14 DAY TRIAL // The development team at Tecmo Koei working on Hyrule Warriors says that it expects the combat-focused title to sell more than one million units worldwide on the Wii U home console from Nintendo when it launches later in the year.
The feat is achievable, regardless of the niche appeal of the core gameplay, because there are plenty of Zelda fans all over the world who will be interested to see exactly what the title has to offer.
Yoichi Erikawa, a producer working on Hyrule Warriors, is quoted by Nintendo Everything as saying that, “In gaming, this is a first-time collaboration. As a new entry in the Warriors series, we plan to release the game Hyrule Warriors in collaboration with Nintendo in the summer of this year.”
He adds, “In addition to our Warriors series fan base, Nintendo’s The Legend of Zelda is also a very popular series with a large fan base, and I think it will become a great new market. Because of The Legend of Zelda’s legion of fans overseas, we are aiming to sell more than one million copies worldwide.”
Hyrule Warriors will first be offered on the Japanese market and this is where the game will probably generate most of its sales, as the rest of the series has done.
At the same time, Tecmo Koei plans to deliver the title on Western markets at some point during the year, but the localization might take some time.
Hyrule Warriors will use the classic mechanics of Dynasty Warriors and will be able to control a version of Link that’s set to resemble his look in Skyward Sword.
As the game progresses, the character earns new items to use and powerful attacks and all the enemies that the player will encounter are based on The Legend of Zelda.
Tecmo Koei has said that it wants to mix the two franchises in interesting ways and that it expects to create an innovative game that has no competition on the Wii U.
The Nintendo-made home console has not been performing as well as the company was expecting and managed to only move under 3 million units in the previous fiscal year.
President Satoru Iwata has said that one solid hit, like the coming Super Smash Bros. or Mario Kart 8, has the potential to turn around the fortunes of the Wii U and make it strong competition for the Xbox One and the PlayStation 4.