Afraid of Getting Lost

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Making a Linear 3D Mario

Odyssey, Ya See

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At over 1.5 million units sold in three months,has outsold every 3Dgame in Japan, save foron the Nintendo 3DS.This is particularly significant because Nintendo believed for a long time that the Japanese videogame audience was not as comfortable with 3Dgames as they were 2D ones.For example;has been very successful, with 8.84 million units sold worldwide as of March 2010. However, if you divide those sales up by region, Japan only accounts for 1.01 million units, while the overseas markets account for the remaining 7.83 million., on the other hand, has sold over 3.6 million units in Japan.In 2010, late Nintendo president Satoru Iwata explained why this was the case.“As we see it, one reason why a number of people who love 2Ddo not want to play 3Dappears to be because they are afraid to be lost in the 3D world by not knowing the exact directions, while they feel that they can play with 2Dwith no such issues,” Iwata had said to investors.One of the goals ofhad been to create a 3D world where it was easier for the player to find their way around. This had been attempted with the use of spherical worlds, which would ensure that you would always manage to find your way back to where you were.Another issue is that motion sickness whilst playing games is fairly common in Japan. To combat this, Takao Shimizu, producer ofwho suffered from motion-sickness himselfpersonally playtested the game frequently, advising the team on how to manage camera angles in a way that wouldn't make a user susceptible to motion-sickness feel queasy.Unfortunately, neithernormanaged to overcome these two obstacles entirely, and topped out around the 1 million mark in Japan.“However, when we look at the Japanese sales, I do not think that we were able to effectively tackle this challenge with the original,” Iwata had stated.In 2011, Nintendo attempted to solve the "afraid of getting lost" problem again, withfor the Nintendo 3DS.was designed to be a game that featured 3D movement within the confines of stages that were linear and only featured a single path from beginning to end.This way, Nintendo felt, they could combine the fun of 3Dmovement with the straightforward level design of the 2Dgames.The experiment was a success, andwent on to sell well over 2 million units in Japan. Nintendo had finally figured out how to create a 3Dgame that Japanese players were comfortable playing. They went on to use a similar structure foron the Wii U. This game wasn't as successful, due to the fact that the Wii U itself wasn't a popular console.This is what makesso interesting. Not only is it a 3Dgame, it's the most exploratory and open-ended a 3Dgame has been in years. From the "afraid of getting lost" perspective,is the sort of game that should be very intimidating to the casualfan in Japan.And yet, it isn't. Instead, it's doing incredibly well. Three months since its release, the game has sold 1,555,312 units in Japan, outselling, and. In summary, it has managed to outsell every 3Dgame in Japan, save forWhy is this happening? Partly because the Nintendo Switch itself is such a popular platform, and the excitement for the device itself is generating excitement for its software.But there's another reason, too. The Switch is a portable platform, and portable game devices are Japan's primary way of interacting with videogames. They offer a convenience that the Japanese value immensely, and I believe the Nintendo Switchby proxy of being a portableis allowing the more casualfan to take a gamble onto see if they like it.The information above was updated to include the latest available sales figures forthree months after its release.