Pokémon Scarlet & Violet Is The "Biggest" Launch Ever For A Video Game In Japan

Imagine if it worked well!
I don't know first hand the troubles... Won't buy it until they patch at least some of the issues. Good thing there's a handful of new articles daily for me to keep informed on the progress.

Well deserved. I've been playing Pokemon for a lonnnggg time and THIS is the experience I've been waiting for!!!!!

@somnambulance Lots of products with mixed to negative reviews go on to make/sell millions. Doesn't invalidate criticisms. Pokemon is an established brand. It would have sold regardless.

Reading the comments under these articles has been enlightening.

I now know this is a most excellent game and deserves all the sales on the world and also the worst game ever and anyone who purchases it deserves to be executed on the spot.

Glad the discourse surrounding this has been nuanced and balanced as always.

This is sad, I miss the days when games weren't rushed out and full of bugs and glitches.

Wow. Just wow. That’s really all I can say.

The biggest launch ever, eh ? 🙄
I voted Yokai Watch games on PS4 instead of Pokemon Scarlet / Violet.

Not really surprising that this would be the case considering it's one of the biggest franchises in the world and more people have Switches in the 3 years after the Sword and Shield release.

@AX-7 : And complete on disc/cartridge.

We deserve the low quality

I don't know guys, all criticism for performance and bugs aside, this game has been constantly occupying my time.

It's a really fun game, helps that everyone at the office is talking about it too.

Bugs are actually hilarious if anything, Skyrim is well loved for its bugs.

@EaglyTheKawaiiShika
And same mindless customers who just eat whatever quality from Pokemon games even the garbage one.

Such is the Power of Nintendo and Pokémon!

Japan doesn’t like to eat varied:

In the top 20 there are:

• 6 pokemon games
• 5 final fantasy games
• 4 monster hunter games
• 3 dragon quest games
• a splatoon and an animal crossing game.

They love their wacky monster, animals and hairstyle stuff!

@R_is_KC
The number of people who buy both copies is minimal. Those who do often give the other copy to a family member or friend, which still results in each copy being played by a different person.

As an example, in the UK, just 6% of Scarlet/Violet sales came from the Double Pack.

Pokemon has become a guilty pleasure. No matter how bad these games turn out, I will always play them for hundreds of hours.

Boycotting something this massive doesnt change anything. Not sure what the grumpy camp is trying to achieve. All your 6 out of 10 scores and bug montage videos dont matter to Japan.

@EaglyTheKawaiiShika It’s their own IP lol, ofc they’ll never lose it. I’m certain Nintendo doesn’t have the power to seize it from them, given they only own a 3rd of the franchise.

And that's why the series will never be able to truly shine like it actually deserves.

Oh well. I've made peace with it. I'll move on to different franchises personally.

I will keep my opinion to myself like a good little boy that mommy raised me to be.

Japan sure loves Pokemon, Final Fantasy, Monster Hunter and Dragon Quest.

@EaglyTheKawaiiShika Ninja? As in Team Ninja? And *TPC?

I bought it just for the glitches

@Markiemania95 that's a bit of an over simplification of the ownership arrangements, the Pokémon Company hold the IP and distribution rights but not the rights to the actual Pokémon designs which are owned by Creatures Inc. I'm not entirely sure what bargaining chips Gamefreak hold but they do own approximately a third of TPC along with Nintendo and Creatures. It's a very complex arrangement

Yep pokemon fans don't care about quality they only care about quantity

@PBandSmelly that sir... is your opinion

@R_is_KC Breath of the wild sold 193 000 in his first week and after 5 years it sold 2,09M copies, it's the best zelda in japan Ocarina lifetime sales are at 1,6M. Zelda is big in the west but it's not a big seller in japan.
(sources: https://gamingbolt.com/the-legend-of-zelda-breath-of-the-wild-sells-193000-units-on-switch-in-japan-in-first-three-days
https://www.gematsu.com/2022/11/famitsu-sales-10-31-22-11-6-22
https://www.nintendo.destructoid.com/records-botw-best-selling-3d-zelda/ )

@somnambulance excessive? It may well be a fun game to play but it's hard to ignore that the game looks dreadful and has performance issues

@Friendly I love the Japanese chart! A diet of Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, Pokemon and Monster Hunter, with Splatoon and Animal Crossing as the cherries on the (near) top.

