Slashdot Mirror


Zelda: Breath of the Wild Is Now the Fastest-Selling Nintendo Launch Title of All Time (theverge.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Verge: It's no surprise that The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is the best-selling game on the Nintendo Switch, a console that just had its strongest U.S. opening ever for the company. But managing to sell more copies than consoles that can actually play it? That's what's happened in the U.S., amazingly -- Nintendo just announced that it sold 906,000 Switch consoles in March along with 925,000 copies of Breath of the Wild. The Wii U version moved almost 460,000 units on top of that, making for total sales of over 1.3 million. Breath of the Wild is now the fastest-selling Nintendo launch title of all time and the fastest-selling Legend of Zelda game ever. Nintendo says it thinks the Switch attach rate of more than 100 percent might be explained by people who bought a limited edition version to collect and a regular version to actually play, though another possibility is that some bought the game before they could find the console itself in stock.

47 comments

  1. booooooooring by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    who gives a flying fuck about whatever crap some random console maker sells?
    You can find fart apps that sell more.

  2. Ender's game by iMadeGhostzilla · · Score: 1

    Haven't played it but looks closest I've seen to the game Ender played on his tablet.

  3. And for good reason... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    When you take the best parts of Super Smash, Minecraft, Fallout, and The Legend of Zelda, and put them all into a AAA console game...well...what do you expect?

  4. In my case, by keith_nt4 · · Score: 1

    I reserved BotW a few weeks before launch but never got a reservation on the Switch. Then the night of March 2nd I found a bundle-only console for sale online that included BotW. So naturally I opened one copy to play and I have a "sealed in box" copy to keep (neither are "special" or "limited" in any way). I probably should have just returned the extra back to amazon but didn't for no particular reason.

    Not sure if that explains the greater than 1:1 attach rate but it could be part of it.

    --
    "UNIX is very simple, it just needs a genius to understand its simplicity." -Dennis Ritchie
    1. Re:In my case, by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The other part is as the summary guessed - I own the game but no console. Inventory of the game has just recently started to remain in stores but I have to actually see a switch in stores or the in the wild for that matter. As best as I can tell I bought a physical game copy for a non-existent console :(

      I keep hearing rumors of people buying them and occasionally someone tells me that spotted one in the wild but I myself have yet to lay eyes on even a demo model in a store much a real switch...

  5. Um, it's the only one worth buying? by adosch · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I pre-ordered a Switch and did get a handful of the other titles out there. But let's face it everyone: This was planned hook-line-and-sinker style. On top of a new platform and into the gaming style of Zelda or not --- it's a great game, but the only worthy title out there that has zero competition. I'm not surprised it beat any tracked sales records. What else was everyone going to get excited about?

    Wonder if Mario Kart in a few weeks will surpass? Because after that, we're all going to be waiting for that first Mario game around Black Friday/Christmas time.

    1. Re:Um, it's the only one worth buying? by sexconker · · Score: 4, Informative

      BotW is certainly head and shoulders and torso and legs and a ladder above everything else out there (Switch or otherwise), but there are a handful of worthwhile games on the Switch.

      Snipperclips (download only) is great for 2 players. I believe there's a demo. It's also got some levels for 4 players, but I think there's only 12 or so. I had a group that went through it recently and it was great, but I was disappointed there were so few levels for 4 players. (There's some third mode for up to 4 players, called Party Blitz or something, but I think it's just a time-trial type thing. I haven't tried it.)

      Bomberman is Bomberman. It sucked ass when it launched because it had horrendous delay on the controls, but they've since patched that and added more stages and shit (for free). If you have a group who likes to play Bomberman, it's probably worth it if you have the Best Buy or Amazon Prime 20% discount.

      Has Been Heroes is an interesting single player title. I think it's only $20. It's pretty challenging, but it can get repetitive.

      Puyo Puyo Tetris has a demo out, and it may interest some people. I may pick this one up. I think this has a budget price as well.

      There's Blaster Master Zero, which I've heard good things about. Though it's reportedly easy (or at least compared to the original) and short.

      2 weeks until Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, which is basically a rerelease of Mario Kart 8. It'll be hard to fuck this up, and they've included proper battle stages now.

      Arms and Splatoon 2 are coming in a couple of months as well.

      And there's plenty of indie / retro stuff on the eShop available now and coming soon, some with free demos.

      And the Switch is region free (unless devs explicitly lock a particular title, I guess), so you can create a Japanese Nintendo account and browse the Japanese eShop on your Switch, buy stuff there, and play it under your regular US/whatever account. You may need to buy eShop gift cards from amazon.co.jp or something.

