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Do you think Mania will do well in Japan?


PKGaming

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I dunno... It really feels like SEGA of Japan is doing their damnedest to promote this game, but it just doesn't seem to be grabbing people. Any Sonic Mania related video (or Sonic video in general) that's targeted at a Japanese audience usually has really low views, and a good chunk of those views are Westerners anyway. I see hardly any Japanese gamers talking about it on Twitter. Is Sonic really that unpopular in Japan? Makes me sad because this game is phenomenal so far.

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Japan is more interested in Forces than Mania since Modern Sonic and Forces as a whole appeals to their tastes more. Iizuka himself mentioned this at one point.

That said, I think it'll still do decent enough there. There are still Classic fans in Japan. They're just not very vocal.

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1 hour ago, Waveshocker Sigma said:

Japan is more interested in Forces than Mania since Modern Sonic and Forces as a whole appeals to their tastes more. Iizuka himself mentioned this at one point.

That said, I think it'll still do decent enough there. There are still Classic fans in Japan. They're just not very vocal.

Really? I was always under the impression that Japanese gamers preferred Classic Sonic because he's more cute and mascot-y. Some time ago, I heard that Sonic's Modern design was to appeal even more to Western audiences by making Sonic even more cool and edgy. 

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2 minutes ago, PKGaming said:

Really? I was always under the impression that Japanese gamers preferred Classic Sonic because he's more cute and mascot-y. Some time ago, I heard that Sonic's Modern design was to appeal even more to Western audiences by making Sonic even more cool and edgy. 

Ah how the places have been swapped huh?

Modern being more popular in Japan caught me by offhand. 

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I really hope it does well. Sega tweeted a few hours ago that Mania is the Sonic game with best Metacritic scores in 10 years. I replied that I hope they understand what that means.

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Sonic 2 sold the best out of all of them in Japan, but it is true that Sonic really was never that popular. To compound that, from what I've read, Japan are much more about going forwards instead of being into the old, which may explain why Sonic Team never seemed to have interested in doing something like Mania until 2010 (and would especially explain why the N.Sane Trilogy bombed in Japan despite it being a phenomenon in the 90s). So, I kinda doubt Mania will do well. 

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1 hour ago, VEDJ-F said:

Sonic 2 sold the best out of all of them in Japan, but it is true that Sonic really was never that popular. To compound that, from what I've read, Japan are much more about going forwards instead of being into the old, which may explain why Sonic Team never seemed to have interested in doing something like Mania until 2010 (and would especially explain why the N.Sane Trilogy bombed in Japan despite it being a phenomenon in the 90s). So, I kinda doubt Mania will do well. 

Interesting attitude (always going forwards) but man, what they're missing... Revisiting the old can make some good new.

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Well it's interresting how in concept it kinda appeals to Japan with the Saturn level graphics and the Puyo.

Japan is hellbent on localizing so many western games, but the opposite is less true (especially in regards to Sega....)

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Japan has always liked modern more. It's as said you see more comment threads on forces media events.  Japan doesn't care for older things as much as western side does. They like new ideas. But I'm sure mania will do well

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10 hours ago, VEDJ-F said:

Sonic 2 sold the best out of all of them in Japan, but it is true that Sonic really was never that popular. To compound that, from what I've read, Japan are much more about going forwards instead of being into the old, which may explain why Sonic Team never seemed to have interested in doing something like Mania until 2010 (and would especially explain why the N.Sane Trilogy bombed in Japan despite it being a phenomenon in the 90s). So, I kinda doubt Mania will do well. 

If Crash Bandicoot bombed, I'd imagine Mania bombing even harder. At least I see a few Japanese Youtubers playing N. Sane Trilogy with a good number of views. I'm seeing nothing for Mania on the Japanese side. :( Ironic because it seems like Mania was advertised way better than Crash was.

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No kidding, one Youtuber got 500,000 views on the first episode of his playthrough of Crash N.Sane. And given it was completely in Japanese, I can't imagine there's that much crossover between his audience and potential Western viewers (outliers like me aside).

That being said...I think the chart is physical-only. I may be completely wrong on that, but if that's so Crash may have better numbers digitally. I'd have no idea on that caveat though. 

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Another question I suppose. How is Sonic's popularity in Korea? From what I understand, console and handheld gaming in general isn't very popular there. They prefer PC gaming, especially competitive ones like Starcraft, LoL, Overwatch, etc. And yet I'm seeing a Korean playthrough of Sonia Mania right now with much more views than any Japanese gameplay video I've found. Was the game even officially released there? I know Youtube views probably isn't the best way of measuring a game's popularity, but it's all I've really got to go on at the moment. 

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Ah yeah, that's not good. Crash made it to #5 on the all format chart in Japan, that's Switch eShop alone!

On the week Crash was #5 (and sold just 30k), being #6 on the Switch meant selling under 2000. Although again, physical/digital caveat and the fact there's more formats than just Switch. 

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How accurate/trustworthy is VGChartz? I'm not sure because their sales numbers for certain games differ from other sources. Like, apparently Sonic 1 sold over 15 million worldwide, but VGChartz says only 4.34 million. 

But if VGChartz is somewhat accurate, then Sonic Generations, on PS3 at least, only sold 21,530 copies in Japan in its lifetime. That's less than N. Sane Trilogy sold in a month in Japan, which is considered a bomb.

Like, I'm honestly wondering why SEGA even bothers marketing and releasing Sonic in Japan if their audience just does not care. Isn't it costing them money? 

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30 minutes ago, PKGaming said:

How accurate/trustworthy is VGChartz? I'm not sure because their sales numbers for certain games differ from other sources. Like, apparently Sonic 1 sold over 15 million worldwide, but VGChartz says only 4.34 million. 

But if VGChartz is somewhat accurate, then Sonic Generations, on PS3 at least, only sold 21,530 copies in Japan in its lifetime. That's less than N. Sane Trilogy sold in a month in Japan, which is considered a bomb.

Like, I'm honestly wondering why SEGA even bothers marketing and releasing Sonic in Japan if their audience just does not care. Isn't it costing them money? 

I mean its their home country so they probably feel obligated to, plus I don't think it costs as much to ship in your own region as it does overseas. Sides I imagine the few 1000's of people that do buy the games over there would be pretty sad if they had to import to get their sonic fix.

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