Fire Emblem Fates Breaks Series Records, Sells 300,000 Copies In Three Days In North America

Great sales. Glad to see the series doing well.

I made the decision to start Conquest on hard mode. 7 chapters in and I'm already regretting it.

This game is merciless.

Thats great news! That was helped quite a bit by all the extra Fire Emblem characters in Smash Im guessing.

I need to finish Awakening, so I can get to playing the new one.

It's funny seeing the die hard/old school FE fans flip out on how much Awakening and Fates is the "downfall" of the FE series. I love the direction the series is going, keep it up Nintendo.

@Ballroompirate: Well, I'm still playing the game. I have been playing the games for quite a long time and I can see where they're coming from. But, I'm preserving my judgment until I beat all 3 games.

Diehards are usually the bane of any given series. It would remain forever unchanging if they were to have their way.

I'm talking about the real die hards, the ones who literally claim FE to be just a waifu simulator game now. It's honestly really sad to see that much hate.

So far it's fantastic, started conquest, but didn't realize 'Normal' is the equivalent of easy mode so I'm gonna start it over on hard and it should be even better at that point

@Ballroompirate: No diehard in their right mind can call Conquest or even Birthright the 'bane' of the series.

@trugs26: a) Only two SKUs are on sale, b) You only have to purchase one game, the other is made available as DLC, c) even if you counted sales of both games, this sold FIVE TIMES as Awakening.

@deeph: Man, honestly expected I better than this.

a) it's three entirely separate games

b) I don't even know what you're trying to accomplish by posting screenshots of the game. It's a 3DS game. It looks great for a 3DS game. Great artstyle, crisp localization, and extremely high quality CG.

@charizard1605_ expected better from a troll cow alt? You are too kind

I really wish they would have made a cross platform version on Wii U. I bet it would have sold buckets.

This could have been great, heck even if I don't generally like most jrpg's I could have given this a go, but I'm not interested in handhelds the slightest, surface is the smallest device I game on.

@howmakewood: You should look into a 3DS XL. The lineup is too great to miss out on, and I think the size should be more to your liking somewhat.

You'll be surprised, go check the gamefaqs and sub reddit XD

I saw an unboxing of the special edition, one cartridge for for both games, just one game case too with each other's main cover on each side. I'd be fine I guess getting one of them physical then just downloading the add-ons to the others. Art book would be cool but I can live without it.

Anyhow, I'm passing in meantime. Project X Zone 2 took priority.

I know and I'd be lying if I were to say buying it never crossed my mind, maybe some day..

@Ballroompirate: Welp, they're not lying, it has become a bit worrisome for vets like myself to deal with a face petting mini game and it has a bit too much focus on Marriages. Then again, Genealogy was the first Fire Emblem to have marriage support as it was important for the second halfof the game

.....Least now I know to jump ship with this series, if the two worst entries are the thing that makes the series sell then I know the series I loved is taking a permanent turn for the worse.

a) Divide by two then.

b) Doesn't really matter. They're still two different games. Offering it as "DLC" is just a way of marketing.

c) If i understand you correctly, between all versions it sold 5 times as much. Divide by two, it actually sold 2.5 times as much per version (assuming Revelations sales weren't counted, otherwise I'd divide by three since Revelations is also its own game really too. Even if you do consider it as DLC, I don't count DLC sales for a game like Skyrim towards the final tally of Skyrim sales for example, so why would I do it here?).

@trugs26: Here's the thing- DLC sales aren't counted as game sales. Only individual SKU units sales are being counted. What this means is, if I buy Birthright, and then I spend another $20 to buy Conquest, only my Birthright purchase counts, since in this case, I purchased Conquest as DLC. So unless someone went out and bought Conquest and Birthright separately, spending $20 more in the process, and also losing in game bonuses you get for having all data on the sale file, they contributed only one sale to the tally.

So:

• Most people who bought both the versions still only contribute one sale to the overall tally;
• There may be some people who bought both versions individually for some reason- however, that number is honestly probably pretty low, since Nintendo has disincentivized purchasing both separately as much as possible;
• Most people who buy a game probably wouldn't buy both versions at once- I can speak for myself, and from what I have observed on NeoGAF, System Wars, Reddit- most people picked either Conquest or Birthright, and stuck with that. The other version they plan to purchase later, when they are done with the one they did buy. A reminder, these games can take up to 50 hours to finish;
• Given all this, even if we are not exactly at 300,000 units sold, we're really damn close

The reason Revelation sales are not counted is because it is not available yet- it will be available on Mach 10, and it will only be sold as DLC, with no physical copy.

Even given the absolute worst case, where we assume that literally every person who bought the game purchased both versions, and for some reason purchased both versions separately, spending more money in the process and foregoing some pretty damn sweet in game bonuses, you get total sales of 150,000- over 2.5x what Awakening sold at launch then. Of course, this is a worst case number, arrived at by making multiple assumptions that common sense and observation tells us are not in fact true.

Conquest is basically a love letter to classic Fire Emblem fans, so if they are choosing to complain about it too, then yes, they are wrong.

I do agree the story and writing in Fates is lacking overall, and now that they have the mechanical nuance down again, maybe they can work on that for the next game.

@charizard1605: I see what you mean now. Regardless, good to hear FE have great sales. Now bring it over to PAL regions already!

@howmakewood

I am not an alt, but if I were, what would that make you? I am longer on this site than you, you know. Or are you using your long history on this site (because you are an alt) to make this wrong judgement?

@deeph Ok not an alt, just another raging sony fan, my bad.

So we went from "you are an alt" to "you are mad"?

