So has Metroid Prime 2:E bombed in the states or not?

There are around 5 million more Gamecubes in the US than there were back in November 2002. If Metroid Prime 2 does worse numbers than Metroid Prime did, I think people will say it's a bomb.
 
I expected it, GameCube software sales aren't exactly robust to begin with right now.

Really though Metroid has never been a "blockbuster" franchise. It was always the "fringe" title on the NES compared to the Mario and Zelda series. Super Metroid didn't sell that well on the SNES.

Metroid Prime had decent sales, but had a ton of hype too, there seems be less of that this time around.

Honestly, I think Metroid is a lot like the movie series its inspired by -- the Alien franchise. The Alien franchise has never been quite as popular as say the Terminator or Star Wars movies; the Alien movies tend to be slower paced a bit more "moody". Likewise Metroid is a slower paced/more atmospheric style of game that's never really been quite as mainstream.

Right now, Nintendo is just trying to hang their hat on some kind of franchise which isn't a cartoony character and Metroid is about the only thing they have left (during the N64 era, James Bond filled this void perfectly).

I do hope though that if MP2: Echoes fizzles some what in terms of sales, that NCL will let Retro make their own franchise. I'd really like to see what they can do without the confines of a pre-existing franchise.
 
if you are a nintendo fan, you had to buy donkey konga, pikmin 2, pm2, mp2 in 3 months.

that is insane considering the userbase.
 
I think we have to ask ourselves if we really needed a metroid prime sequel so quickly. A nextgen launch title would have been a better choice.
 
MP2 will probably be the worst selling original entry in the series (the current one with that title is Super Metroid, actually- selling only 1.39 million copies worldwide).

Metroid Prime sold about 100,000 in Japan. 500,000 in Europe, and 1.2 million in NA (off the top of my head- and yes, these are shipment estimates).

I think Echoes will do 100,000 in Japan (despite the sell-through being much less), 250,000 in Europe, and maybe around 750,000 in the US. About 200k for the November NPD and December NPD each. Since Nintendo counts bundles (not that I do), there will probably be about 600,000 MPEs sold (shipped) to the US by the end of the year.
 
Tritroid said:
Wario's right. It was a really bad time for MP2 to launch because November had so many heavy hitters on the market.

But again this all stems back to Nintendo's idiotic stance that games will sell without hype/marketing. If MP2 had actually gotten the type of advertising that it deserved, I have no doubt that the game would have done much better than it did. Which, judging by the way Halo 2 and HL2 overshadowed it, can't be very good.

I'd like to reiterate that I have seen at least twice as many commercials on TV for Metroid Prime 2 than I have for Halo 2. Plus, every Halo 2 commercial I saw was after the commercial release, whereas I have seen MP 2 commercials before and after. Now, admittedly, I don't watch G4techtv or MTV or any of those other channels that get heavy rotation, but I think it's a somewhat stupid point to make. The heaviest hype for Halo 2 came from the fanbase and the treatment the games got from magazines, which Nintendo has very little control over.


And by the way, the commercials for both the games sucked, although the one for Metroid Prime 2 sucked MUCH more (are you afraid of the dark? WTF is wrong with these people?)
 
Naked Shuriken said:
I think we have to ask ourselves if we really needed a metroid prime sequel so quickly. A nextgen launch title would have been a better choice.

I hope this just quiets people clamoring for a MP sequel right away. I'd like to see Retro do an original project.
 
I hate to say it, but I think GameCube is really marginalized as a platform.

Honestly, Nintendo hasn't really been a mass-market player in terms of consoles since Zelda: Ocarina of Time.

That said, they've probably shipped a good load of MP2 copies, which they make a profit off regardless.

I've never really thought of Metroid as a very mainstream series though. It's always been more of a fringe thing.

Retro should have an original FPS for the Revolution launch.
 
