In response to the fiscal report that Nintendo launched at this time, Pokémon Legends: Arceus offered 12.64 million items final 12 months. Whereas it doesn’t usurp Pokémon Good Diamond and Shining Pearl’s mixed gross sales determine of 14.65 million, it’s nonetheless spectacular for an authentic title that deviated so removed from each mainline recreation within the sequence.
Legends is presently sitting at quantity fifteen on the VGChartz checklist, straight below HeartGold and SoulSilver. It’s additionally sitting above Crystal, Emerald, Platinum, and each FireRed and LeafGreen. Whether or not you assume that Legends is a unusual experiment or a essential Pokémon recreation, the gross sales figures solidly set up the open world monster-catcher as an enormous among the many classics.
The rankings are particularly wild when you think about how a lot controversy the sport initially generated. Earlier than Legends was launched on January 28, followers weren’t positive concerning the unusually aggressive monsters that will assault people on sight or the ugly timber that they noticed within the official trailers. As soon as gamers may expertise the sport for themselves, they wouldn’t cease arguing about its low graphical constancy.
Regardless of the criticism, Legends was the contemporary and thrilling title that the Pokémon sequence actually wanted this 12 months. The plot was fascinatingly darkish, the large Pokémon have been novel, and even extraordinary creatures had loads extra persona than gamers have been used to from the sequence. In distinction, Good Diamond and Shining Pearl are barebone remakes of a recreation that was launched fifteen years in the past. On the time, critics panned it for enjoying too secure to the same old system. Legends confirmed that Nintendo didn’t have to decide on between custom and innovation.
Legends let down hardcore followers in some methods. But it surely proved that engrossing gameplay and massive IPs can result in record-breaking gross sales, even when it’s not the prettiest or resource-intensive recreation within the sequence. This appears to be Nintendo’s method to their different first-party video games. Followers groused about how Nintendo took virtually eight years to launch new Mario Kart 8 maps after the sport’s preliminary launch. Many of those maps have been visible downgrades in comparison with the unique. It didn’t matter. In response to the report, Mario Kart 8 offered virtually 10 million copies final 12 months.
Nintendo can afford to publish creatively off-the-path and ugly video games, and followers will purchase tens of millions of copies anyway.
