Ever since the launch of Nintendo Switch there has been an influx of releases into the Nintendo eShop. It's appeal is obvious, a growing, dedicated user base hungry for games that can be played both on the move and in your living room.
Now, both PlayStation and Xbox have had success in the past with the "indie" market, but Nintendo's Switch platform is arguably the first truly successful platform Nintendo have had with Nindies after mixed results on both 3DS and Wii U.
It's not perfect however, Nintendo have come under fire a few times from both developers and publishers, especially with regards to the curation and options within the current eShop interface therefore it's always interesting to see how sales actually compare to other platforms.
Fully Illustrated, the company behind Slash-em-up Wulverblade recently posted some interesting 2D graphics on their twitter timeline.
With eShop sales figures a tightly guarded secret at Nintendo it's fascinating to see a Switch game doing so well against other platforms.
Naturally there are many factors at work here, not least the different release dates, but interesting all the same.
Did you pick up Wulverblade? If so, what made you decide which system to buy it for? Let us know in the comments below
[source twitter.com]
Comments 67
Many factors at work, not least the drought of games on the platform, leading to users desperate for anything to play.
Well deserved ! Really good game with awesome visual.
I've had a lot of fun with this game and the recent patch gave me a reason to jump back in. The little bits of history woven into the stages are a nice touch in the midst of all the bloody action.
EDIT:
I just noticed in the Switch news channel, in the story about the Wulverblade patch they thank "the amazing community over at Nintendo Life".
That's nice. It's cool of them acknowledge everyone over here. Along with their great game, little things like that are what build loyalty. I will certainly keep an eye out for whatever these guys do next.
@Menchi187 wow people still coming up with "switch has no games" line every time a indie developer mentions how well sales have been.
Quick question. Why was software sales on Wii U not so great. I mean if no games is the reason why they do well on switch why was the same thing not replicated for Wii U when that had serious droughts and lack of software.
@kobashi100 I know, the 46 games I have for switch is far from a drought. But the 12 over a longer time for my PS4, 5 of which are PS3 ports, that’s a drought.
And with this game on sale, I might have to add it to my collection too. Number 47.
Geez louise! It beat them combined 3 times over at least!
@Menchi187 I wouldn't really say there was a drought 👌
Still haven't bought this one yet. May get it in a few months when I have more time to play it.
@Menchi187 With that logic Xbox One sales of this game should be into space by now...
Yikes! That is crazy. Very welcome news for the Switch and developers on the fence as to whether or not bring games to the Switch.
@kobashi100 and everyone else, don't feed @Menchi187! It's a desperate troll trying to replace another user who has thankfully left us but so far has failed. If you keep feeding it though it might grow and come back to bite us
@Menchi187 you're kidding right? Please tell me you're joking
@IronMan28 it's on sale right now and it got a good patch. I think I'm gonna bite finally
Yet another Indie developer praising its software sales on Switch.
Couldn't be happier right now!
Just waiting for it to go on sale in Europe
@Menchi187 you're just embarrassing yourself lad
Stop giving the sad, unsuccessful person attention.
Tend to get games that aren't switch exclusive on PS4 due to storage issues mostly. I have nearly 3TB on PS4 and only 200GB on switch. Saying that I've favoured Celice and Owlboy on Switch - they just 'seem' right! Thinking of Castle of Heart now after the positive reaction the update got!
I own all three consoles, if a game comes to all three I always buy it on the Switch.
I would bloomin' love a physical version!
Good to hear. I picked up Wulverblade a while back when it was on sale. Game plays well, I really liked what I played of it. I hate to admit it but so glad to hear there there is any easy mode. It was a tough game to play solo. Fun game, challenging yes, but apprently I’m not that good and need the easy mode.
@Donutman is it on sale in North America eshop? As not on Europe eshop. I'd get this on a European sale definitely
@Pablo17 I don't own all 3 but have a PS4 and I'm like you, if a game is available on both, I'll purchase it on the Switch just so I can play it anywhere.
@Menchi187 a game is a game. Especially a good game. Don’t come here with that load of bull.
@Menchi187
Not necessarily, it also helps if the game is really appealing.
I only just bought the game two days ago. I elected to wait because I had too many others games to play.
@gortsi Sadly, the troll who left here appeared at another site I frequent, so I'm still subject to his insanity.
