Team Sonic Racing 30th Anniversary Edition

[Josh]

I hope this gets updated with the Apple Arcade content (as a fan of the classics, it'd be nice if that universe could be featured in something new besides a comic book for the 30th anniversary), but yeah, this looks like it's just gonna be a repackaging with an artbook, which is a shame.

Team Sonic Racing reminds me a lot of Forces. The soundtrack rules, and it's perfectly competent... but it falls SO short of matching the standard of what came before, it makes me wish they'd just ported THAT to modern consoles and called it a day. 4k, 120fps Generations and All-Stars Racing Transformed... mmm.

All-Stars Racing Transformed especially deserves to get a little more spotlight. It was the first kart racer since Diddy Kong Racing that I could seriously say outpaced Mario Kart, and as a Sega diehard, I love how it seems to come from this incredible alternate universe where the Dreamcast won the 6th generation and Sega's IPs became household names. <3 Man, what a game.

[Meta77]

Why does Sega insist on re-releasing this game again? Are they that desperate to try and move unsold units maybe? The game was bad, bad enough that it got no support after launch and to my knowledge CTR dwarfed it. The game had good music and at this point i mean that is losing its meaning in a sonic game. Nearly ALL sonic games have good music. At this point that is nearly a given. Transformed controlled, and had a more fun gimmick than teamd tacked on sonic heroes mechanic

[User18091994]

12 hours ago, Meta77 said:

Why does Sega insist on re-releasing this game again? Are they that desperate to try and move unsold units maybe? The game was bad, bad enough that it got no support after launch and to my knowledge CTR dwarfed it. The game had good music and at this point i mean that is losing its meaning in a sonic game. Nearly ALL sonic games have good music. At this point that is nearly a given. Transformed controlled, and had a more fun gimmick than teamd tacked on sonic heroes mechanic

Because Team Sonic Racing has sold really well and now that Sonic is in the spotlight again due to movies and TV shows, having the physical copy available on stores would make the game sell even better. 

[___]

14 minutes ago, Raphael Martins said:

Because Team Sonic Racing has sold really well and now that Sonic is in the spotlight again due to movies and TV shows, having the physical copy available on stores would make the game sell even better. 

It's still on store shelves though. I can walk into a Walmart or Target and find it. This smacks of a repackaging of unsold copies to try and move stock. There will be no new content, unless there's some really basic anniversary themed DLC. If the game was a roaring success they wouldn't feel the need to repackage it 2 years later.

[King Conne]

I really love the game but I still haven't finished it yet because of two missions  I can't get through!!...
So, I'll have to watch the end of the story on Youtube one day if a friend of mine doesn't come home to help me...

I love the team gameplay and the addition of a Story Mode in the SONIC universe!!...

[Mr. Ion]

When at a GameStop recently I saw multiple copies of TSR bundled with Mania. Obviously, it's still being sold and Sega is trying to push it. Although, seeing as Sega won't be adding much additional DLC other than the Classic Sonic stuff on the Apple Arcade version, I think they're pretty much done with this game in terms of content. I don't think the game sold amazingly, but I feel like new DLC could have at least pushed more sales than just a repackaging, if their goal was to get all of those copies off shelves. At this point it would make more sense to have a new Sonic racing game in a year or two and hope that one is more interesting than TSR.

[VO.SUPER]

This game was probably really hampered by the mess Sumo Digital went down with Crackdown 3 at the time, and SEGA have just been trying to keep the thing going as desperately as they can, but without the effort really needed. They couldn't afford to start DLC because all available staff were probably working overtime on salvaging Crackdown. Now the mobile version is being taken care of by Hardlight, but Hardlight can only do so much without more support from SEGA and SEGA doesn't want to put extra support because they are afraid the game won't pull the numbers they need.

I'm guessing despite the Sonic mania double pack, SEGA just couldn't get the momentum going with TSR.

And really there is nothing they can do unless they seriously package new content with the game, ultilizing this 30th anniversary release as an excuse to add more content and get some real momentum going. But this little artbook package is frankly going to do jack diddly squat for moving inventory.

[Meta77]

6 hours ago, Raphael Martins said:

Because Team Sonic Racing has sold really well and now that Sonic is in the spotlight again due to movies and TV shows, having the physical copy available on stores would make the game sell even better. 

Sold well? I am pretty sure total end sales for that game was pretty bad. And being on store shelfs? Target, gamestop, walmart, you name a store that sells games and I can almost guarantee that they have more copies of TSR than they could care for. The game is not rare, nor good. If it were it be hard to find with people playing online and talking about it. TSR did neither of those things.

[Edward850]

3 hours ago, Meta77 said:

The game is not rare, nor good. If it were it be hard to find with people playing online and talking about it.

