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Is sonic still profitable?


Creamy

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It depends on the demographic.

In America and the EU, Sonic is still a major cash cow raking in millions with the child-aged ( and the furry crowd. HUR DUR. :P ) basis.

In Japan, however, it is still a different story. Mario is the top tier gilded mascot, ranking in millions with each new game and earning promotions in gashapon, figurine, and plushie service with each new game offering. Sonic while he is revered as something more of a commodity and a retrograde thing has not fared as well. Sorry, but over the years while there have been interest for the blue hedgehog in the Land of the Rising Sun, he cannot amass to the same degree of popularity with the masses like Mario has.

It seems like us Yanks and Limeys love the hedgehog more than his homeland.

So seeing this, SEGA has taken to releasing most of their merchandise with the American/European crowds as of late than over in Japan. The last Japanese offering of Sonic that resulted in a gashapon system was with Sonic X back in 2005.

In a way, it is a smart move for SEGA knowing where most of their money comes from, but the merchandise is little and very sparse in variety.

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In Japan, however, it is still a different story. Mario is the top tier gilded mascot, ranking in millions with each new game and earning promotions in gashapon, figurine, and plushie service with each new game offering. Sonic while he is revered as something more of a commodity and a retrograde thing has not fared as well. Sorry, but over the years while there have been interest for the blue hedgehog in the Land of the Rising Sun, he cannot amass to the same degree of popularity with the masses like Mario has.

It seems like us Yanks and Limeys love the hedgehog more than his homeland.

Sonic has never been popular in Japan ever... If what Jake said is true, then perhaps the main reason why is because the Japanese have a heavy preference to human characters rather than furry/anthro characters in their pop culture. It's why stuff like Mario and DBZ continue to sell like hotcakes over there while furries like Sonic appeal to only a small percentage of the population there.

Though, it kinda boggles my mind here just how Klonoa, a much lesser-known character everywhere, managed to survive past his first game in Japan alone if they preferred human characters more... Maybe he was/is more popular than Sonic over there? I dunno...

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Sonic is the sort of series that likes to follow the zeitgeist, for better or worse.

said, Sonic was developed with divergent backstories and nomenclatures in different territories to appeal to separate audiences depending on the spirit of their surrounding culture. And that holds true to this day, as mainstream games are starting to become more "hardcore" than "cutesy" and the series went from flowery hills and bunnies to guns and scifi.
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Sonic is the sort of series that likes to follow the zeitgeist, for better or worse.
said, Sonic was developed with divergent backstories and nomenclatures in different territories to appeal to separate audiences depending on the spirit of their surrounding culture. And that holds true to this day, as mainstream games are starting to become more "hardcore" than "cutesy" and the series went from flowery hills and bunnies to guns and scifi.

The same thing happens just going through either Sonic 1 or Sonic CD. You start off in Green Hill Zone/Palmtree Panic, and end up in Scrap Brain Zone/Metallic Madness.

Most likely the writers aren't creative enough to come up with something really timeless. For example, check out the NiGHTS storybook. It has the same story as the game, but if you didn't know it was associated with a game, could you put a date on it?

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