Metroid Prime: Federation Force is a sales disaster- highly distugings

Series was never as good as Halflife, but this is bad.

Metroid Prime: Federation Force is a sales disaster in Japan

Metroid Prime: Federation Force has failed to chart in the Japanese software top 20.

The much-maligned Metroid spin-off has received intense criticism from franchise fans since its announcement, but its failure to appear at all in the chart is still eye-opening.

Federation Force is the first 3DS Metroid game, the first Metroid game of any kind in six years, and comes as the series quietly celebrates its 30th anniversary.

More to the point, Japan is the 3DS' heartland. While other platforms struggle - home consoles especially so - the 3DS continues to sell strongly.

Federation Force's absence from the software top 20 means it sold less than 4,441 copies during its opening week, below 20th place entry Splatoon (which, after a year, has notched up 1.45m Japanese sales).

But Nintendo knows best

Not like the 3DS deserves any better.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. Metroid as a franchise is not worth it. They should shelve the thing entirely. It was never a big seller, and the Metroid fanbase has standards that almost no company can meet. As odd as it sounds, I hope that Nintendo straight up announces that there will be no Metroid NX nor any future Metroid games in the foreseeable future.

*looks up from playing AM2R*

lol.

*goes back to playing*

What do you expect? For people to buy a DS game that never got finished back when it had to and not only that there is no Samus. Hell nah.

Fans want new Metroid game.

Nintendo doesn't listen, gives us this instead.

Fans complain about the game, say they don't want it.

Nintendo doesn't listen, continues production and releases.

Fans don't buy it.

Nintendo says you didn't buy it, then we won't make more.

That makes no sense! You can't survive as a business like that

LOL at "standards that no company can meet." That's total BS.

I'm pretty sure Metroid fans would be very happy to just get a game that is similar to Super Metroid, even if it doesn't end up being as good as it.

Star Fox, Mario Party 10, Mario Tennis, Devils Third, Yoshi Woolly World, Mario vs Donkey Kong, Kirby and the rainbow curse and Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze has all failed. THEY DON'T CARE OR GIVE DAMN ABOUT YOU OR OTHERS

@bunchanumbers: I disagree with the notion of "metroid fans demands cannot be met". for instance I enjoyed other M (WTF BLASPHEMY) but agree with most it wasn't very well fleshed out due to being given power up rather than searching for them. It was too stream lined for some fans... Also people moaned about Samus and how she was portrayed but they're just whingers.

All the primes where great. Retro did wonders.

I want Retro to do other stuff though.

I think out of the 4 I've mentioned have all topped a million (prime 1 and 2 may sold better but cba to look, maybe other M sold less million). Hunters did well also memory serves me right.

Thinking of it.... How many development teams is there which would take on such a project. If you want Beat Em Up / Metroidvania then there's only Tecmo and PG. Retro variation... There's no real replacement comes to mind.

And good going metroid fans and people in general passing on up on this.

Not saying they really should... Just shouldn't ignore the backlash they get

Pretty much all businesses survive like that. Its called gauging interest. They sent out this Metroid shaped test balloon out into the wild, and it was rejected. Same thing when Bamco said to retweet stuff to get a HD remaster of the Xenosaga trilogy. It didn't happen. Different companies do it different ways, but its still the same. In this case I hope that Nintendo sees that Metroid fans aren't interested in Metroid games anymore and they shelve the franchise for good.

Problem is Nintendo fanboys. No matter what Nintendo do, Nintendo fanboys protect them by saying that they do right thing and never fail and this makes Nintendo think that they are really doing right thing. For example. Sony and Microsoft fanboys get angry and protest against bad games or region lock or something but when Nintendo is doing something wrong, then fans don't protest but instead defending Nintendo by telling everyone that Nintendo is doing right thing. When Nintendo says region lock is good thing, then fanboys says that region lock is good thing and they hate ps4 and xbox one because of region free that ruined gaming. When nintendo says they don't need online gaming, then fanboys also says that online is devil and should be banned and nintendo is saying right thing.

As long Nintendo fanboys keeps protecting Nintendo, this makes Nintendo really think that they are doing right thing and they never fail. Nintendo fanboys mostly supports North Korea. Propaganda and all those lies just makes people angry this cause Nintendo to fail.

