Fire Emblem Three Houses Sales

[ZeManaphy]

From GameXplain: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jGlNsjNZ4o

Basically: Fire Emblem Three Houses, is the 2nd on Nintendo's NPD list for July, and has sold triple the amount of launch sales, than the previous game Echoes. In fact, Three Houses is the  second best selling games in terms of launch sales in the US after Awakening, but good chance it might overtake it since these are just launch sales. This is massively good news for FE as a whole. BTW, these numbers don't count digital sales. 

It also was a best seller in Japan and UK, selling 143, 130 copies in Japan, while outselling  Wolfenstein: Youngblood in UK. 

Thoughts and Reactions? 

[eclipse]

This doesn't surprise me in the least.  Thanks to Heroes (who introduced the main characters a bit early) and the general rising popularity of FE, I expected nothing less.

[Humanoid]

I'm more surprised how Awakening managed its numbers? I thought the word was that the FE series was on life support at that point, so to still have more sales than Three Houses (a game released when the series is at its peak) is hugely surprising to me. That said, if you count digital sales, I reckon there's a reasonable assumption that Three Houses had the bigger opening.

That said, I'm not exactly the best judge of how things were back then. I wouldn't have even heard of Awakening when it released - I didn't get a 3DS until 2014 and was recommended the game when I asked for general 3DS game recommendations on another forum I frequent.

[Punished Dayni]

25 minutes ago, Humanoid said:

I'm more surprised how Awakening managed its numbers? I thought the word was that the FE series was on life support at that point, so to still have more sales than Three Houses (a game released when the series is at its peak) is hugely surprising to me. That said, if you count digital sales, I reckon there's a reasonable assumption that Three Houses had the bigger opening.

That said, I'm not exactly the best judge of how things were back then. I wouldn't have even heard of Awakening when it released - I didn't get a 3DS until 2014 and was recommended the game when I asked for general 3DS game recommendations on another forum I frequent.

That game got marketed pretty strongly at the time, there was a good deal of advertising for it, particularly internationally after it did better than the minimum expected in Japan. It also was similarly early in the 3DS era, which probably helped matters.

I also think had a pretty optimistic fan buzz around it because it seemed to be a positive step away from the series being shelved.

[redlight]

There wasn't much else out at the time (Youngblood released the same day and it's a massive pile of shit) and FE's rising popularity.

[Nihilem]

I am a little bit worried that the numbers dropped in japan after week 1. Ok that could be because the shipment sold through quite quickly and resupply wasnt ready in time but still ...

[Cysx]

Awakening also got a pretty popular demo, from my understanding.

Beaten by Madden... guess there's nothing to be surprised at.

[Skell_]

Great news to hear.

Making Fire Emblem take place in a school with samey uniform and the questionable character designs pre-launch (like Lorenz) was a massive gamble. I'm glad it paid off in spades since the actual execution of all these ideas was done amazingly. I was incredibly skeptical until I actually got my hands on it and fell in love with all the new mechanics and characters. Death Knight looked goofy and edgy before launch but I kinda love him now. He's such a great early game boss THAT YOU CAN ACTUALLY BEAT.

Youngblood deserved what it got. Intentionally stirring the pot should have been a red flag it was going to actually be bad. I was just surprised how bad it actually was. It was like a nostalgia trip to 2009 Resident Evil 5 AI problems.

[Book Bro]

Very cool, I expect it to overtake Awakening too. Hopefully this means an even bigger budget for the next game.

[MrPerson0]

5 hours ago, Dayni said:

That game got marketed pretty strongly at the time, there was a good deal of advertising for it, particularly internationally after it did better than the minimum expected in Japan. It also was similarly early in the 3DS era, which probably helped matters.

Don't think it was really marketing. From what I heard, Fire Emblem was heavily marketed in Japan, but even there, sales were slumping. It's likely thanks to the introduction of Casual mode that helped make the series prosper, as it allowed more people to play the game without worry of permadeath.

Edited August 17, 2019 by MrPerson0

[Ivy Wife Supremacy]

I doubt Heroes made THAT much of an impact to the other big factors of its success because if so Echoes would've done a bit better and it got the main characters to promote that and didn't help it especially for the west. That being said unlike Echoes Three Houses was much more smarter giving us the central Protagonist completely free for buying the game and he's VERY good as well THAT'S how you market a mainline game for a mobile spin-off. Real major factors:

-Marketing especially after this E3 especially for the west.

-Amazing worldbuilding.

-Very well developed cast.

-Persona esqe familiarity with the school setting and semi silent Protagonist(yes the parallels were not the intention but for many this definitely helped).

-The 2nd part of the game got people interested again after a long drought of info for the west.

