Three years ago, Fire Emblem was on the verge of cancellation. Nintendo allowed developer Intelligent Systems to make Fire Emblem Awakening as one final hurrah for the franchise, and that was going to be it. But then Awakening actually released, was incredible, and went on to sell nearly 2 million units worldwide. The game was, unexpectedly, a hit, and Fire Emblem got a new lease of life.

The sequel for Awakening is bigger, better- and the sales seem to reflect this. Fire Emblem Fates released on February 19, and in the first three days on the market, it has sold 300,000 copies- more than five times what Awakening sold during its launch weekend back in 2013. Even accounting for two different Fire Emblem SKUs on sale this time around, Fates seems to have dramatically outsold and outperformed Awakening.

“Both fans and critics are falling for Fire Emblem Fates, and the early sales numbers prove the game’s undeniable appeal,” said Scott Moffitt, Nintendo of America’s Executive Vice President of Sales & Marketing. “This strong momentum for Nintendo 3DS is only the beginning, as many more high-quality exclusive games are set to launch for the hand-held system over the next few months.”

Fire Emblem Fates: Birthright and Fire Emblem Fates: Conquest are both now available for the Nintendo 3DS exclusively, with Fire Emblem Fates: Revelation set to be released exclusively over the Nintendo eShop in March as DLC. You can check out our review for Birthright here– our review for Fire Emblem Fates: Conquest will go up later this week.

Fire Emblem Fates, the newest entry in Nintendo and Intelligent Systems’ long running SRPG franchise, will be getting characters from the extremely popular Fire Emblem Awakening as DLC. The DLC will be available to all players for free, and will be bundled with one specific map.

Right now, this month of free DLC has already started in Japan, and we are already seeing Awakening hero Chrom, as well as the trusty Frederick, being offered to players for free; future Fire Emblem Awakening characters will doubtless include Robin, Tharja, Olivia, and of course, Lucina.

Fire Emblem Fates is already out in Japan, where it has had a record breaking debut, but it will not be out in the west until early 2016. It is the first game in the franchise releasing to an audience that has proven receptive to it- Fire Emblem Awakening was a smash success, selling nearly 2 million units worldwide.

Stay tuned to GamingBolt for more coverage and information.

The newest entry in the Fire Emblem saga, Fire Emblem: Fates for the Nintendo 3DS, just launched in Japan, and it has broken all records for the series upon debut- its first week haul was a staggering 306,666 units, which is the highest first week figure the series has ever achieved, and also far ahead of the previous installment, Fire Emblem: Awakening, which sold 262,000 units in its first week.

Fire Emblem: Awakening was, of course, a worldwide success, selling nearly 2 million units worldwide– if the success of Fire Emblem: Fates is any indication, then it seems like it will top that amount comfortably. This also marks a remarkable comeback for the Fire Emblem franchise, which had been in a state of slump for several years until Awakening, to the extent that Nintendo and Intelligent Systems developed Fire Emblem: Awakening to be the final entry in the saga.

In the west, Fire Emblem Fates launches early next year, exclusively on the Nintendo 3DS. We will keep you posted if something more turns up. Stay tuned.

Fire Emblem has always been a niche franchise- so niche, in fact, that most games in the franchise have never been localized. The highest selling game in the franchise until now had been a sub 500,000 unit seller- that’s right, the highest selling Fire Emblem game hadn’t even hit half a million units worldwide.

That all changed with Fire Emblem: Awakening. The excellent Nintendo 3DS exclusive entry in the saga launched back in 2013, and finally managed to find mainstream success, garnering critical acclaim, and mainstream penetration. Today, Nintendo revealed that the game has sold 1.79 million units worldwide, which makes Awakening the top selling game in the entire franchise, the first and only game in the series to have crossed a million units sold, and one of the best selling games on the Nintendo 3DS.

Considering just how good Awakening was, I would say this success was well deserved. Let’s just hope that Fire Emblem If, the next title in the franchise, also announced for Nintendo 3DS, comes over to the west quickly, and that it is every bit as good as Awakening was.

In a sense, this is good news- after all the uncertainty that has surrounded the series over the year, we will now be treated to not one, but two new Fire Emblem games, both releasing at once. Yes, Fire Emblem If (Japanese name, it’s English name is still unconfirmed), the next entry in the franchise which was announced for the Nintendo 3DS back in January, and got a new trailer yesterday, will in fact be releasing as two games.

To explain the matter succinctly, the new Fire Emblem game offers players the chance to follow the story of a war from both sides- the aggressors, and the defendants. The release is accordingly split into two games, one focusing on each point of view. Nintendo promises full sized campaigns for each game, and has also confirmed that, after the first six chapters, the games will be entirely different. They have also confirmed differing difficulty levels across the games- while the game based on the defendants will be more in line with the more accessible Fire Emblem Awakening, the game based on the aggressors has been made and fine tuned to appeal entirely to long time fans of the classic franchise.

There is still more- a third piece of the puzzle will also be released as DLC, offering a more neutral take on the story (and presumably the canon version of the events).

