Metroid: Other M Failure To Sell One Million Units
Metroid: Other M
Nintendo feels that the sale count of Metroid: Other M’s is a bit disappointing. The game was certainly a quality production, but they are struggling to reach their goal of one million units sold. They are trying to find out why.
Reggie Fils-Aime, Nintendo of America president, says that the game should have sold one million units. They will not reach that benchmark by the holidays, and they are wondering why. It is a quality game, created by the team behind the Ninja Gaiden series. The consumers believe the game is solid and the marketing was strong, so what was the problem?
Fils-Aime claims that the game is nearing half a million sales in the United States. That might sound like quite a lot, but that is nothing near amazing. With such a heavily invested, potentially ground breaking, title such as that, it should have sold way more. Especially when you compare half a million to the monumentally larger sales of Black Ops in its first day of retail.
Team Ninja certainly has the skill to produce a million-copy-pushing title, as they have with Ninja Gaiden. Fils-Aime states that Mr. Sakamoto, the co-creator of Metroid, did a wonderful job partnering with Nintendo to help promote the game. So the failure was not a matter of skill, certainly, since the team is quite capable. It may have to do with the presentation of the character or the console that the game is on.
If you really think about it, gamers have been trash talking the Nintendo Wii’s capabilities for years. While Metroid: Other M has a great combat system, the graphics are nothing but typical Wii graphics; outdated and seemingly behind the major action games on the market like Ninja Gaiden. So could this be an issue with the console itself? Whether you want to admit it or not, gamers value graphics quite a lot, especially when you have other games to use as a standard on stronger consoles such as the Xbox 360. The reason this game could have sold poorly could merely be a matter of its console’s limitations.
It is ultimately up to the gamers to voice what issues they had with the game. So tell us: what would you change about Metroid: Other M that could have improved the sales?
Whoever wrote this article clearly has no idea why Other M did poorly. It had nothing to do with the game being on the Wii console or it’s lack of HD graphics. Mario Galaxy 2 sold well and it was on the Wii. Clearly graphics and console aren’t the problem. The problem was a list of bad game design choices, coupled with forgetting the core audience for a Metroid game.
Team Ninja turned Samus from a cool silent protagonist into an annoying, immature, weak anime girl. They tried pulling all of this post traumatic stress disorder stuff onto the character to make it seem like she has been through a lot and all it served to do was weaken the character and make her more unrelatable. She’s fought Ridley a hand full of times and all of a sudden in Other M, someone else has to fight him because she’s too traumatized by the event? That’s a bad decision. As a player, I want to feel powerful by playing a powerful character.
Another bad decision was making Samus a bitch of her commander. Instead of Samus losing all of her equipment at the start of the game, a commander guy tells you what you can and cannot use. Sometimes for the effect of having a really dumb situation like when Samus must cross a lava area, but is not allowed to use the armor that specifically protects her from it only because her commander tells her that she cannot use it.
I agree with Bioject, Samus is entirely out of character… unlike other games, this time she doesn’t SHUT the hell up!
“I woke up from a dream I had while sleeping, I head to the bathroom, to wash my face, and I looked in the mirror, I saw my self, and I noticed that somehow, I had a mole.”
I agree with the comment from Bioject… this game failed due to lame story line. Should have consulted someone who actually paid attention to the story in previous games.
Sakamoto ruined Samus, she is sak’s wet dream. Its less Team Ninja fault.
Crappy dialog and cut-scenes.