XENOBLADE CHRONICLES 2 - Its sales and why they are relevant
2007 - The Acquisition
It's 2007 and the Nintendo Wii is rocking the videogame world with its novelty/gimmick, but also thanks to its huge sales numbers. Among all the news, there is something that somehow goes undernoticed, at least in terms of mass market appeal. Nintendo acquired Monolith Soft. - a Bandai-Nacmo owned JRPG team. The relationship between Kyoto-based company and Takahashi team was already pretty close and positive, thanks to a couple of exclusive products developed by Monolith Soft. for the previous Nintendo home console (specifically, Baten Kaitos and Baten Kaitos Origins), as testified also by the fact that the team was already developing a Nintendo owned IP (as second party), with Disaster - Day of Crisis, a weird action game published in 2008 as Wii esclusive. But Nintendo gola wasn't to transform Monolith Soft. into a westernized action oriented team: on the contrary, the idea was to focus them exaclty on what they were well know for: classic but very ambitious JRPG.
2010 - The Beginning
Monolith Soft. was responsible for the classic and belowed Xeno-saga, a very deep role-playing-game saga, and Nintendo back in the days wanted to exploit their expertise to fill a possible void in their lineup, with them focusing their know-how on this kind of production. The actual proof for this goal is that in 2010 they published the first episode of a new saga, still keeping the "Xeno" word in the title: Xeboblade Chronicles (previously known as Monado: Beginning of the World), named after Takahashi's team love for the Xeno-saga products developed under Namco ownership (also to commercially exploit the already beloved IP). This game put Monolith Soft. on the map, among Nintendo fans and worldwide critic, with an ambitious open world (even more impressive considering the limit of the Wii hardware, compared to the existing competitor consoles), a deep storytelling and an amazing OST, that lead a critically acclaimed Metacritic score of 92/100. But, at the same time, something went wrong about it, commercially: despite the huge install base, due to a problematic distribution west-side and due to a declining phase of Wii's performances (that affected negatively also bigger games marketing-wise like The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword) the game was unable to sell at least 1 million copies and in fact its actual LT sales numbers are still a mistery (not being reported by Nintendo in none of their financial report, exactly because it was unable to break that milestone). Ambitious game, critically acclaimed, but commercially problematic. Was the partnership already in danger? Was the saga already buried among better-selling Nintendo owned IPs?
2015 - Monolith flexes its muscles
Was Monolith soft. parntership with Nintendo jeopardized? Takahashi: "Hold my beer" - exactly when the misunderstanding around the release of the first game and its tepid mass market response could have generated issues, Nintendo decided to invest in Monolith Soft. programming abilities and funded two projects, both released in 2015, to testify the potential of their hardwares: Xenoblade Chronicles X was a graphical and technical showcase for the Wii U HD capabilities, with an even bigger and completely free-to-explore (even flying!) open world, that for some is still unmatched nowadays, while Xenoblade Chronicles 3D (a remake of the first Wii episode) was chosen to push the portable device revision: only the improved processor and bigger RAM of the New 3DS was able to properly sustain Takahashi's vision for his own game (with the help by Monster Games, being the main tam at Monolith hard at work for Xenoblade X). Unfortunately, despite being technically impressive, due especially to the struggles of the Wii U and the limited install base of the 3DS hardware revision, none of these projects were able to cross that (in)famous million mark.
2017 - Time to shine!
