With plummeting sales and a fanbase becoming more dissatisfied, is it time for Paper Mario -- a once lauded RPG spin-off -- to be put to bed?
VGChartz's Chinh Tran: "No other type of game can immerse you into a new world quite as effectively as a good RPG. 2024 gave gamers many options if they wanted to escape their real world life in favour of different lands. Whether you wanted to explore ancient China through a game inspired by Journey to the West, break free from the confines of Midgar, engross yourself in a fantasy medieval world, or revisit a paper Mushroom Kingdom, the shortlisted candidates for Best RPG of 2024 had you covered.
Game Science showed off the talent of Chinese developers through Black Myth: Wukong. Square Enix allowed gamers to once again rejoin Cloud and company as they continued their epic struggle against Sephiroth in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. Atlus introduced gamers to a whole new fantasy world through Metaphor: ReFantazio. And Nintendo remade Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, allowing a whole new generation of gamers to enjoy the classic."
Rebirth still is my favorite game of this gen so far. When the trilogy is complete it’ll probably be my GoaT.
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Nintendo announced its financial results for the first half of the fiscal year, alongside an update to the total of Nintendo Switch shipments.
Even if it does hit those levels, it's hard to compare apples to apples because Switch appeals to 2 markets at the same time, it's both a handheld and a console while at the same time there is no other Nintendo Handheld which has always been their bread and butter.
@RpgSama. Exactly. Plus, that total includes the Switch Lite sales which is NOT a console at all! You cannot dock it and play it on your TV, so it should not be classified as a console. Take the Switch Lite out of the equation and that total looks a lot different.
@RPgSama ,
Didn’t the PS2 appeal to more than one market? Didn’t many buy it just to get a DVD player that also plays games? We shouldn’t diminish the accomplishments of either console. People’s reasoning for buying it doesn’t matter. .
@RpgSama
The PS2 also was a dual market console. DVDs were new back then and they had competition. PS2 was the cheapest dvd player on the market at the time. So it appealed to a lot of video enthusiasts back then. Which help it to reach a broader market.
But PS2 didn't have 2 skus serving 2 markets. It was one sku. The Switch Lite is ONLY a handheld that cannot be docked, so it should not be categorized as a console, but a handheld.
Stop making excuses. The Switch potentially outselling the PS2 doesn't take away from its legacy and success. You remind me the the people that tried to downplay the Wii because it outsold the HD twins. Gamers twisted themselves in knots making yeah but arguments to discredit the Wii.
@ZeekQuattro
Name one thing I said that was inaccurate. I'm not making excuses and frankly, I really don't care. But it's the truth. The Switch Lite is not a home console.
The switch lite came out two years after the launch of the Switch, which wS already selling like hotcakes.
Plus, factor in that at launch the PS2 didn’t have any real competition. Sega was floundering. Nintendo while always there wasn’t up to the challenge. The 3DO was a niche console. So they literally had the playing field to themselves, not to mention the 100 million the ps1 sold helped to keep people in the ecosystem. With the bonus of a brand new spanking dvd player. I remember reading many audio/video magazines that talked about the feature.
PS2 put dvds on the map.
Point being that while the PS2 didn’t have two skus at the start(they did come out with a PS2 light later), you can’t underestimate the impact of a new technology that promised so much better resolution over vhs. People ate it up.
This continues to illustrate to me gaming has stagnated. Our community isn’t growing and when the cheap handheld device that is probable 2-3 a household is still not beating ps2.
When collectively the big hitters like MS and Sony still can’t penetrate 160 million it’s evident the community has plateau.
And it’s unfortunate that it’s like this because I would wish gaming grew more then this.
In my opinion, it's because the gaming industry grew so big that games are mostly crap nowadays. Unfinished, bloated and repetitive open worlds, overpriced... The list goes on...
These days, developers and publishers cater to shareholders, not gamers. Back when gaming was a niche market, developers took more risks, had more creativity.
Gaming had its peak in the PS3/360 era. Since then, it's been downhill.
I completely disagree with that, and I think you're looking at it the wrong way.
PS2/GC era: ~200M across all three
PS3/X360: ~190M (slight hardware contraction)
Gen 8: ~185M (slight contraction and that's with Wii U bombing spectacularly.
Now: ~230M
True enough, it gets hazy when you add handhelds from the past and I see your point, but so much has changed since then.
We've got dedicated consoles, pc-adjacent handhelds, the explosion of the mobile gaming market, and Nvidia is now a multi trillion dollar company, and that's without providing chips in any console hardware except for Nintendo which tells you the PC market is rapidly expanding too. Also worth noting that Macs are getting more titles too and it's being increasingly viewed as a viable gaming platform. Finally, the Chinese gaming market really seems to be growing as Black Myth Wukong did INSANE numbers.
I think gaming in terms of content has stagnated, but the market? I don't agree at all.
the 7th gen was over 260m as you had a near equal split of PS3/360 that totaled over 160m alone and then add in the 100m+ of the Wii.
another thing to consider... overlap. That is where a single user has two or all three of the platforms. And with a near 50/50 split on the PS3/360 we can assume there was roughly 80-85m unique users. Some of which also bought a Wii and were part of the 100m+ it sold.
The idea that the user base is not growing has some merit. And even with the PS2 doing over 156m there are plenty who had to buy replacement units because of bad lasers just like there are those who bought replacements for PS3 YLoD and 360 RRoD and the Wii click of death.
Darthv72,
Yes, you're right about the total numbers. Way undercounted, my mistake.
On the matter overlap, I have considered that and I think there was more of a reason to do it in the past. I think we're seeing much less duplication in the modern era; far fewer exclusives these days and I think the general sentiment is "I don't need console A because it's also on B. Even if console A has this game, I can't justify buying it for one game."
But on the matter of console defects, doesn't it argue against your point?
Consoles are much more reliable now, and sales are still pretty decent in an ongoing generation. Wouldn't that indicate there are fewer second-buys? Maybe they'll have more than one in a household like Switch, but those second buyers have always existed and units are still functioning.
Keep in mind there is a percentage who will double and triple dip when it comes to variants and revisions. Total unit numbers are not 1:1 to total users.
That’s kind of my point, it’s been known in the gen of ps3/360 Wii was supplementary to the 2. And 360 numbers were inflated due to rrod. So realistically speaking. Saying there’s been 200+ million unique gamers is false. Heck in my household alone I have 3 switches, Xbox series s and x, ps5 and soon pro.
There’s no way I’m the only “hardcore” that’s done that. Even if you said 20 million of the install base is double to triple dippers that’s 40-60million consoles attached to 20 million people.
Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door is one of Nintendo's greatest Adventure RPGs, and there are a few things many of its players should be aware of.
Well the last Paper Mario game has no chance of selling pass 1 million like the rest of the series has, so you could say it's dying. This wouldn't be the case if Nintendo would just listen to the fans and try giving them a sequel that built off of the original and TTYD mechanics
If Switch sells well, watch a excellent PM come to it.
Until they go back to the good version of paper mario, it's already dead to me.
Been dead since GameCube.
Just give us super mario rpg 2 already