The question is who is to blame for this? Focusing on on America for this. Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo of America's executive vice president of Sales & Marketing recently left or is leaving Nintendo of America.  I think that might be a good place to start. Not that this game alone caused her to leave or asked to leave but it could have been the final straw or maybe it was a game right before this.

Nintendo has released a few games in America this year and the year before I think that really could have done well  or a LOT better if they were given the right push and attention. However it doesn't seem like Nintendo of America did though. I'm referring to Excitebots, WarioWare DIY, Endless Ocean 2, New Play Control games, Sin and Punishment 2, and now seemingly Metroid Other M to name a few. There could be others from earlier years. Other games have done well but is it because they received good marketing or did they do well despite the lack of marketing due to their brand and history. Punch Out is one such title for example I think did well due to the name and it's history. It could have done a LOT better I think had it been marketed the way it should have. Now if it did I totally missed it stand corrected.  Excitebots is another example. Granted Excite Truck wasn't a massive hit but outside of Mario Kart there and a Need for Speed game there aren't many racers and this could have easily been sold to buyers but they didn't even try. I know you have to pick and choose where to spend money but Nintendo isn't flooding the market with games at any given time so they could able to market better. When they should be doing a better job when it comes to non-Mario platformers titles.

Perhaps I'm not seeing things correctly but I think Nintendo's marketing has actually gotten worse over the past few years while it was very good during the Wii's first few years. A good marketing campaign can counteract bad or average reviews I believe.

This game was marketed well in the states. Less than good sales might be attributed to people  not being  impressed by his game.  Might be that simple

Week 4 is sitting at 30,000 units.

For comparison's sake, Corruption didn't go that low until Week 10.

I need to go update my top 50 of this gen list..

Yeah, advertising is one area where Nintendo really did well with the game.  Both in America and Japan (dunno about Europe?).

What's really torpedoed sales upfront is the trashing it's gotten from the overcompensating industry press, which has really driven away a lot of the usual base Metroid relies on.  Unfortunately the game seems tailor made for that same base, so it's potential with other audiences is inherently limited.

There were tonnes of ads here too.

The industry press has it at 79, the userscore however is lower. The people who gave this game a thrashing were a large portion of the Metroid base.

I think word of mouth is a lot more harsh than the press.

so is safe to say this game bombed?

Atleast in EMEAA. It's doing decent in America and Japan, but far from great.

Edit:

I guess you could call it a critical bomb as well.

iam somehow happy it bombed cuase i hope they return to the 2d style, like the snes one , that was a great metroid 

I'm not sure why this would make you happy since it only means that Nintendo will be taking a long and hard look at the next iteration of the Metroid franchise before giving it the green light.

Unless these sales match projections, it could even put the Metroid franchise into limbo and question as to whether they should even do another Metroid game for the Wii.

Personally, I'd rather not see a lower budgeted, dumbed down Metroid sequel designed as such in the interest of reaching an expanded audience or minimizing potential financial risks. I would rather just wait for a next gen console Metroid.