Sega Says Sonic Audience Is Clearly On Nintendo Platforms, Not Xbox Or PlayStation

[goku262002]

 

I'm just calling it as I see it. I do wish they would release Sonic games on the PS3/360 again but I doubt they will for Sonic's future. He still has a ways to go to fix his reputation.

Yeeeeah I doubt any Sonic games are coming to PS3/360 at this point

If he stays console locked though its gonna be harder for him to fix his repairing rep, in order to get your voice out there you need to spread it to as many spaces as possible am I right?

Now I wouldn't mind if they made Sonic a priority on Nintendo consoles, seeing as they did that during the gamecube era but I just don't want to be left out again. I would've loved to been playing Lost World with you guys but its because I didn't invest in a Wii-U that I'm left out.

Is Webber follow-up commenting on the SEGA boards at all?

[SuperLink]

SEGA definitely have marketing problems. But..

 

... Didn't we once run a news item about how Sonic 4 sold better on the PS360 than the Wii? And how Sonic Generations was the most pre-ordered Sonic game of all time?

The pre-orders weren't indicative of the final sales, pretty sure Colours sold more than Generations overall.

 

Anyway, it's because SEGA have marketing problems that Sonic only appeals to Sonic fans. Sonic games won't sell to people who don't like Sonic. With most original IPs and big games, devs grab gamers' attention from all over the place with great marketing, cool trailers, cool gameplay. You don't see a non-Sonic fan playing a Sonic game because it's a heavy hitting AAA title so much as you'd see someone do that with say, Mario or GTA. SEGA market through channels that Sonic fans see and get Sonic fans hyped, no one else, unfortunately. Maybe if SEGA were like other marketers and could convince people that Sonic is an objectively good game that you can find really fun even if you're not a Sonic fan, it'd be more successful on other systems. For now, it's probably most successful on Nintendo because many Sonic fans are also Nintendo fans.

 

 

 Yeeeeah I doubt any Sonic games are coming to PS3/360 at this point

If he stays console locked though its gonna be harder for him to fix his repairing rep, in order to get your voice out there you need to spread it to as many spaces as possible am I right?

I doubt it too, but I'm certain Sonic will appear on PS4 and XOne eventually.

 

And yeah you're right about that, it kinda works well with the point that Hogfather made about marketing too. It's SEGA's responsibility to do that for Sonic though, SEGA need to persuade people that Sonic is better than he used to be.

 

Could be that Nintendo are better at that than SEGA are, maybe no one else offered to help promote Sonic on the level Nintendo are doing.

 

If only SEGA could look after themselves, hm.

Edited September 24, 2013 by SuperLink

[Kuzu]

Colors outsold Generations only by a small margin.

[SuperLink]

Colors outsold Generations only by a small margin.

Considering it was on two platforms as opposed to four platforms, outselling the big anniversary hyped game is kinda impressive no.

[Blue Blood]

You can guarantee that S4 sold worst on Wii because it was a terrible platform for digital titles, and Colours definitely outsold Generations. Furthermore, Generations sold better on 3DS than 360/PS3. The game charted for months solely due to the 3DS version. And heck, Generations was marketed pretty well. It took over sites like IGN with paid advertising from SEGA, it spent a month of so sponsoring the Simpsons on Sky here in the UK... SEGA did loads for it. It's downfall was it's platforms.

 

There's only fact in what Aaron is saying - Nintendo platforms (and perhaps mobiles, too) are where Sonic consistently performs best.

[Carbo]

... Didn't we once run a news item about how Sonic 4 sold better on the PS360 than the Wii? And how Sonic Generations was the most pre-ordered Sonic game of all time?

Physical vs. Digital when talking about Wii vs. PS360 is bit of a ridiculous comparison, and it was a low budget title anyways.

"Advertising" as an excuse has little to do with the key underlying issue, and as much as it's a problem for Sega, it's not a get-out-of-jail free card. Every product occupies a certain base, and some just gels better with others. Wii U is a console that gets multiplatform titles of pretty big games, and not a single third party title on that console has broken 500k, which you'd think is shocking considering there are about 4 million Wii U users starving for games. But they're starving for specific kind of games.

