In my opinion, BOTW is still the only worthwhile exclusive AAA single-player game on Switch. That's a big part of it.
No. You probably think that because much data is not known. A well reviewed and known SP game will continue to sell. GTA RDR TLoU UC4 HZD Mario Witcher 3 God of War Crash Bandicoot Dark Souls FF7 etc The idea of legs is a percentage, so in that sense many SP games continue to sell. Zelda BoTW of course has exceptional legs due to being Zelda, critically loved, and on a platform with low competition.
Not annual franchise, quite unique and different to other games of the genre. It actually helps that Nintendo won't drop the price
Nintendo first party games often have legs due to the one-per-system release schedule. It’s from a 30-year-old series with a very high level of critical acclaim over 12+ games. Very few series have that level of consistency. Because of that it’s always highly anticipated as one the best developers on the planet puts some of their best work into it. It’s iconic. Not in a ‘bloke from Watch Dog’s hat is iconic’ way but in a ‘the Triforce is a seminal bit of gaming history/mythology that now goes back to some kid’s parents childhood’ way (or at least it does in my family!). It’s heavily associated with the Switch launch and had a huge amount of advertising. It’s one of the most critically acclaimed games ever made. People will still be making ‘did you know you can do this in BOTW?’ videos years later. Skyrim sells a lot too through being a great multiplat playground and a highly rated game with great word of mouth, but BOTW is closely associated with a resurgent Nintendo tapping into series/industry nostalgia, providing home console and portable options and massive critical acclaim. It’s like a storm of all of Nintendo’s strengths in one single player game that is both a reason to buy and the first thing to pick up with a Switch, and so it’s flaws do little to slow it down. In short, there’s a multitude of factors built up over decades rather than it being an instant smash hit out of nowhere.
what makes it way more impressive is that it's still full price 20 month after release and keeps charting, when most comparable single player games that released around the same time are now heavily discounted. for example horizon zero dawn complete edition (60$ game + 20$ dlc) is now around 20 dollars.
Says someone with a Love Sony avatar? ;) Anyway that BotW is outstanding said the world after its release.And that there is nothing comparable in gaming says history.
Oh yeah, I can believe that. I wonder if CD Projekt discloses digital figures to NPD. They might not. My guess is the majority of its sales are on the PC side.
Because it's his m/o to get his name out there and write more articles. Did the same thing at the old place. Just barfed out insanely long hot takes about why the halo Library level was actually good or some other controversial contrarian nonsense and turned entire threads into him vs the world battlegrounds.
There’s definitely something about the pricing strategy and competition on the platform that has a huge impact Games like Skyrim see their price drop like a stone in the second hand market for PS5 /XB1 but the same doesn’t happen on Switch. Price stays high and it keeps selling.
I don't think this is that uncommon. I feel like Skyrim was in the charts for a long ass time after release. I'm not sure if anything's changed since the trilogy remaster but Crash Bandicoot would always, without fail, be on the top 10 seling PSN games each month.
Because it's one of the best games ever made, despite what elitist forum posters might have you believe. It stands among the ranks of games like GTA5, OoT, MGS2, SH2, RE4 as one of the all time greats. And its sales reflect that. It also helps that it is the flagship game launching with an insanely popular console that perfectly compliments its game design with its pick up and play form.
The Switch doesn't have much going for it at all in terms of third party AAA and Zelda is a well known IP with BOTW being one of the highest reviewed games ever.
Switch could receive every AAA game under the sun and I doubt it'd have a noticeable impact on Zelda's sales. Many people buy the console specifically for this game.
All Nintendo games work like this, it's the publisher's approach. Make extremely high quality first party software, disincentivate third parties from giving you competition on the platform, reap maximum sales as your audience is motivated to buy your software with extreme attach rates. You buy a Playstation or an XBox or a PC to play "all" games. You buy a Nintendo console for the Nintendo games.
- Zelda is an old and well trusted franchise. - Open world games provide good value. - Was one of the best reviewed games of all time. - There isn’t a lot of great exclusive AAA games on Switch yet.
Oh no, it's definitely specific. Remember people shitting on Jimquisition just as an example for his stance on Zelda and its review. SOME Nintendo Fans are literally the most toxic that I've ever talked to from my own subjective experience. And subjectivity is all great when it's informed instead of "omg, Game of the Generation" when really it's the only game worth buying on the switch that has some semblance of quality instead of rehashes of the same games gen after gen. Even the games I praise are good games and that's about it. If someone wanted my opinion, I wouldn't give them a one-sided biased + of the game franchise I like, I'd also position the flaws. I love Zelda btw, but the whole internet is in agreement that Zelda fans are literally the most spoilt of them all.
It's a Zelda game that hits the Zeitgeist somewhat (and isn't stuck in 1992 game design for a change), and is generally exceptionally well received.
