Metroid Fever gripping the nation.
There’s nothing quite like seeing a lesser appreciated IP get all the recognition it deserves. While Metroid has never been as popular as Mario and Zelda, it has often been a series compromised of wonderful games, worthy of worldwide high praise. Instead, what it did get, was a smaller, but loyal and very appreciative cult following and now with the latest instalment in the 2D saga out now, there is a whole lot of love for Samus Aran.
Die hard fans are experiencing a fantastic title and, rightly so, defending the game’s price tag against those who feel like a 2D game isn’t worth that much, but that hasn’t stopped the large reports of high sales coming in.
In addition to a plethora of tweets, reviews and blogs available all over the internet, giving Metroid Dread very high praise indeed, not only was the game a major success in the UK, becoming the most successful Metroid game at launch in the UK, and even the brand new Nintendo Switch OLED also doing well for itself with its sales figures making up 7% of all Switch’s sold this year in the UK, but now similar reports are coming in from Japan as well.
In just three days, the Nintendo Switch OLED has shipped 138,000 units, an impressive number, especially given the limited quantity due to the ongoing pandemic, but statistically, has performed weaker than the Nintendo Switch Lite did at launch, which was able to ship 178,000 units. Metroid Dread, however, has sold 87,000 physical units. This puts it as the best-selling Metroid game, at launch, in Japan since 2000 and is an amazing number when compared to the launch week sales of Metroid: Samus Returns for the Nintendo 3DS, which was 29,000 physical units.
With both the console and the game, performing very well for themselves, Nintendo deserve to give themselves a pat on the back for this lethal combination, especially since it makes for a nice contrast against the news that not every member of Dread’s development was able to get their name in the credits, as revealed by Vandal.
This is due to developer, MercurySteam, having a rule in place that a developer must be involved with the game for at least 25% of the game’s development process, with the game reported to be in development for the last 4 years. So far developers who worked on the title for less than 12 months, unfortunately in the finished project, despite their work making it in, alas, their names did not. Its certainly a sour note, one sure to hang around Dread and its legacy in the years to come.
Source: Perfectly Nintendo & Vandal
