With the promise of a modern day facelift for the iconic, high-speed, side-scrolling 2D games of the 16-bit Sega Genesis days and the ability to play as Sonic, Tails, Amy or Knuckles in 4-player local co-op, Sonic Superstars looked primed to quickly rake in old and new fans of the series alike. Unfortunately, during a financial results briefing presentation held this month, Sega Sammy Holdings president and group CEO Haruki Satomi said that hasn’t been the case, though he has hope that Sonic Superstars sales will pick up over the holiday season.
“Sonic Superstars was released in October, [and has had] a slightly weaker start than we had anticipated,” Satomi said.
Satomi went on to explain that the Sonic series typically sells most during November and December and he expected both that factor and a considerable increase in marketing for the game approaching the holiday season to bring Sonic Superstars sales back in line with expectations.
Satomi continued, “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.
Sonic Superstars/Sega
“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.”
When asked in a subsequent Q&A session what he thought contributed to Sonic Superstars sales being lower than expected, Satomi replied that the game had been released during a busy period but that the overall sentiment towards the game, which has been a generally positive reception from critics and fans alike, would fortify sales.
“We believe that the impact of other companies’ major title[s] released at the same time is significant, but we plan to expand the promotion towards the holiday season, especially in the overseas market,” Satomi said.
“Both the Metacritic score and user score are higher than Sonic Frontiers, and we would like to continue to sell firmly.”
As of this writing, Sonic Superstars has a 73 Metascore on Metacritic (based on 67 critic reviews) and a considerably higher 8.8 user score (based on almost 600 users).
Are you surprised that Sonic Superstars sales have been lower than expected? What do you think of the game?
Sonic Superstars is now available on the Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S|X and PC platforms.
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