    2. Re:Um, it's the only one worth buying? by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 1

      Fast RMX is a nice racer at a low price.

      --
      systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
    3. Re:Um, it's the only one worth buying? by chispito · · Score: 1

      The original Blaster Master was insanely hard. I still have fond memories of it but no way do I want something that punishing again.

      --
      The Daddy casts sleep on the Baby. The Baby resists!
    4. Re: Um, it's the only one worth buying? by loufoque · · Score: 1

      why did you even get a Switch? The game is on the Wii U, which also has the other good game of this generation.

    5. Re:Um, it's the only one worth buying? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      We need pikmin!

    6. Re:Um, it's the only one worth buying? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wonder if Mario Kart in a few weeks will surpass?

      Elwood: What kind of games do you have available for the Switch?

      Nintendo: Oh, we got both kinds. We got Zelda and Mario.

    7. Re:Um, it's the only one worth buying? by sexconker · · Score: 1

      There's Hey Pikmin on the 3DS soon. We'll have to wait for E3 to see if there's anything planned for the Switch.
      But how will the squeeze that in with all the time they'll spend on the Switch's F-Zero, Metroid, and 3D mainline Pokemon reveals???

      (Harsh truth: At E3, Nintendo will focus on the Switch's success, Zelda's upcoming DLC, Arms, Splatoon 2, and Fire Emblem Warriors. Mario Odyssey will be shown behind closed doors only and delayed at least 2 times. The big "surprise" will be a port of Smash Bros for Wii U with all/most of the DLC unlocked at the start. No Metroid, no Pikmin on Switch, no Pokemon on Switch, and no F-Zero.)

    8. Re: Um, it's the only one worth buying? by Blaskowicz · · Score: 2

      Why buy a Wii U? and be saddled with an ugly redundant home console that's kind of useless without the tablet, while the tablet is entirely useless without the console?

      Wii U is like an Altair or IMSAI 8080, a fugly box that needed a tacky computer terminal attached. Computers got more successful when they filled both the computer and terminal part like the Commodore PET, Apple II and Switch do.

    9. Re: Um, it's the only one worth buying? by loufoque · · Score: 1

      I see you don't understand the only things that matter about consoles: the games.

  6. Re:People have no taste by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 2

    Or maybe "people" aren't you and are allowed to have their own opinion.

    --
    systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
  7. Re: People have no taste by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    2006 called, they're running out of you

  8. Re:People have no taste by aliquis · · Score: 0

    It is a pretty ugly game though.

    But graphics doesn't matter all that much.
    I don't know how much I'd like it as a game though. Haven't tried it and even if I had I would have had to play hours / through it all to be able to have a more correct opinion.

  9. Re: People have no taste by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Opinions aside, objectively it has sub par graphics with a capped 30 frames that drop and max 1080p with lowered quality textures in comparison to modern releases. Does that make it a bad game? That is opinion but its sub par graphics is an objective fact.

  10. Not surprising by lytlebill · · Score: 2

    When you consider that the launch lineup was so tiny as to be almost negative, it doesn't come as a shock that the only truly notable title sold as many units as the console.

    I still don't see the market for the Switch, given its less-than-competitive performance; it just feels like Nintendo is counting on the gimmick to hit the same lucky timing the Wii did. I'm no expecting much longevity, particularly given the brisk pace that smartphones set as far as portable performance.

    1. Re:Not surprising by skam240 · · Score: 1

      For a lot of Nintendo fans it's not about the console at all, it's about Nintendo's games that you can only play on the console. Yes, the Wii was an exception to what I'm saying, attracting a lot of casual gamers with its special controlers but for the hardcore Nintendo fans it's the virtual garuntee of a good Zelda, Mario, Smash Brothers, etc title.

      --
      I ignore Anonymous Coward posts. If you want to discuss something, that's awesome. Log in.
    2. Re:Not surprising by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      For all the shit the EA Sports and Call of Duty lines get for rehashing the same shit over and over, Nintendo somehow gets a pass on it.

    3. Re:Not surprising by Blaskowicz · · Score: 1

      Phones may have a few good games or well advertised games, but otherwise there's a million crapware, phones that are too slow, phones that are so fast they don't make some games better, throttling issues, battery issues, control issues. It's like PC gaming in that few people relatively to the population will ever play some high end game (but like PC gaming, 1% of the user base playing a game is 10+ million players/customers)

      For one thing, Nintendo Switch has a "low res" display according to some but well, not : many people have a phone around 800x480 res, or a 1366x768 laptop, and even an iPhone 5S has less pixels in both directions (but more ppi) than the Switch.

