This is the real news story here. Nintendo has been dead, buried, excavated, replaced and buried again in the UK. The only success stories are Wii and...
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UK: Mario Kart 8 Deluxe first week outsells Mario Kart 8 and Mario Kart 7
- Thread starter Zedark
- Start date
This is the real news story here. Nintendo has been dead, buried, excavated, replaced and buried again in the UK. The only success stories are Wii and...
Exploratory
Banned
Smash port. Do it.
lol what is the origin of this? I'm sure I seen this posted the other day
Yup we had all those stories of retailers dropping Wii U and since the launch of Switch my local tesco has started stocking Amiibos(they reintroduced a modest Nintendo section last year).
This will hopefully be pretty hype at E3.
Herb Alpert
Banned
I didn't expect the switch to do well in the UK.
Magicpaint
Member
DS sold incredibly well in the UK as well. The Game Boy lines also did well.
For a lot of people, Wii U was a non console or one they didn't buy, so for many, they either last played the Wii version, or the 3DS or even DS or GBA and Gamecube Mario Kart games. It also helps that Switch is title limited in a sense and so there aren't a ton of games to play and a game like Mario Kart is evergreen throughout a gen. See similar and crazy attach rates and sales of BotW.
Nintendo was smart with this port, increasing some of the textures and making it 1080p/60 when docked. This game will easily sell alongside Switch as a must-have and so could end one of the most popular Mario Kart games in years.
Nintendo was smart with this port, increasing some of the textures and making it 1080p/60 when docked. This game will easily sell alongside Switch as a must-have and so could end one of the most popular Mario Kart games in years.
OnionPowder
Member
Skittzo0413
Member
That's changed a lot this gen.
And Mario Kart always has crazy long legs.
He's talking about the majority of week one sales, not lifetime sales. I don't know if it's accurate but it makes sense that a release being tracked for 3 days shouldn't be all that different from one tracked 5 or 7 days.
I never played Mario Kart Wii. It's only one in the series I actually skipped because I didn't feel like playing it.
Principate
Saint Titanfall
That's changed a lot this gen.
And Mario Kart always has crazy long legs.
What is this a graph for ants!
That's changed a lot this gen.
And Mario Kart always has crazy long legs.
Thanks for the chart, reposting a slightly larger version here:
JonnyDBrit
Member
Thanks for the chart, reposting a slightly larger version here:
Edit: Evidently my mobile browser is being weird with this. Reuploaded to imgur.
OnionPowder
Member
Yeah it looks fine on desktop. I replaced mine with your link. Thank you.
Skittzo0413
Member
You didn't miss much, it really wasn't a very good game. Huge letdown from Double Dash at least to me.
sir_bumble_bee
Member
Any Nintendo hardware doing well in the UK is a surprise
It's arguably my least favourite version of Mario Kart ever.
DS, and to a lesser extent Double Dash, were leagues ahead.
Only the digital versions of retail games are included.
That's probably pretty significant then. FAST RMX probably sold a good chunk at launch.
sixteen-bit
Member
Congrats on the success
Oh yeah that's very possible, was only thinking about Japan but this really shows how much potential sales were lost due to Wii U's performance.
Skittzo0413
Member
Do we even have numbers for Switch shipments in the UK?
Already own it + the DLC for Wii U. I really can't see myself paying full price for it (+ having to buy an additional controller / set of joycons). I wish Nintendo would offer it half price for loyal customers who own the Wii U version, but given that it's selling like hotcakes...
I imagine there are a lot of Switch owners like me who are hardcore Nintendo fans who owned a Wii U and Mario Kart but bought a Switch because Zelda would likely be better on the system, then bought Mario Kart because a lack of other software.
Of course we'll probably never know what percentage of current Switch owners owned a Wii U and Mario Kart 8.
Waluigilicious
Member
People are buying the Switch to play Mario Kart. The sales of Zelda went up this week. Look out for hardware sales in the Japanese sales topic this coming Wednesday and you'll see the increase in hardware sales.
What would it have taken for you to not buy Mario Kart anyway? You sound like quite a unique case. I don't know if it's possible to outsell MK7 so early in a systems life cycle because there being nothing else to play. Do you honestly believe this is the case?
Gotdatmoney
Member
What was Mario Kart 7's first week?
I bought MK8D because I want to play Mario Kart on my Switch. Size of Switch library was not a factor.
I own ten games on the Switch thanks to eShop and I don't even have time for all of them.
Lack of AAA software? At the moment there's more quality AAA titles compared to quantity. Wii U had a lot of AAA games at launch and they sold terribly.
Lack of software in general? No, there's a variety of game genres available on the eShop that anyone can find something to play.
