Aside from digital storefronts, we also know how the game did on major regional retail charts (monthly NPD for the US; weekly PAL for Europe; weekly Media Create Sales for Japan)...in which the game didn't make much impact. Concerning NPD, Forces only appeared in its debut month of November, and even then, it only charted at #7 for a specific list of retail games selling on the Nintendo Switch. In the PAL Charts, the game actually did modestly well in the UK (it hovered within the 10s-30s rankings for weeks, it stayed on there until as late as mid-February) but sank without a trace in the other European regions. As for Japan...it debuted at just barely above 10K (across the PS4 and Switch), with the game disappeared from the charts by its second week. Oddly enough, when compared with historical material, Forces was still (somehow) the best debut for a Sonic game in the region in years. But with all that said, there's not much data (regional or digital) that is available for past Sonic titles, so it's not like there is significant material available to actually compare Forces' performance to past retail ST titles like Unleashed, Colors, Generations, or even Lost World; let alone a game that didn't even receive a digital release. The little I could find (mainly the UK charts in PAL threads and --solely concerning Lost World-- weekly Nintendo eShop threads) doesn't indicate Forces is performing much better or much worse than past retail Sonic titles either.
Honestly, here are my hopes, in order of what I want most to least: - Project Plus for Sonic Mania (the package is actually still on Steam's servers and password protected) or a new Retro Engine game - A new HE2 Modern game - IDW stuff (which is almost 100% going to be there) - Sonic movie stuff (probably not very likely But whatever is announced or talked about, I'll try to make the best of. I just hope the SEGA makes the choices that are best for the franchise and the fans to keep it alive.
It's worth noting the original source for that recent Sega interview is stating a new game will definitely be announced at SXSW: The interview however doesn't directly signify that (nothing is said mentioning a new game announcement) but perhaps the source has heard something. Thought it was notable because I'm seeing Sonic fan sites pick up on it and are reporting it as hard confirmation a new game will be announced. We'll see when SXSW hits but Sumo's new Sonic racer is 99% going to be there given it's supposed to be coming holiday 2018 and given the Project Plus leak something is likely to be there about that whether it's an official announcement or just confirmation another project is being worked on with the Mania team. Regarding the Forces sales discussion presumably it has done reasonably well. I don't think Sega would get away with outright providing false claims when they're constantly reiterating it was a success. It probably did well well enough that Sega feel the need to be outspoken about it - perhaps modestly well - but we know from the data we have Mania destroyed it even just going by chart positions and performance post-release for both games. Mania performed significantly better on all platforms and Sega have inferred that it sold millions. More data on its performance should be coming at SXSW. Under a fortnight until we find out what's next for Sonic. Looking forward to it. Just hope a Mania-related announcement will be there.
Call me crazy (no doubt I am a little for caring this much for this long) but I'm STILL a little bit more curious about the future of 3D Sonic than I am a spiritual classic sequel like Mania 2. And I am more of a Classic series fan than any of period of Sonic by far.... its not even close. Like, Bigly so. For me though, after I played Sonic 3 and Knuckles for the thousandth time in 1995-1996, it was never in doubt for me that great 2D Sonic sequels could continue to be produced if the company were interested in making them. However, like many others, it was my dream to see a big 3D Sonic title done really, truly right. The very reason I had huge anticipation for Sonic Adventure DC back then, even though S3K has always been my favorite game ever by far. I just want to see a game with S3K's essence on a bigger scale in 3D. Even a Generations-esque, 75% 2D/ 25% 3D spiritual S3K successor would be phenomenal, if the dev team invested a lot into fine-tuning the gameplay feel. I often feel philosophically there's no reason why that can't have happened by now, even if they can't give us a fully 3D (like Utopia) which is immediately much more difficult. I have zero reason or desire to actually have optimism surrounding Sonic's big budget future. But at the moment, after what just happened with Mania and especially if what Yeow has been sharing with us is truly indicative of Mania's performance vs Forces, I really want to know the intended direction of the franchise's big games going forward. I'm a grown man now, with a wife (in two months we're tying the knot) and a career but I do occasionally still play games for fun and Sonic is still my heart's passion when it comes to games in general and has been for most of my life. Its difficult to walk away from Sonic, even though I've never been a blind purchaser of every Sonic game, but I can finally have the peace to do so once I know how serious SEGA and Sonic Team are taking the results of Mania success. If they don't respond by refocusing their efforts on what makes that games and the series in general great, I'll just move on. I definitely don't expect for my tastes to be catered to too precisely given the spectrum of fans among the base, but they should definitely at least realize what makes Sonic truly work and how unique his style can be, which is what Mania did so phenomenally. I really appreciate people like Iizuka for being friendly and caring about what Sonic fans want but I need to know how serious they are about making this franchise a legitimately fun option going forward. If they're not, there are other companies that have shown me they care about consistency with their fans and have great gameplay and I can just support them instead, and forget about Sonic going forward. So hopefully I get a little bit of an answer or indication at SXSW. I live in Austin so I can totally go (I did last year) but am sort of on the fence about buying a ticket just for that again. I have little interest in going this time unless my personal agenda is addressed. Other fans can be happy there and that's cool, not knocking the event at all. Have fun, the rest of you. Me, I need answers haha.
