Retro City Rampage Sees Best Full-Price Sales On Nintendo 3DS, Says Developer

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Retro City Rampage developer Brian Provinciano has talked extensively about sales of the game on various platforms in the past, sharing insight on how it has done on everything from PC to PlayStation to Nintendo platforms. During his revelations about sales across different devices, Provinciano noted last December that the Nintendo 3DS version of the game in particular had done rather well.

 

The 3DS version of Retro City Rampage was released 15 months after the other versions, but Provinciano stated that, had it seen a simultaneous 3DS release, “it could’ve become the best selling out of all eight platforms (or at least toe to toe),” just because the long-term sales of the Nintendo 3DS version had remained so healthy.

 

Then, earlier this week, Provinciano revealed another interesting tidbit regarding the 3DS version of Retro City Rampage.

 

“The other platforms had a 15 month head start, but the 3DS version of Retro City Rampage became the best-selling-at-full-price port,” Provinciano wrote on Twitter. He added, “[A GDC] report shows gamers only purchase 20% of their games at full price now. Luckily, 3DS’s still healthy w/most copies of RCR sold @ full price.”

 

Provinciano noted in a reply to a Twitter user that other platforms are “more discount driven ecosystems,” whereas this is not the case with the 3DS. In the past, he has attributed the success of Retro City Rampage on Nintendo 3DS to the game being a good fit for the platform, and to support the title has received from the Nintendo eShop team.

 

Just what is considered a “good fit” for the 3DS eShop is a little hard to narrow down at this point, though, since the online store has seen successes ranging from the side-scrolling Gunman Clive to Inti Creates’ Azure Striker Gunvolt, to Suda 51’s Liberation Maiden, which is a heavily anime-inspired shoot-em-up.

 

Ultimately, it could just come down to something as simple as good games on a popular platform. At the Game Developers Conference this year, TinyBuild’s Mike Rose shared some insight regarding digital sales for indie titles, pointing out that digital Nintendo 3DS titles with mid-level to high-level exposure and promotion could manage 50,000 units and beyond in sales—and without relying on price drops. (For reference, Azure Striker Gunvolt has managed 110,000 units with the help of a temporary sale or two, while Gunman Clive has sold well over 300,000 units on the 3DS.)


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Author
Ishaan Sahdev
Ishaan specializes in game design/sales analysis. He's the former managing editor of Siliconera and wrote the book "The Legend of Zelda - A Complete Development History". He also used to moonlight as a professional manga editor. These days, his day job has nothing to do with games, but the two inform each other nonetheless.