The Switch is still putting out banger titles despite obviously showing its age. But some of these souls weren’t as lucky as others. Lemme know if you picked up any of these three titles at any point:
**[Bayonetta Origins](https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2023/03/japanese-charts-bayonetta-origins-makes-a-lukewarm-debut):** Launched this past March to decent reviews but next to no sales data tracked. It apparently sold just over 6,000 units in Japan within its first week, but that time was still dominated by Kirby’s Return to Dream Land Deluxe, Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, and the Resident Evil 4 Remake. But this one not selling as well kinda makes sense, you’d have to be really into Bayonetta already to even consider picking this one up. I don’t think this will damage Nintendo’s relationship with Platinum, especially with Bayonetta 3 still doing well. I picked up my copy at the same time as Advance Wars, which we’ll touch on later.
**[Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope](https://nintendoeverything.com/ubisoft-says-mario-rabbids-sparks-of-hope-underperformed/):** Launching back in October of last year, I can only assume this was because many people actually took the mantra of “don’t buy any Ubisoft-published games within the first few months” to heart. Nowadays you can get brand new physical copies for around half price online, and the third and final DLC pack featuring Rayman is scheduled to launch this week. This might put Nintendo’s relationship with Ubisoft on more shaky ground, but not enough to stop supporting Nintendo’s consoles in the near future. But I don’t expect another Mario Rabbids game for good long while. As for me, I picked it up day 1 alongside my Switch copies of Persona 5 Royal and Bayonetta 3. So yeah, good time for third parties on Switch last October.
**Advance Wars 1+2 Reboot Camp:** Launching one month after Bayonetta Origins, this release was absolutely devoured by hype for the Xenoblade 3 DLC, Zelda, and Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection. It reportedly sold 400K in its first week but I can’t find a source to corroborate those findings. Either way as of these latest financials, it hasn’t hit a million yet in this recent quarter, with it instead being dominated by Mario Kart and Zelda. And I’m sure the big year-long delay due to “recent world events” didn’t help. This might put the franchise back in comatose for the next 15 years, which I’m really hoping isn’t the case. I picked up my copy day 1 and got a good ways in before getting distracted by Xenoblade, but now I’m back on and just wrapped up the first campaign.
Edit: Okay I’m a complete idiot. Apparently the 400K thing for Advance Wars was a shitpost all along. I knew it sounded too good to be true lmao.
by Asad_Farooqui
50 Comments
The #1 reason for low sales of those are the prices, I personally think Bayo and Advance Wars are too expensive for what they offer and like you said, most people didn’t buy Mario Rabbids at full price after the first game got discounted a lot and is constantly on sale. Plenty of other AAA ganes releasing at the same time for the same price.
I’ve never played any Bayo games, but did consider getting Origins because it looked fun, but I tried the demo and got bored really fast =/
i am a big fan of bayo 1 and 2. i had to force myself to finish bayo 3, this game story is so bad i didnt want to play Bayo origin anymore
Advanced wars was done dirty
The amount of cancled pre-orders was immense
I bought Mario + Rabbids a few months after release because of Ubisofts steep discounts. I got it for 25 EUR. Despite adoring the series I couldn’t justify spending more than double the amount to play it 2-3 months earlier. Sucks that this means there probably won’t be a sequel, but I’m glad other publishers are putting out games that are similar enough (Persona 5 Tactica seems pretty similar). I’m also holding off on buying the DLC because I’m hoping for a steep discount around Black Friday or Christmas.
Advance Wars bombed because they delayed it so long. Nothing else even to be said.
Releasing close to Zelda was bad, but it wasn’t supposed to release close to Zelda it was supposed to be beaten and done by players before Zelda was even on the horizon
I learned my lesson the hard way from mario rabbids spark of hope that I should never buy any ubisoft published games at brand new price. I should have waited 2-3 months since they always put it new games at discounted price after a month. Currently playing the 2nd dlc now since the rayman dlc will be released on 30.
AW Reboot Camp is just fine. I think its lifetime sales could improve things.
Well. Bought Mario Rabbids Sparks of Hope Gold Edition for 25€ in April.
Played the heck out of it.
Why should I buy on release when I can get it this cheap that early?
Im sad about advance wars. One of the best turn based strategy games ever. The art style in the remake wasnt that great but the games are still a joy to replay. I hope it doesnt discourage them from doing the ds games as well or a full new advance wars one day, but given the sales i wouldnt hold my breath for that now
My take is that the main reason people bought the first Mario Rabbids game was because we didn’t have a proper Mario adventure game.
Now that Odyssey has been out, there is no longer a void to fill.