Nerevar said:
I'd like to reiterate that I have seen at least twice as many commercials on TV for Metroid Prime 2 than I have for Halo 2. Plus, every Halo 2 commercial I saw was after the commercial release, whereas I have seen MP 2 commercials before and after. Now, admittedly, I don't watch G4techtv or MTV or any of those other channels that get heavy rotation, but I think it's a somewhat stupid point to make. The heaviest hype for Halo 2 came from the fanbase and the treatment the games got from magazines, which Nintendo has very little control over.


And by the way, the commercials for both the games sucked, although the one for Metroid Prime 2 sucked MUCH more (are you afraid of the dark? WTF is wrong with these people?)
How are you justifying that it's a stupid point when you're backing it up by what you have witnessed personally? It varies you know. Just because you've seen more MP2 commercials doesn't mean that it had more air time than Halo 2, because if you'll notice there are other people in this thread who rarely saw one MP2 commercial (Myself included). It's like the people who say that DS/GC/PS2/Xbox or any portable/console bombed simply because in their area they saw over 50 on the shelves, it's moot.

Also, it isn't just about the tv ads.
 
In November, we expect sales to be dominated by Microsoft’s Halo 2 (Xbox), which we believe may set an all time record for most units sold in a single month (we estimate 3.6 million), as well as other top releases during the month including THQ’s WWE Smackdown vs Raw (PS2) and The Incredibles (PS2, Xbox, GC, GBA, PC), Nintendo’s Metroid Prime 2: Echoes (GC), Electronic Arts’ NFS Underground 2 (PS2, Xbox, GC, GBA, DS), and Atari’s Dragon Ball Z Budokai 3 (PS2).

It might have sold less than the original in its first month (or first week and a half, I suppose), but the fact that it's listed there suggests it didn't totally bomb, doesn't it?
 
Tritroid said:
How are you justifying that it's a stupid point when you're backing it up by what you have witnessed personally? It varies you know. Just because you've seen more MP2 commercials doesn't mean that it had more air time than Halo 2, because if you'll notice there are other people in this thread who rarely saw one MP2 commercial. (Myself included)

Also, it isn't just about the tv ads.

My point is that the one area that Nintendo had direct control over, they didn't drop the ball. How would you suggest Nintendo "hype" their games more? I'm just curious, because the majority of "hype" surrounding the other big November releases (Halo 2, Half-Life 2) were primarily driven by the gaming community, not by Valve or Bungie (or MS).
 
Ulairi said:
Didn't PRime doo like 800,000 copies its first month and then drop? It did over a million.

No. As pointed out earlier in this thread, it did 750,000 in its first two months out (currently at 1.2 million).

The Wind Waker sold over 800,000 copies its first month of release.
 
Nerevar said:
How would you suggest Nintendo "hype" their games more?

they should've given the MP2 demo disc away for free instead of trying to cash in on it by bundling it or making people buy a bunch of GC & GBA games to get it
 
Link316 said:
hype/word of mouth is what I believe sold the original MP, and that there is less of it for MP2 cause people who bought MP on hype/word of mouth ended up not liking it, once bitten, twice shy

You can add me to that growing list, and if there's already several of us just in this little thread who bought Prime and have passed on Prime 2, well then you do the math. Also, I would like to add, I did enjoy Prime, however the controls are a big reason why I am passing on Prime 2. Not looking for an argument here, just saying it IS a deciding factor for me (and I'm sure others as well).
 
Chi-Town said:
There are around 5 million more Gamecubes in the US than there were back in November 2002. If Metroid Prime 2 does worse numbers than Metroid Prime did, I think people will say it's a bomb.

That's not an accurate comparison becuase the other consoles had two of their biggest relases this gen come out at roughly the same time as well as more competition over all. Halo 2 and GTA:SA are going to cannabalize A LOT of good titles... MGS3 included I'm afraid.
 
Link316 said:
they should've given the MP2 demo disc away for free instead of trying to cash in on it by bundling it or making people buy a bunch of GC & GBA games to get it

I think that would have turned more people away.
 
what's with the low prediction?
MP 1 did like 700k in its first month.

