Lord Roberts
Junior Member
Okay, not officially, but it's just a matter of time now before Animal Crossing: New Leaf becomes the highest selling game in the franchise. Why do I know that? Because Nintendo's intent on making sure it's the highest selling game in the series. Let me fill in some backstory. I'm a Nintendo stockholder (don't hate me, I own all their systems, and they pay dividends, so I get some money back on my purchases), but I also watch their sales reports every quarter. Well, in March of 2010 they last reported sales (technically shipped to retailers) of Animal Crossing: Wild World at 11.75 million, the exact same total it is today under the DS highest sellers. This means it went out of print on March 31, 2010. So, it had a print run of December, 2005 until March 31, 2010. That's a good run, especially since it didn't get a Select's re-release. Totaling it out would be 4 years and 3 months.
Now, let's fast forward to 2012. In November of 2012 Animal Crossing: New Leaf debuts in Japan. In June, 2013 it debuts in North America. Figuring up today, the eve of 12/1/2017, with June of this year marking its 4th birthday, and we're now sitting at nearly 6 months after that. This means no matter the region, thanks to a Select's version and an update/re-release, it's now got a print run longer than that of Wild World which never saw a Selects!
Just today, it was reported that New Leaf saw a massive jump in sales in Japan the week that Pocket Camp was released (read this article https://newspuddle.com/animal-cross...imal-crossing-new-leaf-sales-on-3ds-in-japan/ ). This isn't surprising, Pokemon saw the same massive jump when Pokemon Go was setting the world on fire. Well, now that Pocket Camp is revitalizing New Leaf sales, getting newcomers into the franchise- not that it's a bad thing, this means with the long print run, and the revitalized sales thanks to the mobile app, it's really just a matter of time before Nintendo reports New Leaf has become the highest selling game in the series!
This can also be good, but possibly bad, we'll have to wait and see. The bad? Well, think about right now if there was a new Animal Crossing game for Switch. It'd probably be taking over Mario and Zelda as the most wanted game on the system easily thanks to this boost from the app. Nintendo is technically risking potential Switch sales by using New Leaf to get people interested in the franchise. Here's why- please read until the end.
Let's say 3DS owners passed on New Leaf before, loved Pocket Camp, and went out and paid the $20 for New Leaf. Now, let's say next year Animal Crossing: Switch comes out. That new owner who just paid $20 has to now pay $60 for the game, not to mention $300 for a system (assuming the price doesn't drop). That's $360 for a new game/system when they only spent $20 the year before! Huge jump there. Okay, say they just wait then until the price comes down in a few years. Sure, but by then there could be another Animal Crossing game coming out, or after that long of a wait, they stay content with just New Leaf. The phrase "striking while the iron is hot" is kind of what they needed to do if they really wanted Switch's Animal Crossing to blow away anything prior in the series. People will argue, yeah, but it worked for Pokemon! Yes, it did, because all the games were on the 3DS. If Nintendo chooses to put the next Animal Crossing game on Switch (highly likely since Game Freak themselves said they're done with 3DS now), Nintendo's trying to stair step newcomers to get the Switch version by going through the 3DS version. Not a bad idea, but risky given the jump in prices, because one is significantly cheaper than the other.
Basically, what I'm getting at, we may not see Switch's version outsell New Leaf in lifetime sales, because if/when a Switch version comes out, people may or may not get it new who got New Leaf, especially those right now getting New Leaf so cheap. It's a shame Nintendo's missing this massive opportunity to sell boatloads of a new Animal Crossing (both old and new fans would easily buy it- old for waiting over 5 years, new because Pocket Camp excited them about the series), but this seems to be Kimishima's plan, get them interested in the IP with mobile, get them to buy the 3DS version, and then "graduate" to a Switch version, should they do so, but we don't know yet if they will, Pokemon hasn't come out on Switch yet, so using Go as an example isn't fair since we don't know how many copies it'll sell on Switch. We can guess, but we don't actually know yet. We do know that Pokemon games sold like wildfire last year when Go made the franchise popular, and exposed it to those who never played before- same thing is happening right now with Animal Crossing, but with no new Animal Crossing game on the horizon, it's looking like New Leaf will be the sole beneficiary to that increase in popularity. Switch's version can hope to try to build off that when it finally comes out, but we'll have to wait and see if it does.
