Glad to see this classic sold so much. I'm confident Dark Souls 3 is going to be released on Switch 2, and hopefully Elden Ring as well

They're niche games, expecting mainstream blockbuster numbers from them isn't realistic.

Clearing the million mark is excellent for what they are. The first Bayonetta barely cleared 2 million on an install base of over 170 million PS3s and Xbox 360s, and much of that was from bargain bins, whereas Astral Chain and Bayo 3 as first party published titles have held a much higher price point.

Nah, there is no reason they can’t do both.

NSMBU-2012

Mario Maker-2015

Mario Maker 2-2019

Mario Wonder-2023

With 3-4 years between games they can go back and forth.

It got it's own standalone physical release and it's standalone physical and digital release is much cheaper than the standalone release for Bayonetta 2. My guess is they also count the bundle as a sale for each game i could be wrong though.

A little correction. There have been three Kirby games, two original and one port and they do sell as well. The port, Return to Dreamland has sold over 1.5 million, but because it was released at the end of fiscal year, we only have a few weeks of sales tracked so far. Star Allies and Tropical Freeze both released about 5 years ago on Switch, and have sold 4.4 and 4.6 million respectively, only about 4-5% difference. But last year’s Kirby and the Forgotten Land has sold about 6.5 million as of last December and will probably exceed 10 million by the end of the year.

I think the only team that could do Donkey Kong Country justice at this point is the Super Mario Odyssey team. The next game should be cutting edge, it should be prettier than Mario Odyssey, faster than Mario Odyssey, and do something groundbreaking in platforming. The series hasn’t had anything resembling cutting edge since Donkey Kong Country 64, and it’s been since the SNES that it was considered a top tier franchise. I think Donkey Kong Country 64 might have a had its shine partially eclipsed by Rare’s own Banjo Kazooie.

I know it’s not a popular thing to say, but I think Retro is a struggling studio, and I think Metroid Prime 4 was sent to their studio to die. Ex-employees over the past few years have not painted a positive picture. Plus fans of the Metroid Prime series have this cult-like devotion to Retro as though it’s not the staff and their experience, but the very label itself that can make Metroid Prime great again—not contemplating that the team that built Metroid Prime 1 and 2 largely disbanded two decades ago, and conveniently forget the third game was mediocre. It’s almost like they sent it to that studio to die, because that’s the one place Metroid Prime could die without sending the (relatively) small but fanatically devoted and loud fanbase into an uproar—but that’s a bit too pessimistic of a thought, I think :D

The developers disagree with you. Astral Chain was considered a big success before it even reached 1mil. It's poor legs are due to it's price never going below 40€/$, and even that only rarely. Bayonetta 3 was never even on sale. You may be looking at similar games on other platforms and seeing higher sales, but you're forgetting that these games get deep price drops regularly or even permanently.

I think a game that bombed like that would be Scarlet Nexus, that took several discounts deeper than Astral Chain ever went to reach 1mil.

Kirby and the Forgotten Land sold 6.12mil as of December 2022 and 6.46mil as March 2023. 340k in that quarter. 850k in the previous holiday quarter and 740k in the quarter before that. There is a 0% chance of it reaching 10mil this year, even lifetime isn't that likely. It isn't selling 1mil+ per quarter just like that. It has already declined in sales.

Donkey Kong 64 outsold Banjo Kazooie on the N64. It sold 5.27mil against Banjo Kazooie's 3.65mil.

lol on the comical MP4 analysis haha

At this point I'm thinking it's likely Nintendo just moved MP4 over to next gen at some point, perhaps a couple years ago, Which would be the reason we haven't heard anything about it, cuz if its next gen of course we wouldn't have heard much about it. And if so it's probably a good decision. Judging from MP1 remake only selling a million in its first quarter (and probably has no legs) I doubt the huge install base of Switch is gonna make a huge difference in MP4 sales. Going with a next gen Metroid works for MP's high fidelity graphical style and it could be one of the first few big first party games on the next system, giving it more of a focus on the new system to make up for any bump it would have gotten due to the size of the Switch's userbase. At this point I'd rather see a next gen Prime for holiday 2024 or in 2025 than a current Prime earlier in 2024.

A new DK is needed. DK is in same situation as 2D Mario (only had a last gen port during these many Switch years), except now we have a 2D Mario on the way and no DK announcement yet for Switch. I'm expecting one next year on Switch, but who knows, maybe not until next gen. I definitely think they need to move on from the 'Country' series, as good as that series is. No idea if the next game will be 2D or 3D. I'm a little bit wary of a 3D game just because DK64 was incredibly mediocre, but I probably shouldn't be biased against 3D DK just because the one 3D game from 25 years ago was a disappointment. Maybe in addition to next gen MP4 in 2025 we'll also get a next gen 3D DK where you explore a lush expansive Jungle.

i agree with you on metroid. it seems apparent to me that nintendo wanted to move that to next-gen as it gives them a game to properly show off the graphical jump of the next switch. i could see them trying to give it the BotW treatment. (not necessarily in terms of making it open-world but, in terms of making it the biggest game in the series to-date.)

same with DK, i think they'll hold that off till next-gen. what you're describing with exploring a lush jungle just even sounds so enticing. 

I think (hope) MP4 development is cruising along and they could have shown it well before now but are waiting to re-reveal it at the Switch 2 announcement as a launch title.

I think an exclusive 3D Mario and cross-gen MP4 will be the big launch titles, perhaps a casual party game that shows off any new system features.