MP2 doesn't have that much competition on gamecube in november either.
I'd say 600k.
 
Yeah Nintendo suck at hype. They shouldnt have used Leo Burnet for MP2 ads either. Thye really are rubbish at marketing.
 
acklame said:
what's with the low prediction?
MP 1 did like 700k in its first month.

MP2 doesn't have that much competition on gamecube in november either.
I'd say 600k.

MP sold 360k its first month.
 
Nerevar said:
My point is that the one area that Nintendo had direct control over, they didn't drop the ball. How would you suggest Nintendo "hype" their games more? I'm just curious, because the majority of "hype" surrounding the other big November releases (Halo 2, Half-Life 2) were primarily driven by the gaming community, not by Valve or Bungie (or MS).

Some halo 2 fans visiting various forums for updates? The fans set up a hidden Bungie cam? The fans printed and produced the halo 2 merchandise? The fans said :“Halo 2 is a lot like Halo 1, only it's Halo 1 on fire, going 130 miles per hour through a hospital zone, being chased by helicopters and ninjas ... And, the ninjas are all on fire, too.”? The fans arranged tv spots? The fans arranged a celeberity-centric Halo 2 party? The fans arranged it so Linkin Park (or whoever it was) can play Halo 2 before the fans?
In most cases, there would be little hype if it were not driven by the producing company. To say Bungie/MS has no major part in driving the hype is ludicrous.
 
Of course most hype is done by the companies.

Metroid Prime is a failiure. Not on Retro's part. But Nintendo's in every way.
 
Society said:
Some halo 2 fans visiting various forums for updates? The fans set up a hidden Bungie cam? The fans printed and produced the halo 2 merchandise? The fans said :“Halo 2 is a lot like Halo 1, only it's Halo 1 on fire, going 130 miles per hour through a hospital zone, being chased by helicopters and ninjas ... And, the ninjas are all on fire, too.”? The fans arranged tv spots? The fans arranged a celeberity-centric Halo 2 party? The fans arranged it so Linkin Park (or whoever it was) can play Halo 2 before the fans?
In most cases, there would be little hype if it were not driven by the producing company. To say Bungie/MS has no major part in driving the hype is ludicrous.
You pretty much just covered everything I was about to say...kudos.
 
haters vindicated. :)

given the monstrous overrating of the original, i'm sure there was a large contingent of gamers who bought it and disliked it. of course it wasn't going to generate any word of mouth enthusiasm.
 
Naked Shuriken said:
I think we have to ask ourselves if we really needed a metroid prime sequel so quickly. A nextgen launch title would have been a better choice.

Make up your minds people. Last gen it was "Nintendo needs to put out sequels to these games quicker! THEY NEED MORE GAMES! Milk those great franchises! We want more!"

Now it's "I think we have to ask ourselves if we really needed a Metroid Prime sequel so quickly."

Nintendo cannot win in the eyes of this board no matter what they do. The sooner the N fans here realize that and quit feeding the trolling, the better.
 
Dave Long said:
Make up your minds people. Last gen it was "Nintendo needs to put out sequels to these games quicker! THEY NEED MORE GAMES! Milk those great franchises! We want more!"

Now it's "I think we have to ask ourselves if we really needed a Metroid Prime sequel so quickly."

Nintendo cannot win in the eyes of this board no matter what they do. The sooner the N fans here realize that and quit feeding the trolling, the better.

*Psssst!* It's probably different people.
 
Dave Long said:
Now it's "I think we have to ask ourselves if we really needed a Metroid Prime sequel so quickly."

Nintendo cannot win in the eyes of this board no matter what they do. The sooner the N fans here realize that and quit feeding the trolling, the better.

why are you interpreting that statement as a troll?
 
AniHawk said:
I think Echoes will do 100,000 in Japan (despite the sell-through being much less), 250,000 in Europe, and maybe around 750,000 in the US. About 200k for the November NPD and December NPD each. Since Nintendo counts bundles (not that I do), there will probably be about 600,000 MPEs sold (shipped) to the US by the end of the year.