Because it's an amazing game, arguably the best of the generation, and it doesn't have much competition on switch unfortunately.
I'd be inclined to say that a greater proportion of Nintendo owners buy the consoles for first party than that of Playstation. Could be wrong but being one of those people, and knowing a few, it seems true to me.
It’s got that Nintendo magic sauce only Nintendo understands sauces. Jk not a knock on the game but how many beefy open world triple AAA games are on Switch? Can’t think of any. It would sell regardless but I think that helps a little. You got to buy this one if you want a CHUNKY open world game with lots to do that looks this good. It’s also: -a beloved IP -a big shift in the series - crazy good review scores/word of mouth -launched with the system
Best Zelda game, so naturally it sells well. It also has superb word of mouth. People are still praising it. It's the only game praised on Era that everyone at my work has actually played, too. Only me and two others played Celeste :(
Ah I see people are back with the good old "Switch owners are starved" hot takes. That argument didn't make sense on release day and it still doesn't make sense now. If Switch owners would "starve" we wouldn't have so many games that bombed in the last months. And no, the game is not selling because "it's Zelda duh". Yes the franchise is a beloved one but it never sold the ridiculous amount that BotW is selling and it especially hasn't had legs this long.
It's one of the best games ever made, and people are still shouting about it from the rooftops. This doesn't hold up. It's outsold every Zelda except Ocarina, and that just looks like it's a matter of time. And most other Zelda's were on consoles with a higher user base.
I'd put the great sandbox gameplay has the main reason, given it's even still charting in Japan which was not a given seeing past games.
I think part of the reason is people also don't expect another 3D Zelda for a while. If 3D Zelda was a annual IP or came out even every 2 years I would wait for the sequel and it wouldn't feel special.
That's the case for nearly every Nintendo game (sub-) series. There's years between full 3D Mario's, between Mario Karts, between Zeldas etc.. The closest to annual or two year series iterations you get is probably Pokemon.
The people saying it's "inarguably the game of the generation" aren't backing up themselves either but you aren't concerned about that. You're just concerned about his opinion because it doesn't agree with yours and you are being way too defensive.
And how many of those games were still full price a year and a half after launch ? Amazon has GoW for 40$ and Botw for 55$. Remind me which one came out 6 month ago ? The same goes for every Nintendo games. They keep their full price and yet are still selling. How many of those witcher Sales were done during steam sales where it was no more than 10$ ? Also, the idea of botw being alone on the switch doesn't explain anything. It still competes with horizon or witcher. Someone who buys botw today chooses not to buy those games. If I have the budget to buy one full proved game per month, I'm going to choose between every game that exists, not just on the switch. There are not a lot of switch only users.
switch may not be the red hot item it was a few years ago but there's still tens of millions queued up to buy one on their own terms (rather than supply issues). of course zelda will be the first game they get if it's not mario kart or odyssey. BotW will be the go-to as long as it's filling out that general install base
1) Its a Nintendo game 2) Its a great game 3) Its not a yearly franchise I think those are the three primary reasons.
it's at around 1.2M iirc which is extremely good for Japan. But most of the sales are from western countries
The "it's Zelda, duh" responses do confuse me a bit. It's already blown past every previous entry in the series; sure, Zelda is a consistent multimillion seller, but not on this level. It's still selling 200k a month, too. So what gives? Is it just that platform-defining, the first Zelda game to be good enough to rise above even Mario in mainstream attention (though Mario is right with it, and had a bigger launch to keep ahead for the time being).
That's interesting, my assumption was that Nintendo catered more to the Japanese market while Sony focus more on their western audience.
Zelda historically doesn't match up as well with Nintendo's other IPs in Japan. BotW is actually been a bit of an exception, though it still is still a bit lower in Japanese sales relative to other titles than it is in the rest of the world.
It's kinda the ocarina of time of the new generation tbh. New kids, teens and even adults will experience this game just like OoT back then. It's one of those surreal games that comes out once in a while.
It’s sold so well because it’s a good game and has almost no competition on its system. People buy Switches and then it for their open world fix.
I work in retail ( not a game specific store ) and the amount of Switch games we have on the shelves is almost none compared to the amount the PS4 and xbox has, which leads to all the people that buy a switch getting the recommendation to either buy Mario or Zelda because honestly the other games we have is mostly shovelware. But when someone buys a PS4 or xbox the amount of choice is larger right of the bat when you're picking up the console in the store, Call of Duty or Fifa? Battlefield or maybe God of War? Grand Theft Auto V or perhaps Red Dead Dead Redemption? The spread of what people have to choose from seems much larger than when compared to the Switch. And No, I am not saying that the Switch doesn't have games cause we all no that isn't true.
Was about to say that. People talking otherwise are misguided or just subtly console warring. Edit: After reading a couple of posts... you can remove the “subtly”