System Wars. Not Fanboy wars. Please don't start with generalizations of fanbases.

Maybe Metroid Fans want a Metroid game that is more like a classic game and doesn;t have a chibi srt-style that completely goes against Metroid's usual style?

I don't understand how Nintendo fanbase can say that they rather have friend codes than "add friend" like in Xbox Live, PSN network or facebook. When Nintendo changed, they suddenly Nintendo users were saying it was right thing but when Nintendo did not change before, then nintendo fans were saying friends code is best thing ever.

System wars? i only see ps4 fans protect UC4 graphics and that's all, but Nintendo users protect everything. Everything. This can't be just system wars

Nintendo fans finally spoke with their wallets. Thats how you get these companies to take notice. Don't support lackluster software even if you love Nintendo.

As of late, Nintendo releases an insane amount of shitty exclusives. Indie titles are better than what's coming from the biggest Nintendo series... When Nintendo releases an underpowered system, the usual sheep defends it with "who cares about graphics when Nintendo exclusives are better than what the other 2 have" or "gameplay>graphics". But guess what? There is no gameplay anymore. Its poor visuals and poor/abysmal gameplay. You need to try real hard to fail a Metroid game. Its like Konami is trying real hard to destroy MGS with their latest announcement.

But this isn't a Metroid game. They just slapped the name on. It added no lore or story to the franchise. It has no exploration, discovery, puzzle solving, inventory upgrading, or backtracking elements.

I agree, although there are a handful of worthwhile 1st party games on the system. Gotta wonder if the lack of sales caused dev's to not try as hard

Don't worry! After this game, it WON'T be coming back.

You're using generalizations about a fanbase when you know its not like that. There are things you need to realize. One being that Metroid is more of a western franchise than a Japanese one. Quit acting like the entire fanbase is gathering and meeting about how to protect Nintendo when just like every other consumer, they have games they like or don't like.

What do you expect them to do, cancel it and blow EVEN more of their money?

Then were are those people who don't protect Nintendo?

Beats me. I don't know anyone who protects Nintendo without question. I think you're looking for some sort of boogeyman that doesn't exist. Nintendo fans are are just people who like Nintendo games, but not all Nintendo games. Even I have Nintendo games I don't care for.

I dunno I guess since it's the 30th anniversary they were expecting a full fledged Metroid adventure rather that 22 short missions that can be done in 15-20 mins sometimes even under 10 mins if you're a completionist. The difficulty from what I hear is no perfect between single and multiplayer. What seemed hard on your own becomes so easy and done in a mater of minutes in multiplayer.I To me metroid was about exploration I guess this game was to shallow is the problem

I remember Jeff G saying that Nintendo isn't making many Metroid titles because they don't sell. Well, its not by releasing this kind of POS that this is changing, Nintendo.

Such an embarrassing 'game' that Nintendo thought was appropriate for anyone.

Even Japan doesn't want this game. That's quite surprising. 4286 sold.

http://www.famitsu.com/biz/ranking/

Great dishonor.

I'll say it before & I'll say it again...Nintendo can make a great Metroid game IF they actually focus on making a great Metroid game. Imo their focus atm is not actually on making a great game rather more focus on "different way to play or new way to play" - control scheme...rather than the game itself. :P

That would actually be sad..if they shelved it for another gen. They need to give it to someone new. :P

Wait were friendcodes generally defended as being the best thing or is that just another one of FreedomFreeLife's typical lies? I don't recall people being in favor of friendcodes in general. NIntendo fans are very critical of anything Nintendo does in general. That would surprise me. I do recall people saying it was no big deal. And honestly, it wasn't.

I don't get Nintendo, it's so easy to make a successful Metroid game, they have the perfect template with Super Metroid but they stubbornly refuse to do it. Idiots, they deserve the lowest sales.

Happy for this flop. I love Nintendo but cheap spin-offs is something that'll never support. They are going for the easy money but in my opinion this philosophy devaluates their IPs. Until recently a Nintendo release meant that a quality game was coming, now I just start by expecting the worst hoping to be wrong.

Saw that coming.

SYSTEM WARS WARNED NINTENDO ABOUT THIS GAME!

WE WARNED THEM HERE YEARS AGO ABOUT THIS GAME!

