I agree with this. Name branding goes for a lot, and the BotW cast aren't instantly recognisable.
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Could Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity outsell some previous mainline 3D Zeldas?
- Thread starter Phendrift
- Start date
Yes. I think this game can break the 5 million barrier. It has the benefit of being on Switch, themed based on BotW and launch as their big holiday title.
That's not really how sales work. It's not going to have an exponential growth. Musou always has a sales ceiling.
Hyrule warrior deluxe didnt sell much even after Botw success. Right now in everyones eyes, this is just a Zelda/musuo spinoff. It won't sell like a main game unless marketed like a main game.
It's the telling of the backstory to the latest widely-acclaimed entry in a legendary (pni) franchise filling the gap for a highly-anticipated sequel on the horizon on a highly-popular system with a consumer base that's never been larger.
I'll be shocked if it doesn't slide in somewhere in those rankings.
I'll be shocked if it doesn't slide in somewhere in those rankings.
I think people may be underestimating how effective the Breath of the Wild art style will be at drawing attention, along with the story connection. The past three releases of the first Hyrule Warriors have all had a distinctly spin-off quality to them, and not just because the gameplay is completely unlike an actual Zelda title. The shaky, non-canonical story never did HW any favors, and despite Zelda having no set art style for the franchise, HW still managed to look somehow not like a Zelda game. This game, which looks exactly like the most popular entry in the series and has a legitimate story connection to it, should prove much more successful than the first Hyrule Warriors. Combine that with Zelda's overall increased popularity since BotW and it should be able to do about as well as Link's Awakening (2019), which would put it over SS and MM, and over WW in the long term.
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The IP is powerful enough to overcome it. I mean HW broke that sales ceiling and is the highest selling one.
this will break it even more on a successful console and marketed as a prequel to BotW with that art style. As well as releasing during the holidays
Agreed. HW wasn't a bad looking game or anything. Some character designs were pretty suspect, overall it was fine, but still despite that it had an overall and very distinct feel of being a spin-off and one not handled by Nintendo.
AoC looks identical to BotW and that's going to go a long way in getting people to take it seriously. Plus everything else going for it being a canon prequel, the main title for Nintendo this holiday, etc.
This clearly isn't being positioned as a regular musou game, both by Nintendo and KT.
(What is the ceiling on Musou's anyway? I don't know the highest selling DW on hand. Whatever it is, this will be assumed to do more.)
regardless, low Zelda isn't some crazy barometer We're not talking 10 million.
Link's Awakening has already outsold several 3D Zeldas, and almost every 2D Zelda. And it was a 2D remake.
3 and 4 million isn't much to overcome, so I don't get the posts acting like Zelda has been some insane seller
Either way, we won't wait too long at least.
While I feel it's "just" a musou game, I feel like this will sell more than the first as how well BOTW sold, people are gonna buy it to wanna see more of the "past" Hyrule war.
I don't think so, but it'll come close enough. I imagine it'll break past every other Musou in terms of sales units, but I don't think it crosses much more than 3M because it being a Musou game means there will be a limit to how much it can sell. 2-3M is where I'd guess it'll land.
y'all are definitely underestimating this game, that's for sure
3+ million seller, easily
Edit - ehhhh, maybe 2+ million, easily....but I expect it to hit 3 million lifetime.
3+ million seller, easily
Edit - ehhhh, maybe 2+ million, easily....but I expect it to hit 3 million lifetime.
the artstyle and story will be very important.
I mean, I would've gotten a hyrule warriors 2 anyway, but this approach has me more excited.
FWIW, compare the number of views and likes of Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition announcement trailer compared to the 2 videos of Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity. The differences are staggering, even just a few hours after the reveal.
They need to add "The Legend of Zelda" to the title. It's like selling "Kart 9" without the "Mario" then expecting the same sales.
I'm probably in just for the story elements. Hopefully the game exceeds my relatively low expectations.
Today's trailer has been viewed more in ~6 hours than the Hyrule Warriors trailer has been viewed in the past 2 years. It's obviously getting a lot more attention because of the direct BOTW connection.
I feel like a *massive* number of people who pick this up this year will never have heard the term Musou before, and possibly never will.
I don't want to rule it out because Nintendo games can often surprise people, but I would be shocked if it does anything remotely on par with Nintendo's big hitters (Mario, Zelda, MK, AC, Splatoon etc). This is from someone who usually laughs at people who say games like Animal Crossing wont easily beak 20 M.
I think it will definitely pass some of those, and honestly anything below Ocarina probably isn't safe. I don't think it will bear Ocarina, but it has a lot going for it...
-It's based off BoTW
-BoTW seems to have expanded the Zelda franchise
-It's releasing one the Switch, which has been a monster moving software
-It's releasing in the Prime holiday slot
-Switch has a ton of momentum this year
-It will get plenty of push from Nintendo
Will be interesting to see where it ends up, but I think it could hit 6m WW sales over its lifetime.
-It's based off BoTW
-BoTW seems to have expanded the Zelda franchise
-It's releasing one the Switch, which has been a monster moving software
-It's releasing in the Prime holiday slot
-Switch has a ton of momentum this year
-It will get plenty of push from Nintendo
Will be interesting to see where it ends up, but I think it could hit 6m WW sales over its lifetime.
I think it will do 4M plus, Both Botw hype and Switch hype will make it the best selling warriors game.
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it's just action zelda spinoff to most.
which is what is should be perceived in a way
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This. It looks flashy and fun. It's not exactly offputting, the genre has just barely been attached to strong IPs before.
This thread is just about outselling some 3D Zeldas.
3-4 million for the low entries
not doing Mario and Mario Kart and AC numbers 20m+
Hyrule Warriors games are so different than mainline Zeldas that I could see plenty of people who are first in line to pick up mainline games just going 'meh' to yet another musou game.
Hyrule Warriors sold over a million on the Wii U.
This is a releasing on the Switch as Nintendo's big Holiday title, and is the canon prequel to Breath of the Wild.
I'm interested too. I've never played a musou either because they didn't appeal to me but the fact this is a prequel to BOTW, I have to get it.
Even then, I think it's a mountain to climb. Interested to see how a non-traditional holiday title will do in the November slot.
Has any mosou game had a real western ad campaign before? One that targets the general public for the holiday season? Because this one will.
If the first one could sell 1 million on a 10 million userbase, I think this one could at least sell 5 million on a 70 million userbase. Factor in the fact that it is being tied to BOTW and will no doubt be promoted and pushed as a prequel to BOTW, it should sail past the first one.
well side note, I think the genre has actually been attached to some strong IPs for a while, Zelda, Dragon Quest, Fire Emblem, One Piece. Especially for Japan. (AoT)
But the genre has never been directly heavily connected to a game like BOTW before. (Nintendo even appears to be directly helping out too.)
if it was the same graphics and artstyle as HW1, Cia is still the main thing, story was in the background, and the cutscenes were just standard KT motioncapped stuff with grunts and textboxes, and they just threw in some champions to play around, then sure, give it a couple million in sales.
I don't think it will break these many copies, to be honest. Musou isn't big genre, and people are aware that this is a "spin-off" (spin-off not in story, but in gameplay, of course). I think it will sell more than 3.5m though.