Sonic Frontiers might have received a mixed reception from fans and critics alike when it launched late last year, but hedgehog faithfuls came out in force to support the game regardless. We know the game sold over 2.5 Million copies in the first month, and while we don't have a more updated figure, it's clear SEGA is happy with how it's doing.
Answering questions from investors in a recent report (translated by Tails' Channel), the publisher says Sonic Frontiers "greatly exceeded our original estimation". The point was raised while discussing the game's sales and pricing strategy since launch.
SEGA also acknowledged that, while the Metascore for the game was "slightly lower than we expected", Sonic Frontiers has a "very high" user score. This gives the firm confidence it has "found a title that is widely accepted by a lot of people around the world".
It all points to what's coming next for Sonic. Based on the sales success and the largely positive reaction from fans, we expect future mainline entries to follow the open zone formula. SEGA mentions it isn't quite done with Frontiers, though, alluding to the development of more DLC. Indeed, a content roadmap for 2023 confirmed new playable characters, modes, and more.
[source segasammy.co.jp, via tailschannel.com]
Comments 32
Haven't played it but I did hear a lot of genuine praise from Sonic enjoyers
A well-earned success! Definitely among my favorite games last year so if their intention is to build upon that formula then I'm all for it. Now where is that DLC?
Well Sega finally got me to buy a Sonic game and I actually found what I’ve played fun!
I haven't played it at length. But i'm glad that it's done well. A game that just designed to be FUN and not tie into reality.
The number of reviews I read that said things like "Why are there rails floating in the air" like that matters AT ALL.
We shouldn't be limited by gravity and other worldly concepts in games, something that has become more and more prevalent since photorealism was the target. Designers let your minds run free!
Iam glad that the game have sold well becuse it menas that we will likely get a sequel or at least more Sonic content which I think is a good thing
Was always gonna be successful after the two movies clicked with the audience. I’m not really into this kinda thing but I’ll probably end up picking it up if I see it for £20.00.
that’s what social media and 2 movies does for a game that was released after FORCES of all sonic games 😂
we’ve all seen mediocre games get good sales these past couple of years now .
@themightyant they criticized the floating rails because they’re just randomly placed and done in the dumbest ways possible . 3D sonic games always had floating rails , but the rails theyre talking about here just looks as if they copy and pasted saved asset duplicates in random spots in an area .
“ A game that just designed to be FUN and not tie into reality.”
except this games really ***** boring . a game that’s boring is better than a bad game i guess
@nomither6 Plenty of those 2.5+million people liked it more than that. It isn't one size fit all.
THIS IS AWESOME!
I am happy to hear this. I wish only the best for the Blue Bomber!
@themightyant
I never understood that criticism either. It's a platformer. There have been randomly floating platforms (or in Sonic's case rails) since...literally since the genre was born.
No one ever raised a stink about just randomly floating blocks in Mario and why would they? It's just there to service the gameplay. That's all there is to it.
@nomither6 wow so edgey. Bet you're fun at parties
@Grimwood No need to discuss your bowel movements, but here's to hoping you're getting enough fibre in your diet and you're successful on the toilet.
After years Sonic Team finally re-learning that yes if you make a good game people will indeed want to buy it who knew? 😅
@Kriandis Blue Blur, The Blue Bomber is Mega Man 😅
@themightyant I didn't mind the floating platforms, if anything they were a very big part of why I had so much fun with it. No matter where I was I always seemed to have some rails or springs to jump on and I had a blast with the game.
That's good news! This was the first 3D Sonic in ages that was fun to play, and I'd really like to see more of the concepts in this game, though more fleshed out. Things like the towers were awesome in concept, but the janky platforming implementations at times left them kind of broken sometimes.
@nomither6 Here's the thing with the rails and such. It's been a fan complaint (including from me) that the secret sauce of Sonc from the start has always been that its initial inspiration and design was based on pinball (and it was the late 80's early 90's where pinball was still king, of course.) It even had the Spinball pinball spinoff title that leaned into this. Then for like 20+ years, Sonic forgot about it's pinball roots and tried to be everything BUT the pinball hybrid design it is meant to be. And fans including myself have complained that forgetting pinball is what broke the series.