January 2017, the official Nintendo Switch presentation event. For the first time ever for the franchise, a good portion of the unveil of a brand new Nintendo hardware features a good spot light for Monolith Soft. efforts. Among the games presented, there is also Xenoblade Chronicles 2, new episode of the franchise, planned for the end of the year. The game actually launched in December of the same year, as planned and its pace in terms of sales is on another level. Within the end of the year (so in just three weeks) it crosses the million mark (1.06 million distributed worldwide), beating what its predecessors weren't able to reach in a "life-time" time lapse. Even better: the game continues to sell in a steady way (something not so common among JRPG) and its official numbers at the end of 2020 are around 2,17 millions copies distributed worldwide. Now, since then 1 year and a half has passed and from InstallBase own experts, this number will surely increased when, in 1/2 months from today, we will get access to CESA White Paper 2022, with updated numbers at the end of 2021. What we can anticipate now is that, in any case, the game didn't stop selling; on the contrary! In 2021 at retail in the Japanese market (official numbers tracked MediaCreate agency) it sold another 30k copies; it ranked 27th in the eshop digital chart for the first half on that year, in that market; it has been capable almost every week of this year 2022 to stay within the top 50 of the most downloaded game on the Japanese eshop; it was able to chart in the Famitsu retail week 23 chart, with another 1k copies sold physically. With it being within the voucher program (a deal particularly good for the Japanese market) and with its protagonist Pyra/Mythra added to the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate roster, its popularity even increased somehow and (even without giving a proper estimate) it's pretty safe to imagine that its LtD global copies shipped worldwide are even significantly higher than the official 2020 figures.
Xenoblade Chronicles 2 success: why?!
Many are the reasons behind this explosion in success, compared to previous entries. Opinions can vary, so we are not going ahead to make a chart, but simply listing different topics that as a matter of fact helped the game is gaining market share/mind share among the mass market, improving Xenoblade brand awareness.
1) The Switch-effect: it is clear how popular the Switch is, and how massive its software sales are, even compared to the most succesfull Nintendo console of the past. So, for Xenoblade 2 being available on the Switch was a competitive advantage compared to Xenoblade 1 (released on the Wii, a very sucessfull console but during its declining phase), Xenoblade X (available as a Wii U exclusive, the least appealing Nintendo console ever, for the mass market) and Xenoblade 3D (available only on the hardware upgrade of the 3DS).
2) Fully promoted: unlike Xenoblade 1 (the only game of this group that could have had the potential of selling well) that was badly promoted (it was not present during that year E3 presentation, but unveiled right after, with just a simple "PR", separated by the main event; it was not distributed by NoA as a total market product for the NA market), Xenoblade 2 was in the center of the spotlight of the most important Nintendo Switch presentation ever (the very first one in January 2017, where they actually presented the console, the price, the launch-window lineup and so on), getting TONS of attention from everyone; it was also distributed as one of the main exclusives for the Holiday period (December 2017), as one of the main selling point of the console, during its first Holiday spending time.
3) Anime-style at its best/worst: this topic has been discussed to death, with many people complaining againts it and its oversexualized approach; this is not the right place where to discuss it, but for the blade design many anime/manga Japanese artists have been involved (the most famous one being Nomura, probably) and the result has been a rich cast of side-characters, alongside the main protagonists of course; this has generated tons of fan made activities spread all over the social media channels (Twitter and so on) that contributed to some sort of viral marketing campaign, that helped in increasing mind share about the product itself. The "anime-manga" style, in the meantime, found a very solid resonance on a global scale, with projects like Persona 5 (2016; Atlus-Sega; more than 5 milllions sold with the "P5R" revised version), Nier Automata (2017; Square-Enix; 6.5 millions), Fire Emblem Three Houses (2019; Nintendo; 3.4 millions at the end of 2020), all the best selling episodes in their franchise history.
4) Gatcha-like system: another mixed topic, considering how for many this unlocking-system was tedious at best, damaging at worst, but it is possible/likely that for the Japanese market at least this somehow helped in generating buzz around the product, especially among content creators
5) Content and promotional continued support by Monolith Soft. and Nintendo: Xenoblade life cycle has been sustained in a very strong way by the developers, thanks to a very meaty post launch support; new heroes, new quests, even an entire new story arch (so meaningful that has been also distributed separately, on cart, as a standalone game). This surely helped the game legs in the mid-long term, alongside Nintendo's decision to continue supporting the Voucher program in both EU and Japan markets; in Japan especially, this digital promotion program is very valuable for pricy games like Xenoblade 2 is in that country (for example, it will be soon possible to buy Xenoblade 2 and Xenoblade 3 together for ¥9.980 instead of ¥17.556, in Japan).