In fact, didn't its online multiplayer die in 48 hours? That seems to the best rough estimate I can get out of its online reception. But lets be generous and say it died in 2 weeks. ASRT meanwhile I could still find active players in matchmaking past a year after its release. On PC (which yes is rather strange for a kart racer at the time). Heck the Steam statistics now show ASRT still holding up well even beyond TSR.

However what urks me is they had an easy formula to work with, and even arguably the better performing game in some respects. Crash Team Racing was a comparatively obscure brand and ran at 30FPS on all platforms, and didn't even get a PC release. Meanwhile TSR ran at 60FPS (except on the Switch IIRC?) and had a PC release. I'll give the lack of crossplay a pass as CTR didn't have it either and crossplay service middleware was still in its relative infancy, but here all they needed to do was some post launch support and some brand muscle. Add in a traditional race mode for the online multiplayer, throw in some new character from the franchise, obscure or whatever each month and hey you've got an instant hit that people are practically guaranteed to keep coming back to.

Instead the game got half a patch, the community managers complete inability to read the room (Aaron Webber's somewhat infamous "no this game has no on disc DLC" comment when asked what the DLC plans are), and then... nothing but joint pack-ins in an obvious attempt to artificially boost sales numbers? Meanwhile CTR did all that instead. This is about the closest I've ever seen of a video game giving another video game an absolute swirly.

[Tails Prower]

8 hours ago, Edward850 said:

In fact, didn't its online multiplayer die in 48 hours? That seems to the best rough estimate I can get out of its online reception. But lets be generous and say it died in 2 weeks. ASRT meanwhile I could still find active players in matchmaking past a year after its release. On PC (which yes is rather strange for a kart racer at the time). Heck the Steam statistics now show ASRT still holding up well even beyond TSR.

However what urks me is they had an easy formula to work with, and even arguably the better performing game in some respects. Crash Team Racing was a comparatively obscure brand and ran at 30FPS on all platforms, and didn't even get a PC release. Meanwhile TSR ran at 60FPS (except on the Switch IIRC?) and had a PC release. I'll give the lack of crossplay a pass as CTR didn't have it either and crossplay service middleware was still in its relative infancy, but here all they needed to do was some post launch support and some brand muscle. Add in a traditional race mode for the online multiplayer, throw in some new character from the franchise, obscure or whatever each month and hey you've got an instant hit that people are practically guaranteed to keep coming back to.

Instead the game got half a patch, the community managers complete inability to read the room (Aaron Webber's somewhat infamous "no this game has no on disc DLC" comment when asked what the DLC plans are), and then... nothing but joint pack-ins in an obvious attempt to artificially boost sales numbers? Meanwhile CTR did all that instead. This is about the closest I've ever seen of a video game giving another video game an absolute swirly.

This is well said.

As someone who bought this on launch day I can safety say the online did last a bit more than 48 hours but not much longer, I think maybe 1 week to 2 weeks before I had to start inviting friends to play or they find me through matchmaking.

This game basically 'died' the moment it was realised as the lack of support immediately after and many annoying bugs/frustrations/imbalance in the characters all led to it's quick demise. I really thought Sega would do more with it and we might even see some DLC characters 

Don't get me wrong it was fun when playing with friends but the AI were SOO frustrating most of the time compared to the predecessor and Team Rose in story mode were way too overpowered to the extent I gave up on that side of the game and thus it died completely.

I really doubt a 30th anniversary release is gonna rekindle the game but maybe that's what Sega are loosely hoping for. Now that I am on PS5 I am tempted to rebuy it digitally and it's 'continentally' on sale right now

They could have 'scored' a master class here, relaunch the game as a 'trilogy' pack so give us access to PS3 All Stars Racing and All Stars Racing Transformed via digital download along with TSR and that way everyone could experience all three games.

[mayday2592]

15 hours ago, Edward850 said:

In fact, didn't its online multiplayer die in 48 hours? That seems to the best rough estimate I can get out of its online reception. But lets be generous and say it died in 2 weeks. ASRT meanwhile I could still find active players in matchmaking past a year after its release. On PC (which yes is rather strange for a kart racer at the time). Heck the Steam statistics now show ASRT still holding up well even beyond TSR.

However what urks me is they had an easy formula to work with, and even arguably the better performing game in some respects. Crash Team Racing was a comparatively obscure brand and ran at 30FPS on all platforms, and didn't even get a PC release. Meanwhile TSR ran at 60FPS (except on the Switch IIRC?) and had a PC release. I'll give the lack of crossplay a pass as CTR didn't have it either and crossplay service middleware was still in its relative infancy, but here all they needed to do was some post launch support and some brand muscle. Add in a traditional race mode for the online multiplayer, throw in some new character from the franchise, obscure or whatever each month and hey you've got an instant hit that people are practically guaranteed to keep coming back to.

