Everyone else on my friend's list is playing Zelda. Then there is me the weird one the last couple of days playing these games instead and boy they make me happy!

How could this game be possibly benefited from being Switch locked? Are you implying Switch owners only buy games that are Switch exclusives ?

Finally got the Ice Beam in Metroid Prime Remastered.

I think you're missing the second part where they talk about doing the marketing themselves.

They're essentially suggesting that Nintendo publishes the game, which they've done in the past with some games like Monster Hunter Tri and Bravely Default. If the game was Nintendo exclusive then they would be more apt to market it, since they'd get a cut of every sale. But, if the game is launching at the same time on PS5 or whatever, then they have less incentive to market it. 

Can't say if that would have made sense in this particular case. Hopefully 1-1.5 million sales will be enough to keep them making these games. Haven't gotten around to this yet, but Bravely Defauly, Triangle Strategy, and Octopath have really scratched the old school RPG itch as series like Final Fantasy have essentially become action games.

That's basically the gist of my argument. 

Even then, you just have to look at the numbers to understand how much more impactful the first game was when it launched. SE did not believe in it's success so much, they had problem with physical copies stock which were emptied on the first weekend.

Anywoo, it's not like I'm actually suggesting a hard lock or anything. The first game eventually got release on other platforms too, so what I suggested is a solution to temporarily boost the franchise appeal.

Maybe. But there are other factors at play too. The Switch market was a bit less crowded in general. And people at that point didn't know it would eventually come to Gamepass or Steam or w/e. And, at this point, there had been 3 others of these HD-2D style games so maybe people just had enough. Not uncommon for these more nichey kinds of games to fall off with the sequel. Who knows if Nintendo could have marketed it better. 

Being locked on Switch wouldn't have provided any boost in sales,  if anything the sales were more liked to be even smaller if it was Switch locked 

The second game was announced exactly the same way the first one, in a Nintendo direct and was regularly listed on Nintendo stores as a major release

Releasing day one in the same platforms where half of the sales comes from (PC) as well as in Playstation was the right decision

The decrease in sales has to do with the first one falling to be appealing enough. Overall the reception was mixed, with people growing weary of the repetitive game loop, and remembering how grinding and random encounters ARE annoying. Although people on forum boards love to criticize modern Final Fantasy for its lack of turn based combat with all elements present in Octopath, the truth is the audience for this kind of gameplay is limited. 

Plus we now have an overabundance of HD 2D games from team Asano, they are coming on yearly basis. When the first one came out it was unique, now we have options. This imo deluded the sales potential for Octopath 

I'm saying this as an Team Asano fan who buys everything they release on the first week. I can now see the truth, the original Octopath sales were a fluke. I just hope 1 million plus sales is enough for team Asano keep releasing their games. 

The first game was revealed during the initial Switch presentation in January which the event for marketing purposes, surpasses much more a common Direct. Not only that, but subsequent Directs allowed the game to have time and sections dedicated to itself + the famous first of two demos the game had to build itself necessary hype to go out on a boom from release point. 

In comparison, the sequel got its reveal on a usual Direct but was only subsequently showcased in another Direct in a rapid succession fire of 3rd party games with only a few trailers on Nintendo's Youtube channel. That's not how you build important Mindshare. So we're left with Square Enix having a good awful marketing department trying to release all these AA RPG in the same time windows without much life in the spotlight.

That's even less than the dedicated sections a game like Triangle Strategy got when it was Switch console exclusive.

Even worse, Nintendo released also a First party  game on that day (Kirby) which just doesn't help with the matter of importance of Mindshare in gaming discussions.

They did not get the same kind of treatment marketing wise and that's a fact that this will hurt sales more so than you can imagine. 

Also, can you share the stats concerning the platform splits in terms of the 2nd game sales ? 

As far as the numbers we got early on from the first few weeks of sales. The Switch version completely trounced the PS version of the game in terms of results. For PC, we do not know sadly. But considering the history of the 2D HD games on the Switch, I'd be moreso tempted to say the split between the platforms would be more than half coming from the Switch, less than a third from PC while PS version gets lesser.

However, it's clear the so-called early HD-2D hype was gonna wane with each subsequent use of the artstyle in certain games. 

And like a previous comment said, the first game was released in an earlier time where prolific Switch games weren't there competition with much for attention. Octopath 1 was slated during a mostly empty summer when it came to the big releases, so of course, it gained from being at the right place at the right time.

Anywoo, for now I'm just glad the game got at least what I consider moderate success whislt also being a really good game on it's own. Team Asano has really came into their own during the Switch generation overall so I hope their next projects can maybe rekindle a similar success while also being great on their own 

You do not know that. You shouldn't make up stuff.

I just want Square to re-reveal Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake