I have three reasons why:

 Nintendo are publishing the game in Europe, which quickly eliminates one of Capcom's major problems in America, the fact that retailers refused to order the game in big numbers and never gave it the shelf space it deserved. Everyone remembered the fact at launch buying the game was difficult, some shops didn't even bother to order it, thankfully this won't happen now.

 Whatsmore Nintendo SHOULD give it some advertising. Obviously this is hard to tell, but Trauma Center:Second Opinion had TV adverts thanks to Nintendo publishing it, and it also felt more like a major Wii game with shops advertising it in their windows and offering special trade-in offers, it felt like the next Nintendo game.

 Finally is the fact that the point and click genre is still relevent in Europe. Lots of games in the genre are still made here, but only ever see a release in Germany, Spain, Portugal and France seeing as these are the only markets which care about them. With some good advertising and positive reviews these markets will no doubt be buying the game in droves.

 So ultimately I'm going to put Z&W at 500k+ for lifetime sales, with 200k in America, 30k in Japan and the rest in Europe. Just my prediction though :).

good analysis of the situation Sammy, maybe it will do 300k in Europe...

Oyvoyvoyv said: Combined software sales for Wii and DS pr 15th december are - worldwide - about 7.2 million. Nintendo sold 4.2 million games. This means that there were 3 million games sold, that were 3rd party, combined for DS and Wii. The combined software for PsP,Ps3 and Ps2 is 4 million. Sony has sold 776k games. Which means that they have 3,25 million 3rd party game sales. Microsoft has with the X360 sold 2,7 million games the last week. 700k of those are from Microsoft. That means 2 million are from 3rd parties. In total, on all the main platforms the companies have, Nintendo beats Microsoft, but comes second to Sony. If we divide it by the number of platforms, we get 1,1 mill pr Sony gaming machine, 1,5 pr Nintendo gaming machine and 2 million pr Microsoft machine. That means, that Nintendo platforms sell about as many 3rd party games as Sony and Microsoft ones. So apparently, the Wii is following the DS tracks. DS gained more and more 3rd party support, it looks like that is now happening to the Wii. EDIT: There were some people who did not understand how I did things, and why I did it like I did. If you understood, you don't have to read this. Software Totals: Console Weekly 3,819,968 3,435,260 2,795,040 1,745,095 1,607,152 741,472 30,617 26,757 15,855 Total 14,217,216 As you can see, The Nintendo Family has about 7,2Million games sold, The Sony has 4M and Microsoft's has 2,7M Publisher Totals: Console Week Nintendo 4,230,932 EA 1,898,021 Activision 1,379,769 Sony 776,798 Ubisoft 714,881 Microsoft 698,341   Nintendo Wii and DS have 4,2 Million games sold, that are made by Nintendo. That leaves 3 million for 3rd party on those consoles. Sony has 776k - which leaves 3,2 for 3rd party developers Microsoft has 700k - which leaves 2 million for 3rd party dev's. Sony has 3 gaming machines, so average is 1,1M pr machine. Microsoft has 1 gaming machine so average is 2M pr machine. Nintendo has 2 gaming machines so average is 1,5 pr machine. In % it is of course lower than the competition.

Thank you, for all your work on this (your calculations).

  I was wondering if some of the 3rd party complaints were valid or not. I must admit that it is a fact that sometimes, in the past, great 3rd party games get lost on Nintendo systems. But this at least makes it seem like things are turning around. I am glad they delayed Brawl or else none of this would be true.

Ja Mata!

Thanks for the positive responses :)

One of the main points that has already been established I'm sure in this forum is that Nintendo is a strictly games company, while Sony and Microsoft have other divisions that make the companies money.

Therefore Nintendo gambling on a low cost but low hardware model with an innovative control model was the best choice simply because Nintendo cannot afford to lose money on a console.

Microsoft and Sony who's systems mimic a mid level PC game gambled on the hardcore market and has paid off for MS but not so much for Sony as of yet.

I think Nintendo's strategy is brilliant, mixing in their already popular franchises with a control scheme that virtually everyone can use. Mix it the party games as well as the online play and you can turn non-gamers into gamers. The blue ocean strategy will probably explode when Wii Fit comes to America as well as Nintendo releasing to China next year.

Nintendo is operating under the guise that they have to make money on everything they sell. Gamecube was sort of a mini-disaster but nintendo bounced back from that quite well in my opinion. I expect to see sales by the end of next year reach AT LEAST 37 Million given that Nintendo intends to release to China.

I will Bumb this topic, for some people to read, I just hate the 3rd party not doing well myth, everybody seems to have.

Sega's doing great on it. Thats all I care about. SMB and SATSR have both shifted, what, 600-800K this year? And then of course the famous Mario and Sonic and its inverse legs. I wouldn't be suprised at all if that one breaks 2 million this year alone, and does 3 million life time.