I still haven't purchased any digital games for the Switch, holding out to see what the Switch's online membership special offers are going to be.
@gortsi Has he officially left? I thought he was just waiting until E3 to strike again
@gortsi I wonder why people bother answering that boy, it's such transparent baiting it makes me wonder why he hasn't been banned yet, all he brings to this site are his childish digs. Must be school holidays again. Silly me, just remembered - trolls don't get banned.
@PanurgeJr That's a shame, I imagine he completely rubs people up the wrong way there too.
@Kimyonaakuma Who is this "troll"?
@Menchi187
lol
Thank you. Just thank you.
I think a lot has to to with the console's marketed image as well. The game is fantastic, and brutal.
But when you watch even the adverts of PS4 you get the sensation they're marketing the product as real as it gets, with ads of the player shifting through a sea of different and more realistic worlds, the consumer draws from that as the expectation of what they'll want to buy and what to play.
MS is on sheet numbers under the hood, own them and you're owning a gamers variant of a sports car, can do all these speeds, render all these graphics... but only 3-5 games are ever advertised as utilizing that power... but hey, at least you're using it!
Then there is Nintendo. The company who has been consistently been about "fun" whether you liked it or not. The games come in a myriad of colorful backgrounds and vibrant pallets. Any game can essentially thrive here, of it's good. And the best thing is that it is not judged for the lack breathtaking realism when your budget just does not allow it. Even 10 year old games are seeing success here due to this lack of unreachable goalposts, cause those games are just that, games. And they're fun.
@Matthew010 I think they're referring to SLIGEACH_EIRE, they used to leave comments on most articles but it always looked like trolling.
There are a few other trolls here that might be the person that they're talking about (I won't say any names ) but SLIGEACH_EIRE hasn't been active for a while and fits the description.
@Menchi187 I’ve bought more games year one for Switch than any other previous console. It doesn’t have a drought of games, if anything it has too many games (not that it’s a problem, because it isn’t)
One of the few good indie games on the Switch, so glad to hear It's successful. Can't wait to see what the developer has in store next.
My wife and I just finally finished the game this morning. We'd taken a break after getting pretty far because we work full time and have kids. The new easy mode made coming back to finish it much more attractive
Another day - another "comparative" chart with zero base number.
If you do not know the data number for the small gray bar - the long red one is meaningless.
@Kimyonaakuma oh God I hope not @PanurgeJr where's he now?
@WiltonRoots it's just sad that they're not even trying to be creative with the bait. At least back in the day we had the occasional creative troll, now it's just second rate stuff
@Menchi187 Where on earth did you see a drought of games on the Nintendo Switch? Unbelievable comment!
@JHDK completely agree. I'm very interested in this game now.
@Refurin my fiancé and I are really interested in getting this now!!
@PlayedNSlayed https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2018/05/exclusive_wulverblade_is_going_on_sale_to_celebrate_its_biggest_update_yet
It will be. The problem I have is I went on to buy it today, and I saw 2 other games I want too. Switch is costing me too much money.
Wulverblade is a great game and the new easy mode makes it MUCH more accessible. Congrats on success! Yay for Nindie developers!
@Menchi187 Yes,... in a month you have games like Zelda or Metroid most people will not care for this kind of stuff.
But also, The Switch is settling on being a mobile gaming device. These type of easily accessible and cheap gaming experiences - fit that format well.
The one thing Nintendo really needs to get on, however, is the eshop. When Switch Launched, I thought it was a placeholder, almost a beta eshop. More than a year later, it has hardly been so much as tweaked.
@Agramonte Not true. The entire point of the graph is that Switch sales are thrice the other platforms combined. It's more impactful to show a picture than just say Switch accounts for 75% of all copies sold
@DownRightSam I am still holding off, tbh. But hopefully you like it!
@gortsi GoNintendo. It's a smaller community than here and feels less comment-driven, so he doesn't get quite the response, but he's up to his usual tricks so if you want to play E3 Bingo head on over.
I agree with everybody that nintendo switch has no drought of games. first party, third party, retro, indies, arcade. They all have good games. Let's ignore all those haters who can't appreciate the games the switch has.
A hidden gem. A gem that deserves more attention from everyone.
@PanurgeJr it is irrelevant regardless.
