Nintendo reveals 3DS title sees franchise-best opening month, moving 117,000 units at retail and 63,000 digitally during last month.
Nintendo announced today, citing NPD data, that Fire Emblem: Awakening for Nintendo 3DS sold 180,000 units during its February launch month. That mark is good for the best first month sales in franchise history, the company said.
Of the 180,000 total Fire Emblem: Awakening sales, 117,00 units were sold at physical retail and 63,000 units digitally.
By comparison, 2009's Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon has sold just over 250,000 units life-to-date in the US. Fire Emblem: Awakening has sold 70 percent of that figure already.
Nintendo did not share any sales data regarding Wii U hardware or software or 3DS hardware or software. The Wii U reportedly sold only 57,000 units in January. The full NPD February sales report showed overall industry sales slid 25 percent to $810 million.
For more on Fire Emblem: Awakening, check out GameSpot's review.
Eddie Makuch (Mack-ooh) is a News Editor at GameSpot. He works out of the company's Boston office in Somerville, Mass., and loves extra chunky peanut butter.
The physical-to-digital ratio would've been higher for physical if they had shipped enough copies in the first place. I was forced to get the digital download because every store within 30 miles (probably more than that) was sold out of the physical copy and wouldn't be getting any more for two weeks.
I think that's my one issue with FE:A. They didn't plan well enough to meet demand, and I was forced to spend full price for a download as opposed to getting a physical game :/
So happy that it is selling copies. Fire Emblem is fantastic and Nintendo's refusal to bring all the games to the USA has made me really sad. Awakening was excellent, as are all of the Fire Emblem games. Even the junk that is Shadow Dragon was still good. Please continue to release them in the USA, Nintendo!
@00LiteYear I don't think so. SD is a remake. Gamers always have very high expectation for the games they love when there is remake announced. SD simply didn't have anything special enough.
@Master_cheat001 There is something special about it; like being the first FE to play others wirelessly and the first to be a remake. However, I feel it's over plagued with generic characters and the leveling points is scarce.
I've been a fan of Fire Emblem for years, and I have to say this game will make me buy a 3DS eventually. I'm glad it's received such a reception - it deserves it! More people should know about Fire Emblem. :)
1 Like the sales probably would have been even better if not for the shipping issues on launch day. I drove to 3 stores on launch day during my lunch break to find my copy ... and the guy was nice enough to give me the pre-order booklet as well :)
3 Like I could tell this was a huge hit just based on the buzz in the forums here. I am glad to see numbers are lining up w/ my expectations of what they'd be. Now let's see some Advance Wars on 3DS!
This game was sold out at Best Buy and Game Stop when I went to go get it. And here I was thinking I was the only person with a 3DS.
1 Like @CriticalCritic Actually, there was a shipping error. It wasn't released for most stores until this month lol. So really, the fact that it somehow sold 180,000 copies is pretty amazing. (I bet they were all the 2-3 launch copies that each target got lol)
2 Like This Fire Emblem is probably the best in series, it's amazing and engaging, I enjoyed it a lot as I did with the SNES and GBA ones which I thought were the best, if you can actually get a physical copy it is like looking for a needle in a haystack.
@Master_cheat001 @Ledah same I'm waiting till September to get 3DS with Pokemon X/Y and this game although fire emblem is tempting me to get it now
2 Like @rushiosan Personally, i'd recommend this fire emblem game:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_Emblem_(video_game)
It's on the GBA, but it's perhaps one of the best Fire emblem games; not mechanically, but it just embodies everything great about the series.
Failing that, Fire Emblem - Path of Radiance, for the gamecube, is also one of the best in series.
5 Like This game is definitely my favorite 3DS game so far. Really, it's one of the best RPGs I've played in a while, 3DS or not. It's not often that I find a handheld game that I would rather play over my large library of PC games. Normally handhelds are something I only use if nothing else is available. This game is an exception.
So yeah, glad it's selling relatively well. I didn't realize there was a shortage of copies, guess I just got lucky.
1 Like @Lambchopzin The game has been very hard to find. I gave up and just ordered it on Amazon until they had a copy available. It took a couple of delays, and weeks, but it finally got here.
Around 20k of the sales are people from EU that have a US 3ds and can't be arsed to wait for games to be released in Europe.
Thanks Nintendo.
It'd be way higher if anybody could actually find a copy, i've been trying since day one and have never seen a physical copy.
@singhellotaku the 3ds does have a digital purchasing store.
perhaps this is a nefarious scheme to get people to use it? :P
@shingui5 @singhellotaku I really think it is. I don't understand how they can take thousands upon thousands of preorders, but not have enough copies and run out of stock on Day 1. The day it came out, I checked around 11am and every store within the area was sold out. Of course, they told me, "We won't be getting any for two weeks, and a lot are already on backorder to meet demand, but we can sell you the digital download..."
I wish they'd give you a slight discount for digital copies, at least, since you're not getting as much. Something just irks me about paying the same price for a download as getting the actual game with the materials it comes with.
