Splatoon Passes Half a Million Copies Sold in the US as Wii U Game Sales Beat 2014 Figures

What's shameful is that only one of those games in the top 10 has a Wii U port.

Good, Splatoon deserves its success. It's a very nice game.

@Tops Buy it now. Right now. Even if you're naked. It's worth it.

Apart from that, nice to hear. I expect the same from Super Mario Maker.

Guess everybody saying Mine craft would be a MS exclusive after MS bought it were a bit premature.

Splatoon!!

maybe with the success of Splatoon, we can get a 3DS version with voice chat?

Great news for Splatoon and its fans, I hope the naysayers like the taste of crow.

GTA V is at 54 million copies sold and it just keeps going, very impressive.

I haven't actually purchased Splatoon yet, but it looks like I'm getting it tomorrow. Just in time for the rainmaker mode!

Splatoon is awesome but that list of top 10 games is pretty awful. Some of them are good but it's not exactly an all star list.. current game taste makes me sad as someone who grew up in the 80's and 90's.

Metal Gear Solid 5, SOMA, Super Mario Maker, September is going to be a fantastic month for gamers.

Didn't they say that Splatoon had sold 1.62 million copies by the end of June in the financial briefing? If so, then Splatoon's sales have slowed down a little bit... outside Japan. They'll pick up again around the holidays I suspect, with long legs regardless.

Either way, Splatoon has been extremely successful! Before launch a lot of people were saying it had no chance of selling more than 300k lifetime. Glad that prediction/assumption got splatted!

Good for NEW3DSXL, I love mine. Best feeling dual screen hardware yet since the original DS. It's a good sign to me.

I'd love to buy Splatoon, but I'm not paying 80$ for it.

Did Destiny have some new DLC out lately? Maybe a lot of the people that sold it are buying it back.

So If I have been reading things on this site correctly, Splatoon in Japan has sold almost or even as much as Splatoon in the US?

The Wii U was outsold by the PS4 7 to 1 during this period.

"Break out the bunting", they said.

@Meaty-cheeky There would no reason for the 3DS version to get an exclusive feature like that.

@Meaty-cheeky There's no way on earth the 3DS could do justice to a game like Splatoon. That tech was dated back in 2011...

Good news. Splatoon deserves the success.
@Meaty-cheeky
Splatoon wouldn't work on 3DS.

@Yrreiht $80!? You mean $60 right? If you are referring to the Amiibo, they are a nice addition, but they don't add much. It isn't even new content.

@rjejr Well, weren't all those other versions released prior to MS buying Minecraft? We'll see what happens when Minecraft 2 - or whatever they will call the next generation of the game that will come some day - is released.

Nintendo first party is still the best thing in the industry.

How could 10 million Wii U's be sold out there and only 1.6 million copies of Splat👀n be sold? 84%of Wii U owners are either idiots or fear kids that turn into squids. As far as I'm concerned this is a must have game. Haven't played anything else since release. Come on Wii U owners pick up the GOTY!

Half-million copies in 2 months is actually very low. Although is a new IP but still is a bit dissapointing.

But man, Just look at Minecraft! All these years and it hasn't fell from the top 10?! Amazing! I tip my hat to Notch. He really created a new gaming phenomenon and I respect that.

@minotaurgamer It's actually about 1.6 million worldwide. It sold about half a million solely in the U.S.

@Spideron - "July sales"

Minecraft was purchased before July, MS could have pulled it from those other consoles if it wanted to, stranger things have happened. Look how many N64 games are on X1 now b/c MS bought Rare. More than on Wii U.

Minecraft 2 may be an exclusive, but who knows when that is coming out, maybe everybody will just switch to Lego Worlds then, or Dragon Quest whatever it's called.

@Grafeaux 1.6 million is better than most Wii U games. Most Wii U games sold 1 million or less, with the exceptions of Mario Kart 8, Smash, Nintendo Land, NSMBU, and now Splatoon.

"it's played a key role in total US Wii U game sales for the first seven months of the year" ... probably has to do with the fact it's one of the only Wii U games released during the first 7 months of the year

@hcfwesker Didn't stop Tropical Freeze from struggling to sell 1 million.

