Only 5800 Copies Sold in Debut Week
This may not be a good sign.
With only the Wii version out presently and the next-gen editions to follow in the Spring, Sonic Unleashed‘s premiere week in Japan was all but a failure.
The Famitsu / Media Create sales figures for the week beginning December 15th show that the game only sold 5,800 copies, not even coming close to the Top 30.
The top seller for that the week was also a new title, Dissidia Final Fantasy, for the PSP. That sold over 500,000 copies.
Animal Crossing: City Folk and Pokémon Platinum were also among the Japanese top ten.
Other games that beat Unleashed include the PS3 edition of Need for Speed: Undercover, Prince of Persia for the XBOX 360, and one of Sega’s own titles, Bleach: Versus Crusade.
Many in the Sonic community still have hope looking at these numbers, claiming that it has been a long time since Sonic has sold well right off the bat, and that the franchise will eventually climb its way up to respectable numbers. We’ll continue to track progress, but seeing this slump on the most popular console in Japan may make looking at the debut numbers for the XBOX360 and PS3 editions very interesting.
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This is, as always, pointless and unnecessary to say but Sonic have never been(and likely will never be)popular in Japan.
I have always find that a good thing becuase I never seen a good reason why he should be if Japan continues to turn their back on him which they have done since the start.
@Robert: He is not unpopular there is he?
But I do agree. And the fact that Sega Technical Institute in America working on most of the classic Sonic games did not help. The Japanese don’t seem to like more western styled games, do they?
Don’t look too much into it, people.
1) SONIC HAS NEVER BEEN POPULAR IN JAPAN.
All sales of cool merch aside (to recoup costs from unsold games, at least in my eyes…), Sonic has never been popular in its home country. It’s the reason why Sonic Rivals 2 wasn’t released over there, and it’s the reason why the third season of Sonic X wasn’t aired there. Heck, the only reason why Sonic X even GOT a second and third season was because of the popularity of the foreign dubs, as maligned as they are. It got dismal ratings. Sonic fans over there are really dedicated, but I’m thinking this is nothing new for them…
2) The competition was way too good.
New Final Fantasy, Animal Crossing, Pokemon, AND Prince of Persia. …yeah, there’s no way they can compete with that…
3) It’s just the first week.
Like you said, it’s been a long time since Sonic has sold well right off the bat (in Japan more so), so I’m assuming it’ll get better…
Considering that all the time that SEGA delayed Sonic Rush Adventure in Japan was to focus on MARKETING the game in that region, this really doesn’t help matters. But this isn’t going to end up making them give up the entire endeavor of games, so…yeah.
The only things that sells in Japan is fanservice, stale rpgs, and games for grandma.
@iNAUDiBLE-san: Sonic is popular around the world, but America is the number one spot. He’s popular in Japan, but not as much.
And the debut week means everything. Brawl, I believe sold of 200,000 or so.
Sonication: Of course he is not completly unpopular there, I was going to say that he has almost always been in the shadows of some of the boring and sick things we all know sell in Japan but Dr.Eggfang beat me to it.
But you are right though, many of the Japanese gaming community doesn’t seem to give western styled games a chance from what I have seen.
Doing bad in japan? Good.
Maybe sonic team will get there standards staight and make the next one right.
wow! this is great news!