So now with Frontiers, we have the "floating rails". And what do these "floating rails" and they way you flow from one into the next "very similar rail" have in common? They emulate the feel of pinball! The whole game is structured like being inside a large "open world" pinball machine! So much so that the late game leans into an actual pinball machine as a mandatory level you must get a high score in, and Sonic even starts talking about pinball with a whole 4th wall reference to basically "why is there a giant pinball machine on this ancient tech island, guess it just shows how universal pinball is"!
The entire game's design, the literal reference at the end, and the dialog that directly comments on it all, is kind of a massive acknowledgement by Team Sonic that they've finally recognized the missing pinball design and are making fun of the fact in-game that it's so blatant now.
And it worked, it's the first Sonic to exceed expectations in a long, long time.
@themightyant Very true! Though I'm maybe even more worried by the fact that reviewers were concerned about the realism of rails floating in air on an island with obvious anti-grav and high tech energy manipulation machines and death robots, enough to question the validity of their presence, in their game about a raspberry blue talking bipedal rodent in red track shoes which apparently raised no concerns at all....
@Korgon It's what happens when games spend so many years trying to become interactive movies and you get a new generation of "game" critics that shift over from film review. You get a group of edgelords that feel video games shouldn't be video gamey anymore ,they should all be grounded in reality and properly cinematic.
@Keyblade-Dan
Mario's Red.
Sonic is Blue.
We're proud of this game,
After decades of poo.
-Sega
Still i they would have released the game in a better state it would be even better.
@NEStalgia but the game damn near has zero momentum physics so the pinball philosophy for frontiers is pretty moot . you wanna implement pinball and classic sonic game play correctly? see adventure & heroes ; the boost formula really needs to stop . theyve been leaning so hard on a (now) bad mechanic to make sonic games. it’s uninspiring
@Bagwag82 cringe
@themightyant home front , the matrix , resident evil 6 etc
all bad games that were financial successes ; quantity=/=quality . mc donald’s is a bottom tier burger joint and they’re still number 1 .
@Korgon mario had random floating blocks since day 1 . the rails in sonic games were always implemented in a way that integrated with the stage
@nomither6 FWIW they're toying with getting rid of the boost mechanic in the next entry. I do agree on momentum/physics as well, but it's a solid start, and I'd like to see that get incorporated again, as well.
@NEStalgia i hope so . it’s been forever since we’ve had another 3D sonic game without boost .
@nomither6
That's completely besides the point I was making. The point being random floating items of any sort have been in platformers since forever. The early Sonic games had randomly floating platforms and rings. Later on they added rails.
The point is it's been part of the platformer genre since forever. That's why the constant pointing it out in Frontiers was so strange to me. I loved Frontiers but there's certainly issues that could be improved upon. Floating rails is not one of them.
@crazykcarter doesn’t bother me either , was just explaining to ppl who somehow don’t understand why it was criticized
the adventure games aged sure (idk about POORLY or THAT BAD ), but the thing is , they’re fun and the lore is good. sonic has momentum too
@Korgon the whole discussion was about floating rails in particular though ; seems like you’re reaching & moving goalposts . the criticism is about the rails in the open world , maybe it’ll take a sonic frontiers sequel with much better rail integration for you to see why people think they’re done poorly in this game
this can ONLY mean one thing: early trepidations of the game forced sega to re-evaluate and lower its sales projections. i don't see how sales of 2.5m+ for a franchise as "beloved" and well known as sonic would be considered satisfactory. a quality sonic game should be able to sell 5m copies without trying!
@nomither6
I kept talking about the subject of floating rails/blocks/whatever in my follow up comments. I'm not sure what your talking about moving goal post for but okay.
So the problem is the rails are in an open area? Again I ask why this makes any difference. It's still a platformer at heart and platformers have had these elements forever. The size of the level makes no difference.
Maybe a sequel could open my eyes to what the issue is so to speak but I rather doubt it because it's literally never bothered me ever since I knew what a platformer was.
@crazykcarter isnt mario odysessy based in a human world that couldnt be further from the SNES titles
Waiting for all DLC, patches, and free updates to be released before I start playing.
@NEStalgia W comment! That rhyme at the end made me laugh!
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