I like how some posters act like Nintendo has never released a bad game before until this. The recent Yoshi games? Pokemon Channel? The recent Mario Parties? Nobody remembers these? Because of anything, you should have said this a LONG ASS time ago.

Nintendo love and criticism is less consistent than the reception to Star Wars and just as as inconsistent as The Simpsons (a series people demand to die for staying too long, but b**** at Fox for not making anymore DVD's of). Yeah, you 'love' a company after you started the gen telling them to "f*** off" for "taking away" a game you wanted to play.

That's what happens. To quote one Adam Jensen, "I didn't ask for this." Metroid may not have the biggest fanbase in the world, but they're intensely devoted, and I think it's safe to say that almost no one was looking forward to Federation Force, which just looked bad from the get go.

So devoted that for as much as they boast about their series being Nintendo's most 'mature', they act like entitled children when they don't get a new game after a game they hated as much as Sonic fans hated Sonic 06?

Is it that hard to make a killer 2d metroidvania game for a new generation Nintendo?

Considering it's hard for them to get people of Melee with every new Smash, it might be equally hard for them to get off Super Metroid and the idea of Retro Studios being a "Metroid slave".

Well, that's the shocker of the century.

It's saddening to see such a great property in the hands of the incompetent that are actively destroying it. They treat their IPs like this, this predictably happens, and then what's the cherry on top? It's all our fault. All the blame and negativity for Metroid's "failure" conveniently shifts towards the consumer. "Metroid doesn't sell", "people don't want it!", "people whine!", "you can't satisfy everybody!", and ultimately, "you can't blame Nintendo!"

Uh....yes, you can. You can directly blame them. You'd think people would be astute enough to not have to wonder why people feel the way they do (or why the above quoted happens) when stuff like this occurs. Now some are actually desiring for a franchise to die simply because Nintendo is incapable of handling it properly to bring it to profit, which it is perfectly capable of doing. Metroid is NOT a poor property. It can work in the hands of somebody that knows what they're doing with it. I'm losing faith Nintendo does anymore. I'll give them one more chance with the NX before tossing Metroid in the same garbage bin as Waverace, 1080, and F-Zero, all the while having their diehards cheering it on.

I almost feel like I'm talking about EA, but at least fans mourned those lost games.

Oh gee, not like fans of The Simpsons haven't been asking for something similar for their once favorite series and haven't bashed Fox for not trying to make the series "relevant" to them.

Sorry, but at this point, Nintendo 'critics' shouldn't even be complaining that another series of theirs is dead and should look at it as 'one less IP for Nintendo to milk'.

@uninspiredcup:

Metroid Prime was way better than Half Life. But that's not the point. Nintendo has been putting Metroid in the attic for way too long! If they wanted this game to succeed then they should've gone all out instead of this multiplayer crap!

Technically of speaking, back then, Metroid Prime was the answer to Halo CE/Halo 2 (even Killzone for that matter) at it's time mainly because CE revolutionize FPS on consoles, Nintendo wasn't into FPS and when they made Prime, it turn out to be a cool game for the Metroid series. Here's my thing, let Nintendo keep the Primes as there main FPS, Nintendo should just ditch the Metroid alone but it's been proven that Metroid Prime itself works and I still want to see Nintendo bring a brand new Metroid Prime to NX so we can see how well will FPS works on NX in my opinion.

Halflife was definitely better. Better story, AI, pacing, shooting, multiplayer, modding more influential e.t.c...

Hearing people go on about Metoid Prime, or Halo, or Goldeneye is very insulting to the FPS genre.

Goldeneye was "Call of Duty" of it's time.

A relatively simple to play multiplayer First Person shooter with a small number of players in relatively small maps. Anyone who had a PC in 1997 had Quake 2 or Duke Nukem 3D - games which completely outshines Goldeneye. thing is, the average console gamer had never seen or played anything like it and because of good music, good graphics and a strong multiplayer - it was a killer app of it's time.

It failed to sell!!?? Really!!?? Nooooo!?? Of course it did. This obvious cash grab flotsam deserves the 10 sales it gets. So does Nintendo for being def to its fans who explicitly stated they didn't want this turd. Nintendo has no one to blame but themselves for Metroids poor state. A 2.5D game on 3DS would have sold well if done in the vain of Fusion. Because you know, it would have been something the fans wanted......derp.