When is Sales of 6M+ a Disappointment?
In an interview with Japan’s Nikkei Trendy, Sega’s Entertainment head, Naoya Tsurumi said Sega was expecting to sell 7 million copies of Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games worldwide–and fell short.
According to an AndriaSang translation, Tsurumi quoted sales thus far of M&S Winter Olympics at over six and a half million units, just short of the 7 million mark. He cited sluggish sales in North America as the principal reason for the miss, and added it was part of a trend of several Sega games missing sales marks domestically. Tsurumi did not name the other titles not performing to expectations.
Tsurumi blamed sluggish North American performance on its competition–big budget titles like Final Fantasy XIII, according to Tsurumi, that offer movie-like experiences.
In the interview, Tsurumi wouldn’t comment on whether Mario and Sonic would join forces again for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London But in Japan, Tsurumi mentioned a few titles that exceeded expectations, including Yakuza 4 with more than half a million copies shipped, and Phantasy Star Portable 2, with more than 200,000 units shipped.
Also of note from the Nikkei Trendy article is Sega’s commitment to physical games as its “core” focus, while also pushing downloadable titles, including Sega re-releases.
Loading ...
I blame it more on people losing interest when they played the first one and felt it was a lacksure product.
M&SWOG was better by only a short margin. I felt no actual effort was put into making this game the best of what it could be. Like the first one it was too obvious that it was a cash in.
Next time sega do it with more feeling.
Hey, I think you meant ’6M= a disappointment’ you put a + instead of a = man. Just helping out around here.
I hope we don’t get a Mario and Sonic at the Olympic games. Just make a crossover or fighting game or something can’t take these sport games…
I think people don’t quite now how big 6 million actually is.
Maybe now Nintendo & Sega will do the “real” M&S game we all wanted next
Final Fantasy XIII was horrible. Guys haven’t been the same since the merger.
And I’m sure Winter Olympics will reach 7 million eventually.
Edge he meant 6M+ as in plus. So he’s right.
I see a typo
“20o,000″
Gah!! Those stupid critics.
I enjoyed the Mario & Sonic games. Both of them. I don’t know why some people don’t like them that much.
Wasn’t this their best selling game of last fiscal year?
I know budgets and stuff must factor in, but if they’re disappointed with the sales of this game, then they must be disappointed with just about every game they’ve released in….well, ages.
Oh, no, half a million less than anticipated. When there are companies that never get ONE million sales for their games, I’m finding it difficult to sympathize with 6.5 million being a “disappointment.”
I do agree with Danielle that the first game being bad probably turned people off of this one. It almost did with me until I had a chance to try this one free and found out it’s actually…*gasp* FUN!
So now your disappointed at this Mario and Sonic game, Sega. Now I want to see a true Mario and Sonic game away from the Olympic games and make this game an adventure type of game.
Basically they’re saying that they missed the estimate. The previous game was estimated at over 4M, while it wound up making around 8M. Hence for this game they estimated higher at 7M, while it ended up making around 6.5M. Essentially, they’re slightly disappointed that it didn’t make the estimate. Its by no means bad on sales, it just didn’t make the estimates.
That makes alot more sense when put that way, UltimaHedgie.
I see a typo
“20o,000″