Was Knuckles' Chaotix a Success When it Released?

[ClassicKnuckles]

I mean, a lot of people now say it's bad, but I've seen a lot of magazine reviews, and all of them seem to praise it. Keep in mind that the 32x sold INCREDIBLY well when it was first released, but you rarely see any 32x games nowadays in the wild. Was it a success?

[Blue Blood]

Neither the 32X nor Chaotix were successes. The 32X bombed in sales, and Chaotix's only claim to fame is that it's was the only Sonic game on the system. I have absolutely no idea where you're getting the idea that the 32X sold incredibly well from - it sold barely over half a million, when the Mega Drive alone sold over 30 million.

[ClassicKnuckles]

I mean it was a success upon release, selling out in most stores in it's first week.

[TheOcelot]

50 minutes ago, ClassicKnuckles said:

I mean it was a success upon release, selling out in most stores in it's first week.

No it wasn't.

Chaotix was a mostly un-heard of game released in 1995 on a system (32x) which no one bought. The 32x (Mega-Drive add-on) which only released about 30 games was a commercial failure. It was an expensive waste of money designed to extend the life of the Mega-Drive. Chaotix sales suffered as a result and also because of it's unorthodox game design which a lot of fans don't like. 

Sonic Retro has some good insight:

Quote

Due to the unpopularity of the 32X, Chaotix sold far fewer units in comparison to many of the Mega Drive Sonic games. The 32X hardware has also put it at a disadvantage when it comes to official emulation - it has yet to be brought to any newer systems and so has become one of the more obscure Sonic games.

 

[Mr Loopone]

The 32X and Chaotix were not successes at all, many people say the 32X was the start of Sega's downfall in the gaming industry. Even Sega Europe didn't really want to bring the 32X out because they knew it would flop but brought it out of good gesture (and probably some pushing from Sega of America). Chaotix probably did sell decently in terms of people who had the add-on and how many copies were made however it is hard to get sales figures of the game or anything that wasn't the add-on and probably still sold less than the arcade ports and Doom. Doom was a big thing back then even though the port had problems, usually when people talk about the games they mention the Doom port.

As for that selling out in its first week if it is true or not (probably not), it needs to be put into perspective. When it was getting later to the 32X outside of the US (especially in Europe) and even the US with Spider-Man: Web of Fire, there were less and less copies made of games. Sega was focusing on the Saturn almost full steam ahead in 1995,  so they cut down any development that wasn't the Saturn and some even got discontinued. The 32X was one of those systems that was getting the chop and only really went ahead with it because it was a Sonic game that suffered from development hell and didn't have much else that year. It did get some preview coverage that is more than some games on the system. A game could sell out its print run if a store only had one copy of the game and not every store stocked the game to begin with. There might have even been stock shortages and late deliveries of the game, that has happened on quite a few series over the years especially obscure games. By the logic given, Panzer Dragoon Saga was a success because the print runs kept selling out even though roughly there were less than 20,000 copies of the game in the US, 16,000 copies for Europe and that game can cost quite a bit of money if you want a copy today regardless of US or EU version. Speaking of which, the game was not considered a success but became a cult following later on.

Much of the 32X library is in demand from collectors because of their low print runs such as DarXide, Spider-Man: Web of Fire (even though it is a bad game) and until recently, Surgical Strike because that game was released in Brazil, required the Mega CD as well and got an extremely low print run with only a few copies that had known to exist. It is also why even a football game in the form of FIFA 96 is desirable on the 32X and most football games past their year aren't unless there is something special about them e.g. Sensible World of Soccer.

[Blue Blood]

2 hours ago, ClassicKnuckles said:

I mean it was a success upon release, selling out in most stores in it's first week.

Chaotix has never been a particularly well-regarded or popular game in any capacity.

[EzSonic01]

Chaotix might have been a success on the 32x, which itself was a failed system, and that's not saying much really. It pales in comparison to the Genesis games, not just in terms of sales but also popularity, even if compared with OK titles from that era such as Spinball, Mean Bean Machine, or 3D Blast.

[ClassicKnuckles]

"The 32X was released on November 21, 1994 in North America, in time for the holiday season that year.^[7] As announced, it retailed for $159.99, and had a reasonably successful launch in the marketplace"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/32X#Decline

[EmmBee]

Whatever minor success they had at launch doesn't automatically extend to Chaotix. Especially since it didn't show up until five or six months after launch.

[A person, that exists]

The Chaotix wasn't a success, heck, any Classic game that wasn't on the Mega Drive/Master System/Game Gear can automatically be considered a failure, see CD or Sonic R for instance.

Not that big of a shame to me, considering that the game sucks, unless you're playing as Charmy, that is.

[EzSonic01]

1 hour ago, A person, that exists said:

The Chaotix wasn't a success, heck, any Classic game that wasn't on the Mega Drive/Master System/Game Gear can automatically be considered a failure, see CD or Sonic R for instance.

Not that big of a shame to me, considering that the game sucks, unless you're playing as Charmy, that is.

I can understand Sonic R, but... Could you explain why Sonic CD was a failure to you?

[A person, that exists]

16 minutes ago, FairPlay said:

I can understand Sonic R, but... Could you explain why Sonic CD was a failure to you?

It was on the Sega CD. Now, remind me, how many copies did that sell? 

CD was a failure when it first came out, because of that.

As for me personally, to me CD is also a level-design failure, but that's besides the point.

[EzSonic01]

2 minutes ago, A person, that exists said:

It was on the Sega CD. Now, remind me, how many copies did that sell? 

As for me personally, to me CD is also a level-design failure, but that's besides the point.

Well, 1,5 millon copies just on the Mega-CD alone. That's pretty nice I would say.

[A person, that exists]

Just now, FairPlay said:

Well, 1,5 millon copies just on the Mega-CD alone. That's pretty nice I would say.

Really? Well... Yeah, maybe CD wasn't a very good example.

How about the Game.COM title? It wasn't on "The big three" of Sega's, and flopped because of that.

[EzSonic01]

@A person, that exists  You mean Sonic Jam? I don't know about that one really. It was a compilation of old Sonic games originally released for the Saturn.

[Tornado]

The only game that probably sold enough to really justify developing for the 32X was Doom. By the time Chaotix had come out the 32X was already dead outside of the US, and the botched Saturn launch the following month in the US put a pretty fine point on it how long the system was going to last.

[ClassicKnuckles]

What's odd is that, despite the supposed failure, lots of magazines covered it and it got a lot of good reviews, but I don't know.