Generations being "the most pre-ordered Sonic game" means jack shit, because pre-order numbers are not particularly that meaningful and they often get cancelled. It might have a bearing on launch numbers but it doesn't say much about post-launch sales, and releases on Nintendo platforms usually live with having long legs. Sonic Colors as such sold twice as much as Generations did across two platforms, in the end those statistics mattered more.

Setting aside that Lost World is being made under an exclusive deal more than anything, Nintendo tends to treat Sega very well these days and the results have, more often than not, been positive.

[Badnik Mechanic]

 

The pre-orders weren't indicative of the final sales, pretty sure Colours sold more than Generations overall.

 

Yes I understand that. But it's the mindset Sega seem to have.. or at least that their PR department is getting everyone to say right now.

 

That alone of 'more pre-orders than any other Sonic game' out of 20 years of games... that alone proves theres an audience for it. They just need to market their games before during and after release as apposed to a post on the blog and then... nowt.

 

Also... Sega have still to announce Sonic Heroes is on the PSN... how long has it been on there for? About 2 years.

[SuperLink]

Of course there's still a chance Lost World will do badly in sales and this will all backfire for SEGA, I mean it's not like the Wii U has a huge installbase, but it'll at least do well on 3DS.

 

Yes I understand that. But it's the mindset Sega seem to have.. or at least that their PR department is getting everyone to say right now.

 

That alone of 'more pre-orders than any other Sonic game' out of 20 years of games... that alone proves theres an audience for it. They just need to market their games before during and after release as apposed to a post on the blog and then... nowt.

They never said or implied there wasn't an audience for it, just that said audience is bigger on Nintendo.

 

Also, "most pre-ordered ____ game!" is a great marketing line. It gets the game buzz, because pre-ordering is an exciting thing people do when they're really hyped for a thing so it must be indicative of quality. Basically I think it's SEGA's way of trying to say "Sonic's good again guys cause this happened."

 

They could do better though.

[smogfog]

Thanks for a reason to hate you, Aaron.

[Carbo]

Apropos nothing, Sonic Generations is the first and only game in the series to have pre-order DLC. I'd like to assume there's been little reason to ever pre-order Sonic games before that.

PR machines are relatively eager to just state facts at surface value rather than hard statistics, especially in this day and age where NPD numbers have to be leaked by insiders.

Thanks for a reason to hate you, Aaron.

Truth hurts sometimes.

[SuperLink]

Actually yeah what Carbo said reminds me that pre-ordering is far more common than it used to be anyway because people can get things for cheaper by ordering online, much moreso than in the past.

 

Thanks for a reason to hate you, Aaron.

This is a bit of an overreaction, all he did was state a fact that most people know already.

 

He did not at any point say "Sonic doesn't sell at all on playstation or xbox so we're never going near those again" or anything to that effect.

Edited September 24, 2013 by SuperLink

[Woun]

Just Sonic game for nintendo = cheap. So Aaron thinks that Sonic on the Nintendo sell more easily.

 

For me, this is bad news. I am the owner of Nintendo 3DS, PS3. And I'm not buy Nintendo WiiU. Bad.

Edited September 24, 2013 by Woun

[MamboCat]

I have to say I wouldn't take stuff like this to heart - it's just a blog post.

 

Ahhh, who am I kidding. It's the Internet!

[Jet Prower]

Yes, I've bought other console sonic games, but it often does seem these days that Nintendo and Sega get along together rather well. Why wouldnt you work with a company you likely are similiar and have a long history with. Yeah, they were big competitors in the past, but they seem to be rather friendly to each other now. I've thought it a good idea that they work together with each other a good idea for awhile now. Yes, having multiplatform games can spread you around a bit more, but is that always a good thing? Sonic just sometimes doesn't seem like he fits on the other consoles with their floods of violent games and shooters. Then you look at nintendo consoles where  Sonic sometimes seems to blend in a bit better with the types of games that are all there. I know you may lose some sales by not spreading the game around, but at the same time, if you are more concentrated, this is also a way to attract more people to the Nintendo console to try and persuade people to come over to this console and let it grow even more. It seems to help both companies to me, at least to me.