I sold 3X more than Bob or I sold 75% more than Bob are worthless statement of success in text or as a graphics. You are not providing the key data you are comparing against. BOB.
Without knowing the "worth" of the gray bar. The red bar being 3X times or even 50X longer is irrelevant. You have no reference point to judge the "success"
@Menchi187 lol do you never regurgitating the same idea over and over again, when multiple times now, the switch has been cited to sell indie games? There are currently 95 wii u retail games http://nintendo.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_Wii_U_games
While there’s 88 for switch. http://nintendo.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_Nintendo_Switch_games
Lol a console with just over a year almost as many games as a system of 5. Get better excuses please
@Menchi187
At the time this game came out, Mario was about to release, and there were already 250 digital releases on the Switch eShop with upwards of 10 more arriving each week.
It's possible that the game appeals more to Nintendo players than those on the other systems.
@X-blades not that it takes away much from your point but the Wii U lists on that website are way out of date. I think that by the end of its life it had a bit more than 150 retail games, which the Switch should exceed soon anyway
@gortsi haha my bad. The switch update for the site had it to the end of 2017, so I assumed that same logic was applied to the Wii U; but you are correct, my bad lol
@Agramonte Sure, dude, whatever. If you're so determined to downplay the contribution the Switch is making to a developer's success there's nothing I can say that would convince you otherwise. But I'm certain that if PS4 had the longest bar you'd latch onto its significance.
@Donutman that's great,thanks for the link. Been holding off for a sale on thus and the update just makes it a definite buy now. Just bought Castle of Heart after hearing good things about the recent update and the fact ut was also on sale. Also Bloodstained Curse of the Moon seems worth a purchase too. These games are adding to my backlog!😃
@PanurgeJr na man, it does not matter if it is a PS4, a Switch... or something your Financial advisor gives you to invest in. Always ask for the base numerical number in a comparative chart.
I will leave it at that.
Welp they got another sale out of me last night.
I am having a great time with this game, I like the unlockables, texts. Well done game. My only complaint is about the leaderboards, I would like an online one.
@PanurgeJr Oh God...I imagine he sends in about 90% of the articles too for brownie points. His entire life must be spent scouring the net for articles, playing Zelda on his Wii U and complaining about the Switch. Sligo looks like a lovely picturesque town too but I doubt he's ever seen it.
@gortsi yeah we need much better trolls, all we have at the moment is "the Switch has no games, nah nah na nah nah naaah!", "all these games are crap!", "I love my PS4" and "I don't get you salty NDFers". They've all run out of steam. New balls please.
@Agramonte Your point is only valid if Fully Illistrated's goal in presenting the graphic was to provide insight into total sales/success of their game; We have no specific reason to believe that is the case.
If their goal was to indicate the relative trends per platform, than the graphic meets its objective quite nicely.
@Agramonte I kind of hear what you're getting at (though I don't agree a 50x sales statement is ever irrelevant since it means it sold 50 times more no matter the numbers behind them), but see no reason to believe that the scale doesn't start at 0 and that the intervals would not be equally spaced. If so the x7 sales compared to the closest platform does have relevance no matter the number for the gray bar.
Of course, in a "crazy developer bribed by Nintendo" world the axis might start at 10000 sales and each following vertical line signifying +10 sales or such, meaning xboxone sold about 10011 copies and Switch 10075, making the difference irrelevant. But I think that's simply being paranoid So, I'll go with interpreting the graph as roughly 7x that of closest competitor which is a big thumbs up for the Switch.
Edit: @mking098 hit the nail on the head in a much more succinct manner and probably judged the reservations of Agramonte better (Most likely A didn't doubt the scale as such, but rather wanted a measuring stick to know how big the sales were, e.g. 10 copies compared to 70 or 10000 compared to 70000, which is interesting but beyond the purpose of the graph in my opinion.)
@molkom LOL!, I didn't even think about the 10K example. That would win the conspiracy theory prize. If the reference data would be there - you wouldn't need to guess 🙃. I worked on Annual Reports for a bunch of years - I never had a finance department give me a comparative chart with an abstract base number (all I see is missing data - 😵😆). Anyway, in the end it is just academics - no point in spinning our wheels over it.
@mking098 It is in the title of the NL article.
I honestly bought this game for the art style. But game play is very fun especially co-op.
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