from Hacker News

Legend of Zelda game sells 10M copies in three days

by he0001 on 5/18/23, 12:28 PM with 524 comments

• by arnaudsm on 5/18/23, 1:17 PM

  It is impressive that a game running on an 8-year-old phone GPU will likely be game of the year.

  Nintendo proved again that gameplay and art direction matter more than anything.

• by kettlecorn on 5/18/23, 3:00 PM

  I'm often discouraged by comments on Hacker News that downplay the importance of great design in a design-heavy medium.

  This game isn't succeeding primarily because of great marketing, franchise, or blind loyalty to Nintendo (though all of those help!).

  It's succeeding primarily because it's the follow-up to a game that critics and players universally found enormously fun. Before Breath of the Wild previous Zelda entries did not sell this well.

• by alec_irl on 5/18/23, 6:19 PM

  The big story with this new Zelda game, and why it is able to include so many deep and interlocking systems on top of a staggering amount of content, comes down to institutional knowledge at Nintendo. Many of the people working on or giving input on this game have been making Zelda games for decades. Eiji Aonuma, the current producer of the Zelda series, directed every mainline Zelda from Ocarina to Twilight Princess. Hidemaro Fujibayashi was at Capcom when he directed Oracle of Ages/Seasons, Four Swords, and the Minish Cap in the late 90s and early 2000s. Skyward Sword was the first Zelda he directed and he went on to direct Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. While Western games studios crush their developers with crunchtime and pursue flashy graphics over deep systems, Nintendo nurtures and retains its internal talent and as a result they do far more with technically inferior hardware. Contrast Tears of the Kingdom's smooth launch with the ongoing debacle of Overwatch 2 from Blizzard, whose devs just announced they won't be delivering one of the core promised features of the sequel. Obviously not every Western studio is as bad as Activision/Blizzard, but Nintendo running circles around everyone on 7 year old mobile phone hardware should prompt some serious soul searching for Western games execs.

• by timeimp on 5/18/23, 1:17 PM

  For those out of the loop: think Garrys Mod (GMod) meets the Zelda series and yes, it was made by Nintendo themselves.

  The entire game is a fantastic example of well-designed map, gameplay, storyline / plot advancement, AND sandboxing all in one.

  Incredible to think that its also running on seven year old hardware.

  The emulation videos of the game running at 4K 60FPS on YouTube are astounding to watch.

• by ConfusedDog on 5/18/23, 2:17 PM

  “Computer Science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes.” — Edsger W. Dijkstra

  Game is about how fun the game is. Totk is easily the best game I've played this year. Definitely an upgrade from Botw. Costco is like $59, cheaper than preorder with $5 credits from GameStop which was $69 I think.

• by taeric on 5/18/23, 2:37 PM

  I love how every top level comment is all about how this is because Nintendo made an amazing game. Yet... with how fast this is selling, there is literally no way that folks know it is an amazing game ahead of time.

  More, odds are high that if they had made this as not a sequel, it would not be selling as well. Go bolder and make it a new franchise? Same game would basically not be noticed.

  I think it is fair to like the game. I go ever farther and think it is a fun game. But the lessons to learn from how fast and well this is selling is as much about the power of franchise as it is anything about this particular game/system.

• by hospitalJail on 5/18/23, 1:16 PM

  The marketing was insane as usual. Nintendo performed excellent.

  Multiple front page reddit posts, multiple 10/10 reviews from big name outlets. Nintendo rivals Apple as the best company in marketing.

  Nintendo has done some sort of mass psychology that allows them to have sub 30fps with no complaints, I was born too early to see this reviewed in business schools, but we are starting to see a bit of the innerworkings of how Nintendo has created IP that is worshiped.

• by nerdjon on 5/18/23, 2:26 PM

  I am very much enjoying this game. It would rate my favorite game for the simple fact that I just feel zero desire or need to finish it. Not in a bad way!

  I am just having fun in this world, I feel like I can get lost in it. The new mechanics with the abilities is just insane and I could easily just spend hours building things.

  Sure the frame rate drops a bit, but the core gameplay is so good that I honestly don't care. It never gets bad enough that I can't play it or I feel like the drops are why I died.

  It is just a beautiful game to look at.