Nintendo killed Advance Wars sales. They did all the marketing, delayed it for a year, then sent it out to die with zero fanfare
sadly? why does this sub need to feel so responsible for carrying water for Nintendo. If they didn’t reach 1 million, maybe there’s a good reason for that that isn’t ‘sad’
Bayonetta Origins is such an underrated game!! The mechanics were a blast and I genuinely teared up at the end. It truly deserved better
really hoped Advance Wars would do better. im having an absolute blast playing through them again and know i will for years to come.
but between the price, the long ass delay, the lack of online features and some people’s beef with the animations im not surprised it didn’t reach that milestone.
hope they somehow take the feedback and make a proper sequel tho
Nintendo needs to clean up all the bullshit in the store and put games on sale a bit more. They should have a classic list like Sony. No reason both zeldas need to cost $60.
I guess the price might be the answer. Bayonetta Origins doesn’t sell well for full price, yet in my country as soon as big stores put over 50% sale, all copies that they had to sell for the discounted price sold in a matter of minutes.
No time for these, this year had way too many good mega releases.
My hype for advance wars died after it was delayed like a year
It’s a real shame because I loved the Advance Wars reboot. There’s a ton of value in that, most of the after the campaign. It has some of my favorite multiplayer of any game series.
I’m currently playing Sparks of Hope and I love it. The first game was discounted constantly, but I think a lot of people also ignored it because of the Rabbids and their association with juvenile party games. Having them in a turn based strategy game is a weird choice, but it’s a fun game and I normally hate the Rabbids.
Mario Rabbids is 100% because of the previous game having the steep price drop shortly after release. So many games on the market these days. A lot of people can be patient.
I will pick up Bayonetta Origins at some point.
When Advance wars 1+2 was announced, back in 2021, I knew it was a day 1 purchase for me. Unfortunately, when eventually was released, it was at a quite bad timing for me. I rushed it to finish the campaigns before Zelda Tears of the Kingdom release, because I knew all my attention would be drawn to it by that time. I really liked the game nontheless, but tbh, if I wasn’t a diehard Advance Wars fan, I would very easily pass this release, so, I understand why it didn’t sold well.
Regarding Mario + Rabbids Sparks of hope, I didn’t got it day 1 because I knew it would have a price drop eventually, which it eventually happened. Actually, if I didn’t found the first game on the eshop at a bargain price, I wouldn’t even give a chance to the series in the first place. The game is good fun, but I liked Kingdom Battle more.
Advance wars looks fun but maybe for $30, not the full price. Maybe its the marketing but it doesn’t look like it deserves AAA game pricing.
Bayonetta Origins is great. But a tad expensive, I assume it’s the same reason for the others.
Also VERY little marketing
I really enjoyed Bayonetta Origins! The forest is so well-crafted and mazelike, the fairytale writing is so charming and the art style is comfy the way Okami was comfy. I think they did some interesting things with the core gameplay loop as well. I think I’ve only played bits of 1 and 2 (skipped 3) but I was able to follow the plot pretty well. Think of it as Kamiya doing an Okami instead of thinking about where this fits in the Bayo timeline. And Cereza is so spirited and likeable. I will heartily recommend it.
Just curious where did you see that sparks of hope failed to sell a million copies? I didn’t see any sales data published about it, only that it underperformed
>It reportedly sold 400K in its first week but I can’t find a source to corroborate those findings.
The amount of damage that Ultima shitpost tweet caused….smh
The ending of Bayonetta 3 was such a slap in the face that I didn’t bother with Origins. Plus the gameplay of it wasn’t nearly as interesting to me.
Their prices in this economy are why their 1st parties aren’t selling as well. Why buy 1 game when Sony or MS offer you countless titles for the same amount.
Bayonetta Origins is incredibly fun, really well crafted action game, easily top 3 for me this year, but the price point and being a spin-off of niche genre within an already niche franchise won’t sell in the millions. However, as a fun little experiments of the devs trying out new things it’s as excellent as they come.
Maybe if those were max $40 games instead…
Maybe if they drop Advance Wars price to 40 bucks. I want it but not for 60
Mario rabbids probably sold 1 million atleast. I think Ubisoft has to release those numbers
I’m not so pessimistic about advance wars honestly. It sold quite well considering how the series has done historically. At least people are now talking about it which is great. Bayonetta Origins is a lovely charming game, but I think the fact that it featured Bayonetta rather than a side character or a totally new IP put some people off of it which is a shame.
I think we all know why they didn’t sell well.
Trying to sell niche games for full price was a dumb idea. Mario + Rabbids was probably the only one which could justify its price.