Wouldn't class myself as a "hardcore" fan now, but I'm still interested in what Nintendo do even if it is under a veil of slightly increased skepticism. And while I did own MK8 and a Wii U, I bought it because I never bothered with any of the DLC. That and of course, it's portable. Same goes for Zelda. And regards to lack of other software, indie titles have certainly given me reason to invest in the console outside of Nintendo's own big-hitters.
The number of times I've had to go out and thought: "Oh well, guess I'll continue my playthrough when I get ba-" and then the penny [eventually] drops with the fact I can *gasp* take my Switch with me. For such a simple concept, the portability of the Switch is one of its greatest strengths it would seem.
Waluigilicious
Member
This is definitely true, but I've accepted that argument for the sake of it but still fail to understand how anyone can fail to see how impress it is that MK8D outsold MK7 and 8 regardless of games available.
This is the first time I remember having 4 physical games two months into launch and not regretting any purchase one bit. And like you said, there's plenty of eshop titles too.
Magicpaint
Member
Mario Kart 7 had a very soft launch in UK. It barely made the Top 10 in its debut. I wouldn't be surprised if Mario Kart 8 had a better start.
I seriously doubt I'm a unique case. While not everyone who bought a Switch day 1 are big Nintendo fans I'm sure a fairly significant chunk are people who owned Wii U and played Mario Kart 8 already.
I'm not saying it's a bad thing Mario Kart 8 is selling well. I think its my favorite Mario Kart with all the DLC and the proper battle mode.
I think if Mario Kart 8 deluxe had launched this fall a smaller percentage of Switch owners would be picking it up due to having a lot more software choices like Arms, Splatoon and Mario Odyssey (though it would still do very well). Right now there are a lot of Switch owners finished with Zelda and looking for the next big thing on the Switch.
You're deluding yourself if you think there's a lot of software on the Switch. Third parties haven't jumped on board and there's some indie games but much of it is old multiplatform software that you could of bought years ago on another storefront.
To be fair though pretty much all consoles start with a weak software lineup so it's not a huge deal. I imagine big third parties will start supporting the Switch a little bit more if sales continue to be strong but I cant blame any of them for having cold feet since it probably costs more to port a game to Switch than Xbox, PS4 and PC due to the power difference and profit margins on physical will be a little bit less due to game cards.
They have moved on to check boxes.
clevbrowns94
Member
Yeah, I feel the same way. Not enough has changed for me. Although if you sell your Wii U copy for $30 or so, then it's not so bad.
balladofwindfishes
Member
I think what we're seeing is partly because these games work really well as portable games and most haven't ever been portable, or only in scaled down Vita ports, or mobile ports with "off" controls.
Portable Minecraft (with proper controls and larger maps) is going to be a force of nature.
Skittzo0413
Member
I had it on Wii U without the DLC, so that alone was enough to get me on board.
But I think what a lot of people are missing is the portability and joycon upgrade that comes with it being on the Switch, rather than any in-game upgrade. The game is just so, so much more convenient and easy to play whenever, and it's incredibly entertaining to bring it somewhere, even to a friends house to play a race or two.
Also renegade roundup is nuts, but battle mode isn't for everyone.
pretty done
Member
Nintendo: "No ports on Switch (so everyone is starved and buys our ports)"
Screamapillar
Member
MK Wii sold 206,000 to a large install base in 2008, as it released 18 months after Wii launched. Mario Kart Deluxe doing better than 8 on Wii U in only three days is extremely impressive. Switch just launched eight weeks ago
I didn't say there was a lot of software, I said there wasn't a lack of software.
Quality trumps quantity.
Wii U had 30 games at launch including AAA third party titles and they sold like shit.
You keep saying quality over quantity but the Wii U had quality & variety at launch (the big retail games), the hardware was just unappealing.
If equivalent newer titles launched with the Switch those games would sell a lot better than the Wii U games did because people like the hardware.
I've had no issue with the expanded releases as of late like MK8D and upcoming titles like Disgaea 5 or Overcooked, but I'd much rather prefer a new DK game: Donkey's Original New Game...for lack of a better name.
Assassins Creed III
Batman: Arkham City Armored Edition
Call of Duty: Black Ops II
Darksiders II
Disney Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two
Mass Effect 3
ZombiU
Sonic and All-Stars Racing Transformed
I really doubt the above would have sold better if the Wii U was a better console.
Only the bolded would have done okay while the rest had their own problems due to reviews or having a Mass Effect Trilogy available on the competitors consoles.
Dude. It came out the next month after Zelda. In the second month of release for the system. Your expectations are totally out of line with reality or history if you think this is uncommon. The fact there are two major, evergreen system sellers this early is amazing.
Bigboss242
Banned
I don't understand you people there are plenty of games do you just sit and binge game all day and never work or sleep?