@Yrreiht

Well you can always set Splatoon on your birthday/Christmas wishlist . I have Splatoon and I think it is a very good game, and Splatoon is actually getting better and better as well in my veiw ^^.

Wii U continues to struggle even by it's own standards with 47k. For the last two years it's pretty much struggled around 60-80k a month, but since April even those numbers have been way down.

I also find it really odd that they boast about software being 10% higher than last year. Well amount of Wii U owners grew by more than 10% in that time, so really you'd expect software to be higher too? Well, I suppose they need to find something positive to put in their press release.

@Dezzy Yup

<3 Splatoon. I had no idea what the hype was about before playing the demo, but now I love it! Must own game this year.

@IceClimbers Nintendo would probably have included download sales... The figure in this article is could be excluding download...
@Grafeaux Same here - despite getting and wanting to play Yoshi Wooly World day 1 - I can't put Splatoon down to play anything else... And hey 16% of Wii U owners are Fresh Squid Kids and the rest are just Smelly Fish

@buildz I certainly hope it does well. Then again, do I? If it does TOO well (if that's even possible) then the 100 Mario challenge will be crammed full of spam courses and things with sound effects on every block.

@Grafeaux *as of 30 June 2015

I'd wager that Splatoon has sold in the realm of 400k or so since then.

I'm pretty sure at this point that we're guaranteed to get more Splatoon in the future. Most likely on the NX.

very impressive success for Nintendo Splatoon is.

1st time user but long time reader & even longer gamer - kudos to the staff/writers for keeping us u.t.d. with all the latest Nintendo news etc

For all those not have not yet got Splatoon .. It's more than worth it! I've never really been one for 3rd person shooters since Goldeneye & online shooters on Nintendo pretty much passed us by. The fact I play this nearly everyday & even has my daughter -who hates competitive games - plays it just as much shows how much this is a 'fun' shooter without the "you suck" mentality of other online shooters.
Other than Mario Kart 8/Smash Bros/Mario this is the game Nintendoids NEED in their life.

I have Splatoon, but I don't really like it as much as I did months ago, so I stopped playing it. I do think it's worth it, even if you hate online multiplayer in other games.

@rjejr @minotaurgamer @Spideron
Minecraft 2 is not happening anytime soon.

Microsoft's plans for Minecraft are to make it have feature parity across PC, Console, and mobile platforms (iOS, Android, Windows). It's platform self-service comes in the form of Windows 10 mobile platform support. With app support being the biggest problem with that platform, Microsoft is going to have a huge game that people will play on their tablets and phones and it will be top notch (sorry) not a nerfed port.

Also, I think Microsoft sees Minecraft as a platform in itself. It's a way to spread Xbox Live accounts to those who would normally pass them up and perhaps even get that going cross-platform. Either way, monetizing Minecraft is much easier than it looks no matter what platforms it is on. Merchandizing!

Microsoft has had to take a different approach from the usual "we own the OS everyone uses" now that they don't. Mobile passed them by so that leverage disappeared and even pushed against them for awhile.

Anyway, because Microsoft sees it as a platform and a wide user base, Minecraft is moving forward out of relative stagnation with respect paid to the current players, in my opinion. (For instance, 1.8 stalled everything but especially the mod community under previous Mojang stewardship)

I hope Nintendo recognizes how successful Splatoon really is. Sales in US are slightly disappointing to me, but given the state of Wii U and the new IP status, it's not bad. It's popped up into the larger gaming world and is recognizable as a new thing, though. That's priceless. I know Nintendo will target Japan with something Splatoon related (sequel, spin-off, major DLC, etc) but I just hope they don't miss that it has caught on in the US as well even if everyone hasn't bought in.

@Riff-the-Don

Welcome.

@MoonKnight7

Thankie & glad to part of Team NintendoLife 😎

@aaronsullivan "feature parity"

Well we know that isn't possible. You can't have the modding community on consoles that you have on PC. The base game could be the same I suppose, but PC is all about the mods. And as powerful has tablets adn phones have become ,I can't imagine them being able to keep up w/ PC or even the PS4 version.

Also, I think it makes them more money to have different versions. We own both PS3 and PC, nto tablet as it' stoo gimped and my kids tablet is too old, but if 3D Shad a version they would own that too. I fit' sall th esam eI think they would los emoney.

