Monster Boy Sales On The Nintendo Switch Are In "Another Universe"

8:1 sales is quite the skew.

And this was just three days before Smash. So much for games like this selling better on Switch because "Switch haz no gamez"/ "Nothing to play on Switch" arguments.

@KryptoniteKrunch With games on the Switch, I feel like that guy with all the limes from that meme.

Eight. To one. On Smash month.

Holy mother of God

8:1 is pretty nuts. I wonder what the numbers are though. I vaguely remember this game being talked about at launch, but no one I know picked it up and I haven't seen people talking much about it online.

Sleeper hit perhaps?

Sales on Switch: 8
Sales on other consoles: 1

@Equinox That’s a last resort. The comment was vastly misinterpreted, but he basically meant that if consoles go extinct, Nintendo will pursue other ventures.

Make a good game and it will sell!

@Equinox
Looks like you fell for the clickbait headline.
Nice job.

no i did not get this game! indie devs are not in charge of mech games! i don't know how you hear me talking with my nephew but i will have medabots on my nintendo switch! I know it's coming but it's not from an indie dev! i don't care if it oursells my favorite games! but you nintendo life are not in charge of my life!

Thats because all the casual gamers are playing Call of Duty and Fortnite on their PS4/Xbox's.

i showed my nephew medabots 9 and he really liked it, i even showed him my rokusho model kit that i put together and he touched it and thought it was cool

@Equinox That was clickbait by Nintendo Life. The truth about that interview can be found on Nintendoeverything.

@BenAV Exactly!

Errr... it sold 50K total during launch week. 8-1 is not saying much.
Just sounds like people went with Spyro if they had the choice 🤔

@DigiF4N Perhaps you could give some context on these sudden outbursts?

Nice. Really happy to hear that game did well, especially launching so close to Smash.

Sad that Europe didn't get the physical version, would have increased the sales for sure.

@westman98 I wish @Equinox did just fall for a clickbait headline but the story was just as irresponsible. Big misstep by Nintendo Life, in my opinion.

But it probably got 8-1 coverage on Nintendo centric sites too

I have way too many indie games for the Switch. It's gotten so bad that I have lost track of more than half of them. Nintendo really needs to redo the Switch's front menu.

Warms my heart to see indie titles like this receive well deserved praise, accolades and profits. I have quite the backlog now but I will certainly get this game and its predecessor very soon.

@DigiF4N you are clearly deranged...

Im currently playing through this game. its a nice challenge n a great spiritual successor to wonder boy. only thing I dislike so far is the recycled wonder boy tunes (heard them to death) and the pig transformation is a dud

@Equinox You read news in the wrong way.

Nintendo Switch = Money prints

@Agramonte Consider that this is an indie. Not quite in the same league as a Spyro, even if it is just a remake.

That music from the trailer sounds a lot like the gummi bears theme

@ballistic90 ... ah yes, Long forgotten memory... the infamous lemon party 😅

@Agramonte but you could say that on Switch it’s competing against Mario Odyssey and Smash.

The truth is far more nuanced than your comment implies. Spyro sold well - backed by a very expensive marketing campaign and a lot of advertising. Monster Boy sold well with none of that.

How many units could Monster Boy have sold with a bigger advertising campaign? How many units might Spyro have sold on Swith without a marketing campaign? Might that have been more profitable/low risk for Activision?

These are pertinent questions for the publishers. For us as players the key thing is that good games were published and this will induce more publishers to invest in publishing more good games.

@Equinox

Please learn to read or at least do your own research before parroting something that some uninformed & ignorant idiots says lest you join them. He never said that amigo.

It's always nice to see these stories about indie games doing so well on Switch. It's good to see indie games doing well period, but with so many indie games selling better on Switch than anywhere else, all the other indie devs out there must be taking notice. There's a ton of great indie games on PC I'd love to see come to any console, but especially Switch, which has quickly become my go to platform for indie gaming.

@Agramonte 50K in the first month is GREAT sales for an indie game and 8:1 Switch over all other platforms combined is impressive even if the game did sell "only" 50K total. Not sure why you need to be negative about it, but there's always one, it's inescapable.

@Equinox this isn't correct. The news was badly reported from the majority of sites. Furokawa said that when journalist ask what will nintendo do if the actual game industry collapse.

Life is so much better ignoring Agramonte Would recommend.

@Donald_M there’s always one, and it’s ALWAYS @Agramonte

@Agramonte haters gonna keep on hating!

Which proves it should have been released physically in Europe too. Good thing I bought it in VideoGamesPlus, but I shouldn't have had to.

Game of 2018. It deserves to sell 500k not 50.

Switch owners really like video games.

Man I wish this had come out on cartridge in Europe. I can't find an import copy for less than £45 (including delivery and taxes etc) which I cannot afford right now. It's a shame as I am clearly the target audience of this game and I've been looking forward to it for ages.

Seems an odd decision too given that it is based on a franchise which originally found a lot of success on the Master System - a console which was easily most popular in Europe.

I think it's only a matter of time before devs decide to start going with many more Switch exclusives. Surely the dev cost for other platforms isn't justified with such small sales. Might as well plough all of the time and effort into Switch, make max profits and move on to their next game. It might shave off 6 months of dev time by concentrating on one platform, but over the course of the next 5 years or so it may mean they can churn out another game or two.

