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Forums - Nintendo - Sales: Why did TP soar and SS flop?

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SaviorX on 18 May 2012

1) Word of mouth was hampered by the lengthy amount of time it takes before the action starts. Friends watching their friends start Zelda take note of the hour of inaction and do not buy it for themselves.

2) Wii Motion Plus is required. Not everyone had that. At the store, Zelda goes from being $50 to $50 + $12 Wii Motion Plus peripheral. If I didn't love the series, I would have just bought two cheaper Nintendo Select games instead for my kids or something.

3) The game was too bright. This also ties into the word of mouth but later on. If I played Zelda SS for 15 hours and saw the color pallete was so bright ALL THE TIME, I'd figure the game was childish and give negative reviews to my friends. It came really close to Kirby's Epic Yarn in aesthetic, even though the difficulty was ramped up over Twilight Princess. Twilight Princess went all in towards the darker theme, while Wind Waker could be considered the opposite extreme. Skyward Sword was like 70% WW, 30% TP. This alienated the Japanese fanbase and made it the worst-selling Zelda since Minish Cap, which also was released late in the life-cycle of the GBA.

4) Twilight Princess had the word 'Twilight' in it. After 2006, people would buy almost anything with Twilight on it....even if it was nowhere near related to the vampire series. TP has been selling for almost 7 full calendar years mind you. Wii will be dead long before 2017 where SS is at the same point in time. Also, Skyward is a nerdy word. Releasing at launch allows more sales then being a swan song title, when everyone is focused on the future of consoles.



Leatherhat on July 6th, 2012 3pm. Vita sales:"3 mil for COD 2 mil for AC. Maybe more. "  thehusbo on July 6th, 2012 5pm. Vita sales:"5 mil for COD 2.2 mil for AC."

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haxxiy on 18 May 2012

I think it's a bit silly to think TP sold better because, among other things, it had Twilight in the name, lol. It's not like Call of Juarez sells like hotcakes or Nintendo will solve it's problems by slapping Mario Kart or Mario Bros. onto everything.

Twilight Princess was probably the best game overall, and had a better art style to it's fanbase. Besides Midna was funny and sarcastic, and in SS we got Legion from Mass Effect slapped into a sword.



 

 

 

 

 

TheKoreanGuy on 18 May 2012

Hmm, all these comments make me want to go replay TP lol. Last time I played it was when Wii launched, which was 6 years ago.... fantastic game back then and I'm sure I'll have fun with it if I replay it. I barely remember the story too.



Cheebee on 18 May 2012
mike_intellivision said:
I love how for Nintendo that 3M sales is a FLOP.

Also, this is a pure case of lies, damned lies, and statistics.

If you look at the first 10 weeks after launch -- it is TP has 2.19M (2.23M adjusted for later two week later European launch) while SS has 3.03M (3.04M adjusted for one week later North American launch).

Yes, the first 10 weeks Skyward Sword "OUTSOLD" Twilight Princess by 38 percent not adjusted for launch differences (36 percent adjusted).

In other words, Skyward Sword did perform better. What is missing for it is all the ensuing years of sales. It probably will never achieve them because when it was launched in the console's life cycle. But to try to say that Skyward Sword did not sell is just not true.

Mike from Morgantown

QFT.



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WiiBox3 on 18 May 2012
Joelcool7 said:
Wiibox I never finished the campaign of BlackOps I was not impressed and put the game down after only about 20 minutes. I hated WaW with a passion, I had bought it without trying it first and ended up trading it in within a week because it was just so terrible. I experienced lag and certain hills couldn't be climbed up or over a log. It felt like invisible walls all over again. After WaW I decided never again to buy a CoD without playing it first. BlackOps was alright but I was not impressed enough to give it much more then 20 minutes, it wasn't the historically accurate old style CoD I loved back in the day nor was it the somewhat realistic modern day shooter of MW. Seriously the game was not a serious game it was like taking Hollywood and trying to make a game. Lacked substance!

BattleField3 admittedly could have had a better campaign. It had several issues but it was a far superior shooter in almost every way.

MW3 didn't even get more then five minutes of my time. I saw the campaign and was sickened so I played a fifteen minute or so multiplayer map. Realized this is nearly the exact same dang game I played years ago. Game play was stagnant and Activision reused tons of assets. MW3 belonged in the 39.99$ bargain bin launch day I really feel sorry for the developers who worked their asses off and were left with a product that wouldn't even make the top 3 shooters of the year. HomeFront and BF3 were twice the game MW3 was, I blame Activision not Infinity Ward.