      It's true than phones may overtake it but with caveats I enumerated and also Moore's law is slowing down. They're not actually getting 2x better all the time. But you're probably right that gaming will get better, bigger, higher quality on phones :).
      The Switch's not all lost though : Nintendo can do the same thing that MS and Sony did, put out a new console that's compatible with the current one, so much as they'd be able to call it a Switch. Nintendo did it themselves before, with the Game Boy Color and New 3DS for instance. Nvidia will always be making Tegra, although the successors to Switch's Tegra are bigger, higher end, or with image processing crap for cars etc. so they'll have to make a custom one for Nintendo this time, like AMD did the first and second time for MS and Sony.

    4. Re:Not surprising by Blaskowicz · · Score: 1

      It may be that not everything has to be new all the time. Many uninspired people likely are making chessboards and go-bans as we speak.
      It's sobering to think that Mafia from 2002 was already a (semi) open world, mission based game with good graphics and recognizably human characters. So, a bit like Watch Dogs but with slower cars and a better game. Battlefield 1942 came out the same year. Now, 2002 is not that early as far as games go but watch the current date. Scary?

      There was even some hype for a Star Wars Battlefront game, which is from 2015, DLC up to 2016. They made it look like it's an all new game. But Star Wars : Battlefront came out in 2004 for fuck's sake! It had a colon in the title though. The premise is the same as far as I know, team deathmatch between evil empire and rebels on the internet.

  11. Many games sold online in US are shipped overseas by Flytrap · · Score: 4, Informative
    On Saturday April 15, 2017, BeauHD said:

    It's no surprise that The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is the best-selling game on the Nintendo Switch... But managing to sell more copies than consoles that can actually play it? That's what's happened in the U.S., amazingly -- Nintendo just announced that it sold 906,000 Switch consoles in March along with 925,000 copies of Breath of the Wild.

    Many people around the world buy their games from US based online stores when that game is not readily available from their local game store... These sales will have been recorded as US sales, even if the product might have ultimately been shipped overseas.

    The iPhone exhibited a similar phenomenon during 2007-2009 when it was not yet readily available around the world. Apple reported significantly higher US unit sales than AT&T was reporting new subscribers - even though the phone was network locked to AT&T in the US - that was because many iPhones were being purchased in the US for use on other (often overseas) networks (after being jailbroken).

  12. Perfect timing... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Now that it's in demand, Nintendo should stop selling it...

  13. There's no supply by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I have Zelda but no console to run it on.

    First week, console in stock, game in stock, I go to the ATM, have a meal, come back, sold out.... too slow.
    Second week, game in stock, no consoles.
    Third week, nothing in stock.
    Fourth week, and the game is in stock, but not the console anyway, so I buy the game, and decide to wait for the bluetooth left console issue to get fixed.

    Fifth week, haven't tried, I'm waiting now for my wifes birthday and I'll "gift" the new console, she can have the "pleasure" of watching my "demonstrate" her gift to her.

    They have an unexpected hit on their hands, you can tell from the hit and miss supply situation. The games are in better supply to the consoles.

    1. Re:There's no supply by keith_nt4 · · Score: 1

      Uh, you realize you can buy BotW electronically right? Download it directly to the consoles internal storage? Reportedly the load times are way better too. I mean some people won't like that. Just seems necessary to go around trying to catch it in stock.

      --
      "UNIX is very simple, it just needs a genius to understand its simplicity." -Dennis Ritchie
  14. Was going to buy one by Archfeld · · Score: 1

    I was going to buy one but after the bad press about screen quality I asked the store to allow me to see the screen before I purchased it and they (Best Buy) refused to allow me to open one prior to purchase, so I deferred. Not that it hurt their sales at all, some lady took the one I had from my hands and bought it.

    --
    errr....umm...*whooosh* *whoosh* Is this thing on ?
    1. Re:Was going to buy one by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      you're out of your flipping mind. the screen is fine.

    2. Re:Was going to buy one by donaldm · · Score: 1

      I was going to buy one but after the bad press about screen quality I asked the store to allow me to see the screen before I purchased it and they (Best Buy) refused to allow me to open one prior to purchase, so I deferred. Not that it hurt their sales at all, some lady took the one I had from my hands and bought it.

      Because the Switch is a console/portable hybrid it would be a good idea to put a screen protector on as soon as you brought the device.

      Most people who get a new mobile or handheld get screen protectors put on (some mobiles actually come with them) from purchase but there are always some who honestly think that there is no need for the additional small expense. Usually, these people get very upset in a few months when scratches appear on the unprotected screen when a bit of forward-planning could have prevented or significantly reduced that.