  I am getting really frustrated seeing the complaints that it's "the same game". No... no it's not. Not anymore than the countless COD games that come out every year. This feels like a sequel that takes place in the same world that has been drastically changed that actually deserves to be a sequel.

• by TheCaptain4815 on 5/18/23, 1:30 PM

  I think the general consensus will end up giving this game a solid 8.5/10 (user consensus of course, not journali$t consensus. You can already see that in the user score on metascore.)

  Someone mentioned online "which part of this game constitues giving it a 10/10?" and I totally agree having been playing since the leaks. This is coming from an OG OOT 1998 player too. Happy Zelda is back, but still think they could have done more with this one or at least innovate more.

  Worst is the Switch hardware making this unplayable until emulation catches up. How on earth did a game that looks and runs like how TOTK not get dinged EVEN A TINY BIT for graphics and performance? I'm not a graphics whore by any means, but there's a limit here.

• by qwery on 5/18/23, 2:10 PM

  Gentle reminder that criticism isn't something you win or lose, and:

  - art criticism isn't objective and is not majority-rule

  - it is possible and healthy to criticise media that you enjoy

  - negative comments about a game you like are not attacks on you

• by xvilka on 5/18/23, 2:21 PM

  And there is an immense interest in running it in Yuzu[1][2]. You can see how many relevant issues[3] were reported in last few days.

  [1] https://yuzu-emu.org/

  [2] https://github.com/yuzu-emu/yuzu

  [3] https://github.com/yuzu-emu/yuzu/issues?q=is%3Aissue+is%3Aop...

• by jameshart on 5/18/23, 1:20 PM

  There are over 118 million Switches out there. So they hit nearly 10% of their total addressable market in three days.

• by jugg1es on 5/18/23, 1:21 PM

  Achieving (what feels like) true gaming freedom with such a simple UX is really impressive. I know Zelda has always had a great UX, but they've added so much complexity. Games like this remind you why Nintendo has had so much staying power.

• by jjice on 5/18/23, 4:50 PM

  First party Nintendo (at least mainline Zelda and Mario) are all about quality. You might wait six years between games, but it'll always be worth it. I haven't had a "I wish I wasn't working so I could play this game" in years, but I have it now with TOTK and I couldn't be happier. Neglecting sleep to play just one more hour - I feel like a kid again.

  They've always squeezed a ton out of the hardware they have, especially since the Wii, which, in my head at least, is when they started being notably behind hardware wise.

  I'm just glad that they're a fantastic example of a company that really prioritizes quality over quantity.

• by ggregoire on 5/18/23, 4:40 PM

  I wonder what would be those sales if the game was released on PC too.

  Like they obviously make it exclusive to the Switch to sell more consoles. But I'll never buy that console (or any console, really) just to play this game, or even to play 10 games as good as this one. I imagine tons of PC gamers are in my case. I heard the game runs quite well on a Switch emulator and it was getting massively downloaded via torrent on day 1. Personally I won't bother going this route, I'm too lazy for that, but if the game was on Steam and playable in 1 click, I would gladly give Nintendo 70 bucks.

• by nindalf on 5/18/23, 1:16 PM

  Discussion from 6 days ago with 652 points, 753 comments: The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Release (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35912318).

• by veryfancy on 5/18/23, 1:14 PM

  ...and it's actually very good.

• by 29athrowaway on 5/18/23, 1:10 PM

  It has to be a good game because "software sells hardware".

  Without good 1st party games from Nintendo, the consoles would not sell.

• by ndesaulniers on 5/18/23, 3:56 PM

  Here are some fun things people are building in TotK that got a rise out of me:

  Orbital strike laser canon: https://www.reddit.com/r/tearsofthekingdom/comments/13iwr0g/...

  Attack helicopter: https://www.reddit.com/r/tearsofthekingdom/comments/13hjd4p/...

  Mech/Gundam: https://www.reddit.com/r/tearsofthekingdom/comments/13gk3a6/...

• by birracerveza on 5/18/23, 3:54 PM

  Deservedly so. The game has tons of content, it's fun, and very polished; it has no right to run as well as it does on hardware as constrained as the Switch. It still dips of course and pop-in is noticeable, but it's very minimal.

  Props to Nintendo for making an excellent game.

