Topic: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Its' not a big game because its not really aimed at that crowd and it most likely won't have the development or marketing dollars behind it. I wouldn't have considered it a big game even if it was still a multiplatform title. I'm not taking about how you may feel about a subjectively. I'm looking forward too Screamride and Until Dawn but I wouldn't put neither of those in the big games either.

But yes the line up for 2015 is looking pretty great. I wonder how Nintendo plans to space out the games and I wouldn't be surpised to see something fall out into 2016.

Anyway I think were going to see a bit more footage come January/December since this will probably be Nintendo's flagship title of 2015. Next holiday will be interesting to with all three first party's putting out a sequel in their biggest core franchise.

Zelda is not their biggest core franchise. It might be 3rd or 4th tbh. Its my most beloved but even in Japan it's falling off more and more with each installment.

It's Zelda; Don't expect any gameplay footage until E3 2015.

Which makes sense if she is just talking Nintendo deved games.

Absolutely. However, I would personally feel it could be easier to market/sell Yoshi's Wooly World than Captain Toad. It's probably related to the Gamepad support, which is likely much deeper for Captain Toad.

Captain Toad was probably said just because it's an early release next year so people need to care about it now, even if it is just a spinoff to the last Mario game.

I hope the Master Cycle is canon!

hopefully it'll at least have context. I don't want it in there unless it's DLC that I can ignore or unless it fits into the context of the story.

I doubt it

Yes it is. Mario has been heavily favoring casual gamers since...well, arguably since forever, but especially the past few games. Pokemon is its own thing and only matters a ton on handhelds. Wii series is dying and also casual.

Yes it is. Skyward Sword was released at the worst time ever (read: because it was a post-2010 Nintendo console game), and it still sold a ton just because it's Zelda and Twilight Princess sold more than most big, heavily marketed AAA games could ever hope for.

I think Zelda is Nintendo's #2 franchise, but only in the West. Unfortunately, Japan does love Zelda as much as we do.

Japan does NOT love Zelda as much as we do. Dang it, I hate making mistakes on my phone because I can't edit.

Don't get me wrong I love Zelda especially Wind Waker but as the years have gone by the series has lost some of its appeal to me I can't explain why it just has I hope the next one can do something special that appeals to people who feel the way I do.

ive got a feeling about this next one, its gunna be one of the best.

Isn't Skyward Sword the worst selling console Zelda game aside from Majora's Mask?

Both Skyward Sword and Majora's Mask released very late in the console life cycle when support for the system was mostly over. Majora's Mask released for the holiday 2000 season, alongside the PS2. If it was any other IP, that would have been straight up sending it out to die.

And by 2010, the Wii library was like 90% shovelware. The 60 million soccer moms who bought the console in 2006 all bought iPhones in 2007 and support for the system pretty much vanished within a couple years. By the time Skyward Sword released, everyone forgot what a Wii was or that they had ever bought one.

I think Majora's Mask didn't sell well, because it was restricted to people who owned an Expansion Pak, and I think Skyward Sword didn't sell well, because a significant amount of people didn't like the motion controls on Twilight Princess so they wanted to avoid this game.

I don't recall having to use an expansion pack for Majoras Mask. Maybe that's because I already had one? Plus, why does everyone complain about motion in Twilight Princess. You could use traditional buttons if you wanted or just pick up the Cube versions so that's a poor excuse.

Majora's Mask is the best-selling N64 game released after 1999. It is one of only two games that required the Expansion Pak to play. The other one, Donkey Kong 64, sold over 5 million copies a year earlier, so installed base with the Pak was probably not an issue. Most people who were still playing their N64 in 2000 probably had one. At the very least, everyone who bought Donkey Kong 64 did.

But Majora's Mask is one of the best selling last-gen games that released alongside a new-gen console launch ever. Not just any console either, the PS2, the best selling console of all time. Putting it into perspective, this is like a Wii game releasing Holiday 2013 alongside the PS4. It ain't gonna sell squat. Or look at it this way - apparently people didn't like the motion controls of Twilight Princess, but that didn't stop the Wii version from outselling the Gamecube version nearly 5 to 1, even though there were more Gamecube owners than Wii owners at the time. Why? Because the Gamecube was a last-gen console. The Wii was new.

Or this:

The Legend of Zelda (NES 1986): 6.51 million
The Adventure of Link (NES 1987): 4.38 million (33% drop)

Ocarina of Time (N64 1998): 7.6 million
Majora's Mask (N64 2000): 3.36 million (56% drop)

Wind Waker (GCN 2002): 4.6 million
Twilight Princess (GCN 2006): 1.59 million (65% drop)

Twilight Princess (Wii 2006): 6.98 million
Skyward Sword (Wii 2011): 3.78 million (45% drop)

Every first Zelda game on a console has greatly outsold the latter, usually around 2x. The best hold was Zelda II, which was a quick sequel that was released while the NES was still in its prime. Even that was outsold by Link to the Past though, an early SNES game. At the time, there would have been like 10x the NESs on the market than there were SNESs, yet ALttP outsold Zelda II. Everyone always rushes to every console's first Zelda game, but usually it's just the core fanbase that sticks around for the second.