UK Charts: Smash Bros. Ultimate Returns To Top Ten But EA's Anthem Takes Top Prize

Anthem looks like garbage and from the sounds of it, it isn’t that far off.

Based on what I've seen of Anthem, I wouldn't be surprised if people hate it and want a refund.

Wii u titles are hanging on.

No one knew what a Wii u was in the UK

Sad to see that two of three Nintendo titles here are Wii U ports. Isn't it symptomatic that games from the dead & failed console are more popular than all other Switch titles?

Why isn’t Pikmin 4 on this list? Why hasn’t Pikmin 4 been released yet? Why hasn’t Pikmin 4 even been officially announced yet? These are my thoughts most weeks.

I wonder how many of those Anthem sales were or will be returned. The game didn't have a good launch from what I heard.
We will miss you BioWare.

I love how negative everyone is about a game on different platform that has some issues.

SSBU had online issues at launch but no one goes around bringing that up. I have no desire to play Anthem but have friends who do nothing but talk about and to them the flaws add character. I don't get it but I also don't feel the need to be negative.

Anthem is selling well because you get to basically be Iron Man. I played the buggy beta and it was still very very fun.

Will that fun correlate to being able to play it for a long time? Is it worth $60? I can’t answer those questions right now, but the one thing I can say is....starts eating a Whopper I am Iron Man. 😎

@saintayu The difference is that Anthem's problems are not simply limited to its online element. There are a lot of issues in core gameplay loop, content, and technical aspects, like load times. Smash Ultimate, at the very least, has satisfying gameplay and content, all things considered.

Granted, they're nowhere as bad as the dumpster fire that is Fallout 76. But they're still not great. Especially for a game that initially asked for 60 bucks, has expensive MTX, and silly early access schedules. Let's not even start on how overhyped the marketing was.

Man, last gen most Japanese games sucked and Western games were pretty much the only good ones. Now the tables have turned this gen. Guys like Nintendo and Capcom did HUGE turnarounds and even Square Enix helped make some really good games (though they're not perfect like how utterly boring FFXV was). Meanwhile we're seeing so many people get burned by a lot of Western developers these days.

It's just such a funny turnaround.

Anthem is garbage. I hope it fails pretty quickly after the first week sales

@EvilLucario aside from a handful of Western devs (Sony's and CDPR in particular), I agree. Western AAA games have mostly become live service microtransaction-y bland open worlds. The only exception to this, for me, is Assassin's Creed Origins and Odyssey, which I love.

Definitely skip Anthem for now. There’s absolutely no end game, and I can’t see that changing much anytime soon. Plus it will be discounted as sales fail to reach their goals. Developers shouldn’t be rewarded for half a game, and this practice will continue as long as gamers pay. I’d say the same about full priced ports, but some gamers can’t find anything else to play and must buy it today. If they would wait, the market would adjust.

I already got kinda bored of Smash Bros. I loved Smash 4, but online in Ultimate is just less fun online. No taunts and character swapping makes it realy sterile.

I'm back to Splatoon and Tetris 99. The latter is my favorite switch game at the moment

@HumanDog I got bored of Smash U quick and this is just a better version of that. I played some at a friends and that convined me I didn’t need it.

Anthem is alright, super graphics but I'm starting to go slow down on it. Nothing really new. Smash is alright too but still going because of its wacky multiplayer frenzy. I loved it.

@oji why is is sad? It is beautiful to see that good games managed to live a second Life after drowning in the Wii U storm

@icerzerocool I think people have fun for the first 10 hrs. Then you realize there’s nothing else to it.

@saintayu is is just fun to seat and watch EA tower burn... Also even though it has top the charts I heard yesterday the opening week sales for anthem are less than 50% of Andromeda in uk

@Balta666 I for one, would like new titles on the chart. I played them on WiiU. I have no problem with ports. But it seems the new content doesn’t match the ports. Plus I don’t like that Nintendo charges full price.

And just like that everyone moves on from Resident Evil 2 and Kingdom Hearts 3.

I'm playing Anthem and I am genuinely enjoying myself. Loading screens are my only bug bear. Practically bug free now on PS4, MTX are cosmetic only and can all be earned in game. Put in nearly 20 hours so far and still nowhere near the end of the story - never mind the end game. There is a road map for the next 90 days for all to see and the game is being supported (Still..I hope) for years to come with no story elements being charged for. I think most of the hate is the anti-EA hate train. Which is fine, except for when those same people go on to play Apex Legends. Simply, Anthem is a fun game that doesn't do everything perfectly from Day 1 - but well worth the money and time. As Nintendo forumers love to say - gameplay is king and Anthem is spot on in that department.

