I already wrote about this, but now Kotaku has an interview with Reggie Fils-Aime where he says that Nintendo is trying to figure out why Metroid: Other M hasn't met sales expectations. He was reluctant to admit that the criticism of Samus's character, which is mentioned in almost every single article on and review of the game, is the reason—probably to avoid hurting Yoshio Sakamoto's feelings, since he's admitted to being a big cry baby.
It couldn't have helped that the Wii is Nintendo's least popular console ever among traditional players. But even Metroid Prime 3 has sold within 700,000 copies of the original Prime game (2 million and 1.3 million, respectively)1 and almost doubled sales of Metroid Prime 2 (800,000); whereas Other M has sold only 560,000 copies so far2. Sure, the three Prime games have had years to accrue sales while Other M has only been available for a few of months, but Metroid Prime reached half of Other M's total sales in just one week.
I was getting sick of the Metroid Prime series after four games and a pinball spinoff, and can easily say that Other M is a much better game than Corruption; but what I think doesn't make back the millions that Nintendo spent on development and marketing. Reggie may not acknowledge the vadility of fan complaints in public, but I can guarantee that Nintendo is taking a serious look at Sakamoto and Team Ninja's development process right now.
1. Wikipedia - Metroid Prime: Trilogy (Overview)
2. VGChartz - Metroid: Other M (Sales)
Post a Comment