Also the poser gamers are also to blame. The ones who only care about graphics, blood nudity and hardcore mature crap. These gamers are leading the industry into producing lower and lower quality garbage.

Talked with my manager at EBGames and later Play N' Trade to get their opinions on the subject. They both were unanimous real gamers are a dying breed. Today you don't get gamers who actually like games you get posers who want eye candy who want to play 5-20 minute sessions who really could care less about a quality campaign.

The Play N' Trade manager put it best. Today a gamer wants to buy Call of Duty so he can bring his friends over and pretend he's cool for a few hours. Half of the gamers buying games today even touch the single player campaign he said, because they aren't actually interested in a game. They are interested in constant explosions and beautiful cutting edge graphics. They are interested in having friends over and looking cool.

These are not gamers. They are posers I met a gamer a while back who didn't even know what Modern Warfare was. I was in the game store asked a customer "What did you think of ModernWarFare3'. "Modern Ware Fare?" , "Ya you know Call of Duty?" , "Dude I love Call of Duty" , "What did you think about Battlefield3" "..... Who makes Battlefield again is that a PC game I don't play PC games".

I nearly slapped the shit out of the guy. Its idiots like that they are destroying our industry. Why does a sub par game like CoD:MW3 outsell games like HomeFront/BF3. Why are amazing games like Rayman Origins dying while the next GTA will clean house?


There is something wrong with this picture!

Who likes eyecandy Hollywood ride type games? This guy! *Points thumbs toward self* Who likes classic games? This guy!

I'm not trying to argue against your point, but I like both types of games. Granted WaW was bad. But I loved the ride of CoD BlOps. But games like Rayman Origins die due to bad marketing campaigns. Look at NSMB Wii, it did great, not just because it was Mario, but also because Nintendo marketed the hell out of it. I couldn't go an hour during the holiday season it was released without seeing at least one commercial for it.



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TSweirdo on 18 May 2012
mike_intellivision said:
I love how for Nintendo that 3M sales is a FLOP.

Also, this is a pure case of lies, damned lies, and statistics.

If you look at the first 10 weeks after launch -- it is TP has 2.19M (2.23M adjusted for later two week later European launch) while SS has 3.03M (3.04M adjusted for one week later North American launch).

Yes, the first 10 weeks Skyward Sword "OUTSOLD" Twilight Princess by 38 percent not adjusted for launch differences (36 percent adjusted).

In other words, Skyward Sword did perform better. What is missing for it is all the ensuing years of sales. It probably will never achieve them because when it was launched in the console's life cycle. But to try to say that Skyward Sword did not sell is just not true.

Mike from Morgantown

I agree with this. The fact that it sold as well as it did despite the need for WM+ and that it came at the end of the wii's life when Nintendo seems to have abondoned it is good. To say it floped just seems wrong.



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F0X on 18 May 2012
mike_intellivision said:
I love how for Nintendo that 3M sales is a FLOP.

Also, this is a pure case of lies, damned lies, and statistics.

If you look at the first 10 weeks after launch -- it is TP has 2.19M (2.23M adjusted for later two week later European launch) while SS has 3.03M (3.04M adjusted for one week later North American launch).

Yes, the first 10 weeks Skyward Sword "OUTSOLD" Twilight Princess by 38 percent not adjusted for launch differences (36 percent adjusted).

In other words, Skyward Sword did perform better. What is missing for it is all the ensuing years of sales. It probably will never achieve them because when it was launched in the console's life cycle. But to try to say that Skyward Sword did not sell is just not true.

Mike from Morgantown

Exactly what I thought when I read the thread title.

Better question: When will everyone realize that correlation does not prove causation? Especially in sales where there's several dozen different factors at play?



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zippy on 18 May 2012

In my opinion skyward sword is the better game, and i prefer its graphical style over TP (windwaker still being my favourite zelda graphics). Too many dark and dingy games these days, i welcome a game with a nice colourful pallette. SS controls piss all over the control scheme of TP which really were just tacked on motion controls for the Wii launch title. That saying TP is a great game still, it has just had more time to sell, plus Wii was selling a lot of systems and breaking a lot of records back then too.



sales2099 on 18 May 2012

TP was the most "mature" and "dark" zelda to date.

Gamers....especially grown up ones like playing games with a more mature tone.

There it is said and out in the open.



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DanneSandin on 18 May 2012

What Zelda needs, or rather what LINK needs, is to be able to buy some hookers! That's much more mature, and depicture home violence where Zelda hits Link (man abuse is a really problem ppl!) to get that darker atmosphere!



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