-Waifus moreso they're were properly made for this game not forced, natural, all very great and were a fantastic treat to marry Husbandos as well also properly implemented marriage.

-The best Avatar Protagonist we gotten(well except Female Byleth's design for some but still).

-Great gameplay massive replayability.

-The leaks: while I don't really consider this as a major factor it help bring back interest for some.

Overall this is my favorite FE game of all time and the fact that this is the most well received and successful FE game ever just makes me content!

 

Edited August 17, 2019 by Mage Goddess Lysithea

[Wolfen09]

Good for 3 houses, as far as other releases around this time, nothing is going to beat out Madden until it just gets even worse than it has been, and young blood, well idk a lot about Wolfenstein, but this should have been a dlc for 2 not a standalone.

[MrPerson0]

14 minutes ago, Mage Goddess Lysithea said:

I doubt Heroes made THAT much of an impact to the other big factors of its success because if so Echoes would've done a bit better and it got the main characters to promote that and didn't help it especially for the west. That being said unlike Echoes Three Houses was much more smarter giving us the central Protagonist completely free for buying the game and he's VERY good as well THAT'S how you market a mainline game for a mobile spin-off. Real major factors: 

Heroes and Echoes both came out in 2017, so it didn't really have that big of an install base by the time Echoes released. By 2019, Heroes grew considerably. Also, in general, remakes don't sell well in general. This is seen with both Echoes and Metroid: Samus Returns, both games are remakes of what many would call the black sheep of their respective franchises, and in turn, didn't do well in sales.

[Ivy Wife Supremacy]

14 minutes ago, MrPerson0 said:

Heroes and Echoes both came out in 2017, so it didn't really have that big of an install base by the time Echoes released. By 2019, Heroes grew considerably. Also, in general, remakes don't sell well in general. This is seen with both Echoes and Metroid: Samus Returns, both games are remakes of what many would call the black sheep of their respective franchises, and in turn, didn't do well in sales.

I get that still Heroes actually got way smarter with the marketing with Three Houses compare to back then.

Edited August 17, 2019 by Mage Goddess Lysithea

[Skell_]

Having 2 sets of Forging Bonds with all new units + 2 GHB's was a smart move to make every player wonder at least what is all the hype about. Forging Bonds also allowed people to sort of know the characters beforehand. So far, the 3H units are pretty powerful and the free units are perfectly viable. You want to know about these new characters because they're powerful and/or orbs are pretty nice to have.

Echoes only had Berkut for free whose only claim to fame was his lance. He was quickly turned into fodder. Alm was deemed too well balanced and was in the lower tiers for a long time. Celica at least made a bit of a splash but wasn't meta-breaking or anything. Claire and Mathilda were utter trash. The entire Echoes lineup was so underwhelming that it likely didn't push sales too much.

[Ertrick36]

The only really impressive stat I'm hearing is it being second to Awakening.  Outselling Echoes by this point should hardly be a feat.  In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if FEW outsold Echoes.  And I heard that Wolfenstein game sucks, so that means basically nothing to me.

I don't know why those who report on this stuff still seem to insist on reporting solely on physical copies.  I'm gonna wait until we have complete sales records.  As much as I do love Awakening, I really hope Three Houses outsells it because I'd really hate if that game were to remain the series' all time high and for IS to forever be making games in the vein of Fates, trying to emulate the success of Awakening and never taking risks.

Or at the very least I hope this game's sales shows that they can take some risks and deviate from what defined Awakening.  I basically just want IS to not be discouraged somehow and revert back to making Awakening-esque games.  Again, saying this as someone who loved Awakening and has fond memories of it.  Love the game, but I'm not a fan of pale imitations.

8 hours ago, Cysx said:

Beaten by Madden... guess there's nothing to be surprised at.

If the people who follow that franchise are continuing to buy the games despite EA crapping all over it and barely even innovating it, then the only option is to surpass its ridiculous install base, and that's not a very easy thing to accomplish.

Though the day FE does surpass Madden will be a day in which I'd rejoice.  That is, unless that somehow means FE becoming as much monetized, commercialized garbage as any of the games EA puts out.  No, I won't necessarily consider Heroes to be that for FE; that kind of crap would have to seep into the main console games for me to consider it as the same as EA's BS.

[redlight]

I think people were going to buy 3H regardless of the banners and forging bonds. If the E3 trailer didn't sell you already then I don't know what did. The only thing that the FB helped with was to basically give you an impression of each lord's personality which at that point was kinda enigmatic for each.

It's more like 3H helped Heroes earn more money with it's fresh popularity than Heroes influencing 3H sales.