I imagine the western charts of biggest launches are generally full of CoD, GTA and iterative sports titles. Plus the odd Pokemon. Be interesting to compare!

@somnambulance no

There is a huge difference between selling good and being good, Pokémon could become much more buggy with even less content in the next game, and it still would sell millions.

Because Pokémon, and some other franchises work the same way where they sell because of their name, and not because they are good.

There are a ton of much better games out there that didn’t even reach the 1 million mark while being multiplatform.

Being good doesn’t mean selling well

And having millions of sales doesn't mean a game is good.

And the worst part is, big franchises selling millions even if they have mediocre content, gives the makers of the game a excuse to not care anymore, because it will sell anyhow they conclude.

The most surprising thing to me about this chart is that Final Fantasy actually has a bigger launch than any Dragon Quest game. The post-FF7 hype must have been huge (and then fallen post-FF8)!

A great year for Nintendo with two record breaking games in Japan, just a few weeks apart. Congratulations! My Christmas present at least contributed to the ten million sales record.

This Christmas will be a warm one, thanks to the Paldea region.

And what kind of a message does this send to developers? That they can continue shipping unfinished, underdeveloped, buggy games and get away with it by crushing sale records. I'm sorry, but this is sad news for consumers.

@Krull that’s true.

Apparantly the Mario franchise is nr. 3 in Europe, behind Fifa and CoD. Maybe there’s an odd mario kart, such as 7 in the top selling list….?

https://www.thegamer.com/uk-top-30-bestselling-games-since-1995/

@somnambulance
I was thinking Nexomon Extinction and Yokai Watch games did better than Pokemon Scarlet / Violet.
They are underrated games but have better quality.

It's Pokemon, so it will always sell, riding on the shoulders of quality and successes past, not solely on its own merits.

@Maxz this is very much a game where you can talk graphics/performance vs gameplay. The gameplay I would say is the best in the series so far, and I enjoy just being in the world, exploring and finding Pokemon in the wild. The graphics are lackluster, the performance poor, and it has some (not many compared to other open world games) weird bugs.

@calbeau I'd disagree there. If you're selling better than usual that only happens if you've successfully convinced more new players you're worth playing.

You only need to look at D/P (17million)to see that on the even more successful DS (150million) they weren't able to convince more than 1million more players to play the games than Ruby/Sapphire (16million) on GBA.

Whereas on Switch (110million) they were able to increase the number of people playing Pokemon to 25million (Swsh), the highest in about 20 years.

If people just bought it "because its Pokemon" the DS games should have been the best sellers by a big margin. The Switch games are succeeding in some way to attract a bigger audience that the DS games failed to.

Putting the technical issues aside, I've been addicted to this game since launch. If Elden Ring wouldn't have released this year then Pokemon SV would be my game of the year so far.

The only huge problem that comes out of this is that I don't think Game Freak will bother patching the technical issues now. I mean, why would they? the game is breaking records and is selling even in its bad state.

@Dr_Lugae That's why I mentioned "not solely on its own merits."

This generation's games do have something going for them, but they also needed to strain the muscles of its franchise's reputation to make up for its needlessly lackluster quality, which shouldn't have been the case.

@JudaiMasters you must not have played many games to say this pokemon game outside of elden ring would be you're game of the year..

@Otoemetry OK? I didn’t state anything incorrect or to the contrary of what you stated, I’m well aware of the information in your comment and said what needed to be said in the context of the response I formed.

@johnedwin Oh I've played many. Just nothing released that is Game of the year worthy outside of Elden Ring this year imo.

