Combined Sales Rise, Wii U Version Places 4th on System
Make no mistake; if there’s any hope of Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed to be a success, it may rest on the Wii U.
A Friday launch of the new Nintendo system in Europe aided in the game’s rise on the GFK Chart Track multiformat top 40. For last week, ASR Transformed placed 24th overall, up from 30th the previous week. That’s a good improvement–especially considering the individual drops to 19th on XBOX 360 and 22nd on Playstation 3–but keep in mind last year’s Mario and Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games remains nipping at the heels, placing 27th for the week. For reference, New Super Mario Bros U placed 14th overall.
That was the #2 title on Wii U, but all things considered, ASR Transformed still did well when only considering Wii U software. The Chart Track ranks indicate a 4th place finish for the week on Wii U, only bested by Nintendo Land, NSMBU, and ZombiU.
The game should benefit from a full week of sale. When we have unofficial estimates, we will let you know.
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Why does the UK love sonic?
We just do :p
@Jeffery Mass
I want to know why DOESN’T America love Sonic.
@Jeffery
Because we’re cool like that.
They need to announce the release date for Steam right now, it’s lame of them to be sitting on that considering the exclusive and still unannounced TF2 characters and whatever hat they give out for preorders is going to generate a decent amount of buzz. They should release at a heavily discounted price during the upcoming Steam winter sale and watch as it eclipses the numbers it’s doing on consoles, if it has a TF2 item attached to it there’s a good chance people would buy it just for that and not the game as insane as that sounds.
@Skai Cyan
Hedgehogs are very common in Europe which boosts Sonic’s appeal there because the animal is part of their pop culture.
@All: Because America has not yet come to terms with the fact that they really do when it comes time to pull out their pocketbooks at the cash register.
Knuckles, Silver, Sonic = Pure American Spirit, Red, White and Blue, Through and Through
lol
Another thought to consider is that when Americans are faced with the seemingly life or death choice of buying a video game, they can go with either an all-American, obese Brooklyn plumber or your average, everyday, speedy, cocky, English-imported hedgehog. Since we love our pizza and are partial to fat dudes who mercilessly kill innocent turtles (or Koopas), the choice is obvious more times than not.
@Ski Cyan
Because most Americans are in LOVE with the typical cocky-cutter Call of Duty FPS yearly copy & paste where they sit their asses on the couch on Online mode for 479283483848230 HOURS A DAY.
America’s in the middle.
Japan doesn’t like Sonic.
America is focused on gangs, crime, murder, dominance, theft, corruption, destruction, and rape to care about Sonic.
I know because I live in America, life is just like the games we get. Only in the games, you don’t get punished…
Man i wish I lived in UK. Or ANYWHERE else instead. >_>
I never understood why Japan doesn’t like Sonic…
Did Japan like Sonic back then, and just not now, or what? :S
It was somehow expected. Launch titles always sell better, as all the people who get a new console need games too, and there isn´t many at that time. Nintendo consoles are normally used for multiplayer days at least since N64 days, so the 5 player splitscreen surely helps too.
So yeah, I would say WiiU version will sell better than any other one.
Us Brits are awesome like that. I love Sonic, and no amount if critism is going to make me hate him.
@Sonic Man
“…479283483848230 HOURS A DAY.”
…Can anyone else besides Chuck Norris make that humanly possible? O.o
@Ricardo: Japan never really loved Sonic. When Sonic 1 came out, it did alright in Japan, but it became instantly popular in the US and UK. So yeah, back then, Japan didn’t like Sonic as much either.
I think that in the US, ultra-violent games are really popular, and since the UK is a lot more sensitive to violence than Americans are, maybe that explains why the UK would pick Sonic over many of the other violent shooters that are over-saturating the market right now. Just a guess though. It’s strange, because it’s said that sonic is more popular on Nintendo consoles, but since when was Nintendo the system of choice in Europe? I thought it was PlayStation…am I right?
has the wii version been fixed yet? Because at this rate most players will be exposed to the broken version of the game.
Eh, sales will improve on other systems. And overall sales will get better once the other versiobs are released.
My interpretation was that during the early 90s, Sega had an incredibly great marketing in the UK. Everything from clever marketing campaigns with cool TV adds, to Sega busses that literally toured the country and allowed kids to climb aboard and play videogames. Sega was cool, marketing towards an older audience (teenagers), MegaDrive became more popular than the SNES, and Sonic as the mascot of Sega became more popular as a result.
@sonicriders02
It’s actually the other way around, America is FAR more sensitive with adult content than Europe is. A lot of games that are 18+ rated in the USA are actually only 15+ over here. (And that’s not because they’re censored or anything)
Bayonetta, Alice Madness Returns (and I think Binary Domain) are a few examples that come to mind.
My theory on why Sonic is more popular in the UK is simply put, we genuinely prefer sports titles, mainly racers. Forza, Gran Turismo, Wipeout, Need for Speed, Project Gotham Racing… we’re a nation of petrol heads, so a fast paced platformer like Sonic is naturally more appealing to us as we’re more used to the fast paced action and almost racing-like feel of the series.
Plus Sega did really well in Europe back in the day due to the large amount of sports titles on the system.
And let’s not forget SEGAWORLD, having a giant iron statue of Sonic the Hedgehog standing in the heart of London’s Piccadilly Circus for over a decade was fan service enough but Sega opening a giant futuristic indoor amusement park for all things sega (complete with giant novelty candy and slush puppy vending machines) right in Piccadilly Circus really helped boom Sonic’s popularity in Europe.
Even to this day Sonic’s still as popular in the UK as he was back in the 90′s, merchandise wise. Hell, I just came back from visiting Birmingham the other day and couldn’t go 10 steps without being greeted by Sonic merch everywhere. Street vendors selling Sonic balloons, stationary stores selling Sonic books, market stalls with sonic towels (next to pink Justin Bieber towels oddly enough), Jasware action figures in nearly every store you go to, Sonic socks and underwear in every major clothing retailer (next, river island, topman, primark, etc) It’s sonic paradise. =D
The fact that Sonic’s a hedgehog might have little to do with it but tbh I don’t really think that’s true. Even if Sonic was a dog I have a feeling nothing would have really changed over the years. (sale wise at least)