Fire Emblem Echoes sold less on its first week in Japan than either Shadow Dragon or New Mystery did.

[Dandee Leone]

And suddenly we're all reminded that even though it seemed like FE was a solid, top selling, and beloved Nintendo IP along the likes of Mario, Zelda, Pokemon, Kirby, Animal Crossing, etc... we really aren't there, infact, not even close to being there.

Echoes had so much love and polish poured into it...  and yet it sold less that pre-Awakening games in a supposed golden era of FE.

Our beloved series is more fragile that we think. We as a fanbase, and IS as a developer, have to continue to push its success, otherwise, it can be on it's deathbed yet again sooner that any of us could possibly imagine.

[André The kid]

Okay, let's set one thing straight. Fates had 2 versions, Birthright and conquest, divide that number by two, and you get roughly 130k in sales. (not counting special editions anyway), There are many more factors to take in account, such as the fact that the ds is the second best selling console of all time with 150M units sold, and the 3ds sold roughly 55M , the fact that the 3ds is in its end of its lifespan and the fact that there are no waifus. 

Now seriously though, Echoes was the BEST selling game this week in japan. with almost 90k units + Than the second best selling game this week. While the sales in japan tend to be frontloaded, this doesn't mean much, since while the biggest load is on the first week, the following 2/3 weeks, usually keep the game on the top 5. Previous Media Create Archives prove it. I Do believe that the game will be hitting about 250k on the end of its 3rd week. (I hope xD), but let's be honest, the game will still sell for a while. 
Digital sales aren't that many in japan, but they still tend to be a in important part, usually digital sales tend to be around 20% of the game's total sales. So, they do matter, even if only for the fact that Digital sales give more money to nintendo than physical ones do. 

And the fact that it hasn't even been released outside of japan also matters. The two biggest markets in the world (Europe and America) haven't seen this game yet. And with the fact that Digital sales in America and Europe do Matter (Quite a bit), i think that the game will at least hit some 500 to 600k , if not more.
Though, this might just be enough for Nintendo to milk it for what's worth while keeping the 3ds alive.

[boy]

15 minutes ago, Dandee Leone said:

And suddenly we're all reminded that even though it seemed like FE was a solid, top selling, and beloved Nintendo IP along the likes of Mario, Zelda, Pokemon, Kirby, Animal Crossing, etc... we really aren't there, infact, not even close to being there.

Echoes had so much love and polish poured into it...  and yet it sold less that pre-Awakening games in a supposed golden era of FE.

Our beloved series is more fragile that we think. We as a fanbase, and IS as a developer, have to continue to push its success, otherwise, it can be on it's deathbed yet again sooner that any of us could possibly imagine.

A game only sells well when the publishers push sales with good marketing and distribution... I don't think Echoes got even close to the same treatment that Awakening and Fates got in terms of trying to hype people up. I'm sure Nintendo knows perfectly well how Echoes was going to fare in terms of sales. I wouldn't get dramatic about the fate of the franchise just yet.

Edited April 26, 2017 by boy

[r_n]

I could see digital week 1 sales pushing it to above  FE12 (I mean, surely 5000 people bought it digitally is all I'm sayin'), but that's still pretty sad to see. We are in a post-switch world, I guess, which could have hurt things alongside being a Gaiden remake in particular. Echoes probably won't be in Nintendo's financial meeting this week, but if it is I wonder if they'll talk about sales expectations in japan vs worldwide.

One bad game probably won't put the series in the dust bin, at least. We'll need to see how the Switch game does next (?) year, and probably how Heroes & Warriors are/will do

It will be more interesting to see how it does abroad. Just due to presentation alone, I could see it doing at least a little better here. Shadow Dragon was pretty dull & lifeless looking and the whole "kill characters to get more chapters" probably put people off. This one is gorgeously recreated if nothing else.

[André The kid]

Just now, boy said:

A game only sells well when the publishers pushes sales with good marketing and distribution... I don't think Echoes got even close to the same treatment that Awakening and Fates got in terms of trying to hype people up. I'm sure Nintendo knows perfectly well how Echoes was going to fare in terms of sales. I wouldn't be get dramatic about the fate of the franchise just yet.

This. Apart from a lot of youtube videos and magazines in japan, there were no commercials whatsoever, unlike Awakening and Fates. While i do think that the game will still sell well for us to guarantee at least another Remake, i'm still keeping my expectations low. We'll have to see.

[Emeraldfox]

12 minutes ago, Dandee Leone said:

And suddenly we're all reminded that even though it seemed like FE was a solid, top selling, and beloved Nintendo IP along the likes of Mario, Zelda, Pokemon, Kirby, Animal Crossing, etc... we really aren't there, infact, not even close to being there.

Echoes had so much love and polish poured into it...  and yet it sold less that pre-Awakening games in a supposed golden era of FE.

