hashkey

Thankfully, this is all pretty much BS. Japanese business culture is very different from US/UK culture, and outright hostile acquisitions, especially from foreign companies, are very difficult.

@Axecon I don't think they did.

3DS sold ten million after Switch launched. Between potential price cuts and the fact that the Switch Lite occupies a very specific niche, I can't see Switch failing to pass 160m.

It doesn't bug me that Nintendo doesn't mark the anniversary of the company, but I wish they'd mark the anniversary of Donkey Kong - it is to Nintendo what Steamboat Willie is to Disney.

Why, when I see an article about a potentially toxic kitchen item, is my first reaction I WANT THAT?

Just to be contrary, there are rumours and there are rumours. There are sketchy unfounded rumours and there are well sourced rumours in respectable publications. Nikkei is not the same as BingoBongo786587 on twitter (not to say that there aren't good sources on twitter). It seems highly credible to me that Nintendo's plans have been delayed, regardless of announcements.
But when Nintendo gives us excruciating delays like this, in the end we get things like OoT. And BotW. And TotK.
It'll be worth waiting for.

Yeah that'll be my fault. Sorry other Japanese companies. I'm not even gonna try add up the money I've paid Nintendo the last few years.

Looking at sales by calendar year, and a peak of 10.45m in 2020, 8.58m isn't even two million short of that, and only 70,000 shy of 2022's figure.

And the third best selling Switch game of the year (I think).

Absurd.

@OldGamer999 Nintendo won't care about records, they care about financial metrics. That said, the 3DS managed to sell over 10m after the release of the Switch so I'd be reasonably optimistic that it will pass the PS2.

Switch Ultra.

I can see the switch crossing 150m pretty comfortably- even accounting for a holiday season that's likely to be a fair bit down on last year, sales after the launch of the next console could easily be in the region of 10m. I think the question is whether or not it can cross 160..

While it sounds great, I'd bloody hope it's the fastest selling Super Mario game- it's launching into a huge install base, and the franchise has one of the biggest movies of the year behind it. Very few titles launch with that kind of tailwind.
I'm wondering if the fact that they haven't been shouting about sales figures means they've come in under projections. I hope not (last 2D platformer to have me so engrossed was Yoshi's Island), but I'm sure they'll say something by November 7.

The Lost Levels should nearly be disqualified as being tricky as hell is its whole raison d'être.

@Ignatius_Cheese Is that true? Renders the charts fairly meaningless if they're not apples-to-apples. In any case, as others have said, SMBW hasn't had the build-up, and is likely to have serious legs.

@Anti-Matter Thanks for your insight.

This looks to me like it's going to do Pokémon or Animal Crossing numbers.

What third party publishers think of BC won't influence Nintendo much- the Switch has a library full of first party games that just keep on selling.. not just Mario kart but also Odyssey and NSMBU, AC, Smash, and BotW. Each one still shifting millions every year. TotK and SMB Wonder aren't likely to be any different. It wouldn't make any sense to turn off that particular money tap any time soon.

@YoshiF2 Yeah not so sure about 2025. The fact that the Switch is still selling shouldn't preclude launching a successor- I'd argue the opposite- better to launch from a position of strength.

The idea that a strong Switch means Nintendo should hold off on its successor isn't necessarily right - it would be interesting to see Nintendo launch from a position of strength unlike pretty much every home console launch since the N64.

@theModestMouse Probably not the biggest thing we have to worry about if China takes Taiwan tbh..

It's amazing that people even consider that Nintendo at this point could make a Switch successor that isn't backwards compatible. It would be a near-suicidal move - you'd even see it covered outside the gaming press.

I'm not saying Nintendo isn't capable of it though.

TotK DLC? I mean, I still have months of play to go but..

Nintendo seem to have done a good job lately of keeping its secrets secret. Fair play.

I really wouldn't bet on it doing too well but - in my house at least - the gamepad was unusable anywhere outside the same room as the Wii U. If this works - and, for example, my kid can use it in his bedroom instead of taking over the TV - it could be different enough to be worth a shot.
For a failure, the Wii U's had quite a legacy (not just this, but the Switch itself, the Steam Deck and all the Steam Deck imitators..)

I'd be curious to hear what TotK players who haven't played BotW think.
Right now I'm in a place where I can't believe how good this game is but I did hit the ground running and I really don't know how I'd feel about it if I hadn't.

