I agree with you that the second DLC for this game was really really great. It was worth my money (but the original purchase... I don't know if it was). However, the DLC (including Torna) for XC2 is possibly the best DLC ever released (from a content amount and enjoyability) and I don't know if it's fair to compare the two haha. Hopefully when you finish it you'll come to a similar conclusion!
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Sword & Shield **Official news only** DLC Crown Tundra 22nd October
- Thread starter DHR-107
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I agree with you that the second DLC for this game was really really great. It was worth my money (but the original purchase... I don't know if it was). However, the DLC (including Torna) for XC2 is possibly the best DLC ever released (from a content amount and enjoyability) and I don't know if it's fair to compare the two haha. Hopefully when you finish it you'll come to a similar conclusion!
Oh hey, we got a sales data update. These numbers are as of September 30th
Pokémon X & Y: 16.45 million
Pokémon Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire: 14.27 million
Pokémon Sun & Moon: 16.2 million
Pokémon Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon: 8.89 million
Pokémon Let's Go, Pikachu! & Let's Go, Eevee: 12.49 million
Pokémon Sword & Shield: 19.02 million
And here's the old data, as of March 31
Pokémon X & Y: 16.45 million
Pokémon Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire: 14.27 million
Pokémon Sun & Moon: 16.18 million
Pokémon Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon: 8.77 million
Pokémon Let's Go, Pikachu! & Let's Go, Eevee: 11.97 million
Pokémon Sword & Shield: 17.37 million
SWSH sold another 2.3 million in 6 months. As such, it has completely overtaken Diamond & Pearl (17.67 million) in sales. With the holiday season and the DLC bundle, I can easily see SWSH breaching the GS threshold (23.1 million)
Pokémon X & Y: 16.45 million
Pokémon Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire: 14.27 million
Pokémon Sun & Moon: 16.2 million
Pokémon Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon: 8.89 million
Pokémon Let's Go, Pikachu! & Let's Go, Eevee: 12.49 million
Pokémon Sword & Shield: 19.02 million
And here's the old data, as of March 31
Pokémon X & Y: 16.45 million
Pokémon Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire: 14.27 million
Pokémon Sun & Moon: 16.18 million
Pokémon Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon: 8.77 million
Pokémon Let's Go, Pikachu! & Let's Go, Eevee: 11.97 million
Pokémon Sword & Shield: 17.37 million
SWSH sold another 2.3 million in 6 months. As such, it has completely overtaken Diamond & Pearl (17.67 million) in sales. With the holiday season and the DLC bundle, I can easily see SWSH breaching the GS threshold (23.1 million)
Literally the best-selling games since Pokémania and the number just keeps getting higher. Incredible.
Much like with Animal Crossing I imagine a lot of the success has to do with Covid, but that doesn't quite account for the entirety of this. They really stepped up their marketing game, I guess.
Much like with Animal Crossing I imagine a lot of the success has to do with Covid, but that doesn't quite account for the entirety of this. They really stepped up their marketing game, I guess.
There will probably be a new game announced next year to slow the sales down, but with passing GS being an inevitability, I'm pretty curious how close to RB's sales (36 million) SWSH gets by the end of the generation.
30 million (life time, not within the next 6 months) might be on the table depending on how much the holiday sales boost catapults it.
30 million (life time, not within the next 6 months) might be on the table depending on how much the holiday sales boost catapults it.
Eh, the Covid situation definitely helped, but the reality is that simply it's Pokemon on the Switch, and for the "intended audience" the game is both fun and scenic.
Of those 20 million, I'd not be surprised if 15+ millions are the "silent minority", aka kids or super casual players who buy the game, play it once, maybe do raids for fun, and aren't bothered with anything else. You know, people (like me) who just like to have fun and aren't bothered by minor issues.
All the "issues" of the game at analytical level (graphic quality, lack of entire pokedex from start, framerate drop in Wild Area while online)... they definitely are there, but those players don't care and possibly don't even notice them.
Hence why it sells so much.
It's accessible.
It's fun.
It does look gorgeous in most parts.
It even has somewhat decent postgame and replayability on casual perspective.
Everything checks.
Well see, this is the thing that surprises me -- the Switch is 300 and only fairly recently got a new version for 200, while SwSh is 60. Meanwhile a 3DS was 140 - with a later version for 90 - with each Pokémon game there being 40, and of course it gets cheaper the further back you go. That made Pokémon very accessible to lower income families much more than the Switch is.
So it does kind of surprise me that SwSh is making this much when it's not only a lot pricier to get than normal, but we're also in the middle of a number of situations where a lot of people are finding themselves with less disposable income than before? It's just interesting to me.
The thing is, you're looking at this as "you need to invest to buy a Switch first".
And there's where you're wrong. Nowadays a lot of people not necessarly Pokemon-related already own one. The DS family was (at least in the west) mostly a niche console, it definitely was the """best""" (aka only) handheld console, however combination of small screen, non-streamability without hardmodding, and limited pool of famous games meant that unless you were already into a series that was 3ds exclusive (basically, Zelda, Pokemon, maaaybe SMT?) wasn't exactly good.
The Switch on other hand... oh boi, it's full of re-releases of PC and former PS4 series, it has the new Mario and Zelda games which recordsold, it has even the infamous Fortnite and other big multiplayer games, even the attractivity of the retro games from the Switch Online, it's playable on TV and easy to stream from for streamers too.