[Mauro Fonseca]

Woun, they did not say Sonic games are only on the Nintendos.

[azoo]

The fact that Sonic Adventure 2: Battle made it to the Gamecube's best-seller list should've told you enough about how well Sonic does with Nintendo even whenever their teaming up was new. Also going by that, you should know that this has been said by Sega millions of times before too, and we still got games on all three consoles.. and eventually PC for at least half of them. So why is this a surprise to some?

 

What I really do wonder from this though is if Sega is going to keep making some games exclusive to PS4/Xbone, or do like the gen-before-last and aim for multiplatform releases. Considering the technical differences between the Wii U & PS4/Xbone aren't nearly as major as the differences between the Wii & PS3/360, I'm thinking we may get at least a slightly less impressive looking version of the multiplatform games on Wii U. 

 

Which, in case that happens, means that the Wii U will basically be the go-to console for Sonic games; getting exclusives as well as multiplatform titles. I know that would leave a good chunk of the fanbase a bit miffed, but I really liked how the Gamecube was such a wonderful home for Sonic, and I'd totally love that to happen again as long as most titles were also given to Sony/Microsoft/Steam users.

Edited September 24, 2013 by Azookara

[Salamander]

Bear in mind that Sonic's on an exclusivity deal with Nintendo at the moment, so of course Sega's going to praise their relationship with Nintendo.  Webber was hardly going to say "It's a shame, Sonic sells terribly on Nintendo, but they threw all this money at us so what can you do?"

 

With that said, I think Webber was quite correct.

[Chooch]

Considering it was on two platforms as opposed to four platforms, outselling the big anniversary hyped game is kinda impressive no.

Considering how much the PS3 and 360 versions of Generations sold, there's still a large enough install base on those consoles to not make everything a Nintendo exclusive, no?

[azoo]

Who ever said everything would be a Nintendo exclusive, though? Its just three games, one of which is unannounced but most likely a spinoff. I mean, I don't think Sega's ever planned to mention the next-next big Sonic game before one of them is even released.

 

Of course, there's a first for everything, but still.

[Chooch]

I'm not saying that everything in the future will be Nintendo exclusive, I'm just making the point that there is a large enough install base for Sonic on basically any console that there's no real excuse.

Edited September 24, 2013 by Chooch

[Jet Prower]

That kind of fear of conflicts you describe there will only lead to a reinforcement of the status quo on the franchise, which can be the deathblow to originality and pride. 

 

What in the world are you talking about?

[SuperLink]

Considering how much the PS3 and 360 versions of Generations sold, there's still a large enough install base on those consoles to not make everything a Nintendo exclusive, no?

You don't need to be so snarky, I never said anything to suggest otherwise.

 

All this time in this thread I've been saying "just because Sonic has always sold best on Nintendo doesn't mean an exclusive deal means exclusivity forever". If you'd read my posts you'd probably know that I completely agree with you.

 

I was just illustrating that Sonic games sell well enough on Nintendo consoles for an unhyped game to outsell a hyped anniversary game, so what Webber said isn't wrong. Which is a fact, not any product of fanboyism or "anti-PS3/360". That's all.

[Chooch]

I don't really get how Colors wasn't hyped but I digress.

[Mauro Fonseca]

Selective memory then, since if you'll recall all the SEGA Pr was focused on Sonic 4 that year.

[SuperLink]

I don't really get how Colors wasn't hyped but I digress.

Well I mean like how Generations was the big anniversary game with classic Sonic's return and pre-order dlc and nice limited editions, it was the big definitive Sonic game and was marketed to be the thing everyone should look forward to. It got loads of previews and interviews and SEGA were highlighting tons of fan favourite bits of Sonic's history that were returning for the game. As far as Sonic games go, it is easily among the most hyped ever.

 

Colours, by comparison, was randomly announced out of nowhere and after months of people thinking it was a spinoff or a mini game game and having little marketing it came out and sold well.

 

So, I think that Generations being released on 4 different systems and still not selling as well as Colours did on only 2 systems is kind of really indicative of how well Sonic does on Nintendo consoles. Half the amount of systems, nowhere near as much hype, and riding off the back of some of the most polarising Sonic releases of the decade? Still more sales.