I also think MC2 is coming, as an X1 - PC exclusive. Is that redundant? I think it iwll be different though, more story driven like Lego Dimension. Maybe MS will sell it's own Rare toys? Or license whatever Disney doesn't own yet, if anything? Maybe they'll make NFC Herobrine and build NFC into Surface 4? We have an X1 account now b/c of Project Spark even though we have never owned an Xbox console, lines are blurry.

@Peach64 In my experience, hardware sales don't really reflect software sales. I knew people who bought Smash and the amiibos just to collect them...they don't even have Wii U's. It's strange, but whatever helps Nintendo can't be all that bad...I guess.

@rjejr (warning: 100% Minecraft talk) Well... you can do it if you revamp the mod approach. The porous nature of current Java PC/Mac Minecraft modding makes it impractical for consoles, but my guess is that Microsoft has an approach that is highly scriptable at a deep level without easily breaking the game.

How? Well, while there may not be a Minecraft 2 anytime soon, we are already seeing their mid to long term approach emerging. The Windows 10 Beta is actually the mobile platform version (written in C++) that has been ported to Windows. While traditional desktop Minecraft continues development, make no mistake that they are merging and the new version will be the mainline Minecraft.

It's already very apparent that the transition away from Java has resulted in substantial performance improvements. At the same time, the whole game was already developed from scratch to approach the features of the original Minecraft and I'm guessing that architecturally it is far more suited for a long future of enhancements with the big key being highly agreeable to safe modding.

Minecraft will evolve at a regular pace like it always has, but I think once this new core code base is stabilized we'll see it progress more rapidly.

Doesn't mean they can't charge you for every new hardware platform version. That's what they do now even though the versions are similar. I think the primary monetization will happen through dedicated and curated servers, convenient skin changes, merchandizing, and maybe mods themselves (in a revenue sharing mod store perhaps?). All but the last are already in place.

As far as story-based Minecraft video game, that is on its way https://www.telltalegames.com/minecraftstorymode/ so you are right about that, but it's entirely separate.

Like you're suggesting Microsoft wants to blur those lines with Xbox account as much as possible. The new Microsoft realizes that they can't leverage Windows or even Xbox as much as they've been able to in the past, so now Xbox accounts spread out to other platforms. Minecraft is already helping with that in the beta. I also just got an Xbox Live account active.

Think of it this way. Minecraft is already not an exclusive and monetization efforts will get them way more money from the PS4 market, and even more from the iOS and Android versions than XB1 or even PC could get them. Meanwhile, Microsoft always gets to show it off first on their own hardware.

Microsoft wants your money, they are just more subtle now and thankfully it knows the best way of getting money from Minecraft is to not anger the fan base for a long time to come.

@aaronsullivan - I know they've been trying to move the core game away from java for awhile now, but I still don't see how they can make PC and console games comparable.

I don't count that TT game as Minecraft. I know TT makes some great games and people will eat it up, but it still looks more like a TT than a Minecraft game. I think MC2 will look more like an NFC game. Or a Hololens game.

@rjejr That could be, but why not make the hololens version just one more thing to purchase that has the same core functionality while capitalizing on the hololens stuff. Same with NFC.

As far as PC and console, Minecraft has never been about performance and while you won't be able to easily make mods on a console, it shouldn't be too hard to make a common base that lets you play mods on the console. This also plays to the recent efforts to try and make Microsoft development tools at the center of everything. They could have the premiere Minecraft modding tools, link it into an educational curriculum and support like only a big company can and still maintain the game everywhere but accomplish some more Microsoft long-term strategy goals.

@rjejr Actually, I should give you more credit for the NFC idea. You are talking toys2life stuff, right? That could happen without much trouble technically but it could really tick off the community. Hmm... maybe NFC cards and card trading... I saw at least one Mojang developer really get bent out of shape when someone suggested a Pokemon-style direction for the game though.

@rjejr On the Tell Tale game, do you notice how careful they are to warn people that they aren't trying to make a definitive narrative to the game? It's counter-Minecraft-culture to do such a thing. For a huge part of the base It's about making your own story and that's why I don't think it's happening via Minecraft 2 anytime soon.

