SEGA CEO Haruki Satomi has informed investors that their big mainline 2D Sonic game Sonic Superstars has not performed as well as they had expected during its launch run. However, he told investors that they still have a large marketing campaign active and running through until Christmas. Mr. Satomi says that Sonic games tend to sell the most during November and December, so there’s a chance that sales will boom. It should also be noted that Sonic Superstars was reduced in price during the Black Friday sales season.
“As for Sonic, we have released Sonic Superstars and Sonic Origins Plus. Sonic Superstars was released in October, which is a slightly weaker start than we had anticipated, but in reality, when Sonic IP sells the most is mainly November to December, and more than 90% of this title’s marketing cost will be spent in the Thanksgiving and holiday season from November onwards. Although in the financial results announced today, we are forecasting this title’s sales slightly weaker with the view of the status of start mentioned above, we plan to continue our marketing efforts to sell on the same level as Sonic Frontiers.”
it’s embarrassing how the ip sells the best during black friday due the discounts, most people wait until a sale to buy sonic games and if I am not wrong the same happened to that mario and rabbids 2 game, Sega shpuld kick themselves for devaluing the franchise.
I remember buying the majority of my Steam Sonic games on Humble Bundle when they had almost the entire series on there. It was a great deal; got about 20 games or so for like, $25, plus I got a free t-shirt, lol
lol same! I remember that sale.
You have to be a huge fan to of bought it day one knowing it would be heavily discounted soon. Especially with Black Friday not being long after release. It was selling %50 off! I was going to buy it but I’m confident the same deal will be on Boxing day so will probably get it then..also they goofed trying to release it close to Mario Wonder haha
I have a tough time paying full retail for sidescrollers tbh, it’s why I don’t ever purchase the NEW super Mario bros games or super Mario Wonder but if I had to choose I would go with wonder instead of sonic. Im thinking a lot of people probably made this exact decision since they released so close to each other.
Precisely because Wonder is the better game between the two. I, personally, don’t like 2D platformers that much anymore but I really couldn’t stand Superstars and how flawed it was.
Gee, I wonder why:
1- Launching almost at the same time as Super Mario Bros. Wonder.
2- Multiplayer mode feels extremely tacked on and not fun at all.
3- The same old problems of modern Sonic games still plague this one, especially how the gameplay is dumbed down to automated sections, which makes it look more like a Rush game than a proper classic Sonic game.
All in all, Sonic Team can’t be trusted with making a good Sonic game ever again. They’ve managed to fool a lot of people with Frontiers (at least the easily impressed ones, since the game is another failure), but once bitten, twice shy,
I think the biggest weakness, is 60$. This should have been Sonic Mania 2 but modern and not remaking course for 30$-40$. But all the new fans who jumped on Sonic Mania found 60$ too steep. That at least what did it for me. Mario Wonder probably did it no favors, but that price was a major turn off
The two aren’t completely unrelated. 60$ for a game with less content than Super Mario Wonder wasn’t going to help matters. And the fact they released Superstars so close to it, so everyone could compare the two.
Um, Frontiers is one of the highest-selling games in the franchise and critics had more positives to say about it than negatives; how is that a failure?
Sorry to say, they shouldn’t have chased off Whitehead and Evening Star. Sega has a pathological and unavoidable propensity to shoot the golden goose, as evidenced by their refusal to stick to a winning formula or to honor a dev team that knows how to make an appealing Sonic game
Weaker start than you had anticipated, huh? Next time Sega, why don’t you give people what they actually want? And if you don’t know what that is by now, kiss it.
Well the game hasn’t launched to a great start unlike Super Mario Bros. Wonder. So, the sales won’t be booming for a game right away. Not much of a sales expert but I believe the next game will be booming next year.
Wonder outclassed them. I don’t even mean that in a boastful or even shaming way… it’s just how it happened. Nintendo brought their game with the new 2D Mario and it just made the new 2D Sonic look worse by comparison.
nothing worked in favor of the game, mario and spider-man are most popular than sonic and to add salt to the injury the hired arzest to helm the development and everyone knows their track record…smh
Next they’ll think people no longer like the classic era and discontinue it in favor of more dank modern games (or whatever the hell Frontiers tried to do).
At this point I don’t want anything Sonic-related, either classic or modern, that Sonic Team develoips. They just don’t know how to make a Sonic game anymore.
Oh my Sega! What a shocker that no one saw coming…🙄
Seriously, they and Sonic Team should have just put their pride aside, give the thumbs-up to the initial 2.5D Mania 2 prototype Whitehead proposed and gone with that instead.
It’s almost like they should have made Sonic mania 2 instead.
Who’d have thought it, oh yeah the all the fans asking for it after the Great reception to Sonic mania 1.
But Sega couldn’t handle that they couldn’t make a good Sonic game all on their own.
I think that Superstars has struggled because of the whopping $60 price tag, and the fact that it tried to compete with two juggernauts like Mario wonder and Spider-Man 2: if they had actually launched it earlier or later, it would probably have done a little better