That is also a good point.

Maybe all of our expectations are just unrealistic for the market? I remember someone quoting Sunshine sales as "the most disappointing thing of the year" (years back now).

Mario 64 was a little different though - it was a launch title, so there wasn't a huge install base to cater to.

...

In my opinion, if Galaxy on the Wii doesn't sell well in Japan - Japan has well and truly gone off consoles. It doesn't bode well for the sales of any other console titles (for any platform). Time to port MGS4 to the DS & PSP :P

(it might also be a pricing thing - maybe Ninty needs to bundle Galaxy with a cheaper Wii? The Wii is still "relatively" pricey there?). 

 Yeah, I noticed that treand too. Seems to be the case as DS is the next big thing in Japan. But, sometimes, I question their way of life.

This is what I said three weeks ago:

"The new fan base Nintendo has picked up with the DS and Wii don't all rush out to buy a game on day one. Heck, first day sales for many Nintendo titles are low and then are huge by the end of the weekend.

I'm going to guess about 400k current Wii owners plus another 100K new Wii owners will help Galaxy debut at around 500K. But the game will sell well over the holiday period and total well over 1M by the end of November and will be between 1.5-2M by the end of the year. (A lot will depend on system supplies.)"

I'm going to hold fast with my prediction for the moment, though Galaxy does appear to be tracking a little more like Mario Party 8.  (It too had first day sales around 100k+ and total first week sales of ~282K.)

 Bingo *

I just posted the same idealogy (without checking the figures) in the other thread.

Nintendo Wii fans and owners don't seem to follow typical buying patterns any more... so a game doing this number on first day is probably going to not post a great number, but Wii is different... it's strange.

That said, i think WiiFit will sell like fuckin crazy on the first day... WiiFit is more important to Japan than Galaxy.

Galaxy will without a doubt hands down sell better in the USA than any other area. 

Are sales bad or did people just have unrealistic expectations?

Super Mario Sunshine sold 890,000 units in Japan on the Gamecube which would indicate to me that expectations of sales above 450,000 for the first week were very unrealistic...

MY OFFICIAL GAMESPOT 1-HOUR REVIEW

^{by Frank Kusumoto}

God, I hate trying to read a thread and half of it is Sigs. For christsakes, DTEWI, NEOS, SORIKU and ISHY. If you need an idea of what an acceptable length is, look at sQRL's. Graphic oriented, stylish, always on message. And if it were any bigger it would be too big but as it is it's just fine. Jesus, Mary and Joseph you four, get shorter sigs!

Now, with that out of the way. I got to play SMG today at the Gamestop for an hour. Started from the beginning with a new save file. I noticed another save file that had 35 stars and 8 hours playtime. Somebody was hitting it hard.

The cutscene opened, the music welled up, I smiled. Bombs are dropping everywhere and I'm trying to do side jumps, triple jumps, wall drumps, butt stomps, you know, all the good stuff. I'm trying to do the waggle attack but it's not working. Maybe the controller is broken. After I've made the re acquaintance of my old moveset (and it fits like a perfectly tailored sheep-skin condom). I'm off to see what's up with the princess.

Well, hopefully you've seen the movie. Mario gets blasted by a Lakitu and thrown back to the world. Mario make friends with some star children who take him to their Queen... Rosalina! Now Peach has some competition in the "Would you do her" contest. Rosalina tells you to go fetch stars so she can power up her ride and get up off this place. This also takes from Bowser the power that is keeping him and his fleet in the catbird seat.

So I ran around. Flipped and smacked koopa's. Gathered stars. Pushed some buttons in a puzzle. Smacked a boss silly. But mostly just running around like a five year old kid in Willy Wonka's field of dreams going "yahooo, yahooo, yahhooooo!" I kept getting interrupted by a little star who wanted me to do something, head on over somewhere.

Turns out there were lots of his little buddies trapped on little asteroids barely a kilometre away and could I be so kind as to help free them. So off I go and in traditional heroic fashion I free the little star being and I get a STAR! And there's 120 more where that came from.

Controls are flawless, design is genius. The pacing is boom, boom. boom. Right on track. It's like playing a 2d platformer in 3d. I've read that you can go back and explore but if you're just trying to get to the princess before Bowser does dainty and dastardy things with a pudenda... leading to the ultimate dirty deed. You just feel obligated to push and pull and fling headlong into each new challenge.

That was my one hour and it was brilliant. I spent time looking at the screens and taking in the ambiance, the colors, the lighting, looking at all the choices and seeing how they came together. Just as important is the music and it makes claim to the mood and the space and covers it in tones that enhance the beautiful polished feeling that everything in the game has. Bravo Art Department!

Miyamoto says he wants to constantly surprise the gamer and this is the truest expression in a game that has been realized. Unfortunately there are men, between the age of 15 - 37, who have no wonder. These people will not find this game amusing. The only hope for them is that someday they learn to smile and enjoy something for what it is and appreciate something that is giving to the world instead of attempting to take it.

I've got SMG on pre-order and now I can rest easier with that little fix. And... when I was down at the Gamespot I bought GH3 and ZACK AND W!K!, so I have a couple other things to keep me busy.

The End. Oh yeah, 10/10.

 Nope. But First Week was 135k. Hope that helps.

I also think that it will do better then Sunshine but since Mario when 3D it has never reach as much people as when it was 2D the one on DS was also kind of 2D. I don't think that Sunshine had a disappointing start it's just that it didn't have the legs. A lot of problem with Mario in 3D is the motion sickness and with Galaxy some of those issues have been corrected so I guess that when more peoples will have the chance to try it out they'll buy it.

GameSTOP you mean.

Not trying to be an ass, but so many people get that wrong.