In any event, early congratulations to New Leaf for becoming the highest selling game in the franchise, the mobile app's popularity and your long print run pushed you over!
Now, let's fast forward to 2012. In November of 2012 Animal Crossing: New Leaf debuts in Japan. In June, 2013 it debuts in North America. Figuring up today, the eve of 12/1/2017, with June of this year marking its 4th birthday, and we're now sitting at nearly 6 months after that. This means no matter the region, thanks to a Select's version and an update/re-release, it's now got a print run longer than that of Wild World which never saw a Selects!
Just today, it was reported that New Leaf saw a massive jump in sales in Japan the week that Pocket Camp was released (read this article https://newspuddle.com/animal-cross...imal-crossing-new-leaf-sales-on-3ds-in-japan/ ). This isn't surprising, Pokemon saw the same massive jump when Pokemon Go was setting the world on fire. Well, now that Pocket Camp is revitalizing New Leaf sales, getting newcomers into the franchise- not that it's a bad thing, this means with the long print run, and the revitalized sales thanks to the mobile app, it's really just a matter of time before Nintendo reports New Leaf has become the highest selling game in the series!
This can also be good, but possibly bad, we'll have to wait and see. The bad? Well, think about right now if there was a new Animal Crossing game for Switch. It'd probably be taking over Mario and Zelda as the most wanted game on the system easily thanks to this boost from the app. Nintendo is technically risking potential Switch sales by using New Leaf to get people interested in the franchise. Here's why- please read until the end.
Let's say 3DS owners passed on New Leaf before, loved Pocket Camp, and went out and paid the $20 for New Leaf. Now, let's say next year Animal Crossing: Switch comes out. That new owner who just paid $20 has to now pay $60 for the game, not to mention $300 for a system (assuming the price doesn't drop). That's $360 for a new game/system when they only spent $20 the year before! Huge jump there. Okay, say they just wait then until the price comes down in a few years. Sure, but by then there could be another Animal Crossing game coming out, or after that long of a wait, they stay content with just New Leaf. The phrase "striking while the iron is hot" is kind of what they needed to do if they really wanted Switch's Animal Crossing to blow away anything prior in the series. People will argue, yeah, but it worked for Pokemon! Yes, it did, because all the games were on the 3DS. If Nintendo chooses to put the next Animal Crossing game on Switch (highly likely since Game Freak themselves said they're done with 3DS now), Nintendo's trying to stair step newcomers to get the Switch version by going through the 3DS version. Not a bad idea, but risky given the jump in prices, because one is significantly cheaper than the other.
Basically, what I'm getting at, we may not see Switch's version outsell New Leaf in lifetime sales, because if/when a Switch version comes out, people may or may not get it new who got New Leaf, especially those right now getting New Leaf so cheap. It's a shame Nintendo's missing this massive opportunity to sell boatloads of a new Animal Crossing (both old and new fans would easily buy it- old for waiting over 5 years, new because Pocket Camp excited them about the series), but this seems to be Kimishima's plan, get them interested in the IP with mobile, get them to buy the 3DS version, and then "graduate" to a Switch version, should they do so, but we don't know yet if they will, Pokemon hasn't come out on Switch yet, so using Go as an example isn't fair since we don't know how many copies it'll sell on Switch. We can guess, but we don't actually know yet. We do know that Pokemon games sold like wildfire last year when Go made the franchise popular, and exposed it to those who never played before- same thing is happening right now with Animal Crossing, but with no new Animal Crossing game on the horizon, it's looking like New Leaf will be the sole beneficiary to that increase in popularity. Switch's version can hope to try to build off that when it finally comes out, but we'll have to wait and see if it does.
In any event, early congratulations to New Leaf for becoming the highest selling game in the franchise, the mobile app's popularity and your long print run pushed you over!
