There are several factors to take into account on how well this game sells.
For comparisons sake, let us take compare this to Codename: S.T.E.A.M.
As we know, STEAM did pretty bad in it's first 2 weeks here in the U.S., I know it releases everywhere else in May, but I don't see that helping it much.
Now I played the demo of STEAM, and I liked what I played so I'm going to pick that game up some time later. But some factors it had going against it were.
- Comic book like presentations don't really make for the most amazing or attractive visuals or graphics, even for 3DS standards.
-A niche genre (Real Time Strategy game)
-Mixed first impressions and review scores, last I checked it had a Metacritic score of 71
Combine those factors with that fact that it was a new IP that people were on edge about, and the results didn't really turn out in its favor.
Now let's look at Splatoon.
- The graphics and visuals are absolutely stunning. A very gorgeous looking Wii U game
- A very popular genre (Shooters)
- Early impressions of the game so far have mostly ranged from positive to very positive.
I think Splatoon will do a lot better than STEAM in the long run, and that it can reach 500,000.
1 million is gonna be tougher. I think it'll depend on how this game does critically
If reception as very positive and there is high praise, this could easily be on track to be Nintendo's answer to the shooter genre, just as Mario Kart is to the racing genre, and as Smash Bros. is to the fighting genre.
If reception isn't so positive, or is mixed... Well STEAM may have company.
We'll just have to wait and see.
