Sonic Mania Sales Thread

[Zippo]

I decided to go ahead and make this thread as a means of tracking the sales of Mania.

Sonic Mania shot straight to number one in the Eshop and is still number one currently.

http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2017/08/sonic_mania_dashes_straight_to_the_top_of_the_switch_best_sellers_chart

Sega released a statement this morning saying Mania was #1 in UK by a "wide margin". It just wasn't listed because it was a digital only title.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2017-08-21-was-sonic-mania-the-real-uk-no-1-last-week-p

More first week reports should be rolling in soon.

[Marcello]

Not surprising. I never expected it not to do great.

[Blue Blood]

Hey SEGA

Do yourself a favour.

[Sega DogTagz]

Sonic vs Crash fighting for the top sales spot?

 

The space-time continuum must have collapsed in on itself while I had my back turned.

[Milo]

Great to see the game's doing well, but that revelation about Mania technically being #1, but ultimately not being on the charts thanks to Sega sticking to their guns on it being a digital exclusive? That's the kind of BS I didn't want to see happen but knew it was coming with the release strategy they had chosen.

The background, talent, consumer demand, and pre-release reception concerning this game were giant neon signs that Sega had a virtually guaranteed winner on their hands; but someone ultimately decided to go with a release strategy that they don't even do for their niche franchises anymore. (What does it say about Sega that Yakuza, Puyo Puyo Tetris, and a Valkyria Chronicles spinoff can get physical releases for their games; but a sequel to their most successful/most ported games in their most valuable IP can't?)

Mania's quality and reviews will ensure the game is successful, but it's going to be really irritating that had they done what many people were asking for ever since the game was announced and and made a retail release, it could had been a bonafide sales hit, as opposed to likely just doing modest sales.

Wasted potential.

[Blue Blood]

I wouldn't be surprised to see Mania get a physical release, even if only limited and/or platform specific run, somewhere down the line. They've pumped a LOT into this game, more than I think they originally planned to. The game got a delay rather than cutting important content, a huge marketing push including merchandise at the Collector's Edition, and perhaps most importantly SEGA contracted a third part to port it to Switch in time for release. Remember, when the game was first announced last year, it specifically wasn't coming to then-codenamed Nintendo NX. Project Sonic 2017 was, but Mania wasn't. SEGA were convinced, no doubt by the immensely positive buzz following this game everywhere, to find the extra money to get this game on another platform without any delay.

It would be a bit naive to say that Mania would perform just as well with a physical release as it would a digital one. It's a 2D, sprite-based platformer that's relatively small (by the standards of the AAA side of the industry at least). Would the masses be willing to pay more than £15/$20 for the game? I don't know. Some would, others wouldn't. Physical releases incur more costs for the publisher than digital ones. That's why I think a limited run would be ideal, even if just to test the waters and limited to a single retailer.

[Indigo Rush]

2 minutes ago, Blue Blood said:

limited run 

...!!!!

ok yeah let's get them on board

I'll phone them rn brb 

[Badnik Mechanic]

36 minutes ago, Indigo Rush said:

...!!!!

ok yeah let's get them on board

I'll phone them rn brb 

No please not them.

Yes I've bought from them but.... they've... not been that great recently and their site is now a haven for scalpers, put it on Fangamer for a pre-order period of X number of days.

Also the postage is much nicer from them.

[Milo]

7 minutes ago, Blue Blood said:

It would be a bit naive to say that Mania would perform just as well with a physical release as it would a digital one. It's a 2D, sprite-based platformer that's relatively small (by the standards of the AAA side of the industry at least). Would the masses be willing to pay more than £15/$20 for the game? I don't know. Some would, others wouldn't. Physical releases incur more costs for the publisher than digital ones. That's why I think a limited run would be ideal, even if just to test the waters and limited to a single retailer.

I think the argument about the costs of physical releases doesn't hold up to scrutiny in consideration of all of the other promotional physical releases the game's got. Clothing merch, posters, Mania-labeled drinks, introductory manuals--they could all be said to be on the cheaper side of costs. But the Collector's Edition (with the statue with the sound chip, the card, and the ring) and a vinyl release for the soundtrack feels like they're outright skirting around the idea on making physical copies of the game proper. A argument could be made about how all of those are okay, but a physical release is a no-no, but I'm afraid to say I wouldn't be inclined to buy it at this point.

I will admit that expecting Mania to be a sales hit with a physical release is likely unrealistic. I do think though Mania's overall sales would definitely be better if it also had a retail release, though. If not a sales smash out the gate, I can easily see a retail release for Mania getting the next best thing--achieving an "evergreen" status that allows it to consistently sell copies years after its release, not unlike with what happened to the Mega Collection compilation.