I'm surprised there are regulars here that haven't blocked Agramonte by now.

@Agramonte 50k is an extraordinarily good first week for an indie game. I can’t vouch for that number, but if it’s accurate, that’s like $2-million revenue in one week, given that the game retails for $40.

Got a bit of a backlog but will be on this ASAP.

Lovely looking game.

Ooh. You already know the salty ones that are gonna explain it away, as per usual.

Just can’t stand hearing news about switch games selling more... Like pouring salt on a slug

@Frenean I tend to avoid blocking people if I can help it, but I may make an exception in this case.

@Scottwood101 I think it helps that the platform is portable, which makes it more friendly for both time-consuming games you might usually have no time for, and niche titles you wouldn't have considered for the same reason.

@Frenean I’ve never blocked anyone but... he or she actually gets me down they’re so negative 😂

@DigiF4N Are you okay? Not even trying to be funny or mean. Seriously asking.

@Nomad call of Dookie sucks

I haven’t picked it up yet but definitely going to

@BAN It is from them directly

https://twitter.com/FDG_Games/status/1072856957965479937

And not really. Especially digital, they loose 30% from those $40. And still making the point that "Success" in the Indie world is a pretty low bar even at a budget price.

This could be 20 to 1 in favor of Xbox. Still the same thing - Most people on consoles didn't care regardless.

@StuTwo

"The truth is far more nuanced"

Yes!... why "game sold more on X than Y" statements are usually silliness.

This was basically "ignored less on Switch"

What market dynamics made it so - we can debate all day. I have the first one on Switch, will get this one also on Switch (once on sale). But I understand I am in the minority when it comes to actually caring about this game.

Damn! - that’s pretty amazing. - What’s That day about the functionality of the Eshop next to other systems? 😄

@Agramonte It’s not a low bar when your overhead is a fraction of a fraction of what AAA games cost to develop/market/sell. 50,000 copies in a single week is a massive success for a game that was developed by a handful of people. Those sales alone probably covered their development costs.

No matter how you slice it, your opinion is in the minority for one reason only, and that reason is that your opinion is wrong. Indies aren’t running the same race as AAA studios. They’re not even in the same arena. Comparing their goals and sales standards is pointless.

This game is great! Tell your friends and make it 9:1 (or tell your friends with other consoles about another great game their missing out on

@GrailUK I won't put him on ignore, I like seeing his regular posts about how crap the Switch and indies are, how Playstation 4 is great and how anything Japanese is bad.

@electrolite77 And you took it out of context as it was a reply to "...far more nuanced". In a discussion of "why it happens". The developer will use that when deciding "how/when" to target a hardware. Just as important on "what to target".

The reason it did not have the same Dev Budget or the marketing is because it does not have the addressable market to justify it. That is a symptom of "what" they decided to produce. To claim it is now the cause is ludicrous. Base line is 50K Global... you would need that just in the US to have enough revenue to justify a national marketing campaign here.

"Trying to hard" is hiding in an imaginary subsection to justify calling a product "a hit" even after the data shows most ignored it. Classic big fish in a small pond mentality.

@BAN And alternate me can open a Marketing And Design Studio in Oklahoma out of my basement. Keep my expenses low enough to make a profit creating small run design projects.

Regardless, I would understand those projects are irrelevant compared to what Pentagram and Addison are doing. That is just reality.

Yep, And those top Western Studios make more profit and provide better benefits/salaries for their artist. And they can afford it, even after all that "development and marketing cost"... it is called scale.

There is only one market (arena). This is like play writers here who justify their play out in Dumbo Brooklyn by claiming they in the "Off Broadway" community. And selling 35 tickets a show is a "success".

@electrolite77 I pointed out that in Other platforms people seem to simply opt for Spyro if given the choice. And in general MB didn't have traction on any platform. And the idea that this all because of Marketing dollar is a fallacy.

Yes, everything needs to be taken into "context"... but you cant just exclude whatever "context" is not self serving. I can have an advertising campaign that is judge at the Local and National level. I cant just pick and choose or write "Indie campaign" on the marketing report so now I am not compared with other National runs. They both in "context"... I am liable for both.

And yes, there is a point when data show a concepts went from "less successful than" to "generally ignored". One keeps you around the other gets you fired.

@Agramonte I wish I could definitively conclude that you’re just trolling everyone, but sadly, it seems you’re not trolling and are in fact serious.

@BAN
https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2019/01/japanese_charts_smash_ultimate_crosses_the_2_5_million_mark_early_mario_and_luigi_3ds_sales_disappoint#comment4875838

You see that headline... that 2.6 mill... those 200K hardware sale. Big Games, That is what matters. Most people do not care abut this on any platform.

Call it trolling if you like... but I call it reality. And even if I was, with these sale numbers it be far from "everyone"

This is some next level downplaying going on here. It's funny, whenever the Switch version of a game outsells the PS4 version, there's always an excuse. But when it's reversed, it's because the Switch suxs/Nintendo gamers don't buy 3rd party games/usual doom mongering stuff.