      Of course, dropping (the Switch is also a handheld) is not a good idea but in many cases, it is inevitable especially if you give the Switch to kids and young teens but then again there are some adults that should not be let within five meters of any electronic device. :)

      --
      There ain't no such thing as proprietary standards only proprietary formats. Standards are by definition open.
    3. Re:Was going to buy one by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Never buy a first revision of any consoles, there are more problems than just the screen

    4. Re:Was going to buy one by Archfeld · · Score: 1

      It is more an issue of dead pixels than of potential scratches or such in the future. I doubt that I would use the device as a portable much anyways, I was mainly looking to play the new Zelda game and would very likely use it most of the time hooked to my big screen. I do very little portable gaming even on my laptop. But I do enjoy a good session of FPS shooter, and I love old school RPG's, almost as much as I like table top pen and paper role playing. The GF's kid and I have a blast teaming up in Battlefield as pilot and gunner, he's a really good pilot and it is not unheard of us to go an entire game in one vehicle. I will probably still get one but more toward the end of the year for a Christmas present or for a birthday gift for him in November.

      http://www.pcmag.com/news/3522...

      --
      errr....umm...*whooosh* *whoosh* Is this thing on ?
    5. Re:Was going to buy one by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The GF's kid

      Archfeld is a pathetic little cuckold... sad!

    6. Re:Was going to buy one by Archfeld · · Score: 2

      Nah I lucked into a wonderful women who had a great kid by a deadbeat loser Dad. I really enjoy having the kid around and I did not have to go through the terrible 2's with him. He's old enough that he appreciates me, and I can like him as a person. The best part is his mother likes Hockey and drinks beer as well. I met her at a Sharks game, we both have season tickets...

      --
      errr....umm...*whooosh* *whoosh* Is this thing on ?
  15. mike from cinemascre said it right... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    where the fuck is "our" games (i.e the people over 13). Where is metroid? Castlevania? Where is grand theft auto? Red dead 2?

    Splatoon was different and neat but it's still basically a kids game.

    I love zelda but i'm not paying 400+ dollars to play just zelda for the next year...

  16. Re:People have no taste by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    > I want my games dark and gritty,

    Like your sex, I suppose.

  17. Re:Many games sold online in US are shipped overse by thegarbz · · Score: 1

    That sounds good in theory but in practice it is actually backwards. Zelda was available absolutely everywhere from March 3rd. Switches on the other hand are backordered over much of the world.

  18. Re:Many games sold online in US are shipped overse by tlhIngan · · Score: 1

    Many people around the world buy their games from US based online stores when that game is not readily available from their local game store... These sales will have been recorded as US sales, even if the product might have ultimately been shipped overseas.

    Except I'm fairly certain everywhere the Switch is sold, Nintendo makes sure stores are overstocked with Zelda. Every store I go into has copies of Zelda on the shelf - it's like Nintendo intentionally shipped every store with 10% more copies of Zelda than Switches.

    Now, some people might have ordered it ahead of time in case Nintendo short-shipped Zelda, but it appears that no, Nintendo actually flooded stores with copies.

  19. Re:Many games sold online in US are shipped overse by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's almost as if pressing a disc is alot easier to manufacture and ship than a game console..

  20. Nintendont by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Switch = for babby

  21. Re:Many games sold online in US are shipped overse by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    That's not really the only reason for more games sold than consoles. There are a lot of people waiting to get a console of their own but nintendo's shortage strategy strikes again.

    So while we (I'm in this boat as well) wait til we can find a console at the store (As I'm not rewarding a scalper by paying double retail for it.) we start buying some of the games/accessories that -are- available.

    I've done this with the 360 and PS3 last gen as well as the 3DS. I haven't bought any Switch stuff yet, but I fully expect to buy a copy of BotW and a Controller Pro or two prior to buying the Switch itself.

    The reasoning being while the console is likely going to be available for the commercial life of the Switch, individual games and accessories usually aren't. It's easy to assume there are other Zelda fans in the same boat as me.

  22. Re:Many games sold online in US are shipped overse by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    switch games arent on discs ! get a brain moran !

  23. Can you get Bomberman patched without an account? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Honest question I wonder about, let's say you got the physical cartridge of Bomberman plugged in, can you download the patch (necessary, since the game is broken) without creating a Nintendo or whatever account? If you log out, does the game stay patched?

    Because, my reaction would be : crap, not yet another account/e-mail/password!
    Especially as the console has multiple early 90s games at launch (Bomberman and Street Fighter II) so it's like it's also for people who haven't gamed on consoles for 15 years.
    If I want to buy a Google, I'll buy a Google.