@Fiskern Yeah, it’s interesting comparing this to the launch of Swo/Shi. Ignoring the extreme ends of the opinion spectrum, the general consensus on that title seems to be that it’s a pretty underwhelming game with pretty underwhelming execution.

In contrast, the general consensus on Sca/Vio seems to be that it’s actually quite a good game, with incredibly poor execution (in terms of graphics/performance/glitches/etc.)

Despite it’s very apparent failures, I’m actually more hopefully for the future of the franchise after ScaVio than I was after SwoShi. Game Freak has demonstrated its potential as a creative entity, even if it’s drastically underperforming on a technical level.

To echo a common sentiment, I hope they’re given much more time to develop the next titles!

You know what's interesting here is that judging by these numbers Pokemon as a game franchise could survive just by it's sales in Asia. That's crazy, I always thought Pokemon was equally popular worldwide but it seems like the popularity is quite lopsided if over 40% of the sales are from Japan.

Nintendo won, in 3 days they have racketed 600 millions dollars for a game that only cost them maybe 20 millions dollars , so why bother making good games when they make money like this . The more you buy this crap the more they will sell you crap, welcome to crap world.

@calbeau Sorry but you could say that about any game that isn't the first entry in a series or franchise. Would Mario Odyssey have sold 24million if it wasn't a Mario game?

How do you decouple what the game achieved on its own from the level of success the IP guaranteed?

Why is only the Switch Pokemon games that you think are straining the IP's reputation, when they're the only ones that grew the IP a substantial amount where previous entries failed? Do you think any Pokemon game other than Red/Blue sold purely on their merits?

@Dr_Lugae Sorry

No need to apologize. We're all sharing our opinions.

but you could say that about any game that isn't the first entry in a series or franchise.

It's almost inevitable that the next games in a franchise get compared to the ones before it, so that's a given.

Would Mario Odyssey have sold 24million if it wasn't a Mario game?

This is a what-if that we have absolutely no way of exploring. Maybe in another reality? Seriously, though, I would say perhaps, if it was good enough.

How do you decouple what the game achieved on its own from the level of success the IP guaranteed?

By making it stand out through innovation and quality, though ultimately even an awesomely innovative game would at least be affected by its IP's reputation, both for the good or bad. As an example, Symphony of the Night is almost completely considered to be the pinnacle of the Castlevania franchise, but even it derives some of its glory from the prestige already garnered by the Castlevania name.

Why is only the Switch Pokemon games that you think are straining the IP's reputation,

Because they have been lackluster. Maybe not completely, but lackluster nonetheless compared to, say, the previous generation of games.

when they're the only ones that grew the IP a substantial amount where previous entries failed?

Depends on what you consider "grew the IP." Not looking at sales here, but the Sun/Moon games and their Ultra versions were definitely better than the next ones despite the greater limitations of the 3DS compared to the Switch.

Do you think any Pokemon game other than Red/Blue sold purely on their merits?

As I mentioned above, even an awesomely innovative game would at least be affected by its IP's reputation, both for the good or bad. Can't think of an example of a game that was 0% unaffected by a previous related game, but feel free to provide an example for the benefit of our discussion.

Very well deserved, you can tell Game Freak put a lot of love into these games!

@Markiemania95 but you said Gamefreak own the IP, which isn't the full story. They could easily be stripped of the right to make Pokémon games if Nintendo decided to buy their share of TPC.

I would like to really know what how this game would have reviewed minus the obvious technical issues that seem to be present.

@Otoemetry I said that GF own a 3rd of the IP. I apologise that I didn’t spend more than 30 seconds of my day on my comment so that I could include all of the other precise legal details./s Sega could be ‘easily’ stripped of its right to develop Sonic if Sony bought them. CD Projekt Red could be ‘easily’ stripped of its right to develop Witcher if Microsoft bought them. It’s not a point that’s necessary to make because they’re all very unlikely ‘what-ifs’ that could apply to almost any bigger - smaller company dynamic.