[Cornelius Fudge]

Aaron Webber did show interest in having a physical release for Sonic Mania and like he stated in his livestreams, I think it all boils down to the amount of time it takes to create a physical release for Mania. It wasn't something that could be done promptly. It's a rigorous process that requires more time as Webber stated and would Sega really be willing to prolong Mania's release when they were trying to release Mania early enough, so Forces would have enough time in the limelight before its release? A physical release is desirable for many Sonic fans, but seems impractical in the long run at least for what Sega was trying to do.

Since Webber is on the fence about it and understands that many Sonic fans are clamoring for a physical release, I'm sure we'll get one some time later. Hopefully a few months later.

[Maxtiis]

Maybe we'll hear something about a physical release after the game gets patched to the degree Whitehead and his team are satisfied with. And if it sells like hotcakes through digital distribution. Hell, Shovel Knight got a physical release a year after it came out and that wasn't even that much of a household name at that point, so you would think Sonic Mania would be guaranteed one at some point.

It's a shame it wasn't released physically to begin with though. I've already bought the game twice, the collector's edition for myself (the PC version...the wait is getting to me) and a copy of the game so my niece could play it on her family's PS4, so I'm a bit reluctant to buy it a third time.

......Ah, who am I kidding? If this got a physical release of course I'd buy it one more time.

[BlueFlare]

I already bought four copies (me, two brothers and a friend) but heck I would pay for another copy if it came with a case and a booklet. Do it, SEGA!

[Red Hot Jack]

This is fantastic news!

[Irish David]

Not surprised that it would have been number 1 in sales this week. I would be very interested to know what the overall sales across the consoles is. Looks to me like a commercial and critical success, great job by all involved

[PKGaming]

It looks like Sonic Mania is number 3 on the Japanese eShop, only following behind the Japanese juggernauts Minecraft and Splatoon 2. That's pretty good for Japan, right?

[LongcrierCat]

Sonic doesn't usually do well in Japan so yeah. That's huge news. 

Wow, Sega. You got a bonafide hit and all it took was listening to the people who make fangames who've been passionate about this series for years.

By the way, that's a hint. Hire passionate people with the chops to make the stuff who like your franchise and want to see it succeed and stay out of their way for the most part. Let the pros work. 

[Cornelius Fudge]

1 minute ago, LongcrierCat said:

Sonic doesn't usually do well in Japan so yeah. That's huge news. 

Wow, Sega. You got a bonafide hit and all it took was listening to the people who make fangames who've been passionate about this series for years.

By the way, that's a hint. Hire passionate people who like your franchise and want to see it succeed and stay out of their way for the most part. Let the pros work. 

Honestly, after seeing fan concepts of Forces including customizing Modern Sonic's attributes and having the team feature include the extensive cast of the Sonic franchise including Knuckles, Tails, Chaotix, etc, I am definitely convinced that having passionate and competent fans included in their game's development would do wonders for them.

[molul]

On 24/8/2017 at 10:15 AM, Cornelius Fudge said:

Honestly, after seeing fan concepts of Forces including customizing Modern Sonic's attributes and having the team feature include the extensive cast of the Sonic franchise including Knuckles, Tails, Chaotix, etc, I am definitely convinced that having passionate and competent fans included in their game's development would do wonders for them.

Then Sonic Team should admit that they're doing it wrong, and they won't.

Unless Forces sales go really bad. And even in that case, they wouldn't get fans into the team. They'll most likely wait a few years to increase the fans hype and sell them another average game.

[Autosaver]

Dunno where to put this.

Sonic Mania PC Preorders are open on Newegg with promo code EMCRJCE62 for $5 off, which is the cheapest I've seen.

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=32-203-284

[Zippo]

http://m.neogaf.com/showthread.php?t=1427324

According to this poster, Steam sales for Sonic Mania have it over 100K downloads in just 72 hours.

[Jango]

Well, SEGA is confident. Haven't seem one of these since... Sonic Colors, I think?

 

[molul]

On 2/9/2017 at 11:13 AM, Zippo said:

http://m.neogaf.com/showthread.php?t=1427324

According to this poster, Steam sales for Sonic Mania have it over 100K downloads in just 72 hours.

That's more or less $2.000.000. I wonder how much would be an acceptable goal for Sega.

[superman43]

4 minutes ago, molul said:

That's more or less $2.000.000. I wonder how much would be an acceptable goal for Sega.

And that´s just for Steam. With the consoles you can at least double that amount.

[SatAMhog]

$2,000,000 from PC?  That's only Steam, mind you.   You have THREE other platforms to consider and seeing as how it's doing awesome in the Nintendo E-Shop as well, I'd say sales will be just fine for the blue blur.   Let's hope he can continue the momentum with Forces.  Considering how good this game is, maybe that will inspire more people to give Forces a shot considering the price point is at $40 whereas the competition is at $60.

[molul]

I know (that it was only steam) ^^ Really good news. If this development is really profitable, I hope Sega considers not only Mania sequels but also bringing old franchises back like this. Ristar, Street Fighter... The Mania Team could become the Sega Retro Team.