[eclipse]

33 minutes ago, redlight said:

I think people were going to buy 3H regardless of the banners and forging bonds. If the E3 trailer didn't sell you already then I don't know what did. The only thing that the FB helped with was to basically give you an impression of each lord's personality which at that point was kinda enigmatic for each.

It's more like 3H helped Heroes earn more money with it's fresh popularity than Heroes influencing 3H sales.

Mobile games tend to have a pretty big casual base - that is, people who pick up the game that know next-to-nothing about the parent series.  Echoes had some splash, while Heroes had a 5* that you'd get if you bought the game, two dedicated banners, two Forging Bonds events, two GHBs, limited-time themed stuff in Aether Raids, an Illusory Dungeon, and a Sothis.  IMO the game was pushed pretty heavily.

For the die-hard fans, we'd already made up our minds early.  For everyone else, I don't doubt that all the promotion helped to push more than a few sales.

[Dark Holy Elf]

 

6 hours ago, MrPerson0 said:

Heroes and Echoes both came out in 2017, so it didn't really have that big of an install base by the time Echoes released. By 2019, Heroes grew considerably.

This isn't true; Heroes is less relevant now than it was in 2017 by quite a bit, see the Google Trends for the game. I know hardly anyone who plays Heroes now who didn't in 2017, while I know many people who have put the game down in the same interval.

But Heroes did push this game more + being an actual new FE is obvious the big deal, as you said; remakes don't usually sell that well unless the original is truly beloved.

Anyway I'm very happy to see this game doing well. It's pretty hard to get good data but at the very least it looks like this will at minimum be roughly on par with Awakening/Fates for sales, which is great to see as someone who hopes the series continues to get entries for many years to come, since in my humble opinion it's the best series in gaming at the moment.

[Zapp Branniglenn]

14 hours ago, Humanoid said:

I'm more surprised how Awakening managed its numbers? I thought the word was that the FE series was on life support at that point, so to still have more sales than Three Houses (a game released when the series is at its peak) is hugely surprising to me. That said, if you count digital sales, I reckon there's a reasonable assumption that Three Houses had the bigger opening.

NPD is comparing Three Houses sales at this moment to Awakening's life time sales. That's why it's only a matter of time. If you look at reported sales for Awakening, that entry had pretty long legs. It was a million seller at the start of 2014 (already a year old in Japan), then reportedly almost became a two million seller at the end of that year. Leaving us to speculate where that bump may have come from. But those reports came directly from Nintendo who DOES have digital sales numbers, unlike NPD.

Edited August 17, 2019 by Glennstavos

[Humanoid]

4 minutes ago, Glennstavos said:

NPD is comparing Three Houses sales at this moment to Awakening's life time sales.

Sounds reasonable if that's the case. I didn't watch the video, so I'm just basing it on the statement in the OP: "Three Houses is the second best selling games in terms of launch sales in the US after Awakening."

[Cysx]

4 hours ago, Dark Holy Elf said:

This isn't true; Heroes is less relevant now than it was in 2017 by quite a bit, see the Google Trends for the game. I know hardly anyone who plays Heroes now who didn't in 2017, while I know many people who have put the game down in the same interval.

At the same time, when Echoes released people playing Heroes might not have been willing to buy another new FE game just yet. I've been wondering for a while if Heroes didn't end up hurting Echoes overall as a result.

[Dark Holy Elf]

3 hours ago, Cysx said:

At the same time, when Echoes released people playing Heroes might not have been willing to buy another new FE game just yet. I've been wondering for a while if Heroes didn't end up hurting Echoes overall as a result.

That's possible, although I suspect the marketing had more to do with it... what little marketing the game had seemed almost proud that it was leaving behind things like the detailed support system, the weapon triangle, etc., and I think that probably turned a lot of people off.

[Seazas]

This game better sell the best and run laps around the other 3ds games.

[wissenschaft]

This game kind of took inspiration from persona...........and it payed off. Expect more games taking place in school settings. lol

I love the 3DS games, I think they are far better than say the GBA games (ugh). More complex gameplay means I'm more likely to replay the game. Three Houses feels a bit like a remake of ideas from Genealogy of the holy war and thats awesome. I hope is sells really well because the story and gameplay are pretty great. Now we just need a proper lunatic mode so I can feel some type of challenge.

As for why these games are popular:

1) Accessibility: the various difficulty modes helps make the game attractive to players of widely varying skill.

2) Waifu emblem (husbandos too): Seriously, people get attached to their favorite characters. Just look at the loads of fan art made for the recent fire emblem games.

3)Lack of competition: There aren't a lot of tactical RPGs out there nowadays so its an underserved market. 

Edited August 18, 2019 by wissenschaft