Those numbers are pretty optimistic. I forsee no more than 600,000 all across. I'd happily admit it if you're right tho! :)
 
Dave Long said:
Make up your minds people. Last gen it was "Nintendo needs to put out sequels to these games quicker! THEY NEED MORE GAMES! Milk those great franchises! We want more!"

Now it's "I think we have to ask ourselves if we really needed a Metroid Prime sequel so quickly."

Nintendo cannot win in the eyes of this board no matter what they do. The sooner the N fans here realize that and quit feeding the trolling, the better.
Yeah that's pretty much what it boils down to. A lot of people are fighting the same battles day in and day out because certain people here are only in it for the anti-Nintendoism. (And most of them are bitter Segabots of years gone by now proclaimed Xbots trying to enact revenge.)

[/end rant]

But either way, the truth is if MP hadn't gotten a sequel, people would have complained that there about there not being enough games to play on GC in November (Even though they already do, remarkably.) So you're right, some people are never happy.
 
I'm curious, how come everything dealing with Metroid Prime has to be compared with Halo? I mean, it's like Nintendo fans have this huge inferiority complex that they just can't get over. And now ...

Society said:
Some halo 2 fans visiting various forums for updates?

No, the Halo fans who created the warthog jump video. The fans who created gamespy tunnel and xbconnect (or whatever it was) so that they could try their hardest, even if it was a flawed solution, to play it online. The same fans who made Halo one of the biggest-selling games of this gen, and created numerous fansites (HBO) and explored every nook of Halo to find all the bugs and feed the rest of the fan community.

Society said:
The fans set up a hidden Bungie cam?
Ok, well, I guess Nintendo didn't do that. But then again, I had no idea Bungie did. And I bet the majority of the people who waited in line for it on day 1 didn't know either.

Society said:
The fans printed and produced the halo 2 merchandise?
Gee, I guess Halo was the only game this gen that had merchandise. Oh wait ...
mp2shirt_news.jpg

And that was supposedly free with a pre-order!

Society said:
The fans said :“Halo 2 is a lot like Halo 1, only it's Halo 1 on fire, going 130 miles per hour through a hospital zone, being chased by helicopters and ninjas ... And, the ninjas are all on fire, too.”?

Right, Retro never talked about Metroid Prime 2 in a glowing fashion. Just a few quotes from my first hit on google:

Here's something I will call out: I haven't seen any games that have come out in the last few months, but the weapon effects [in Prime 2]... I can't recall a game that has such spectacular effects. You'll want to sit there and shoot a wall just to see these effects, they are that cool.
Our engineers, our designers, our artists are in no way satisfied with the normal approach.
etc etc. Of COURSE the developer is going to say those things.

Society said:
The fans arranged tv spots?
Didn't we already discuss this? Nintendo did make commercials. And when MTV or whatever runs their "making of .." for Halo 2, it's not doing it because MS asked them to. It's doing it because it knows that there's a market for people to watch it. They know that they're going to get advertisers to pay for commercial spots, and get viewers to watch. So, in a sense, yes, the fans are the driving force behind things like that.

Society said:
The fans arranged a celeberity-centric Halo 2 party?
a) Nintendo had a "celebrity-centric" party.
b) I don't know why on Earth anyone cares about b-list celebrities playing video games.

Society said:
The fans arranged it so Linkin Park (or whoever it was) can play Halo 2 before the fans?
Once again, news to me. And I bet it was news to the majority of people in line.

Society said:
In most cases, there would be little hype if it were not driven by the producing company. To say Bungie/MS has no major part in driving the hype is ludicrous.

I'm not saying the company had no part. I'm saying Nintendo didn't really drop the ball. What more could they have done? Metroid Prime isn't going to get a "making of" or whatever on MTV, because MTV knows that it's not going to get the viewership to break even, because the community buzz just isn't there. Like I said, look at the vast gaming communities spawned by Half-Life 2 (arguable the most popular PC game ever, with more mods than any other game out there and a thriving gaming community) or the active game community devoted to Halo 2. I'm saying they drove hype for Halo 2 and Half Life 2 to unprecedented levels, not the developers or publishers.

