Super Meat Boy‘s first day of sales on the Nintendo Switch were apparently “shockingly close” to how the game performed when it was originally released on Xbox 360 back in 2010 according to the game’s developer.
Image via Team Meat
The platformer debuted on the Switch last Thursday alongside lots of other games including Furi and Escapists 2. While some games have had a tendency to sell better on Nintendo’s handheld than other platforms, likely due in part to less competition from the smaller overall game library, Team Meat was still surprised by the numbers it saw. “Super Meat Boy on Switch first day sales came shockingly close to it’s debut on Xbox 360 back in 2010,” the studio tweeted yesterday. “That’s. nuts.”
Unlike some ports that have come with new modes or small expansions, the Switch version of Super Meat Boy isn’t even all that different from those that did so well on PC and other consoles over the last eight years.
Outside of a new two-player splitscreen mode where people can race one another, the game’s the same. Whether it’s another example of people being willing to re-buy anything once it gets released on the Switch, or people are simply ready to revisit one of the great indie games of the last decade, the reception so far caught the developer by surprise.
Me looking at Super Meat Boy on Switch sales stats. pic.twitter.com/0RKWHODG8s
— Team Meat (@SuperMeatBoy) January 12, 2018
Not long after the game first came out, Team Meat’s Edmund McMillen and Tommy Refenes discussed how much they had worked themselves into the ground in order to launch in time for Microsoft’s “Game Feast” promotion on XBLA during the fall of 2010.
They even suggested that Microsoft betrayed them by not giving Super Meat Boy the marketing push they thought had been agreed to and that it deserved since it was to be an Xbox exclusive for the first month it was out. At the last minute, Double Fine’s Costume Quest ended up released the same week and Super Meat Boy never got top billing on the store page, edged out by a Mazda 3 ad.
Despite all of that though, the game went on to be a surprise hit and ended up selling over 100,00 copies by the end of the year. It did even better on PC, eventually going on to sell over a one million copies by 2012.
That’s partly why the game’s continued success on the Switch no doubt came as such a shock. Even Nintendo diehards who never owned a PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, or Xbox One would have had ample time to check it out one the game came to Wii U (admittedly way too late) in 2016. At $US15 ($19) on Nintendo’s eShop, the game’s price hasn’t even moved since it’s original release. The Xbox 360 launch even benefited from $US5 ($6) discount during its first few weeks, making the parity between sales then and now that much unexpected.
The Switch though has seen a number of ports sell better than anticipated. Despite already being out for over three years, the Switch version of Shovel Knight sold better than any of the other versions at launch according to its developer, Yacht Club Games. Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap, Forma.8 and other games have seen similar success.
SMG Studios noted in September that Death Squared sold more on the Switch in the first three days than all other platforms it released on combined, while the same thing happened to the Zelda-like exploration game Oceanhorn. And then there was SteamWorld Dig 2, Immage & Form’s action platformer that sold 10 times more on Switch than on Steam.
For Team Meat’s part, the developer tweeted that if its next game, Super Meat Boy Forever, a sequel with six new story chapters and twice as many bosses as the original, continues this trend it might even think of manufacturing its own Amiibo just like Yacht Club did. Meanwhile, a physical version of Super Meat Boy on the Switch is supposed to arrive as well at some point.
Comments
18 responses to “Super Meat Boy Is The Latest Port To Sell Better Than Expected On The Nintendo Switch ”
Not surprised, the switch is a bloody fantastic, fun console.
I must admit even though I’ve owned it for years, I’m interested in the 2 player race mode, could be lots of fun.
Forget about games being system sellers, the Switch is the first console to be a game seller.
I honestly think there is a lot of truth to this. Bought Binding of Isaac, Furi, Fast RMX, Overcooked, Super Meat Boy, Mom Hid My Game and Golf Story in the last two weeks. I would never normally but so many at once and I would NEVER play these games on any other platform however on the switch, it just makes sense.
I’m myself counting the minute til the release of Darkest Dungeon.
Never played it. Wouldn’t normally. But I’m buying that too.
These are all games which suit the handheld format incredibly well, and that “burst play” ability is only expanded by the switch’s fantastic resume function. The switch also has enough grunt to do these titles justice (see previous attempts at portable BoI).
I’ve picked up so many games on the switch which i passed on steam because it didn’t feel right to be playing them at a desk.
It feels so right to netflix and gungeon.
I will say Im positively sick of people saying every game is ‘perfect’ for the switch. Especially since a lot of the time the reasoning is “Nintendo-y’ or ‘on handhelds usually’ since the absolute last thing anyone should want is the switch to be just another Nintendo handheld.
The wii u introduced multitask gaming for home consoles, where being able to grind in a jrpg while the tv did something else was fantastic.
That is predominantly how i use my switch, where it floats between being a local handheld and a console. As with an ipad, i don’t take it out and about. It’s not a traditional handheld to me.
And not every game is perfect for the switch, and i think a part of the reason it’s taking off is because it’s attractive to publishers who previously shied away from typically nintendo-y portables. Just look at the dire lack of presence from EA and Activision on the 3DS, a console with a significant userbase. The switch is far more capable of accomodating their style of game design, a basically untapped market for them.
Wait, this has a physical release?!?!
It will likely down the track depending on sales figures. At this rate, I would say yes.
I am so down for a super meat boy amiibo.
SMB suits the console format. Combined with a still gigantically lacking library that if the latest Nintendo Direct is anything to go by, isn’t going to be rectified anytime soon, its no surprise that something like SMB has sold really well.
As a thought exercise, go to Wikipedia and see the list of releases by date for modern consoles. You’ll be surprised to realise that most consoles’ first year were actually worse than the Switch’s in quantity and/or quality of games. The Switch may have tons of ports, but all of them have been great games that are “new” to the people who never played them, while the amount of shovelware is relatively low, compared to other consoles.
I digress, 2014 was a solid year for the PS4, and a little less so but not shabby for the XB1.
The first year of the Switch however has been dominated by Android shovelware, the occasional indie port, and a few AAA, half of which struggle to not be compromised experiences.
I’m really not sure how in 2018 we don’t have a Nintendo providing access to its gigantic back libraries as at least a bare minimum.
What is all this “android shovelware” you speak of? The great majority of ports in the Switch are from PC and other consoles, award-winning, massively popular indie and AAA games PLUS six AAA console exclusives. The PS4 did come close to that but the XB1 laughably did not. And do check most of the AAA releases for the first year for those platforms and you’ll realise that most of them were ports of re-releases from the previous generation, and certainly not console-exclusives.
Also don’t understand the reproach about Nintendo not rereleasing their past catalogue of games when Sony is even worse at that.
This article just came out.
How did you post this comment from the first half of 2017?
So the trailer on the eShop has terribly muted colours. Is the game like that? It looks like their was just a blanket grey filter over everything. It was not my TV, the shop and games I was playing were fine.