A Japanese Retailer Has Sonic Forces in Their Possession.

[Zippo]

COMG is a Japanese retailer, and it looks  their employees like have been given copies of the game by Sega, offically. My Japanese is a little rusty, but if I'm understanding correctly, they're calling their copies "souvenirs". Forces is most likely going to start to be sent to stores abd retailers this weekend, so it won't be the last we see of this.

https://mobile.twitter.com/suibara_comg/status/922711763254050816

[Strickerx5]

Isn't it possible that these are just display cases? Working at GameStop a while back, I know that it's very common practice to be sent just the cover art a couple of weeks beforehand to put in cases just to display the game on shelves. Even the PS4 version has that "Sample" logo on it with both copies having a release date sticker on them. I think it's likely that they haven't actually gotten physical copies of the game in yet.

Though, I know it won't be long until this is actually the case. Though, it'd be pretty unheard of for a company to send out copies this early (if I recall our store didn't get LW until like the Thursday before release) but who knows.

[Mad Convoy]

I don't know Japanese but I have a very crappy Google translated version of the conversation to give some basics on the info given out in the conversation, I'll link it here: https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ja&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2Fsuibara_comg%2Fstatus%2F922711763254050816

In summary:

-- The packaging for Sonic Forces shown in the picture do not contain any actual games. They are only for display purposes. Hence why staff considers them "souvenirs."

-- They're not going to get any copies of Sonic Forces until November 9th, as everybody pretty much expected.

-- Social media representative for COMG is hyped for Forces and wishes that the packages they got were real copies of Forces. Probably doesn't mean much, but the posts are bursting with excitement for Forces, so it'd be odd not to mention this.

--  No physical copy is going to be released for the Xbox version of Sonic Forces in Japan. The Japanese Xbox version of Forces will be exclusively a digital download.

[Blue Blood]

It seems a touch early for retailers to have received copies of the game yet, with the Japanese release still 15 days away. I would hazard a guess that @Strickerx5 is correct by saying these are just display cases. Retailers worldwide will probably not start to get their stock on until about this time next week at the earliest, and it's likely that they could get it no sooner than the day before release. 

EDIT: @Mad Convoy is on it!

[Clewis]

2 hours ago, Mad Convoy said:

No physical copy is going to be released for the Xbox version of Sonic Forces in Japan. The Japanese Xbox version of Forces will be exclusively a digital download.

That's weird. I know the Xbox isn't super popular in Japan, but is it really that unpopular for Sega to feel justified in not bothering with a physical release for that console in particular?

Have they done this with any of their other franchises?

[Mad Convoy]

1 minute ago, Clewis said:

That's weird. I know the Xbox isn't super popular in Japan, but is it really that unpopular for Sega to feel justified in not bothering with a physical release for that console in particular?

Have they done this with any of their other franchises?

I wish I had a good answer. I'd assumed it has something to do with the Xbox's lack of popularity being unable to justify putting in the extra cost for a physical release, but this didn't seem to stop Sega in the past to my knowledge (if I recall correctly, there have actually been some Xbox-exclusive Sega games such as Jet Set Radio Future).

Any Japanese culture experts around to have an answer to this?

[Meta77]

4 minutes ago, Clewis said:

That's weird. I know the Xbox isn't super popular in Japan, but is it really that unpopular for Sega to feel justified in not bothering with a physical release for that console in particular?

Have they done this with any of their other franchises?

Lots of games in Japan don't get full physical Xbox suppprt

[Clewis]

3 minutes ago, Meta77 said:

Lots of games in Japan don't get full physical Xbox suppprt

Think you could shed a little more light on this? Just curious, really.

[Zippo]

1 hour ago, Clewis said:

Think you could shed a little more light on this? Just curious, really.

 

1 hour ago, Mad Convoy said:

Any Japanese culture experts around to have an answer to this?

Most third party developers have abandoned ship on Xbox in Japan. Most companies and developers have lost money on their games there, rather than making it, so they're not bothering anymore. Xbox One merely sells in the hundreds there, weekly. Phil Spencer had been making a push to get more support, but besides a couple of titles, it isn't working. People typically just don't care about Microsoft products in Japan. They're all about Apple over there. Sony isn't super popular over there anymore either, for the record.

[Meta77]

26 minutes ago, Clewis said:

Think you could shed a little more light on this? Just curious, really.

Ps is known for lots of niche games.....lots. ms requires many games to have a strong following to sell so many do not push on it like the disgaea team. Also it barely sells units over there so why waste resources for a unit that sells maybe 200 in a week