Not bad for Other M!

Metroid Prime, which was available for 24 million people, sold similarly to Bioshock (360), which was available to almost 90 million people, and you say it sells bad?

As a matter of fact, Metroid sold almost exactly the same or more as the other 2 series' you listed (as long you dont include the other platform. Duh). I dont understand this thread.

Sorry but as someone who was well into gaming back then many of those sales were people who thought Prime was going to be a Halo like sci-fi shooter that's why sales dropped off with Echoes as people by then realized it's a far different type of game and not even a shooter to begin with. The was even backlash from fans in the build up to launch as many thought the series had been turned into a FPS.

It's not even a case of them not being interested they just know what a number of fans refuse to accept and that is the franchise will always be where it is now and never a mainstream hit like other big first party titles unless they take the franchise in a more mainstream direction but fans would flip out.

Because Metroid franchise is not as big as most people think. Nowadays sales would be even worse imo.

The Metroid series has never even been big.

It just looks that way because the fans are loud.

Metroid has always been somewhat of a niche series... consider the fact that Super Metroid, arguably the best in the series and one of the best SNES games of all time, couldn't even manage to break 1.5 million units on the best selling console of the 4th gen.  Prime sold the best because it was released early in the GC's life cycle and it was heavily hyped leading up to launch and promoted once it did launch.

Nintendo needs to do a better job of promoting its games across the board... Prime 3 was a stellar game and was released on a console that eventually broke 100m WW but still sold poorly because Nintendo didn't even bother promoting when it came out.  Metroid is not Mario or Zelda... it's never been big with mainstream / casual audiences.

Totally this! when i first got my GC i got Mario Sunshine and Zelda, Star Fox Adventures, Smash Bros melee and others, when metroid was out i couldn't find a copy at my local stores,  then one day a classmate asked if we could exchange for a time Mario Sunshine for his Metroid Prime, that was because he felt Prime was tedious, boring, he had to do much exploration and reading of logs and data, then i played it for a few minutes i wasn't really acustomed to metroid being a first person, and then i think i died the first time with the parasite queen in the intro, then i played it again trying to best that part, when i arrived at talon IV it became my favorite game of the GC, so when we exchanged games back my classmate said that he enjoyed Mario Sunshine better so he told me if we could change them forever, i told him that i still  wanted my copy of Mario Sunshine and that he should try to give Metroid Prime another chance, because it was an excellent game, so we exchanged games back and later i wentto a grand plaza that sells elctronics to bought my own copy of Metroid Prime when i had money,

Then my father bought Metroid Prime 2 and Paper Mario TYD when he saw them fresh new; about metroid prime 3, one year after it came out i couldn't find a new copy at stores, so i tracked their web pages listing used games, i saw one listed i went to that store, the game like new, the box was in perfect state and pristine, it had its manuals and the Club Nintendo code that still worked, the game hadn't any scratches or finger prints, the game was practically brand new but someone decided it wasn't for him so he returned it to store, then i bought for like 10 dollars. I noticed that while the metroid series and other games on the wii weren't as big as Mario, wii sports, smash or wii fit, but i felt that they under shipped a lot of games that people still wanted at least were i live, metroid Prime 3, the last story, pandoras tower, xenoblade, muramasa, red steel 2, the conduit, punch-out, wario world, etc. so we had to get them used or online, comparatively there tons of copies donkey kong country returns, metroid other m, mario galaxy, brawl, wii fit, wii play etc, and i still could get my copy of resident evil 4 two years after the wii launched.

Metroid has never been a big franchise. However that's no reason to only make Mario games. As a hardware and software developer, you need to make games that appeal to every type of gamer. Give people variation, choices and the opportunity to try something new. I don't blame Nintendo for milking the Mario franchise, but at least provide some variety.

I m not so sure-  Existing Metroid fans are hungry so there would be a strong "by in" from existing fans for a mainline Metroid-   If it is a 3d Prime type game then IMO there will be alot of new fans wanting to experience what all the Metroid fans have been talking about- plus Samus is getting good exposure in Smash games-

Also look at Fire Emblem-  It was thought to ne dead in the West (by Nintendo) then went on to record sales with its newest iterations

Existing fans barely make up 1m, the only way for Metroid to consistently sell more than 2m is for a Fire Emblem style overhaul but then old fans will be moaning. New fans are even more of a minority as Metroid requires a very distinct taste and mentality from a player.