GoNintendo "End of day" thoughts - Do we need a Metroid Prime 3: Corruption purchase campaign?

No power for most of the night meant a long morning for me. I’m just heading to bed now, but I’ll catch you guys at the regular time to start the day’s work. Hope you all are having a great morning!

Not too long ago the Nintendo higher-ups decided to fill us in on a long kept secret. They outlined their third quarter software releases for the Wii and DS. One of the biggest surprises on the list was the inclusion of Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. Many of us were happy to see that the game was still out there. It had been quite a long time since we heard anything new on the title. Metroid Prime 3: Corruption was originally slated to be a launch title for the Wii, but all hope slipped away as we grew closer to that launch date. Most of us expected the title to ship soon thereafter, but we were wrong. It would take all the way until May for us to catch word of the game. Finally we were given a firm release date for Metroid Prime 3: Corruption…August 20th. To this day I am having trouble waiting for the game to come out. Just this morning I was thinking about the game and the details we recently reported. As I was lost in a giddy thought, suddenly I became a bit nervous. I thought back to Metroid Prime 1 and 2. Both are absolutely outstanding games no doubt, but there’s a key difference between the two. Metroid Prime 1 sold a lot better than Prime 2. I set out to see just how much better it did.

While I don’t post current VGChartz numbers, I figure that their data on older games should be pretty much dead on. I hopped over to the site to check things out. While I knew that Prime’s sequel didn’t do as well as the original, I was quite surprised at how much worse it did. The original Metroid Prime managed to sell through 2.77 million units worldwide, while the sequel squeezed out 1.24 million. The breakdown in figures showed that the biggest dip in sales is due to North America. Metroid Prime sold 1.92 million units, but the sequel only sold 800,000. That is an absolutely astonishing drop. While the other territories saw a downward slope with sales, North America made the biggest impact without a doubt. With the sequel gaining great reviews just as the first did, why did the entire world decide to shun the game?

Perhaps the world didn’t shun the game specifically, just the platform it was on. Metroid Prime came out late 2002 in the US, early 2003 in the rest of the world. While the Cube was already losing steam in terms of popularity, it wasn’t anywhere near as bad as the later years. Back in that time we were only starting to realize that both consumers and developers were leaving the Cube behind, and doing so quickly. Fast forward to Prime 2, which shipped worldwide in Nov-Dec 2004. By that time the Cube was already on life support. There really wasn’t much in the way of third party releases. The sad fact is that many Cube owners simply forgot that they even had the platform. Month after month of hardly any releases moved the Cube from the entertainment center to the closet. Fans that were once following the release lists of upcoming titles had moved onto other platforms. When a console isn’t getting hardly any support, it’s hard to justify future purchases towards it. Gamers that owned Cubes simply didn’t care about the platform anymore. It wasn’t providing them with any fun, they weren’t keeping up on what little news there was, and any upcoming games were either ignored, or went unnoticed by consumers.

Nintendo has openly stated that they were very disappointed with Prime 2 sales. I think they know that it had nothing to do with the quality of the game, but the dying Cube. Now we have Prime 3 finally heading to the Wii. With many gamers skipping out on the second installment, I worry about what will happen with Corruption. There are a number of things that calm me though. First off, the Wii is without a doubt the hottest console right now. I haven’t heard kids or adults talking about the PS3 or 360, everywhere I go its Wii talk. With an installed base quickly approaching Microsoft’s lead, there are a ton of eager Wii owners out there waiting for the next big game. The other good news is that there are titles coming out nearly every week to keep a variety of gamers happy. Movie titles, ports, original games and even first party work will be hitting the Wii from here until August. Chances are most Wii owners will at least pick up one or two titles in-between now and then. Last, this will be the first true Metroid installment on the Wii. When a key franchise from Nintendo hits a new platform, it is usually guaranteed to do big business. The buzz for Metroid has been building for a long time now, and it will only get better once E3 hits. We will finally have some new footage of the game, and find out more details of the story and gameplay. I expect a GameStop/EB Games reservation rush once E3 is over.

Do we need to start a purchase campaign like we are doing with Zack and Wiki? I really don’t think so, but that doesn’t mean it’s a bad idea. Spread the word about Metroid to all your friends. Get them interested in Samus and her world. Put that Cube backwards compatibility to good use and let your friends borrow Prime 1 and 2 to play on their Wii. Word of mouth is always a good way to get things going. Let’s make sure that Corruption gets the attention it deserves. This title is expected to be the last in the Prime series. Let’s send it out with a bang and beat out those Prime 1 sales.