Too bad you guys'll have to get used to it being in NPD top 10 for months to come...  *tear*

It isn't just 3D Mario that's doomed, Nintendo as a whole is.

trufax

Well although I'm not sure about New Super Mario Bros Wii selling 20 million copies but we all agree it'll be quite successful.

I think people are taking the 2d and 3d thing just a little too much over the top. I really think the only place it might matter is maybe Japan and I doubt it's such a huge problem that the regular Mario fans wouldn't buy it.

I mean we have seen that the 2d mario games have sold better but maybe we have yet to think of the circumstances. What in any context on any platform could compete with Mario back in the 80s and early 90s... nothing really. Thus why even the non bundled Mario games sold incredible. We move up to the more recent ones of N64, GC, and Wii and we see that they've had a lot more to compete with on an industry standard and of course a Nintendo standard as well with the rise of things like Mario Kart, Zelda, Pokemon, etc.

Another factor for the success of the most recent 2d styled Mario game on the DS, is that it was essentially the big DS game for a long time. Still is the essential DS game. Actually there is a really good comparison for it... Super Mario 64 on the N64. Sold to a 3rd of the userbase.

So really I'm not sure it is so much to do with the dimension the game is presented in because that would very much so be logically proved wrong by the case of Super Mario 64. Now Super Mario Galaxy sold a solid 8 million and New Super Mario Bros Wii will probably sell a decent amount over it. But that in no way implies the death. Hell you could even argue that with a franchise like Mario that due to the expansion of the userbase so greatly since 2007 that Galaxy 2 and NSMB Wii will actually be benefited by that to help increase sales.

So as I said the 2d/3d thing may have something to do with (moreso in Japan) but not as large as we are making it out to be. Even more so the reasons I stated, that it's a remake of the first Super Mario game which is still seen as the biggest game in video game history, and that even difference in sales 8 million is quite a bit.

I'm not sure the battle is between 2D and 3D Mario anymore. DS has shown the demand for 2D is a lot more than 3D and Wii will show the same. The Nintendo flagship (excl. 'Wii...') is between 2D Mario and Mario Kart now. It makes sense, MK and 2d are the easier game to play for noobs.

I can't make my mind up on launch title. Difficult to do without taking the new DS into account. If you're asking which one would Nintendo use as the bigger hitter I'd say 2d over 3d. I think Nintendo might just do 1 each of Kart, 2d, 3d per generation.

I don't think it would be 2D, they will probably do a new unique 3D game.

This would be an issue -- except the numbers that are being discussed are so large that they cannot be ignored.

SMG ranks 43rd out of the 29,656 games for which VG Chartz lists sales data at 8.14M.

The only competitors' console games (games not for Nintendo consoles -- excluding handhelds and PCs) that have outsold if in the last two generations are from one of three families: Grand Turismo, Grand Theft Auto, and Halo. And from this generation, the list so far is Halo 3.

Mike from Morgantown

The thread title is way too sensationalistic and is why everyone is so flabbergasted at the notion of only 8 million sales as being equivalent to doomed. 3D Mario will continue to be made on and 1 to 2 title per generation basis, the same way as it's always been. 2D Marios will probably be a complementary offering every gen and will also be made only once or twice. Neither will be the flagship because they will come out in different seasons and not interfere with eachother.

How do we already know that NSMB Wii won't outsell the DS version?  I don't recall anyone thinking that Mario Kart Wii would outsell the DS version, but it did.

The 2D games are just funner.

Silly thread.

Super Mario Galaxy is going to end up selling more than any Zelda game ever made.

Are they going to stop making Zelda games too?

SMG has equalled sales of Zelda: OoT, surpassed GoldenEye, and surpassed any game on the GameCube in sales (Smash Bros. Melee included).

Of course there will be more 3D Marios. They'll just make 2D Marios as well. As long as people keep buying I don't see the problem at all.