Your debating skills are amazing, lol, keep it up and your original account can be proud.

@deeph: The two games have different stories, different mechanics, different units, different maps, and different characters. They are two separate games made using the same engine. There are more differences between these two games than there are with many actual full fledged sequels.

These are three different games, and sales aren't even being counted as you think they are. To reiterate:

Moving on:

Again, this is a 3DS game. What exactly did you expect from a 3DS game? You want it to look like Uncharted 4? It's one of the better looking 3DS games, clearly it had a high budget, especially for a handheld title. Cherrypicking screenshots does not undermine that. Neither does it undermine the fact that Fates is currently higher rated than any exclusive PlayStation title on any PlayStation platform in the last year. It's a great game that sold well because it deserves to sell well. Get over yourself, and just enjoy the fact that a good game that deserved sales got those sales, rather than being salty about it because it happens to not be on your platform of choice.

I think it launches there in April.

@deeph: Have you even played Fates? Have you ever actually played any Fire Emblem game, for that matter? They're well worth the price of admission, much more so than most AAA games these days.

Splitting the game up into 3 copies. Of which, at least 1 of them, not only has 30 hours worht of content, but also, 30 hours of WORTHWHILE, well paced content. And from what little I saw, the mission design in Revelations was decent as well, with enough gimmicks to keep you on your toes.

Havent seen the mission design in Hoshido. So no comment there. But from those 2 games alone, that becomes 60 hours of sRPG goodness for 60 dollars. Don't mind if I do.

@deeph:Different stories: They're two sides of the same coin. Are they still the same coin? Sure. But are they identical? Not even slightly. They're two completely different takes on the story. Telling the story of a war from both sides. Tell me how that is even slightly similar. Is the story of World War 2 the same from both sides? Both games have different sets of main characters, both games have different plot points, both games have different focuses. Birthright is a more open and shut fantasy story. Conquest is a darker, more political story with a lot of other undertones. Sure, they share some story. Like a fourth of the story in both games is shared, but of course it is. That's because they share the same setting. They're the same coin, but they're different sides.

Different mechanics: Let's get the basics out of the way: both games have different classes, different maps, different mission objectives, different units (you get all the Nohr specific classes in Conquest and Hoshido specific classes in Birthright, of which there are many, and they're not just different in how they look. They're legitimately different classes that change the way you plan and strategize in combat), different stat boosts, different weapons. In the maps, enemy placement is different. The number of units you can take into battle is different. The number of units the enemy has is different. All of that is vital if you're playing an SRPG. One game allows you to use environmental advantages, the other game less so. As someone who's clocked in over 30 hours in Birthright and over 20 in Conqeust, I can tell you that they both play very differently. If they were released two years apart but in exactly the same state, no one would bat an eye. The My Castle feature is different in both. The world map is different in both. Birthright lets you grind, Conquest is a straight march. I'm assuming I don't need to tell you the importance of grinding in RPGs.

Production values: They spent three years working on these games. They reused assets from Awakening of course, but why wouldn't they? They're their assets, they developed those for these purposes. Every developer reuses assets, every developer reuses engines. Is one version of the game worth $40? You bet your ass it is. It's worth much more than that. At least 30 hours of gameplay for $40? That's well worth the money. 60 hours of gameplay- at the very least- for $60? I don't see a problem with that. That's excellent value for money. $80 for three separate games and 100 hours of gameplay? What's the fucking issue? Fatigue? Maybe. Okay. But no one is forcing you to play all three versions. As I said before, each version is self-contained and self-sufficient.

Man, I counted at least 6 salty people in this thread. Well deserved success.

I agree with this 100% and my biggest disappointment in the Wii U thus far is that it appears there won't be a console Fire Emblem game for it. The SMT crossover looks interesting, but it's not the same. Hopefully the NX rumors are true and the console and handheld will be the same platform moving forward.

If you ask people why they're getting it it's mainly due to Nintendo having very few games this year.

It wont translate to the future in any shape or form.

Don't forget the $20-$30 season pass.

@Jaysonguy: lol, okay

@judaspete: That's badass!

Link? All I can find is "2016".

toomuchbullshit.jpg

@trugs26: There's no link lol. It was a guess, sorry. I don't think I made that clear enough :P

My reasoning is that Awakening launched in Japan Spring 2012, followed by a Feb 2013 launch in NA, a March 2013 announcement of the EU release date, and finally, an April 2013 release date in EU.

So, translating that to Fates, we get a launch in Japan in Spring 2015, followed by a Feb 2016 launch in NA, and I assume next month they announce the EU release date, which will be in April.

But it is just a guess.

I'm LOVIN' Conquest so far! The sales are well deserved.

How far in are you?

You reached that bitch of a chapter 15 yet?

Only chapter 8 but it's enough to see this is a hit. I'm trying to take my time on this game and savor it.

* I scheduled 2 sick days just for this =D

Is there a purpose of owning physical versions of both games? I have the itch and I haven't opened the one I have yet.

Ah well, glad you're enjoying it.

I was planning on skipping classes for like a week but as luck would have it, several of them got cancelled, so I've been obsessively playing Fates for a week, guilt-free :P

None. You end up spending more money, and you miss out on significant in game bonuses you get for having data for all paths on one file.

Well, if you buy physical copies of both versions, you have to spend $80. If you only buy one version physical, you can get the other two for the same total price.

Thanks for the heads up. I can't find Birthright on stores anyway.

Still waiting patiently for a bundle that lets me buy all of them.

Might cave on Stella Glow, otherwise XCom 2 covers my strategy fix for now.