Enjoyed your post UpCDownCLeftCRightC. Read it all the other night and thought it was quite the passionate perspective that I think most of us share. I ultimately want Sonic Mania 2 more than anyone but I do understand the desire for 3D Sonic to also becoming show-stoppingly good like it was in the Dreamcast days. Something on the level Nintendo makes. Maybe one day man. 9 days to go until SXSW. We'll have our storm of announcements very soon, whether it be the new Sonic Racer, Sonic Mania Plus or even a sneak (though unlikely) peek at Sonic Team's next game. Really looking forward to it and have my fingers crossed for Sonic Mania Plus above all else. Though really I'm super interested at whatever they announce. It'll be our big update for this year after all.
I'd be more curious about 3D Sonic if there was any real chance of it being designed by another studio other than Sonic Team. 2D Sonic has the benefit of having changed hands even back during the series' early days, (Ancient, Aspect, SNK/Dimps, Backbone, Sanzaru) and it's arguably due to that flexibility that contributed to Whitehead and co. getting the chance to make Mania as it is. Virtually every major 3D Sonic game (even spinoff material like Shadow the Hedgehog and the Storybook games) has been by the same developer ever since the series made the 3D platforming jump in 1998; and despite mostly weak efforts on ST's behalf, there are no signs of someone else being brought in to take a crack at the formula. The only time we got a major 3D Sonic game from another studio was freaking BRB's Rise of Lyric; which pretty much speaks for itself. Either way, I understand and agree with UpCDownC's sentiment in that whatever mainline game / 2D game succeeds Mania is going to become the yardstick in how much interest Sega actually has in preserving the Genesis formula as they promised. For now, Mania can be seen as a successful restoration, but once we know what the next mainline game (or at the very least, the next 2D game) is, we will properly see how great the company's interest in the Genesis direction really is.
That is what I'm primarily interested in. And I'm sure others feel the same. This event will pretty much be a crystal ball in to the future of 2D Sonic. So if Sonic Mania Plus is announced, that's a good sign. Mania 2 being mentioned, that'd be an excellent one. It's basically where we'll find out if our endless speculation for all these hundreds of pages holds any merit. As in, whether Sega have recognised Mania's success and the overwhelming love for it and intend to act upon it with future games. This is why I'm so hopeful for Mania news. We'll know whether the 2D "classic" branch of Sonic is going to continue most probably at this event. The event is supposed to cover Sonic's trajectory for the entirety of 2018 so it's going to be super interesting to see what they announce. Counting down the days here.
Still no news or leaks (was honestly hoping for leaks given how leak-prone Sega is) but SXSW and the future of Sonic fast approaches. It's a week tomorrow everyone.
This is exactly my point and I think it also can apply to the 3D games. That's what I'm waiting for. I'm not looking forward to a Mania successor in the sense that, it is so unbelievably obvious that they need to do it....if they don't, it will be the ultimate insult to not only us who bought the game in droves, but the company itself. Its free money and free positive press at this point. You almost can't mess it up. This is exactly how I've felt about 2D Sonic since 1995 which is why, ironically, I had a strange feeling of irritation when Mania was announced. My exact reaction was, "Yeah, clearly a great thing, but why on earth did it take you this long to figure out this was a good idea?" I know the story behind Mania isn't quite that simple, but surely a company that has struggled this much with its infamous mascot since 1998 would have the sense to keep Sonic's iconic gameplay in their back pocket for emergencies. I could only shake my head. 3D Sonic for me represents something in some ways more exciting, because to me the Sonic formula is a unique one for platforming and I've always believed that with the right dev team, it could shine like no other game could. But again, like Yeow, I don't actually have real optimism for it being done at this point. I'm just waiting to see if there's any interest at all in going in that direction or if perhaps Whitehead is brought into the fold at least on a consultation basis (which I'd seriously doubt). Surely, Sonic Team has given us this song and dance before, but Mania's success has shown them first hand the value in paying attention to details. And Nakamura I believe has said himself that they would be taking a good look at Mania to see how they can incorporate that into their 3D gameplay. I absolutely do not believe them when they say it but I would like to actually confirm if there's any interest whatsoever company-wide in addressing that philosophy. If they have something in the pipeline that shows they see the value in these things, I'll remain interested. If not, I'll probably fade out here. There's nothing else sans Mania keeping me around anyway.
Yep it was used on a promotional poster for Mania. Interesting that they chose to use that art again though, and not one of their stock 3D renders like the Sonic 4 pose. Maybe it's telling of something perhaps?
Was it used with that palette, though? I thought that Sonic's Mania artwork featured more greenish colors.
It does seem to point to more classic Sonic indeed. All I want is S3&K from Taxman and Stealth. Sega plz.
Quite honestly I'd be up for almost any classic port into the Retro Engine. Seeing stuff like Knuckles' Chaotix being ported would be awesome, and I wonder if it would use RSDK5 (or higher) since 5 added support for 16x16 tiles rather than 128x128 blocks in a scene (which is great for modding, which I know isn't the focus of a game but it's great nonetheless). I know that Whitehead already had the S3K port almost finished years ago, so it may use the same as Sonic 2 did. Either way, any classic game port or all around new game would be awesome.
If they're going with Mania art for the promo yeah that's a really good sign. Something Mania (or Classic) related has to be announced if this is their tease. 4 days to go.
Shoot I thought the news would be today!!! 2 days is too far away man!!! Anyway I personally don't think it'll be an announcement of Sonic Mania 2, even if it was that a new 2D game I don't think it would have that title. I always want more 3D Sonic content personally so I'm hoping it's related to that. It'll probs be Big's Big All Star Racing 3 though