Hence lot of people already owned a switch anyway (for actual use as family console or portable console) for other reasons, and in that case you're just investing in... buying the game.
And SwSh being extremely easy to get into without having the necessity to own previous games (that's where Dexit is a blessing in disguise) as well as all the various QoL aimed at competitive gameplay is just the cherry on the Gigamax Alcremie.
That's what I meant with "accessible".
It sold 2 million in 6 months and we're heading into a holiday season that has a new DLC-complete retail version to grab in a holiday season that, oof, boy howdy, sure doesnt have a lot of competition on switch.
Even if it doesn't breach it within the next 6 months, I would be shocked if it didn't get within a million's distance, which it will probably easily close by the end of the year.
The 3DS was more hurt by smartphones being advanced enough to run comparable games more than anything else. It also had a rocky launch due to its high price and very small library(It took a good while to have a reasonable amount of good games for it). Even then 77 Million consoles sold is hardly niche, considering that the only Nintendo Home consoles to beat it is the Wii, but the Switch is catching up. While the other handhelds sold more than it, it can easily be explained that they pretty much had a monopoly on handheld gaming at the time, with the exception of the DS(The PSP sold pretty well, it was a distant 2nd sales wise but still far more than any non-Nintendo handheld before or since, enough to have more lifetime sales than the 3DS)
Speaking of the original DS, it is the 2nd best-selling videogame console of all time, only beaten out by the PS2, which itself was helped greatly by being one of the the cheapest DVD players on the market at the time.
You see, that's another thing.
It's catching up to the entire console lifespan sales... in a handful years.
Switches are everywhere nowadays, almost every ""serious"" (many commas here) console gamer owns one, either due to the portability or exclusives or both.
And it's a great family console due to the amount of party and kid-friendly games on it, Pokemon itself included.
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No, I'm taking it into account and that doesn't factor into the equation -- I'm talking about lower income families who wouldn't have a switch either in the first place or when they want to get Pokémon, and I'm talking about kids who maybe don't really care about PS4 ports or breath of the wild. Pokémon has always been the best-seller of the handhelds and the big draw -- there'll be a not-insignificant number of kids who only had Pokémon and maybe brain training from their aunt and a half price mario game for christmas on their DS; I certainly know I was one of those. We're talking about a console that is more than double the price of the last and a game whose pricetag is increased just enough compared to last time to not be as viable a christmas present. No matter how you spin it, that's a much much harder sell for poorer families. So as compared to Mario, Zelda etc which have historically had their main games on the home console it's a lot more surprising to see Pokémon doing this well.
I also, uh, have absolutely no idea what you're talking about calling the DS a 'niche' console and citing that it's not easy to stream when we're talking about mainline sales especially from before streaming was even really a thing.
I wonder if Dexit was actually a benefit, since it brought attention to the game unlike any title before?So much for "the games are trash, Dexit is a mistake, noone will buy them"
Streisand effect is definitely a thing -- while Dexit didn't exactly get mainstream attention, it did get pretty infamous within the gaming sphere: plenty of journalists and news sites were reporting it and getting more clicks than Pokémon would usually get because bad news sells better than good news, and so a lot more people in the gaming sphere who wouldn't usually care about Pokémon would now be looking at ads and information about it. And, hey, if you're someone who didn't care about Pokémon before; the news that not every creature is coming back probably isn't a negative to you when you literally don't know anything beyond Pikachu, Charizard and that cool rock guy Brock had.
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And I'm talking of the present and why Switch is so much more present in everyday life than the DS.
As I said, the fact that in the 3 years the Switch's been around it's already closing in to the sales of a console that's over 10 year old should say something about how much more common it is.
One other thing to note is that people are buying more and more games for the Switch in comparison to some of Nintendo's recent consoles. Right now the Switch has 456.59 million units of software sold, as opposed to the Wii U and 3DS's combined software sales of 488.39 million (385.12 million coming from the 3DS). Its almost halfway to the amount of software that the Wii sold over it's lifespan (921.85 million) and the Switch is still going strong!
I do think that since Nintendo's offerings are no longer split between two consoles, more people are picking up games for the Switch as a whole. During the 3DS / Wii U era, if you were buying a 3DS game you probably would not pick up a Wii U game at the same time. There is no longer a split between what consoles people need to buy games for, since if you want the latest Pokemon or Mario game, you only have one console to buy for.
I do think that since Nintendo's offerings are no longer split between two consoles, more people are picking up games for the Switch as a whole. During the 3DS / Wii U era, if you were buying a 3DS game you probably would not pick up a Wii U game at the same time. There is no longer a split between what consoles people need to buy games for, since if you want the latest Pokemon or Mario game, you only have one console to buy for.
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Ok, let's not pretend that "sold a lot" and "has good quality" are somehow the sameSo much for "the games are trash, Dexit is a mistake, noone will buy them"
Madden games sale a lot and are still terrible games for example
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0K = -459.7°F = -273.1°C
That's impossibly cold no matter which scale you use.
glastrier really is just chilly magcargo huh
Not quite as cool as the animated version, but still cute.
You saw Absolute 0, now meet... ABSOLUTE BELOW 0
Fun fact, a negative absolute temperature is actually hotter than any positive absolute temperature, so Glastrier is actually even hotter than Magcargo ;)