents purposes it WAS the only gaming system to buy, at least for a little while. It was out two whole years before N64, thats a long time and in that time was competing against PS??? Sega Saturn?? Yeah how long that last??

Exactly. Sony made people believe the way that you did. The Saturn was competing with it and some people (I was one of them) waited for the N64 to come out.

Also, being the only system out doesn't guarantee anything. It didn't work for the Dreamcast. My point is that the marketing for the PS was extremely well done. It in truth was not the only system to have...

Sega Saturn sucked, at least in the US it got very little support. That thing crashed even before the PS was getting really popular, N64 wasnt out yet. So what other system could one have gotten, im sorry but if someone bought Saturn instead of a PS then they were being silly, especially when it was apparent the systems was going away