Bayonetta was a spin-off of a weird/unique series that chose not to appeal to most of its core fans, while also not being strong enough to appeal to the relatively small amount of players who’d be interested in the game.
Advance Wars was already a niche handheld series that died years ago. The remake wasn’t gonna do especially high numbers even if the price was reasonable.
And while Rabbids could justify its full price, it was a game in a niche genre using mascots that haven’t been popular for like a decade. Strategy games are already niche, and I doubt there’s a huge overlap between people who love strategy and people who love the Rabbids.
It was a good attempt at making the genre more accessible but it’s not rocket science why it didn’t do super well.
Sadly? Do you own stock in these companies?
I’m not convinced that Mario+Rabbids didn’t sell a million copies. It wasn’t in Nintendo’s financial reports because it’s technically a UbiSoft title, and Nintendo coukdn’t report numbers for the first M+R title either for the same reason.
It may not be doing as well as they wanted but I can’t see it not having sold a million yet. I just don’t think the logistics add up.
Advance Wars could sell a million and be reported as having done so by the end of the fiscal year, since it launched at the very beginningof the current FY. With how long it was at the top of the eShop charts, I suspect it is fairly close to a million at this point.
Bayonetta Origin will probably never be reported on even if it does eventually pass a million copies because it launched at the end of last FY.
All three are overpriced. Sparks of hope is actually pretty great, though a bit easy compared to the first one. Advance wars is fine, but selling twenty year old GBA games for full retail price was a huge blunder, even by Nintendo standards (Metroid Prime got a huge overhaul and retailed at a discount). I have not tried the Bayonetta spinoff.
Bayonetta Origins was just a weird concept all around. Not that the game was bad, but taking a series renowned for its adult orientation and completely over-the-top character action and making a prequel with a bed-time story book presentation and baby’s first Zelda (with the addition of a companion) gameplay is just a baffling move that left it kinda unclear who this game is even really supposed to be for.
I loved the first Rabbids game and picked up SoH the first week of release based on pedigree. However—pun intended—it didn’t create that spark with me like the first game. I’m not really sure why. I just didn’t enjoy it as much and lost interest after a couple hours of playing. Maybe I’ll go back to it eventually but it’s doubtful…this year has WAY too many amazing games to play that I’m not going to force myself to play something that isn’t interesting enough.
> Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope
Sadly or not, this game simply isn’t that good. Yes, it has great graphics, interface, artstyle, adorable characters – but boring gameplay. It’s mechanically dull, repetitive, grindy, formulaic. It’s made with Ubisoft design philosophy through and through. You played one battle, you played them all.
My friend and I both got Advance Wars, he’s never played strategy games before and is loving this one. When I was describing it he wasn’t interested, saying “I only play shooters.” We started playing it and now he’s hooked and bought his own copy haha.
I cant speak for the other two, but I know a few including myself who **really enjoyed the first** mario and rabbids and **did not enjoy the sequel at all** – I would imagine this has a fairly big effect on game like this which usually depend on of word of mouth pushing further sales due to it being a genre that’s not as mainstream.
> It reportedly sold 400K in its first week but I can’t find a source to corroborate those findings.
Please stop spreading misinformation. This was from a Twitter shitpost that you’ve already been told several times isn’t real. If you still can’t find a source after all of this time to corroborate it, that should have been your first clue.
Ironically, I think if they had released Advance Wars when it was originally scheduled to come out, “recent world events” might have actually increased sales.
I just picked up Sparks of Hope’s Deluxe Edition for half off and it’s a shame because it’s far more interesting as a Mario RPG than Paper Mario currently is.
All of those have their own reasons tho
Rabbits is because people didn’t buy the first one at the time. So seeing a game at $15 and the sequel at $60 and you do not have either it’s obvious which one you are buying
Origins because Bayo 3 basically was more impactful as a polemic news bringer than as a game. The voice, the ending, the agenda, the new mechanics, the enemy designs. Some people like the game, but most fans were disappointed by what they got as a 3rd game of the best action games series gameplaywise.
And advance-wars is a remake of portable games that cost 50% more than one of the best remakes of one of the best games of all time (Metroid prime) and it came out like 2 weeks before Zelda, you just can’t compete with Zelda. Or with Metroid for that matter
Honestly got my steamdeck and now I don’t even know where my switch is. A lot of the gamers with money to blow on games like those, have upgraded.
>Advance Wars 1+2 Reboot Camp
>sadly failed
Nintendo were fucking morons in how they handled this release, top to bottom. They did it to themselves. They’re getting no sympathy from me