Back in the glory days of the NES and Super Nintendo, the Metroid series was one of the jewels in Nintendo’s crown.
But despite early success, the Metroid games have been given short shrift when it comes to the newer generation of consoles.
Futuristic bounty hunter Samus will finally get the chance to take her place among Nintendo’s other legendary characters — the likes Link, Mario, and Pikachu — in the Nintendo Switch universe, as today sees the release of Metroid Dread, the first title in the series for eleven years.
Mat Piscatella, an analyst at NPD Group, told Bloomberg that five million sales would be a success for the game, but anything could happen.
“We’ve seen a number of franchises see sales well above historical benchmarks on Switch,” he explained.
“Maybe Dread will be able to elevate Metroid into that tier. I’m not expecting that, but it could happen. It’s 2021, I expect the unexpected.”
For comparison’s sake, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe has sold over 30 million copies.