Instead the game got half a patch, the community managers complete inability to read the room (Aaron Webber's somewhat infamous "no this game has no on disc DLC" comment when asked what the DLC plans are), and then... nothing but joint pack-ins in an obvious attempt to artificially boost sales numbers? Meanwhile CTR did all that instead. This is about the closest I've ever seen of a video game giving another video game an absolute swirly.

When has the Crash series been remotely obscure anywhere? He's been a highly requested character in multiple crossover fighters, and there was plenty of hype for the remakes and 4. The series was one of the biggest western gaming  ips in japan sold pretty high numbers everywhere else.. In fact Nitro-Fueled had the biggest launch for the series.

[Edward850]

3 hours ago, mayday2592 said:

When has the Crash series been remotely obscure anywhere?

The key phrase was comparatively obscure, as in relation to Sonic. If you talk to some random joe average on the street, they are far more likely to know who Sonic is over Crash Bandicoot.

[User18091994]

On 7/11/2021 at 4:23 PM, Gloved Animal said:

It's still on store shelves though. I can walk into a Walmart or Target and find it. This smacks of a repackaging of unsold copies to try and move stock. There will be no new content, unless there's some really basic anniversary themed DLC. If the game was a roaring success they wouldn't feel the need to repackage it 2 years later.

 

On 7/11/2021 at 10:48 PM, Meta77 said:

Sold well? I am pretty sure total end sales for that game was pretty bad. And being on store shelfs? Target, gamestop, walmart, you name a store that sells games and I can almost guarantee that they have more copies of TSR than they could care for. The game is not rare, nor good. If it were it be hard to find with people playing online and talking about it. TSR did neither of those things.

 

According to Sega themselves, Team Sonic Racing sold really well and continues to sold well. For example, in the financial reports for the last quarter Team Sonic Racing was highlighted as one of the Sonic games that sold better during this period. Sonic was the top 1 highest selling Sega franchise, too, above Yakuza and Persona.

 

It doesn't matter if the critical reception was mixed or if the fanbase didn't like the game, it has sold well and continues to do. Forces had also had a mixed reception and performed well dispite all of that.

 

Can you explain to me how seeing a copy of the game in a store it's evidence that it didn't performed well? I can walk into any store and find copies of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. If a game sold well, they continue to publish more copies, no mistery about that

 

Making clear, I'm not defending the lack of content and the online issues of the game, I'm talking about why Sega cares to re-release and re-publish copies of a game several times. Yeah, this isn't the first time Team Sonic Racing get re-released. Sometime ago Sega released versions featuring Sonic Mania & Team Sonic Racing, and Monkey Ball Banana Blitz HD & Sonic Forces for Nintendo Switch.

EDIT:

For the record, I don't expect that Sega will add more content to the game. It would be great because, in my opinion, TSR is a really solid game, it only lacks content. This could be easily fixed with DLCs with more tracks and playable characters. However, it's been years since the game came out and they didn't do anything with it. It's too good to be true that after all this time they would add more content, dispite the game's sales performance.

 

[___]

On 7/13/2021 at 5:53 PM, Raphael Martins said:

Can you explain to me how seeing a copy of the game in a store it's evidence that it didn't performed well? I can walk into any store and find copies of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. If a game sold well, they continue to publish more copies, no mistery about that 

 

You said that this repackaging was good because it would put the game on the shelves again and increase brand visibility. An argument Meta and I were making was that the game is already still on shelves, so a new edition is not necessary. 

As for the sales performance, it's actually pretty rare for Sega to admit on a sales report if a game didn't sell as much as they expected. They'll say everything sold well; they usually only go out of their way to emphasize games that really sold well, or sold extremely poorly. Anything else "performed well". 

I don't think a game that sold like gangbusters would have to be resold with some small trinket add-on so soon after its launch.

[Zoomzeta]

...You know, sometimes if how a Studio measures success and how players measure success are very different things. 

[User18091994]

13 hours ago, Gloved Animal said:

You said that this repackaging was good because it would put the game on the shelves again and increase brand visibility. An argument Meta and I were making was that the game is already still on shelves, so a new edition is not necessary. 

As for the sales performance, it's actually pretty rare for Sega to admit on a sales report if a game didn't sell as much as they expected. They'll say everything sold well; they usually only go out of their way to emphasize games that really sold well, or sold extremely poorly. Anything else "performed well". 

I don't think a game that sold like gangbusters would have to be resold with some small trinket add-on so soon after its launch.

