The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

[Hero_of_Darkness]

>anticipation

But it sold poorly in Japan and the UK.

[The Riddler]

But it sold poorly in Japan and the UK.

How was the anticipation there? I don't remember hearing anything about people really wanting it there.

[zephilicious]

considering the last zelda required a console purchase to buy it on lauch day, and the one before that was on the gamecube of all consoles this is not surprising. ocarina was probably the only real competition and the game industry has grown substantially since then.

the surprise is not the good sales here but the low sales elsewhere. but zelda is primarily a western franchise so not really. i also feel like this was the least hyped console zelda since alltp at the very least.

[Hero_of_Darkness]

It likely got crushed under all of the HD games in the west, and crushed under the 3DS and Vita monsters in Japan.

Meh. Still can't wait for Wii U Zelda. They better keep their promise of releasing it within 3 years.

[Flying Chickens]

If I had to guess, I'd say the low sales are only partially due to the game not being quite up to Zelda-standard, and mostly because the Wii sold poorly. The opening day sales are because people who really wanted it and had a Wii, bought it. Aside from that it's because not many people actually have a Wii and also want to play Zelda. I'm talking the "Wii-Fit" crowd who bought a Wii so they could stand on a balance board. The sales start off high because the target audience bought it at the beginning, and then from there the number of people within that audience dwindled significantly because they're either waiting for some reason or another, or like many of my friends, they just don't want to haul out the money required to buy a system that was a failure on it's best days.

[zephilicious]

the wii sold poorly? thats seriously your argument?

[Flying Chickens]

the wii sold poorly? thats seriously your argument?

Yes, that's absolutely my argument. I'm not saying that Skyward Sword did as well as every other Zelda, I'm just saying that a large fraction of it is due to the Wii being a flop. It's difficult to sell large units on a sub-par system in it's dying days.

Are you implying the Wii didn't sell poorly?

[zephilicious]

yes im implying that the 2nd best selling console of all time did not sell poorly.

[The Riddler]

yes im implying that the 2nd best selling console of all time did not sell poorly.

[Flying Chickens]

yes im implying that the 2nd best selling console of all time did not sell poorly.

I'll rephrase that sentence; sold poorly to gamers. The Wii was all about being the "casual player" console, as such a large portion of the consoles were bought by arthritic grandparents, bored housewives, and spoiled six year olds. The amount of people with a genuine interest in many of the first-party games was exceedingly low - hence the overbearing amount of movie based games and child-party-minigame-funpack-jamborees.

[Zero]

Didn't Mario Galaxy sell pretty well?

[Doodle]

SMG and SMG2 together sold like 15 million.
NSMBWii has like over 20 million, though.

[Flying Chickens]

NSMB Wii sold to the overarching non-gamer more so than the gamer market. Due to the "casual pick up and play" gameplay and the recognizability of the Mario franchise to the general public, the appeal was grossly in favour of those who simply like Mario. While Legend of Zelda is a well selling franchise, it doesn't have the same casual appeal as Mario does.

[The Riddler]

how the intercourse  can you say the sales are mostly non-gamers? where the intercourse  is there a stat like that?

Mario fans bought Mario.
Zelda fans bought Zelda.

That's literally all there is to it.

[zephilicious]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_Nintendo_GameCube_video_games

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_Wii_video_games

nearly every single wii game has outsold its gamecube couterpart. even if you are to argue that that is only the result of new casual players (its not), there is no reason it wouldnt apply to zelda as well when it applies to galaxy, brawl, and even twilight princess.