@EvilLucario I guess, in general, that's why I hated last gen so much, and why I'm pretty satisfied with this one. Japanese home console gaming has been gloriously reborn, and, aside from Rockstar, which never seems to mess up, Nippon has reclaimed its throne.

I can't believe I live in a time when games like Monster Hunter and Octopath Traveler have huge Western launches.

@WOLF13 they are new games for almost 2/3 of the user base. Also it is false that they put more time on ports than new games (you will have a pack year but these take time, they had to have a lighter year in 2018 after a fantastic 2017).

@Shellcore but that is the main point. Gaas should be free to play like apex. Maybe EA will learn

@Balta666 I don’t think they spend any time on ports lol. That’s why I don’t agree with charging full price.

@Shellcore I think gameplay was good at first. But the AI is pretty bad. The guns are very similar and the loot is meh. The game basically has 3 strikes you need to do over and over. Imagine Destiny launching with just 3 strikes.

@WOLF13 the Numbers of sales speak otherwise. I would you ask half price if they sell 10M+ at full?
New sup I agree that it is not worth it so I did not buy it myself (non Wii u owner here)

@saintayu

The game has a 60/100 on Metacritic my dude. It just isn't very good, and only selling as well as it is because ita marketing was very misleading and deceptive.

@Spudtendo @Regpuppy @RupeeClock you can make excuses all you want though. I felt the same when RDR2 and still do even after buying and trying it. The controls were horrible, the story slow with no real choice and glitches galore but everyone loves it because it's "critically acclaimed".

I guess what I'm trying to say is just because critics and other people think something is good or bad doesn't mean others won't like it and buy it. I've seen nothing but negative coverage of it too and yet people are still buying it so if you're right and they can't use Google then they're just stupid or they must like it.

@saintayu I thought Red Dead 2 was amazing. The story was incredibly moving. I played through entire story and can’t remember any glitches. Yes, everybody is brainwashed by critics.

@Balta666 I’m not saying they don’t sell. Consumers are willing to pay it, so why would a company stop gouging its fans?

Anthem needs work, but still fun to play as IronMan 😉. I was playing in NY with my cousin in Madrid (server was rock solid), had tons of fun taking down Giants over the weekend (and making fun of what is broken)

We got it for free with a PC upgrade, so a nice weekend distraction. 90 day road map looks like a step forward.

Real GEM on that list is METRO: Exodus. One of the best Story driven games I have played in ages. And stunning in motion.

@saintayu

Plenty of people get mislead by marketing though. My brother bought the game on both Xbox and PlayStation and is already kind of done with it, he said that there wasn't anything new after the first ten hours. My brother isn't really the type to read reviews or watch impression videos on YouTube, hopefully this gets him to do the research. People here making fun of the game aren't making fun of it because they're Nintendo fanboys my dude, they're making fun of it just like the rest of the internet. It's not good. Not terrible, but very, very mediocre. Pretty much the only standout thing I've seen about Anthem are the visuals. You're right, the game does have a small fanbase who denies all criticism spearheaded towards it, and that's fine. Doesn't mean I'm gonna shut up about it.

I admire RDR for its production value, but I personally don't care for it either. I'm not comparing the two games.

@saintayu Who said anything about critics? I don't really care what most critics are saying, I'm just giving my opinion. So please don't try to put words in my mouth.

Also, let's try to remember how this chain started. It wasn't because I was trying to discredit any positive opinions on Anthem. It's because YOU were trying to dismiss negative opinions on Anthem, and positive opinions on Smash Ultimate, because you didn't agree with them. So it's a little funny you're pulling the "it's subjective" card now.

As for sales, that doesn't necessarily mean something is good. It often means something was marketed more effectively.
We only need to look at companies like Apple to prove this.

@Regpuppy

^ This. The fact that he even tries to compare Anthem to Smash is insane to me. Anthem has fundamental gameplay problems, the game itself is what people are criticizing. That isn't the case with Smash.

People think I'm weird for primarily playing on the Switch, yet they are all the same types of people who'd lap Anthem up!

@AxeltheBuizel I get the experience they are looking for. Because they love flying around and the graphics, they are trying to
Will the game into being great.
I wish Nintendo would make a game like Anthem. It would be a complete and polished game. Redefine what a loot shooter is. But they really aren’t offering much new lately.

@Shellcore

Yeah man, The foundation is there for ANTHEM. Gun play and the World are amazing... Control is also tight.

But AI and some technical stuff are simply not finished. The fort needs to go - just make everything at the Launch-Pad. More enemy types. And focus more on new dungeons on the map.