Our beloved series is more fragile that we think. We as a fanbase, and IS as a developer, have to continue to push its success, otherwise, it can be on it's deathbed yet again sooner that any of us could possibly imagine.

 

You need to chill with the dramatic prose, bucko. Too soon to be worrying about it and it was just the first week in Japan. The game hasn't even made it to America and Europe and people are already worried it'll fail. Golly gee.

I personally think it'll do alright in the States and Europe because of Fates/Heroes momentum.

[Armagon]

1 minute ago, André The kid said:

This. Apart from a lot of youtube videos and magazines in japan, there were no commercials whatsoever, unlike Awakening and Fates. While i do think that the game will still sell well for us to guarantee at least another Remake, i'm still keeping my expectations low. We'll have to see.

There were actually three comercials tho. They were posted on the front page of SerenesForest a while back.

[Azure Sen]

Honestly I'm not surprised, both at the relatively low sales and at all the doom and gloom going around because people had inflated expectations. A remake of an already pretty divisive title on a handheld reaching the end of its lifespan was never going to sell as well as the hype machine that was Fates, and as mentioned previously Echoes' sales are only bad in comparison to previous FE titles. In the modern Japanese game industry, 130,000 copies sold is actually quite a lot.

2 hours ago, Dayni said:

The lowest selling are Thracia and New Mystery on ~260,000 and ~270,000 respectively (sourced from VGchartz, so might not be right)

Considering just Japan, PoR and RD had ~160,000 and ~170,000 respectively

Please do not source from VGchartz, they make up 90% of the numbers they put up by their own admission. According to Famitsu and other sources, Thracia only sold about 100,000-150,000 copies total, and New Mystery sold 274,000 copies total. I can't find any concrete sales details for Radiant Dawn, but the PoR sales are about the same as you provided for total, but PoR only sold 100,000 in its opening week.

35 minutes ago, King Marth 64 said:

I did saw Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE was marked in the best selling category in the North American eShop when it was first launched, but I did saw some sources that aren't from VGChartz said it sold poorly in Japan when it first launched. (I wondered if Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE marked in the Japanese Wii U eShop in the Best Selling category right now or is it not?)

Tokyo Mirage Sessions only sold 30,000-50,000 units in Japan according to Famitsu, Dengeki Online and Media Create.

Edited April 26, 2017 by AzureSen

[Tryhard]

32 minutes ago, Dandee Leone said:

And suddenly we're all reminded that even though it seemed like FE was a solid, top selling, and beloved Nintendo IP along the likes of Mario, Zelda, Pokemon, Kirby, Animal Crossing, etc... we really aren't there, infact, not even close to being there.

Echoes had so much love and polish poured into it...  and yet it sold less that pre-Awakening games in a supposed golden era of FE.

Our beloved series is more fragile that we think. We as a fanbase, and IS as a developer, have to continue to push its success, otherwise, it can be on it's deathbed yet again sooner that any of us could possibly imagine.

you're being kind of dramatic

no-one was under the illusion that this game was going to do as well as awakening and fates, even fans of the original, and the ds games did not sell bad. that was the tellius games.

[Jordi B.]

I really hope it sells much better soon. I loved Awakening, but I don't want every future FE after it to be the same way. No more waifus, no more anime-trope characters, and please, for the love of FE, please give us a good story.

[IMCasual]

Not surprised at this, I also expected the same in the west. Switch hype and all the great recent releases (Persona 5, Nioh, Horizon and others) is gonna hurt Echoes a bit. Also paying 40 buck for 3DS game in 2017 is pretty ridiculous now when I can get better PS4 game for same or less. This game is meant to please older fans, Nintendo probably didn't expect much either since Awakening/Fates made them loads.

[Armagon]

4 minutes ago, IMCasual said:

Also paying 40 buck for 3DS game in 2017 is pretty ridiculous

I'm sorry what? 40 bucks has always been the standard price for 3DS games. I don't see how it being 2017 makes it ridiculous.

[IMCasual]

12 minutes ago, Armagon said:

I'm sorry what? 40 bucks has always been the standard price for 3DS games. I don't see how it being 2017 makes it ridiculous.

I got new copy Bloodborne and MGSV both for 30 each. P5 is only 10 dollar more if you get it on PS3. Not only are these game better but also insanely give more value for its cost. Seeing these games and than see Echoes, 40 dollar for that low budget game is pretty ridiculous. 

[Emeraldfox]

Well, considering how old both Bloodborne and MGS5 are it's no wonder why they're cheaper than SoV, which released last week for Japan. But how can you say paying $40 for a new handheld game is ridiculous when you wouldn't spend $60 for a console game when they first released?

