Metroid Prime 3 sales for first week
Thursday, September 6th, 2007 at 6:19pm by Jake
The unofficial sales numbers rolled in listing some surprising results. Metroid Prime 3 has managed to shift over 400,000 copies in its first week. Andy Robinson, over at CVG, clearly summed up the success…
Metroid managed to shift over 400,000 copies in total, which must be big news for developers ogling at Nintendo’s console and proves that traditional “hardcore” games can still sell on the home of Wii Sports and Cooking Mama.
What was really surprising was comparing sales to other big titles last week. Prime 3 has outsold the highly anticipated Bioshock, Blue Dragon, and Warhawk combined.
What’s that word I’m looking for….”pwnage”…that’s it!
September 6th, 2007 at 6:27 pm
Bioshock came out a week earlier, didn’t it? Does this mean that Metroid sold more in week 1 than Bioshock sold in week 2? That’s not very surprising. If it means that Metroid sold more in week 1 than Bioshock sold in week 1, then I’ll be surprised.
September 6th, 2007 at 6:27 pm
I’m a fan and all, but I wish that article pointed to it’s information source somewhere. I’d like to see the actual numbers…but the article doesn’t mention where they’re getting the report from…NPD? Nintendo itself? Reuters? Wall Street Journal? National Geographic? New York Times? the National Inquirer? Of course, I hope to Heaven the figures are accurate and potentially indicative of what lies in store for big guns like Smash Bros. Brawl and Super Mario Galaxy.
September 6th, 2007 at 6:42 pm
As Kale, i would like to see the sources. Anyway i don´t doubt this numbers, i even believe that the official numbers will be higher.
September 6th, 2007 at 7:03 pm
remember the “unofficial” part at the start of the article. I’m just passing the news on. I don’t know where CVG is getting their data, but several sites are saying that MP3 brought in 400,000.
September 6th, 2007 at 7:06 pm
Total pwnage!1!
“Wii is not hardcore and that’s why we dont sell.”
In response: More like “we make quick, crappy ports to make quick bucks.” Guess what? If they’d make an effort and put better teams to develop the hardcore games, they’d win a lot more.
Take note, 3rd party devs, because that’s the right and only way to make good money.
September 6th, 2007 at 7:17 pm
I just hope Jack doesnt read this, so I dont have to eat my own words of “Metroid sales will be hurt by lack of advertisement.” Which, if Jack is reading, I will eat them, but can I least put Hot Sauce on them first?
Secondly, to play the devils advocate here, Nintendo naysayers will still naysay. Now, they will just say “ya well Metroids tha only hardcore game on Wii, so of course every1 boughts it, Wii is kiddie, so luks leik Nintendo DID abandon the hardcore huh?”
Metroid Prime 3 FTW (This game has earned itself in my top twenty games of all time, and I am only at the 32% mark.)
September 6th, 2007 at 7:23 pm
So much for the average hardcore player thinking that the Wii “Is killing gaming”, eh malstrom?
On the contrary, the Wii is refining. All hardcore players love a good light gun game, and MP3 is the ultimate light gun game thanks to the Wii pointer.
September 6th, 2007 at 7:35 pm
Well, i found “some” numbers, only that they are missing this week sales:
http://www.vgchartz.com/aweekly.php?date=39327
Anyway, this game is gonna sell very nice, i only wish as some of the above mates say…3rd parties, take notice!!!!
September 6th, 2007 at 7:44 pm
Nice sales ” Figures” , not official, but still we all know the game is selling VERY well.
Hopefully, the game continues to sell well over the next few weeks/ months, hopefully, it was not just all the Metroid Fans buying the game at once. Time will tell.
With figures like these, I hope to see some more developers making some ” Hardcore” games for the Wii. I hope the sales continue to be big for this game, not just the first week of sales for a Hardcore game starved system.
September 6th, 2007 at 8:28 pm
I’m glad for the sales figures. Still I wish Nintendo had gone all out on promotions; not just that “Wii would like to play” commercial.
I’m only sad for myself that I am still trying to finish up Prime 1, and then on to 2 before I can even play my copy of Corruption.
September 6th, 2007 at 8:46 pm
That reminds me, (the lack of fine, hardcore games) if you like/were ever interested about the God of War series in the PS2, (awesome hack n slash game) may i suggest you to drive your attention to Dragon Blade for the Wii, as IGN likes it so far (i’ve been tracking its progress, and sounds awesome so far) and calls it GoW-ii due to the high standars the series set in the PS2, and Dragon Blade is looking to be a worthy competitor!
September 6th, 2007 at 8:58 pm
I am reading everything, as I am always wont to do with anything Infendo, but I’m not about to gloat.
This was a solid game for a solid system, and it sold well. With the holiday coming up, I’d even venture to say that it could be one of those games that sees an increase in sales a few months after initial release when many games (like BioShock, I’m not afraid to say) are starting to make their way to the bargain bins.
September 6th, 2007 at 9:12 pm
should be interesting to see how bioshock and prime sell over time, especially since they have a similarly sized install base now. halo3 will be a major disruption to bioshock’s sales. prime 3 could even benefit there as wii owners look for a substitute shooter.