@somnambulance "The criticisms are overblown, in my opinion. I’ve beaten the game, loved it, and had no game-breaking bugs my entire playthrough. There were some frame rate drops, juddery animations, and pop-in"

So because you had a good experience the critisism is overblown.

Noted.

Me, my partner and multiple of my friends have a ton of issues with the game, but on the other side of the coin there are 2 friends that didn't encounter ANY bug and finished the game.

Get my point? What you technically say is "I have no issue so people are overeacting".

anyhow

" I recommend experiencing the title for yourself, so you can make an opinion from actually feeling the game out."

I finished the game (otherwise I would not complain), and if anything the story is the most mediocre one since PKMN Platinum (remakes not counted)

Because while I love Hoenn and Sinnoh games the most, they have poor story compared to Black (2) and White (2) or even Sun and Moon.

And I at least dare to say that, without trying to justify that the games I LIKE (Hoenn and Sinnoh based ones), are having a good story because they don't have a good story.

The only part of Scarlet and Violet that has a solid story is the postgame after the league, which made me angry how good that is compared to how mediocre the rest was.

And that is the only positive thing I can say about S&V, even if I try to pull some nonsense reason to justify stuff, there is nothing to justify unless I close my eyes and ignore all the problems.

I even have more positive stuff to say about the Let's Go games and the original Red/Blue/Yellow, and those are the Pokémon games I never really liked, they are on the bottom on my list for a reason (but still not hating them, because I don't like them, that doesn't make them bad)

Even if I justify the story of S&V, the lack of stuff the older games had, and forget about the fact 95% of the buldings you can not enter and in the 5% you can it is mostly a menu.

The performance issues and bugs are just too large to ignore... even if you didn't have them, which is good, be happy, but you sound like a friend of mine that had zero issues with Cyberpunk 2077 at release and called all the problems with performance and bugs "overblown" just like you.

Be happy you did not encounter them and that you had a good experience, but don't ignore the issues.

Because ignoring them is a free ticket for Gamefreak to ignore them now and in the next games, because "people will defend it and people will buy it anyhow".

But that is my opinion, you liked them so that's great, you had no issues, so that is great too.

But I am at least not blindly ignoring the issues, nor I am hating the game because I had a crappy experience.

If anything I blame GF and PKMN Company for this mess.

But I am not trying to change the facts either.

Said enough, saying more is a waste of time because there will be enough people that will try to defend these games anyhow, and this is not the first time either and Pokémon is not the only franchise with that issue.

nice, this will make sure they release the next game in an even more broken state

@Hero-of-WiiU I really want to know how the game would have reviewed if it did not have the Pokémon name attached to it. However both scenarios are ones we will never find out.

@EaglyTheKawaiiShika
Game Freak is not only the main developer of the Pokémon games, because they are their creators from the beginning, neither Nintendo, nor Creatures and nor The Pokemon company (which is a creation of Nintendo and Game Freak to help in the administration of the brand) have control over the creation and development of the characters (Pokémon and humans), stories, settings and mechanics of the main games (and yes, still develop the graphics engine as well as the development of the game completely, really, too many work), remove Game Freak for What do you want, it is a risk since they know how the franchise's history is going, with another in its place at a high risk that may be worse than what many think it is right now.

What would be necessary, is that both Nintendo and TPC invest in a support developer for the graphic engine and visual development, and leave the complete work, without pressure, of characters, stories and mechanics to Game Freak.

@Rayquaza2510
to be fair it is nice to see comments discuss why they feel the issues are overblown even if i disagree that they are (in regard to the long comment you replied to)

its when you get the "haters gonna hate" mentality, where people dismiss those who have issues with it as just hating it for the sake of hating it, often not even addressing any particular criticism when it can become an issue (or those who resort to calling people names like "whiney")

@BenAV
I'm going to guess that the number of people who bought both copies individually rather than through the Double Pack is tiny, maybe like 1% of sales at best.

And as I said before, those who do buy both versions often give the other copy to a family member or friend, which still results in each copy being played by a different person.

Oh my god… it cannot be stopped…