Also, why was that entire story of petting the monster from the vendor not a side-quest? or helping get grain?, funding the Bar?... Don't know, just more of a "disappointment" from the community at this point.

90 day road map looks good. I hope they keep working on it - they can turn this around with content.

@Agramonte I don’t see anything in the roadmap that will adequately address the main issues. There is no Vault of Glass coming. The mission types arent changing. The AI won’t change. A stronghold is basically a strike and they need many more. The loot system would have to be completely redone. If they couldn’t make a complete game in 6 years, I don’t think months will help.

Just bought New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe, mainly cause have so many games already. Glad that it sells still. ^^

@WOLF13 the reason people pay it is because the games are worth the full price tag. Nintendo does not usually do big sales on their games anyway even after years and years on the market so that is just whishfull thinking (and to be frank I would not buy them if I had on Wii u as I don't normally double dip unless is remaster or it is something I have not purchased for 10+ years)

@Balta666
Nintendo can charge full price because there’s little competition.
So if Last of Us released on PS4 as a straight port, it should still cost $60?

@WOLF13 They do not need to re-do the loot system. Just needs to give more meaningful loot. The component slots are addicting already.

Events like "There Be Giants" will go a long way (tons of fun hunting them down) - do one with the Dominion's Walkers. Yes, focus on Strongholds and new dungeons to explore with friends on the map in FreePlay.

"Playing/Exploring Anthem" (and beating the crap out things on it) with friends is fun... just need a reason to log-on and do that. Less fetch quests, more enemy types and fix the "meh" loot pool. All can be done in time.

If they do a tie-in with Avengers and make a world quest where you get MARVEL Armor parts, Material and colors... The servers will crash from the player load.

The real problem with ANTHEM, is The Division 2. PS4/X1/PC are not like the Switch. They need to start talking and getting good new stuff out before the next "AAA shiny new thing" shows up.

@WOLF13 well actually I believe last of us port is available on PS4 but I don't know its price on day one.
You cannot compare Sony and Nintendo do because they look at their business in different ways (Sony commonly reduces its games price as soon as a couple of months after release, Nintendo never does even emwhen games sell poorly and this is not due to lack on competition as you say it)

@Balta666 Last of Us was remastered at 49.99
Nintendo would absolutely drop their price of ports if they didn’t sell. There’s an illusion Nintendo creates by keeping their prices high.
If Nintendo was a 3rd party, they’d be dropping prices too.

Bioware is dead

Anthem sold like 40% as many retail copies as Mass Effect Andromeda at launch despite needing to sell 2× as much by the end of March of this year. It by all measures had a significantly worse critical and commercial reception than Andromeda, a game that ended up shuttering all of Bioware Montreal.

@westman98

Such a shame, too. Anthem was in development for six years, there's really no excuse for why it launched with as little content as it did. I would have been okay with all of its problems if the story and characters really stood out, but it's barely better than Destiny in that regard. Bioware has created some of my favorite games on PC, and I really wanted Anthem to succeed. They'll be missed.

if I was ea I would pretend players keep having they're game crash and even if they got in the game there's 1000s of bugs and I would delete anthem lol

@WOLF13 "remaster" means upscaled like the ports we are talking about...
I did not compare two third parties in the first place so I do not get your point.

Edit: and please explain the illusion concept as I am now intrigued

@Balta666 Nintendo barely touched Mario Bros U or MK. Last of Us looks a lot different.
The third parties comment was about competition. Nintendo really only competes against itself. You get outdated or lesser ports as the main competition.
Lowering price can give the consumer an impression that the game is worth less or not doing well. Nintendo also uses shortages to make consumers think they gotta have it. It’s worked great for them.

@WOLF13 like I said it is a strategy from Nintendo and it appears to be worth it as games like God of wars and Spiderman had drastic reductions in sales after a few months. And yes I know already that is because there is more competition on PS4, there's no games on switch blah blah blah

@Balta666
Are you saying price dropped for God of War and Spiderman because they aren’t good games? Many would argue they are better than anything Nintendo released in the past year.

@WOLF13 WHAT? when did I say something like that... I am saying that nintendo games are evergreen titles that sell well at full price. that is it and maybe just maybe as Nintendo does not drop their price that may be one of the reasons

@Balta666 so why did the price of god of war and Spider-Man drop?

@WOLF13 because Sony decided so...

@WOLF13 Prices drop and sales rise.

3 exclusives switch games on the top 10 is not bad at all
About Anthem, it might be the top spot, but it didn’t sell to massively, it sold 42 thousands physical copies in the UK on all 3 platforms combined (PS4, Xbox 1 and PC) and it already had an 25% price cut on many retailers in the UK including Amazon UK only 3 days after release

@WOLF13
Nintendo games have notoriously good legs. Why drop their price when they will continue to sell great??