(interestingly- could prime 3 ever drive halo3’s level of interest? i say yes, but not without online multiplayer. however, the adventure nature of p3 doesnt immediatly suggest its audience is as eager for fragfests as halo3’s audience)
@ droop4- I was intrigued by DB but then worried when the developer evasively described their control philosophy as ‘accessible’ which sounded like a euphamism for ‘dumbed down’. Then a recent article said the controls felt solid and fairly 1:1, which would be a bragging point for any dev- no one would trivialize 1:1 movement as ‘accessible’. Any idea if they change their approach?
September 6th, 2007 at 10:40 pm
I think they could have sold still more of Metroid…. I only saw my first copy of it last night in a Best Buy after seeing only empty spaces where it was supposed to be at BB, Target, Wal-mart and EB/GS over the last week.
(No, I didn’t buy it. I was there to see if Dewy’s Adventure had come out.)
September 7th, 2007 at 7:55 am
I’ll probably get it soon. But first I gotta finish Zelda! I’m 30 hours in and have two dungeons left!
September 7th, 2007 at 8:09 am
Bioshock and MP3 are both great games but they are VERY different games. The main complaint for both are they are waaay to short. I am almost 56% through Metroid already and Bioshock took me about 20-25 hours total and I searched every corner and got all the powers.
September 7th, 2007 at 12:02 pm
For sales, we should compare any good selling game with Pokémon Diamond… That one still remains the best-selling game of ALL time! Bioshock, despite being a great game, is not a fair comparison to MP3, I think…
Oh, and yes, I guess Nintendo showed us that their marketing strategy was, indeed, the right one for this game.
September 7th, 2007 at 12:15 pm
I personally am happy if MP3 sells lights out, because I’m one who’s in the “hardcore” camp and seeing that this, what I consider a “hardcore” game, sell very well is great news for us Wii owners who don’t care for the puzzle/mini-game games or the numerious ports. Finally an original Wii title that not only is a “hardcore” game but also truly proves that the Wii can give us next gen visuals. I felt MP3 was going to be a very important title for numerious reasons.
I can’t help but hope this game sells like hotcakes while the lazy ports sell like crap as well as many of the puzzle/mini-game. I don’t want them to sell crappily because I hate the Wii, it’s because I want Nintendo to realize we “hardcore” gamers are still here(which I believe they do) and WANT games like this AND will buy them, and for the third parties to know that we expect this type of quality in our Wii titles. The straight last gen ports or lazy visuals shouldn’t be tolerated because Nintendo just showed everyone how it’s done. I don’t mean I expect every game to be a AAA game, but I think it’s fair for us to expect a level of quality that should be attainable.
September 7th, 2007 at 12:22 pm
Metroid is not a hardcore game. Fuck all the so-called hardcore gamers who think that since First Person Metroid games started to be made, that the series is intended for them; chances are they haven’t even been playing since the times of Super Metroid, much less the original 1986 game. Putting Metroid in the same category as moronic titles such as GTA is an insult to Gunpei Yokoi’s legacy.
September 7th, 2007 at 2:46 pm
fans of metroid should check out kid icarus. just to let u know, theres metroids in that game too. u can check it out on the virtual console, so u dont gota pay alot more on ebay
September 7th, 2007 at 5:43 pm
ResidentialEvil, if you think MP3 has next-gen visuals then you need to seriously up your standards.
And Poochy, I think you’re getting the terms “hardcore” and “mature” mixed up. Hardcore games are ones that are made for gamers above the “casual” play level, and not necessarily violent games like GTA (which I wouldn’t say is moronic, it’s actually pretty groundbreaking). And who are you to say who a game is intended for? I think that should be left up to the creators.
September 7th, 2007 at 6:44 pm
Eh, those numbers are a bit suspect. Well, not the actual sales numbers, but they way they’re being spun. If VGChartz is at all to be believed, then BioShock sold at least 400k in the first week. The “Prime 3 sold better than BioShock, Blue Dragon, and Warhawk combined” bit is misleading, because in order for that to be true, they’d have to be compairing first week sales of Prime 3 to second week sales of BioShock. BioShock’s numbers seem to have *massively* fallen off in the second week, it lost more than half it’s sales. Looking at 360 game sales, that seems to be a bit of a trend. So the real question becomes, how will Prime 3’s sales do in the long run. A lot of Wii and DS games have really good life, with sales numbers not dropping too rapidly. But it remains to be seen if Prime 3 has similar life in it. If Prime 3 has a similar drop off, then the first two week sales for it will be compairable or lower than just BioShock. If it doesn’t it’ll pass it’s total sales numbers. That being said, Prime 3 sold really well, if it keeps momentum it’ll do extremely well.
September 14th, 2007 at 12:01 am
1. Madden NFL 08 (Xbox 360) — 896.6K
2. Madden NFL 08 (PS2) — 643.6K
3. BioShock (Xbox 360) — 490.9K
4. Madden NFL 08 (PS3) — 336.2K
5. Wii Play/ w remote (Wii) — 256.8K
6. Metroid Prime 3: Corruption (Wii) — 218.1K
I hope Infendo will learn to stop posting hearsay as news. And maybe address the reasons that MP3, an established franchise, sold less than half the copies of Bioshock.
September 14th, 2007 at 12:06 am
Of course, the REAL story will be adding the numbers up for August and September, so I guess I shouldn’t sound quite so “nyah-nyah” yet.