6) Smash Bros effect: among Nintendo continue support to the game and the franchise there is also the decision to include both Pyra/Mythra (protagonists of Xenoblade 2) as playable characters in one of their most successfull games ever (28,17 million at March 2022), dedicating also two still-to-be-released amiibo to them. A very good way of increasing the visibility of the cast and consequently of the franchise (it is well-known for example how Sakurai love for the Fire Emblem franchise and its consequent inclusion "en masse" in his fighting games helped the SRPG brand in increasing its awareness among the mass market)
Of course, it being a very good, solid, long, and rich game helped too! (83% on Metacritic)
Xenoblade Chronicles 2 success: consequences
Xenoblade Chronicles 2 has been a success, this is obvious. But what does it imply for Monolith Soft and the Xenoblade franchise? Well, surely good things. We have already seen at least a couple of actual facts, that can testify the positive effect of Xeno2 sales.
1) Increased brand awareness for the Xenoblade brand: this is easy to check. In 2020 Nintendo published Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition; this was the third version of the original first episode of the series, after the Wii version and the N3DS one (not counting the downloadable Wii version on the Wii U eShop). Despite it being a "remaster" (not a full remake, at least) of an old game, already sold in many occasions, it was able to achieve a significant market response: at March 31st, 2021 its updated number of distributed copies worldwide was 1.52 millions, way better than any previous iteration of this episode. Its legs slowed down, unlike Xenoblade 2, but the result was already more than satisfying, cementing Xenoblade as a "million seller" franchise among Nintendo IPs portfolio
2) Increased investments into Monolith Soft team by Nintendo: this is undoubtedly a matter of fact; since 2017 (the year when Xenoblade 2 was released) the number of Monolith Soft staff continue to increase; the official number of employees was 150 and, at the end of 2021 it was up to 273. For a company like Nintendo, usually averse to acquisition and unctontrolled increase in internal work force, surely Monolith Soft has been a nice exception. More employees mean the ability to improve their output, or keeping it constant despite the general increase in developing/programming leadtimes, and testifies Nintendo HQ confidence in Takahashi's team efforts
Xenoblade Chronicles 3 - The future (connected?)
Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is almost here: it is clear how its sales potential changed compared to the beginning of this gen, thanks to all the reasons listed and the clear commercial success of Xenoblade 2. The goal? 3 millions mark, minimum.
Unlike 2010, after the struggles of Xenoblade 1 on the market and 2015, when the fate of such "smaller" sellers could have seen them disappear due to Nintendo general struggles during the Wii U - late 3DS era, nowadays it seems clear that Xenoblade is among those series among Nintendo IP portfolio that can be seen as pillars of their software offer (or at least a Monolith Soft. JRPG ambitious project, if they will decide to drop the franchise and try the path of new IP: but if Xenoblade 3 will push the brand into the 3 millions mark territory, it will be hard for them to not develop ALSO a new Xenoblade game, for the next Nintendo console!)
XENOBLADE SERIES: its sales so far
- Xenoblade Chronicles 2: 2.17 mil (31/12/2020)
- Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition: 1.52 mil (31/03/2021)
- Xenoblade Chronicles: < 1 mil
- Xenoblade Chronicles 3D: < 1 mil
- Xenoblade Chronicles X: < 1 mil
XENOBLADE CHRONICLES 2: its legs
- December2017 - 1.06m
- March 2018 - 1.31m (+250k)
- June 2018 - 1.42m (+110k)
- September 2018 - 1.53m (+110k)
- December 2018 - 1.65m (+120k)
- March2019 - 1.73m (+80k)
- December 2019 - 1.92m (+190k in 9 months)
- June 2020 - 2.05m (+130k in 6 months)
- December 2020 - 2.17m (+120k in 6 months)
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