What's fascinating about TotK's numbers is that unlike, say, Pokémon, Zelda games tend to keep selling as time goes on. When you look at the last six years, you see some titles - including every major Pokémon release - are really front loaded while BotW and especially MK8 Deluxe, have really long legs. The only problem is how they're going to keep shifting these evergreen titles while moving on to a next gen platform…

@MalonsTalon Two things: First, the reviews were far from universally negative, they ranged between totally not getting it to being totally into it. And secondly, the movie didn't have a strong story. For tens of millions of people (myself included), it just didn't need to. It was a big sugary fun blast of a movie which worked because it did Mario and his world so well. No conspiracy there, it just wasn't a movie for critics.

@roboshort I wouldn't really classify it as half-Japanese- Nintendo were obviously hands-on (and thank God they were) but it's a Hollywood movie through and through and I'm pretty sure it'll be seen as such in Japan.

@LeonSKennedy It's really a decent performance- it's not a Japanese movie, and while US movies can do well in Japan, they're notoriously unpredictable - the first Avatar was huge, the second grossed less than a fifth of the first. Also, I wouldn't be surprised to see lower weekend on weekend drops in Japan. It's a solid start.

Is the whole Brooklyn plumbers thing going to be in the actual movie? I can't really tell (but Mario definitely seems to be arriving from outside the Mushroom Kingdom, so.. maybe?). That whole thing was never really relevant to many Mario fans from outside the US (and perhaps both people who saw the live action movie) but as long as the film works, I'm happy.

@NightBeast Yeah, except if you dig into those figures, you'll see it consists of 3m sold in Japan (as of 2023) and half a million in Europe as of 2019. So taking that figure as reasonably reliable means accepting that it stopped selling in Europe in 2019, and that it hasn't sold any in North America, or in any other region.

Bears mentioning that these are just the top selling Nintendo games- There may be little difference if third party was included but I'd be very curious to know how many copies Minecraft has shifted.

I seriously hope that this is compatible with the NSO Mega Drive controller...

And they managed to sell another 10 million (give or take) Mario Kart 8 in 2021..

Switch seems to have momentum still- unit sales well up on the same quarter last year. It would be surprising if it doesn't pass Game Boy lifetime sales, and with this momentum, DS is in sight.

Yoshi's Island. Miyamoto himself has said it's a Mario game https://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2015/10/04/is-yoshi-39-s-island-a-super-mario-world-game.aspx

@Clyde_Radcliffe https://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2015/10/04/is-yoshi-39-s-island-a-super-mario-world-game.aspx

At this point in its history, the Wii was starting to run out of steam IIRC (and it still got into 9 figures). It'll be very interesting to see what figures they post in three months' time, especially given that two next gen boxes launch, but right now the Switch looks like it has very strong momentum going into the holiday season.

Nintendo have always made a thing of SMB's anniversary, but if things slip into 2021, that'll be 40 years since Mario's actual first appearance.. It'd be cool if they could commemorate that, IMO.

@TheFullAndy https://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/pdf/2020/200507_3e.pdf Go to page 19..

They could quite easily bulk up what there is at the minute on NSO- I kind of wondered if the rumoured Mario remakes/remasters mightn't be part of something like that. If there was a way to add subscription revenue to what they already make on hardware and software sales, it would make perfect sense.

@VoodooTrumpet Disney's still not an example you'd want to follow as they went into a serious slump - especially creatively- after Walt died and didn't come out of it until the '80s.

I'm pretty optimistic that, while no praise is too great for Miyamoto, Nintendo has successfully "absorbed" what he had brought to the company and built on it. After all, the late Gunpei Yokoi left the company years ago, but his influence is still apparent to this day in their products.

@Samwise7 yep. Not doing sequels for sequels' sake is one of the things that makes Nintendo Nintendo.

Everybody waiting for MK9 is likely to be disappointed- when 8 Deluxe is selling better than ever (Oct-Dec '19 it sold more copies than any previous quarter), why do they even need to?

Two things to consider- it's sold into a huge proportion of (a still rapidly growing) install base, and it's done so at full price. I think outselling the rest is, in time, a given. And deservedly so.

The most notable absence from the VC has been the original Yoshi's Island. A SNES with that, please. Please please please.