Down Almost 20 Percent, Launch Figures Also Revised Down
While sales in Europe, by the numbers, are believed to have crept up, the news wasn’t quite as rosy for Sonic Colors domestically, at least on the Wii side.
Week 3 estimates from VGChartz.com estimate that edition to have sold 44,628 copies in North America. That’s still quite good, but it’s a 19.6 percent drop from week 2, at a time when most expect the numbers to go up.
It’s even more a problem when you consider the official NPD reports for November came in, in effect forcing VGChartz to revise their numbers on the game down. Launch week figures for North America were revised down over six percent, and under that very promising 60,000 mark, to 59,846. Week 2 figures, the week of the big Black Friday shopping day, were also revised down over 7 percent, to 55,515 estimated sold.
The news was also mixed on the DS side of Colors. Like on Wii, the official NPD tallies forced VGChartz estimates to revise down. New launch week estimates in North America also moved down six percent to 40,229. Week 2 also moved down 7 percent and under the 40K mark to 37,413 sold. But unlike the Wii, the DS copy may have found a plateau, selling 36,901 in week 3, a decline of only a hair over one percent.
Still, the point stands: We are in the Holiday shopping season, and these numbers are going down in North America, not up. There is hope in Europe, but we are seeing the first chinks in the armor of a good Sonic game.
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Great to have more reliable numbers in. Sadly, it’s a shame sales arent matching up with the quality of the game. Aside from past Sonic games making people reluctant to purchase future Sonic titles, there’s also a lot of great titles out that may also be taking sales away from Colors.
It’s going to probably take a consistent line of good Sonic titles for sales to pick back up again.
This is disappointing and repulsive. Games like Black Ops have little to nothing to add to their franchises, yet sell… what was it? 5.6 MILLION in one day? At the same time, games like Colors, which reviatalized the Sonic series, sell these numbers. I have little to no faith left in the world.
People love shooting games, almost all my friends doesn,t know Mario galaxy or think it is over rated and stupid, this is how normal people think.
It’s a sad sad world we live in when people ask “what games do you play?” and give you nothing but blank stares if you mention anything other than WoW or an FPS. (LOLSHADOWTHEHEDGEHOG, AMIRITE??)
I can’t even tell you how often this happens. It’s like the entire market has changed and old-school gamers who grew up with traditional platformers and adventure games are now the obscure outcasts even in their own nerdy communities.
Next weekend I’ll buy Wii and SONIC COLORS y’all
I am deeply saddened by this. It just shows that the last five years have taken a toll on Sonic games. As serpx said, it probably will take a steady rate of quality Sonic games before people actually believe the games are worth paying $50 for.
Would something like this lower the chances of a sequel?
@ChaoticFox
Meh, its not all bad. There’s been something of a retro revival going on now, what with games like Sonic 4, Donkey Kong Country Returns, Castlevania: Harmony of Despair, New Super Mario Bros. Wii, Mega Man 9/10, Kirby’s Epic Yarn, shit like that. The fact that developers are dishing games like this out means that they still have a rather large fanbase. But yeah, the way FPSs completely dominate the market nowadays (5.6 MILLION IN ONE DAY?!) is annonying to the point where I just want to shove a Super Nintendo cartridge up someone’s ass.
what you guys expect sega killed the sonic brand name
@Sora
I’m extremely thankful that there’s still a market for gamers like me, and I am quite pleased with a lot of what’s been (and is being) released. Although, I have to say… some of these “retro throwbacks” (eg. Sonic 4, TMNT RS, Rocket Knight, etc) feel like cheap and soulless cash-ins rather than true classic style games.
That being said, what’s sad to me is that the statement “I play video games” no longer means what it used to, and the weird looks from people who call themselves “gamers” because I play platformers instead of FPS is an unsettling fact about SOCIETY in general, even if it doesn’t necessarily reflect the market.
@ChaoticFox
True. But where I live, I don’t get blank stares when I say something like platformer or RPG. I literally get laughed out of the damn room. In my country in paticular, the only things they play are sports games and FPSs. Literally, the only thing. It brings my piss to a fucking boil when I realize that due my obsessive gaming, the only friends I can really forge a bond with are gamers like me, and since there are no gamers like me, I’m one lonely guy. But enough with the emo story. Fuck Call of Duty, fuck Madden, fuck Fifa, fuck’em to damnation.
Heh, you should have seen the looks I got when I went in to preorder Colors and DKCR on the day people were picking up the new COD.
Face it, platformers aren’t “cool” right now. It’s all shooters.
DKR, mario galaxy 2 and epic micker are out selling sonic by alote, the sonic franshise is in trouble
by the way guys DKR is selling great and disney epic micky has already out sold sonic colors in a week compared to sonic colors month of sales.
It really angers me how much undeseving reception some games get. People nowadays are so caught up in all these 50+ FPS’s and RPG’s with nothing but red, brown and grey colors, and overly dark and cliched stories we get every friggin’ year. I am neither bashing people who play those games in general nor bashing those games themselves, and I play some of those games myself, but some people seem to only play those kind of games, play those games just to feel cool, overate them so much, put them on a god carved pedestal higher than Mount Everest and\or probably throw silent tantrums over people who like anything but those games, and its ridiculous.
If games were treated with the reception they deserve, Sonic Colors would have sold at LEAST near a million by now, but NO! Now, I am fully aware that Sonic Color’s not so spectacular sales is partially due to SONIC TEAM’s not so spectecular track record up until this year, as well as know that it would be selling worse if Sonic Colors itself was received negatively overall. But I am so mad that this game, that is good, innovative, imaginitive and fun, Im sure, is not selling all that great, another good game, Donkey Kong Country Returns, is not even at the million mark yet, and Super Mario Galaxy 2 which has one of the highest aggregated scores ever, has just barely reached the 5 million mark over the course of…like…half of year, and along comes Call of Duty: Black Opps, a fun yet another cliched, unoriginal, predictable, and uninspired FPS, and sells half a million more more than Super Mario Galaxy 2 IN ONE DAY!!!
RAGE!!!!!
This is just as much SEGA’s own fault as it is the consumers. They rushed out Sonic 2006 for the Christmas shopping period, and they lost a huge chunk of their fan base for some quick cash. Now they are paying for it and it will take years to rebuild consumer trust.
Let’s not forget what Shadow the Hedgehog and Unleashed’s werehog has also done to keep consumers away.
Good job SEGA.
…not to mention Kirby’s Epic Yarn has only sold barley half a million copies since release.
My God! Some people are so close minded, it’s disgusting!
@Krush
People are stupid. So so so stupid.