1 Like @Tak666 @tightwad34 Yeah, that's without having to get your physical copy. Still, with it being available digitally and how hard it is to find, you may think the digital sales would be higher. Maybe that means there are still many of us that don't want a virtual copy. I hate this digital shit.
I'm fron the EU(Poland), and got a US 3ds(for ealy game acces) and eshop is the only way I can get us games cheap and fast. I envy Your 3ds game prices so much :( in the EU it's like 40-50 euro, at least, for a game, not 39.99 bucks :(
1 Like That's weird, GameSpot told me a I got a response from this article yet I didn't even access this article at all yet.
Anyways, it's a decent number since the Fire Emblem series has never really been a huge seller. Hopefully they can make more copies available so that sales can go up. I saw that the game is already selling for a high amount on Amazon due to the current rarity of the game.
1 Like @abHS4L88 I know. On eBay and Amazon, new FE copies go for $50-$60. I was lucky enough to find the game used, no case or manual, for $37.50. A good price compared to what I've been seeing.
The game doesn't really have a manual (just a folded up large paper with the basic info, wouldn't really call it a manual) but yeah, with games like these, you need to buy them new or risk getting them later on at a jacked up price. I preorder Pandora's Tower (although considering that The Last Story also published by XSEED is currently at $29.99, shouldn't worry too much) but I was warned that Shin Megami Tensei Soul Hackers will probably be a rare game, same with Project X Zone (which I preordered, still on the fence about Soul Hackers since I've never been big on first person RPG dungeon crawlers).
@abHS4L88 Yeah, I could have got it immediately if I bought it for around $60, but I just ordered at normal price and waited for it.
I made sure to preorder my copy and I actually had to wait almost a week later to get it, which was fine because I was still finishing up Advance Wars: Days of Ruin. Hooray for Intelligent Systems!
4 Like If they had more copies available at retail during launch week, I am sure it would have sold a lot more copies. I couldn't find a single copy of the game at any of my local retailer until almost a month later.
And yes, I need to buy a physical copy because I need to share it with other members in my family.
@singhellotaku Order it on Amazon and wait for them to send it. May take a bit, but I got mine after a little while. If you don't do Amazon then I really hope you get your hands on it.
I don't remember Nintendo advertising Shadow Dragon nearly as well as Awakening. Plus, I think eShop demos are helping a ton, because I was torn on picking up Awakening until I played it.
@DennisWZH not for a rather niche handheld game, and given how hard it is to find, I bet this means its pretty much selling out at all times
@singhellotaku @SDBusDriver1979 i agree if it was niche, but i dont think fire emblem is considered niche, not to mention the game was heavily advertised and has a TV commercial as well. thing is after the initial week's sales, this kind of games usually dropped in sales considerably..
@DennisWZH @singhellotaku @SDBusDriver1979
you have to add japan sales , basically US sales are icing for nintendo and they are impressed. Lets put this in perspective, FE in US never sold this good, yet nintendo kept translating em, so even selling a third was profit to them. Moreso now.
@DennisWZH
It depends, judging by how quick the physical copies sold out which would mean that sales far exceeded Nintendo's sales expectation. Companies' initial release always ships enough copies to make a profit otherwise the game wouldn't get a retail release. Nintendo made a nice profit off the game, almost ensuring that we will get more Fire Emblem games in the future. Ultimately, it doesn't matter how many copies you sell. It is whether you make a profit or hence why Homefront sold a million copies but the studio was closed since it didn't make a profit because of operation costs.
This is my first Fire Emblem game and my first 3DS game, and it is just awesome.
I hope it sells enough to give Nintendo incentive to make a sequel, and inspire developers to look more into this genre and platform...
Nintendo tends to keep this series (like many others) one per platform but don't worry, this series has never even hit the 1m mark yet Nintendo still pumps out these games. The next entry is actually going to be for the Wii U, a crossover title with Atlus's Shin Megami Tensei.
1 Like @abHS4L88 Not one of the FE games has sold 1 million? Yet there are multiple entries? That's good to know. It tells me the devs and publishers aren't greedy bastards and care about the passionate fanbase that care about their games so much.
Wow, I just read a report that these are the best figures Nintendo has seen for the series in the US (keep in mind the game hasn't been released in Europe yet, my British friend is still waiting for it).
Very true, I mean look at Xenoblade, I'm sure if Monolith was with any other developer, they would've gotten axed for having the kind of sales Xenoblade got, yet here they are making a sequel for the Wii U.
@singhellotaku @abHS4L88 @bjvill
Greatest game ever???? Well..... HELL YEAH! Haha, seriously, when that game was revealed, when they showed off the Shin Megami cast I was like O_O "Yay for the Wii U!" then when it shifted to Fire Emblem, I had this stupid grin on my face that wouldn't come off ^_^
Can't wait for E3 to see more info on this game (along with many others).
@bjvill There have been quite a few Fire Emblem games already actually going back a few years. Believe me, there will be another game in the series, and you may want to check out the other Fire Emblem game mentioned in the article above.
$200 special-edition bundle due February 4 includes a preinstalled copy of strategy game and blue system with Fire Emblem artwork.
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