Even with the reduced price, God of War and Spider-Man have fallen off the charts.

@Regpuppy I did no such thing. I pre-ordered Ultimate and enjoyed my time with it. If you read my comment and understood it, you would see I was saying that people can like what they want. You and others are claiming they were tricked by marketing and that's the only reason it sells and pointing out articles and critical reception as a sign of that.

I'm just saying some people love crap.

@saintayu That is NOT what you started off with. What you started off with was dismissing our opinion on a game, just because you don't see a point in being negative about a game. So should we only speak up when we're positive about one? What's your whole point here?

@Balta666 An interesting viewpoint, but where do we draw the line? Does Monster Hunter World fall into the GaaS category being basically a looter-shooter with continual updates and MTX? Warframe is a great game and as we know is FTP. It is also pay to win with MTX for new frames, blueprints etc...Assassin's Creed Odyssey also has an extensive roadmap with a MTX store. This service aspect is affecting many of the biggest games today. To say they should all be FTP is nice, but not realistic IMO.

@WOLF13 I take your points on the AI and endgame. We can see that the focus is there to improve the endgame. I haven't heard anything on the AI. I am over 20 hours in now and haven't completed the story. Already more content than many standard games at the same price. Plenty of time to get a more substantial endgame sorted. It kind of reminds me of the structure of Phantasy Star Online..maybe why it resonates with me so much.

@Shellcore in my opinion what is not realistic is to have 5/6 AAA developers launching new gaas every year and not expect a market saturation.
I believe the numbers will decrease every year for this type of games at full price.

P.s: I wouldn't put odyssey on that category though as it is mostly a single player experience

P.s.s: I am completely against micro transactions and I have no issue the politics getting or board and shut them down. Even cosmetics remove part of the game behind a paywall. Oh and I never bought a single one and not expect to any time soon

@Balta666 I would argue that Odyssey has service elements even if it isn't exclusively multiplayer. The content roadmap and MTX kind of support this. I agree with everything else you said. There is only so many people that can commit to each GaaS and MTX are abhorrent. Luckily ANTHEM's are bearable as they can be earned with in game currency and are cosmetic only (get your point on content is content). Still don't like them, but that is the price we pay for a game that will, hopefully, be supported for years to come.

@westman98 you missed a lot of the discussion

@Regpuppy as much as I appreciate you telling me what I meant relatedly in a rather combative way that's not what I meant at all.

My point was that you can't dismiss the sales or success of a game just because you want to or read things on the internet. Our fandom in particular loves to do this when it's games on another console that aren't on the Switch.

@Shellcore you're right in saying the mtx in it are not the worst around and that is probably not its biggest issue. Is more that the current game is not good...let's see if the game gets better and if EA keeps supporting it for long as with the current sales u would not be surprised if they decided to abandon it

@saintayu I'm not intending to seem combative. You've just been acting squirrelly on this subject, and you keep changing the goal post. In your first post, you poked at everyone for being "negative" because they said they didn't like the game. Then you tried drawing a false equivalence to the server issues Smash had to the core issues people were having with Anthem.

After that, you decided to bring up RDR2, sales, critics, and so on, which makes it hard to pin down what your point is. Now you're bringing up Nintendo bias, as though we're the only ones that aren't happy with the game. There are a lot of people who were excited for, and paid full price for the game. But were severely let down by how mediocre it was. I have a lot of friends, who I warned to temper their expectations. But were let down anyway, because they were looking for their next long-term game.

Also, again, sales is not necassarily a good indicator of quality. As I pointed out before, Apple is a good example of an overpriced/inferior product being successful because of amazing marketing. Unfortunately, you can have the funnest game in the world. But it won't matter if no one knows it exists.

@Regpuppy it's not really changing the goal post though. It's pointing out that everyone is different by showing the difference of opinions about everything. Given the amount of responses I got from even suggesting that, I'm gonna assume everyone forgets their opinion isn't a be all end all.

You can even go to the review of that Modern Combat game for the Switch and see people saying it's great and people saying it's horrible. My point was that everyone just pretends the game was successful because people were tricked into it.

There are even people in these comments who enjoy the game and they too are having to explain that over and over again.

@saintayu That is far from what I read in your initial post, but I feel like I'm not going to get anywhere with this. I'll just note that I didn't poke at anyone with positive opinions on Anthem because they had a different view point. I specifically focused on you, because you specifically questioned why we bothered giving negative opinions on Anthem, on a forum dedicated to our opinions.

But, regardless, I'll put my hands up and leave it at that. It seems we've scared everyone else away.