Edited April 26, 2017 by Emeraldfox

[sirmola]

I also supect that part of the point of this game is to make sure that the 3ds had st party support for a few months into the life of the switch. Keep in mind that no one really new how well the switch was going to do until a month or two ago, by which time this game was almost complete. As such, nintendo continued to support the 3ds, just in case. From that perspective, echoes was part of a backup plan that did not end up being needed. that being the case, the people who greenlit the game probably know this, and accounted for it when they looked at sales figures. As mentioned , they arn't "bad", just not stellar.

[Slumber]

Fire Emblem games released late in a console's life tend to sell poorish. Or games with "Radian" in the title.

[Armagon]

2 hours ago, IMCasual said:

 Seeing these games and than see Echoes, 40 dollar for that low budget game is pretty ridiculous. 

I'd argue that Echoes had a bigger budget than Fates. Just a little bit bigger. Also

2 hours ago, IMCasual said:

I got new copy Bloodborne and MGSV both for 30 each. 

As EmerladFox said, those games are old, of course they are gonna be cheaper. And finally

2 hours ago, IMCasual said:

Not only are these game better but also insanely give more value for its cost. 

See, that's entierly your opinon (which i respect btw). But me personally, i don't care about Bloodborne or Metal Gear or Persona 5. So in my eyes, Echoes is probably better than those three games.

[Slumber]

It makes no sense that Echoes would have a higher budget than Fates.

Fates was an original project that was effectively split into 3 games, had many, many more unique mechanics than Echoes, more characters, more classes, more weapons, way more assets in general. Echoes already had a template that they stuck to pretty rigidly. They even contracted the story of Fates out to a well known/renown writer(Not that this really helped Fates in any way, but still).

The one thing Echoes has that MIGHT increase the budget beyond what Fates did is full voice acting. Other than that, no.

The fact that Echoes is coming out explicitly during the development of FE: Switch shows that Echoes wasn't a bigger project in IS' eyes, and it was likely handled mostly by a smaller team.

Edited April 26, 2017 by Slumber

[SullyMcGully]

I still think this game is going to do great, but this whole "end of 3ds lifespan" thing worries me. I mean, don't the majority of Fire Emblem fans have a 3DS? All those people who bought Fates and Awakening did.

[sirmola]

13 minutes ago, SullyMcGully said:

I still think this game is going to do great, but this whole "end of 3ds lifespan" thing worries me. I mean, don't the majority of Fire Emblem fans have a 3DS? All those people who bought Fates and Awakening did.

Yes, but a lot of those people are using their switch for day to day gaming now., while their 3ds sits on a shelf gathering dust.

[Anacybele]

As meh as I think the game looks, this is troubling. Though it's not ALL that surprising, since Gaiden was apparently not popular. But it does worry me that it could make IS hesitant to remake FE4 and 5 or even not re-release Tellius (regardless of Ike's popularity and all the people wishing they could play it but can't because of inaccessibility). :(

[Extrasolar]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the Archanea saga and Marth mega popular in Japan (far more popular than it is here) to begin with? I'm not surprised that a remake of Gaiden failed to sell as much as the Archanea remakes, especially the remake of Mystery, which if I recall correctly is still the most beloved game by Japanese fans of the series. And yeah, since Gaiden was controversial as hell when it first released, I'm not surprised that people who didn't like Gaiden mechanics to begin with didn't pick the game up, even with its new bells and whistles.

[IMCasual]

3 hours ago, Emeraldfox said:

Well, considering how old both Bloodborne and MGS5 are it's no wonder why they're cheaper than SoV, which released last week for Japan. But how can you say paying $40 for a new handheld game is ridiculous when you wouldn't spend $60 for a console game when they first released?

I would love to get Bloodborne and MGSV on release day if I had a PS4 back then as it only recent get a PS4 for P5. These games deserve my money. Brought the TYH edition for P5 on PS4. 40 dollar is ridiculous for game that isn't even HD in 2017, perhaps not to people that only game on 3DS but as someone who own multiple systems you can really see the shortcomings of 3DS.

Edited April 26, 2017 by IMCasual

[Nobody]

29 minutes ago, IMCasual said:

perhaps not to people that only game on 3DS but as someone who own multiple systems you can really see the shortcomings of 3DS.

eh, i have a ps4, bloodborne is one of my favorite games ever, I'm really enjoying persona 5 as you can see from my avatar and I don't think 40 dollars is too much for a 3ds game.

You might feel this way, but not everyone who owns ps4s or even plays on PC does. The 3ds was my most played system last year, actually (the ps4 is absolutely crushing it in 2017, though).

Edited April 26, 2017 by Nobody

[Sunwoo]

2 hours ago, Slumber said:

Fire Emblem games released late in a console's life tend to sell poorish. Or games with "Radian" in the title.

INVERSE MATRIX YOU'RE OUT OF YOUR VECTOR

Let's just see what happens. I don't think this is something to panic over.