Nintendo has a lot of big franchises. This generation they have come up with some new big franchises, and some older franchises became restablished or even larger than ever in some cases. I was interested in what people consider to be the order of sales potential and the order of importantce of franchises to Nintendo. So considering the events of this generation what do you think is the current order of the sales potential for Nintendo's franchises? Some questions to consider, If a new game was released from that franchise tomorrow, how would you expect it to sell? Does the franchise sell games equally well on both consoles and portables? Will the franchise continue to be able to sell as well in the future as it did this generation?
Here are the franchises that I thought of. You can add more to your list if you want.
Mario 2D Platformer, Mario 3D platformer, Mario Kart, Super Smash Bros., Nintendogs, Kirby, Brain Age, Wii Series (Can split the series up in your post if you want), Pokemon, Metroid, Donkey Kong, Kirby, Animal Crossing, Pikmin, Excite Series, Fire Emblem, Star Fox, F-Zero, Zelda, Punch-Out, Mario Party.
My opinion
1, Mario Kart (Huge on both portables and consoles)
2. 2D Mario Platformers (Same as Mario Kart, these two could be switched)
3. Pokemon
4. Wii Series (Split up below)
-4a Wii Fit (Both Fit and Plus are huge, but not sure future entries will sell quite as much)
5. Nintendogs (This is a question mark with just one game in the series)
-5a. Wii Sports
6. 3D Mario Platformer (Sell well consistently, Super Mario 64DS shows they sell well on portables too)
7. Brain Age (1st Two Games sold extremely well, but I'm not convinced it will continue on 3DS)
8. Super Smash Bros. (Brawl hit the 10 million mark, but unproven on portables)
9. Animal Crossing (Not sure where this franchise will end up, DS game was huge, will version solid)
10. Mario Party ( A Consistent Big Seller, MP 8, and MP DS both sold very well)
11. Zelda (Franchise is consistent, sells a little less on portables than home consoles).
11a. Wii Play (Don't think the game's success will be repeated with another entry)
12. Donkey Kong (DKCR has breathed new life into this series, could potentially move up list in the future)
12a. Wii Party (Selling well so far although much lower than Sports/Fit games)
13. Kirby (Franchise consistently sells around the 2 million mark)
14. Star Fox (Series is kind of all over the place with sales)
15. Metroid (Series has a loyal audience, but that audience seems to be less than 1.75 million)
15a. Wii Music -Despite selling 3 million, the game had no legs, do not think a new game would sell well)
16. Pikmin (No entries yet this gen, but New Play Control sold well, think Pikmin 3 could sell 1.5 mil or more on Wii)
17. Punch-Out (Wii game sold over a million, not bad for a reboot but not a huge success)
18. Excite Series (Excite Truck sold well, but most likely because of a launch title, Excitebots did poorly)
19.Fire Emblem (Small but loyal audience, portables games do fairly well in Japan)
20. Endless Ocean (1st title sold over a million, second game doing decent, but seems to be stuck as a budget franchise).
So go ahead and make your own list or critique mine (or both).
