this post was submitted on 31 Oct 2025
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“Hilariously out of touch.” I love doing these petty over effort responses, so here we go.
My comment about indie games beating AAA increasing over the years is pretty easy to show. At the time of this comment Palworld has the 3rd highest player peak of all time on Steam at 2,101,867.
The peer release for pokemon Z-A sold 5.8 million. Palworld has sold 25 million.
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“But Palworld came out first.” This is an early access indie game that has possibly beaten, or at least matched, Game Freak’s flagship. Judging by the complete lack of effort and the poor quality of Z-A, that flagship is sinking fast.
Source: https://steamdb.info/charts/?sort=peak
Click “About” and you’ll see that the top ten over the last year have been dominated by indies or small studios. This isn’t just the PC scene either.
The age demographic is objectively older. Nintendo themselves (yes, six years ago, but still their data):
“According to our latest data, we have seen that the ratio of players in their 20s and 30s has risen for Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon compared to past Pokémon titles for Nintendo 3DS.”
Source: https://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/pdf/2017/170201_2e.pdf
More recent (2021):
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Source: https://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/pdf/2021/211105e.pdf
A more recent take, though not official:
Source: https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/nintendo-says-i-pokemon-i-players-are-now-older-than-ever
Accusing me of being in an echo chamber when I’m actually invested in Nintendo is wild. I put my money where my mouth is, so I do this weird thing where I trawl through their PDFs, look at the market as a whole, follow the trends and form my opinion based on that.
Have a good weekend, everyone!
Palworld is surprisingly good too, I bought it a few weeks ago with almost no expectations and it's got a decent amount of stuff. Still could do with more cooking but it's very reminiscent of ark + Pokémon and works fairly well.
Dude, Z-A isn't a flagship. It's in the Legends line and not a mainline release. The numbers aren't so lopsided when you look at mainline games.
https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2025/05/pokemon-scarlet-and-violet-is-now-the-second-best-selling-game-in-the-series
Also, these are two different target audiences again. Palworld is aimed at us who grew up with Pokémon and now have disposable income. Pokémon is still aimed at a younger audience.
Even if that's their target audience, it doesn't matter because that's not who is buying and playing them the most. And guess what matters most? It's the group that are actual paying customers.
Not to Nintendo or Gamefreak. They care more about their next customer, not their current customer.
You're completely missing/ingoring mine and the other user's point.
Sure, they might focus on a certain demographic as theur customer, but that's not what actually makes them money. They're not paying attention to reality and it's going to bite them in the ass
But be honest here.
Has it ever bit them in the ass?
You are invested, not because nintendo gives a shit about your demo, but because you are unable to move on.
Nintendo still does not give a shit about your demo, because your demo will just buy whatever garbage is thrown in front of them.
So you got that going for you i guess.
Weird response, mate. It doesn’t seem like you read what I said. I’ve already said I’ve blacklisted Nintendo, as in, I’m not buying their stuff any more. That’s moving on.
When I say I’m invested, I mean I follow the gaming industry as a whole and made a gaming pie on 212 for fun. It’s not some emotional attachment to Nintendo, it’s just interest in the market.
This is my last reply, because you’re just being contrary instead of actually talking about the points raised. So it's just going to drift off topic and bloat the thread.
Sorry, i guess im saying things incorrectly.
Nintendo doesnt care about the things you care about, and never will. They will not fail, or lose significant sales numbers. They have always been this way and will always be this way.
Its just funny it took you nearly 50 years to see it.
The echo chamber tells you your hobbies are important.... but uh.... here we are with the highest sales numbers Nintendo has probably ever had.
You read like one of those people who leave negative reviews on an MMO after 3000 hours.
That's exactly why Palworld has done so well. Nintendo/Gamefreak left that demographic untouched and ripe for someone to come along and cater to them. Nintendo decided that instead of competing for that demographic they would rather try to use the legal system to beat Palworld.
My point here is that this guy has supported Nintendo for 40 fucking years and now has finally stopped despite Nintendo always having been the way they are.
At no point have they been a good company, and likely, will never be a good company.
But now, after spending literal decades shipping the brand, he has stopped.
Its honestly hilarious.