I took this story just to use that stock image…
You can often tell how big a game is based on it’s prevalence on store shelves and if Sega’s new shipment figures are anything to go on, Sonic and All-Stars Racing: Transformed is very well known indeed. In their third quarter earnings report Sega noted that they had shipped 930,000 copies of the game across the US and Europe, on all platforms except the upcoming 3DS version. This was based on the figures taken during November through December so the number has bound to have shifted in the meantime.
When you compare this to Football Manager 2013 which shipped about 730,000 copies in the same regions since October and Yakuza 5‘s 580,000 copies in Japan from December, you can see that Sega had really put a lot of weight behind this project. Which is great news except for the fact that the game unfortunately isn’t selling as well as it deserves to. However with copies on shelves it’s not exactly hard to bag yourself a disc, which can’t hurt things for now. Will the game’s sales then pick up any time soon? Will I be able to use another vaguely related stock image for a header picture again? Stick with us and we’ll let you know when we find out more!
[Source: Siliconera]
Considering the reduced price Sega was selling the game at right from the start, the sales aren’t exactly good and probably worse than the original, which I find really surprising. But the good news is that the game continues to sell at a steady pace, and with the PC version out (and actually being a solid port with improved textures) and DLC and a patch on the way, the game should remain in the charts for at least a while longer. But for a game with Sonic attached to it to struggle this much, despite actually getting good reviews, shows that Sega may have another difficult year ahead of them.
I agree. But a part of me wonders if the new price might have actually hurt it. Not that it makes the game bad, but a lot of (wrong) people usually assume (wrongly) that a game’s quality depends on an extravagant price point. I just hope people didn’t see this as a ‘budget’ game when a lot of good work clearly went into it.