Sonic Superstars: A New 2D Sonic Game (Fall 2023)

People would riot in the streets if they made an entire unique playable character exclusive to the deluxe edition. I can see why they made him a skin since he's just a non-canon bonus character that costs extra money

 

The thing that irked me about the rabbit is the fact that he doesn't have a name. His name's just Rabbit? This was very surprising considering that Naoto has given out names for the little guy.

Say whatever you want, but I am NOT accepting "Feels" as a name for the rabbit. I'm sorry, but that name disgusts me.

 

Same. Although, if I remember correctly, 'Feels' was more an early name for Ristar than the rabbit specifically but I could be wrong. I seem to remember reading that once. I personally don't like that name either. I have heard the name Max mentioned a time or two on the internet but I am not sure if that's ever been official. If I am wrong about any of that, feel free to correct me.

 

Feel was the orignal name for Ristar. I have no idea where the 's' came from. Just makes the name feel more off to me.

I think naming him Max (one of the names given to the dude by Oshima) would cause confusion with the Sonic Band's own Max the Monkey. Bam (the name given to the rabbit in Sonic Overture) doesn't really feel right to me, either. Some guy named Troopsushi came up with the name "Presto". I think that name is both cute and genius.

 

For the record, the Deluxe upgrade is available to everyone. If you didn't buy the Digital Deluxe version, you can purchase it for an extra £11. It's overpriced for what ultimately amounts to a few skins and an incomplete sound test mode, but the option is there.

SEGA really are trying to charge as much as they possibly can for this game. It's like they're seeing exactly what they can get away with.

 

Not to begin going too off topic, but to add to this, I absolutely love the name Presto. I see the appeal. Although, I have no problem with just calling him Rabbit as well I guess. A bit bland, sure, but a bit of idiosyncrasy in character naming/nomenclature is something I am in favour of I guess. Maybe it would work better with a built-in exclamation mark at the end, like... Rabbit!

 

Sega Sammy Holdings' CEO has said Superstars' initial sales were a bit slower than they'd hoped, but they're optimistic it'll ultimately match Frontiers:

can't wait for people to misread/misrepresent this and start even more insufferable doomposting

 

I feel like I've seen more marketing for Superstars than Frontiers and Origins combined. There's definitely a push.

 

Yeah, there indeed is some advancement here. I was kinda scared this game would flop at first due to the poor sales n' stuff, but damn am I glad to be wrong.

 

Hearing that most of the marketing budget is for the Holidays makes everything click together. I'd say Mario and Spider-Man are really the only reason the launch didn't meet expectations, but I doubt it sold poorly even then.

 

You shouldn't have posted this.

 

Oh no oh no Mario's and Spiderman's sales prove people hate Sonic Superstars

 

It proves that people picked the competition. Are we accusing Sega of "doomposting" now?

 

Wow those aren't the nicest words he could have used, probably

 

This made me laugh out loud. Thank you for this.

 

Say Sonic Mania and nobody bats an eye. Say Sonic Superstars and everyone loses their minds.

 

Ahem. “Sonic 4”

 

I somewhat agree. I think Sega knew they couldn’t compete with Mario AND Spiderman so they planned on putting the game on sale for the holidays to make the bulk of their sales while getting more money out of fans who couldn’t wait for a price drop. That said, Sega’s lack of transparency regarding drm on Steam absolutely hurt Superstars’ steam performance. I personally suspect the game is doing well enough for dlc and/or a sequel now…BUT Sega really needs to change how they launch their games on PC. For the last few releases it feels like sega’s done all they can to cripple their titles on launch day with drm and overly complicated digital deluxe editions.

 

They dropped it in October, but saved their marketing dollars for November-December. Why didn't they just drop it in November like every other Sonic game? And to drop it on Spider-Man 2 and Mario week of all October dates on top of that. The $60 launch price didn't help either. I don't know why Forces launched at $40 but they thought Superstars was worthy of $60.
SEGA has been fumbling the ball this year. They've already reforecasted down in their previous report and now they're reforecasting again.

 

If it released in November, then it would have less time to sell at full price before it goes on sale for Black Friday and for Christmas. Also, whatever magical market boon games get for being released in late October 2023. I'm not sure why any of the games that released that week released that week.

Sega expected a number of hardcore buyers who would get the game immediately, and then sell to more general audiences with a more attractive price during the holidays. This plan somewhat underwhelmed, likely because Mario and Spider-Man were planning the exact same thing.

They would have sold Forces for $60 if they had any faith in the game in the first place, just like they would have sold paid DLC for it too.

Higher price = more money back, and Sega wants Sonic to be a franchise to sell at $60, even if the game doesn't "deserve" it.