They cannot lie in a financial report, these documents are audited because Sega is an open capital company. Sega doesn't provide detailed sales numbers for their games, they usually provide the total number of all video game units sold in the period and then highlight what games were the most responsible for this results. In the more recent financial report they released, they said they had a big increase in sales numbers of video game titles (retail and digital), Sonic was the top-selling among all their IPs, and Team Sonic Racing was highlighted as one of the games responsible for this result alongside Sonic Mania, Sonic Forces and Generations (yeah, a 10 years-old game still sells well).

That means after all this time and despite the online being dead, Team Sonic Racing is still doing well. 

This is a case when the common sense perception is totally different than the reality. Most people think Team Sonic Racing sold poorly and was a commercial failure, even when there's no evidence to support that.

I think maybe the game was outshined when it was released because of Crash Team Racing and it wasn't a big hit, but with all the sales and with Sonic Movie success, a lot of new fans (mostly children) hungry for Sonic content could have bought the game.

[Red Hot Jack]

I'm now catching up on the thread... I'm late.

I just think that IMO people who didn't care for the game are gonna pretend like it did poorly in sales because they did not like TSR.

If SEGA said it did well in sales, it did lol

Usually when press announces data, results, etc. they will say what was a success, meanwhile what was not successful is simply ignored because they don't want to look bad, they will never say "it underperformed" it's rare, they will ignore the product and focus on the successful games, but I don't see why would they lie about a successful title.

As for the 30th anniversary edition... it was revealed it has contains an artbook, okay, but why are people assuming it's all there is new to it? 

Sonic Racing for Apple Arcade has an update coming, I'm not saying the console game will follow the trend because mobile games are easier to update, but why is it so unlikely? The game released 2 years ago, it's not too old, maybe there was an update last year but Covid delayed it? I'm also assuming things, the thing is we don't know until it's announced, I'm not expecting much but...

I do hope they add a bit more, I want them to fix this games issue of being lacking in content.

[Tenko]

Not sure if it's been reported on or released elsewhere, but I just picked this up here in NZ. While it's got a fancy embossed slipcover, and quite a nice art book covering pieces/games/covers from all eras, the manual/disc are the same as the launch original from what I can tell. There is no new content, features or additions and it just boots up with no issues using my currently installed original version on my PS4.

Sorry to burst any bubbles, but its just a re-issue to push a few more copies it seems.

Edit : Added a picture in case people are in need of proof and all that.

[phobs]

10 hours ago, Tenko said:

Not sure if it's been reported on or released elsewhere, but I just picked this up here in NZ. While it's got a fancy embossed slipcover, and quite a nice art book covering pieces/games/covers from all eras, the manual/disc are the same as the launch original from what I can tell. There is no new content, features or additions and it just boots up with no issues using my currently installed original version on my PS4.

Sorry to burst any bubbles, but its just a re-issue to push a few more copies it seems.

Edit : Added a picture in case people are in need of proof and all that.

Thank you for the update! I was wondering about what was happening with that version. Although, no new content is disappointing, the art book is a nice touch. Do you mind sharing few photos of what is inside the art book?

[___]

I knew it would be the same game as ever.

My only question is, is it the same artbook from Colors Ultimate? I assume so but confirmation would be nice.

[Tenko]

 

3 hours ago, phobs said:

Thank you for the update! I was wondering about what was happening with that version. Although, no new content is disappointing, the art book is a nice touch. Do you mind sharing few photos of what is inside the art book?

I'm at work but I have two that I took last night, because I hadn't seen these concept pieces personally (doesn't mean they haven't been released before, I just hadn't seen them). Not sure if it's the same booklet as in Colours Ultimate as oddly I haven't bothered to look at that one since I got it  

[Zaysho]

The art book that came with the JP version of Colors Ultimate is different and focuses on the artwork Yui Karasuno made for the JP social media and detailing her work process.

I'm not a fan of these kind of mish-mash layouts, but it's really nice seeing some rare concept work for the series. Really wish there was a definitive, easy to obtain art book that collects this stuff instead of special edition bonuses.

EDIT: also updated thread title

[Tenko]

Some pages are a right mish-mash, others are set out quite clean, or even full page spreads. It did surprise me that there are clean clear versions for previously seen pieces that have shown up only in old magazine scans or in that presentation that Hirokazu Yasuhara gave on the development process for Sonic and Sonic 2.

I'm guessing it's all showing up now due to the archives being cracked open for that Encyclo-speed-ia perhaps?

[___]

So it's a different artbook. I stand corrected. Kind of odd to bundle it with TSR. It would have made more sense to bundle it with Origins or something.