And seriously, stop focusing so goddamn much on Halo 2. Half-Life 2 had almost every bit as much hype, with almost no marketing push by Valve or Sierra. Usually, with big-name games, hype just creates itself.
 
SonicMegaDrive said:
What do Sega fans need to get revenge on Nintendo for? Nintendo didn't drive them out of the console market.

:lol That's so true. If anything Nintendo would probably love to go back to a Nintendo-Sega marketplace.
 
drohne said:
haters vindicated. :)

given the monstrous overrating of the original, i'm sure there was a large contingent of gamers who bought it and disliked it. of course it wasn't going to generate any word of mouth enthusiasm.

Hardly, this is the generation that has made superstars out of Britney and her army of clones, who chose their artists by popularity contests and appearance regardless of inherent abilities and talent, has made walmart the most powerful retail conglomerate worldwide. And (in the States at least) don't even care who their president is... These people could care less about games that were not based on instant gratification. They're the ones who would rather buy mostly identical sports games every year religiously for top dollar. Make your own conclusions.
 
I'm curious, how come everything dealing with Metroid Prime has to be compared with Halo? I mean, it's like Nintendo fans have this huge inferiority complex that they just can't get over. And now ...

Actually, it is you who are doing that. I am not everyone else, do not associate my posts with everyone else.

I am not even going to go through the rest of your post, all it does is compare MP to Halo 2 in some irrational fanboy rant. I did not suggest in the slightest that Nintendo did not hype MP, I was just mentioning how absurd it was to say Bungie/MS has not a major part in driving the hype.
 
SonicMegaDrive said:
What do Sega fans need to get revenge on Nintendo for? Nintendo didn't drive them out of the console market.
Were you around during the Nintendo vs. Sega days?
 
Mashing said:
That's not an accurate comparison becuase the other consoles had two of their biggest relases this gen come out at roughly the same time as well as more competition over all. Halo 2 and GTA:SA are going to cannabalize A LOT of good titles... MGS3 included I'm afraid.

MP also released at the same time as GTA and Splinter Cell and still managed to do quite well. Halo2 and GTA:SA are no excuse for poor MP2 performance. It is the biggest game on GC this Holiday Season.

If Echoes performes poorly (which I suspect it will), it has more to do with the current state of the GC. It certainly doesn't have the mindshare that it did in Nov '02.
 
jedimike said:
MP also released at the same time as GTA and Splinter Cell and still managed to do quite well. Halo2 and GTA:SA are no excuse for poor MP2 performance. It is the biggest game on GC this Holiday Season.

If Echoes performes poorly (which I suspect it will), it has more to do with the current state of the GC. It certainly doesn't have the mindshare that it did in Nov '02.

MP wasnt that big in sales. Its not one of Nintendo's biggest sellers. Even Luigi's Mansion is bigger.
 
SonicMegaDrive said:
Yes, I was. I was one the fortunate ones who loved both systems equally.
Ok. Well all I was trying to say is that the same anti-Nintendo attitude from the Sega boys still thrives, just through another console brand.

Either way this is really off topic. :lol
 
Not all former Sega fanboys jumped to the Xbox, as many believe though. I can speak for a lot of people I know who bought Gamecubes and PS2s.
 
you're reverting to the preposterous implication that metroid prime is somehow "highbrow," rather than just boring. videogames are a basically lowbrow, populist medium. it doesn't require erudition or refinement to enjoy them. metroid prime's problem isn't that it delays gratification, it's that it isn't gratifying.
 
I loved the first Metroid Prime. I don't know why, but I just am not as interested in MP2 than I was in MP. Probably because I just don't see too much new there and the multiplayer doesn't look too hot. Although I bet it's an awesome game.
 
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