• by cheald on 5/18/23, 4:34 PM

  It's genuinely impressive to me that in a day when AAA games tend to weigh in at 100GB+, TOTK is only 18GB. Nintendo has done something genuinely impressive both technologically and in terms of game design.

• by w4rh4wk5 on 5/18/23, 3:35 PM

  I am sad that a great game like this is held back by being a Switch exclusive.

  Of course I know the whys, and that you can emulate it, but still. I just don't like Nintendo, nor do I like the Nintendo Switch.

• by thomastjeffery on 5/18/23, 5:42 PM

  Everyone in this thread is arguing about what single data point is or isn't 100% responsible for the game's success.

  It's exhausting.

• by AdmiralAsshat on 5/18/23, 1:16 PM

  I wonder what the physical/digital breakdown is.

• by LetsGetTechnicl on 5/18/23, 8:05 PM

  TOTK is truly a technical and gameplay marvel, it's been so much to spend hours upon hours running around. It's hard to focus on a single mission because you can get side-tracked so easily and that is one of its charms.

  It's also amazingly impressive because of the seamless transition from sky to earth to underground, and the amount of stuff it can draw on over 10 year old hardware. But it's also doing impressive physics stuff - attaching multiple objects to each other, and tracking the movement of everything to allow for time reversal. It's truly incredible.

• by Farbklex on 5/18/23, 1:19 PM

  Afaik this is the first time that the second installment of a Zelda game per generation is better than the first one.

  Zelda 1 is considered to be better than 2.

  Ocarina of Time > Majora's Mask.

  Twilight Princess > Skyward Sword.

  Pretty darn good.

• by toyg on 5/18/23, 3:34 PM

  Judging by activity on eBay and FB, a lot of those copies are already changing hands. Wild reviews must have had a role in overselling the title a bit; I've never played Zelda before and I'm not a massive RPG player, but I just bought BotW to dip my toes into it because the hype is so massive. Before, to me it had always been just "that game that gave Zelda Williams her name". (We miss you, Robin)

• by ErneX on 5/18/23, 1:31 PM

  It’s an incredible achievement. Nintendo 1st party games have crazy attach rates, way more than the other consoles.

  Mario Kart 8 has sold over 50 million copies for example.

• by user00012-ab on 5/19/23, 4:42 PM

  After a few hours of play, I found the game extremely tedious and gave up. I don't want to build a raft from scratch every time I come to a river, or maybe I would if the building system wasn't so cumbersome to use. Also the, "your weapon breaks every few seconds" gets old real quick.

  But It seems like I'm in the minority; people really like games that have a lot of tedium to them.

• by bitwize on 5/18/23, 3:17 PM

  Based on the complaints about framerate, pop-in, etc. I'm strongly reminded of Shadow of the Colossus (2005) which had these same issues on its original PS2 release. It was truly a seventh-gen game running on sixth-gen hardware, revolutionary for the time but the available hardware struggled to keep up.

  Looks like time is nearly up for the Switch. Awesome run, though.

• by jiveturkey42 on 5/18/23, 1:26 PM

  Gentle reminder that the main target market is children first, techie adults second.

• by spaceman_2020 on 5/18/23, 3:06 PM

  I love this game, but the surface map being the same does make it feel like a DLC, not a full fledged new game.

  I know they’ve added a ton of new stuff, but I was really hoping for a new map, not the same with more horizontal levels.

• by idk1 on 5/19/23, 6:50 AM

  I say this in the best possible way, because I love them but, but Tears of the Kingdom makes Breath of the Wild look like a tech demo.

• by mouzogu on 5/18/23, 4:06 PM

  I enjoyed BOTW, it wasn't perfect.

  It does annoy me a bit to see TOTK getting perfect 10s everywhere. It just looks like a DLC, I can barely tell it apart.

  I stop trusting game reviews after no mans sky and cyberpunk too. Everyone now is just a shill trying to build relationships.

• by rando14775 on 5/18/23, 3:52 PM

  Imagine how many they would sell if it ran on something else besides a switch. I'm not paying $500 just so I can play the three switch games I'm interested in.

• by FractalHQ on 5/19/23, 2:13 PM

  I just wish Nintendo would sell the rights to Zelda, one of the most iconic franchises in gaming history, to a modern game company that won’t cripple it by forcing studios to cram it onto god damn potato. It’s fun, sure… but it’s so much worse than it could be.