It is a release strategy that recalls Pokemon, or, more accurately, the Oracle games in the Zelda series, back on the gameboy color. If Nintendo could pull it off, then we are looking at two new Fire Emblem games at once, which is simply awesome. On the flipside, we are also looking at spending over $80 on Fire Emblem just to get the full story.

Also keep in mind that this release strategy has currently only been confirmed for Japan- in the west, where Fire Emblem is not quite as popular, Nintendo might opt to go a different route. It remains to be seen how it goes.

Fire Emblem If is the newest entry in the saga, which will be launching exclusively on Nintendo 3DS next year. The previous entry, Fire Emblem: Awakening, was a runaway success, selling over a million copies worldwide, and garnering widespread acclaim.

Nintendo had the latest episode in their Nintendo Direct webcast this morning, and they kicked it off with a bang, starting the presentation with the announcement of a brand new game for the Nintendo 3DS- a new Fire Emblem game, to follow up on 2013’s Fire Emblem Awakening.

The game looked to be using the same art as Awakening, and seems to be using the same engine as well, although the influence this time around seems to be medieval Japan as opposed to the western fantasy aesthetic that pervaded Awakening. Iwata confirmed that the game was being worked on by the same team as Awakening, with a brand new big name manga writer from Japan having been brought on board to help with the story (Awakening’s plotline was one of the few things about it that warranted criticism).

Apart from that, we really were not told much, although the trailer that we got looks awesome. Presumably, the new game (which is titled Fire Emblem If in Japan, although we have no official western title yet) will continue to build on the new mechanics that Fire Emblem Awakening brought to the series, such as marriage, the casual mode, and social simulation, while also bringing back features from older games, such as fog of war.

No matter what, though, we are just excited that this game exists- Fire Emblem Awakening was one of the best games of 2013, and two years later, still stands as one of the best games on the 3DS. With it having been a worldwide commercial success as well, it seems there will be a built in fanbase waiting eagerly for this follow up.

Stay tuned, because we will keep you posted.

Nintendo is really pushing sales of both FIre Emblem: Awakening and the upcoming Shin Megami Tensei IV. Ahead of the latter game’s release, they’ve announced a new promotion under the Club Nintendo banner- buy both Fire Emblem: Awakening and Shin Megami Tensei IV, and you get $30 in eShop credit that you can use either on your 3DS or your Wii U.

The best part is that both digital and retail copies of the games qualify, and if you already own Fire Emblem: Awakening, you still qualify, assuming you get Shin Megami Tensei IV as well. This should perhaps make the $50 premium price tag of Shin Megami Tensei IV easier to swallow for some people, who might not want to spend that much on a handheld game in spite of all the goodies being offered.

Fire Emblem: Awakening and Shin Megami Tensei IV are both excellent, incredible games. They are easily the best 3DS games this year, and are both Game of the Year contenders. Both are highly recommended for all.

SOURCE

However, the team at Intelligent Systems had a tough role ahead already. Due to previous games not performing up to expectations, Nintendo delivered the ultimatum that the series would exist if Awakening didn’t sell more than 250,000 units according to an interview with the developer in Spanish publication Hobby Consolas.

This lead to an influx of ideas, including setting the game in the real world, but eventually the decision was made to include past loved systems such as marriages and the ability to have children to appeal to series veterans.

To lure in new gamers though, the Casual Mode came into being. One of Fire Emblem’s hallmarks has been permanent character death – it gave battles a different kind of tension, and insured you stayed invested in your units all the way to the end.

However, according to Nintendo’s Hitoshi Yamagami, the Casual Mode offered a kind of security to gamers. “Considering how valuable time is to gamers, Casual Mode came about to avoid causing them to lose this time. If we made them waste two hours playing because one of the characters fell in the field of battle, it would not be received well nowadays.”

Lo and behold – Fire Emblem: Awakening sold more than 450,000 units in Japan, and more than 240,000 units in North America. Hopefully the series will continue to live on and appeal to both new and old fans in the process.

Source: Siliconera

Compared to the same quarterly period from 2012, the company managed to sell this many first party games within just 18 weeks, while it took roughly 30 weeks – or around 7 months, give or take a week – to sell the same in 2012. Obviously this indicates the console has risen in popularity.

This can also be attributed to some of the more critically acclaimed launches to happen this year, which includes Fire Emblem: Awakening and Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon, with Animal Crossing: New Leaf to follow. Brain Age: Concentration and LEGO City Undercover: The Chase Begins round out the remaining first party titles the company has put out.

Of course, in comparison, the company only put out two first party titles last year, namely Kid Icarus: Uprising and Spirit Camera: The Cursed Memoir, developed by Tecmo-Koei.

The titles in question are some of the hottest releases currently on the handheld which includes: Castlevania: Lords of Shadow – Mirror of Fate, Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate, Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon, Fire Emblem: Awakening, Lego City Undercover: The Chase Begins!, Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity, Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D and Animal Crossing: New Leaf.

You’ll need to register with the Nintendo Club by June 30th, and from there you’ll receive your free download code for the game of your choice. Download codes can only be requested from April 23rd, 15:00 CEST onwards and has to be completed before July 31st with the code itself expiring on December 31st. So if you recently bought a bevy of games already, tough luck.

Head here for all the terms and conditions on “So Many Games!”.