Fire Emblem: Fates’ sales cement Nintendo’s strategy series as a retail hit in the West

It took a few decades, but Fire Emblem is no longer one of Nintendo’s third-stringers.

Fire Emblem: Fates, the latest entry in Nintendo’s tactical fantasy role-playing game (read our review) has surpassed 300,000 copies sold in the United States in its first week, according to the publisher. That is five times faster than Fire Emblem: Awakening, Fates’ immediate precursor, sold in the U.S. when it debuted for the 3DS in 2012. This completes Fire Emblem’s transformation from a series that was only popular in Japan to a blockbuster franchise that sits alongside The Legend of Zelda, Kirby, and Metroid in the West. With Nintendo in a transitional period from the Wii U and 3DS to mobile games and a new dedicated gaming platform called the NX, it needs as many strong brands as possible to start generating the Nintendo-like profits it is promising its investors.