@rjejr
It's funny how much it sounds like I'm defending Microsoft here, but I've been a Mac fan since 1984 and while I appreciate both platforms and use them both interchangeably I've been on the anti-Microsoft side pretty strongly. I never cared too much about it in consoles. I was mostly anti-stagnation in operating system and browser and against the way they leveraged their monopolistic leverage in anti-consumer ways.

Microsoft has been changing its ways in fits and starts and the whole mobile explosion humbled them to a point that the scars are long-lasting. Now, I think privacy is going to be their biggest experimental consumer abusing point, but it is poking around seeing where it can make money.

So, as far as Minecraft goes, I feel it's a purchase that is all about leveraging a built in audience of passionate gamers. Might Microsoft try to migrate them all to Microsoft specific platforms? The backlash would be a terrible PR mistake if it happens forcefully or anytime within the next couple years. It has to prove itself as a good steward first.

So, maybe you're ultimately right, but it will take longer than I think many are imagining.

@aaronsullivan - "one Mojang developer"

I don't think the CFOs who run these big companies care what the developers think.

You are right about correcting me though, toys-to-life would work better on as many consoles as possible rather than just X1 and PC, which is why Nintnedo doesn't make nearly enough amiibo, they only work on 3DS and Wii U and probably manufactured on that number, but collectors probably bought a bunch. They really should have marketed amiibo like Hummel figurines or Franklin Mint Derrick Jeter collectibles so people knew very limited supply.

And hololens could just be tacked on, they wouldn't go all-in like Wonderbook, as bad as that bombed in the US. EyePet didn't fair much better. Who the heck is the market for Hololens?

@aaronsullivan I'm going to miss you when you start working. And be very very jealous. Man, I need to get looking, central air would help.

@rjejr
Haha. Thing is, I'm resisting the put-my-head-down-and-work-my-butt-off planning that I should be doing right now. This is me breaking into it. I'm horrible at transitions.

This is also the first time my job will actually entail teaching computer science that directly involves game development so it's not like I won't have strong opinions what Nintendo is doing while at work. It will be research for in-class examples and I'll need you to keep me honest!

Looking for a job can be horrible. It was so much easier when I was just racking up credit debt as a young married fool trying out some self-starter ideas. With my recent job loss I had the completely absurd blessing of this quick turnaround and it was still almost unbearable.

When I started that paragraph I think it was supposed to be a pep talk. Sorry about that.

@aaronsullivan - I taught Sociology 101 and a couple of other courses for a few years at the University of Kentucky. I always had a few students who wrote me good reviews, and about 80% who didn't appreciate my New York attitude. Southern Baptists and I are a volatile combination. In retrospect I can imagine how insane I must have seemed to them. You probably don't want my help.

@rjejr
That had to be... dynamic you should look back into that. Social science teachers get all the comfortable perks. The department chair where I work has a white beard out to here and wears Hawaiian shirts to company meetings.

Challenging my views is the help I need from you and I think I'll get it whether I want it or not.

The WW Splatoon sales figures are a bit confusing, when discussing July. The 1.6M units was the WW sales figures for Splatoon June 30, in Nintendo's financial report. It would be very close to 2M by now, since the demand for this game is stronger in Japan than in the US.

@Monado_III That's actually a Wii port. Not Wii U.

@aaronsullivan Chair of my dept was the best fellow. Unfortunately chair of my 5 person committee was a complete jerk. It's amazing I never decked him, especially when he got some big grant money and bailed on me and several other grad students. It's amazing we didn't go all Leopold and Loeb on his buttocks. I bailed w/ my AbD before I wound up in jail (I'm simplifying a bit). I have some good memories of grad school, but it's mostly buried deep beneath the soul destroying misery. So yes, occasionally I do consider going back to teaching, several community colleges on Long Island, but thinking about it brings back the bad memories. Still an option though. But you'll be just fine.

@rjejr you have more perspective now I'm betting but that sounds borderline traumatic 0_o

@Tops same here, I will in a few months. I loved the demo, but been hard financially last few months.

I will buy this game Splatoon if Nintendo started their Nintendo Club thing again. Seems to me a letdown without the benefit of getting Nintendo awards.