The gap between Colour Splash and Origami King is actually closer to 4 years than 3.5; 7th October 2016 to 17th July 2020.
That's a long time for a game that doesn't require AAA production values or adapting to a generational leap in graphics.

On the subject of Mario RPGs, I've been thinking that since Alpha Dream went bust, maybe Nintendo should make a sequel to the original Super Mario RPG? (i.e. without the Paper/Bros gimmick). I would've loved to see what Alpha Dream could've done with a concept like that, but .-.

I am aware. :P

Build hype.
Advertising that targets more people to drive sales.

At the same time, it doesn’t take much more time to hype something today. The way communication and social media works, something well marketed can generate more interest in a short period.

The time were we depended on monthly magazine to inform people is over 😂

Neh, disagree.

I like to know my games in advance so I can pre-order, mark on the calendar and so forth.

Different courses for horses.

Unless you buy them second-hand. 

OK fair, I don’t share that sentiment probably because I’m still scarred by Duke Nuk’em.

Might be cool. I'd like to see some more gameplay before I decide whether I'll get it or not.

Also, I get that a lot of people want Paper Mario to go back to its RPG roots, but the people in this thread talking about the departure from most RPG elements being "failures", everyone hating them and that they don't understand why Nintendo would keep doing this... You know you're on a video game sales site, right? The answer is extremely easy to find. But here, let me show you.

I'd say we can allow some leeway for Color Splash here since it released on the fairly low install base of the Wii U and was also very close to thd Switch's launch, which is probably no small factor in it having the lowest sales.

The other two games that shifted away from the RPG formula (to some degree with Super, to full degree with Sticker Star) remain the top two selling games in the series.

I get that you prefer the two games, and I know a lot of people do. But preferring it and claiming that the games selling better are failures or that Nintendo are blind is just nonsense.

I personally agree that Sticker Star is by far the worst one (I can't speak for Colour Splash since I never played it), but Nintendo are going to go by what people tell them with their wallets.

For those curious, here's attach rate as well (using the above figures), as I get the feeling this might come up in a discussion about sales:

The Thousand Year Door - 8.79
Colour Splash - 6.23
64 / Super - 4.16
Sticker Star - 2.46
Paper Jam - 1.40 (never considered this a Paper Mario game, but included it as the above post did)

It looks interesting, but I'll most likely only buy without second thought if the gameplay is like Super Paper Mario on Wii. I haven't been able to get into the other Paper Mario games - not that they aren't good, but they failed to pull me in.