And in what should come as a shock to no one, SEGA has deemed Sonic Runners a failure https://twitter.com/SEGAbits/status/696608776523116544 Apparently people didn't care for microtransactions, the same 7 sections on repeat, the roulette system, the bugs, or the fact that this game practically sets your phone on fire. Who knew.
Also doesn't help that you can't download it anymore in the US. But yeah, I stopped playing after the microtransactions got out of hand. I put in a good amount of time, but no cash. Makes me wonder how successful the microtransactions are in other Sonic mobile games.
Oh wow it's still down I didn't even realize. So with this info in mind it seems like it's not out of the question that they plan on dropping support for this entirely.
That explains why they aren't doing any more events and the new characters are no longer released with a fanfare. It's their own fault: The core gameplay is excellent (I've been playing it at least once a day since launch), but they ruined it with all the roulette nonsense (especially after the version 2.0 update). I bet if they just let players buy characters outright and had them more balanced, then it would have been a big success.
Or if it actually worked properly on more devices, and didn't make the ones it did work on get stupidly hot.
Remember how much everyone loved this game during it's soft launch in Canada and Japan? Back then the game had bugs, but way fewer of them and the microtransactions were far less intrusive. I made way more progress in the game back then during soft launch than I have done in any of time since, because the game still rewarded you for just playing. I get that microtransactions are necessary for the F2P model to work, but Runners takes it way too far. It's not until recently that you've even been able to buy characters you want, and even when you do it's expensive. The other alternative is gambling. You might unlock Shadow, who you've been waiting for for months, or you might unlock a useless RC Balloon or some shit. But just as if that wasn't quite bad enough, the game is bugged to high hell. From cooking phones to poor performance to adverts breaking the game and making people waste currency, it's really enough to turn people off. The basic formula of the game is stellar. It's simple and very easy to pick up, and plays exactly like you'd expect a Sonic game too. It's all very familiar. But then SEGA made the leaderboards convoluted, the process of unlocking things unfair (and again, convoluted), the in-app purchases are all huge risks and the game lacks content. Heck, you can't even choose how you want to play the game. Personally, I quite dislike the Flight-type stage. But that doesn't matter, cause I've either got to play it or restart the game in hopes of getting something else. I'm not surprised that Runners is a failure. Disappointed, but totally not surprised. Does this profitability figure apply just to Japan, or worldwide? Because most of those games on the list are Japan exclusive, but Runner is out across the world and has managed to be one of the worst performers. We got our first indication of this a few months ago when they stopped supporting the game in all languages except Japanese and English.
Wait when did that happen? I think that report went on to cover worldwide sales and I don't even think Runners was on the radar. But yea in agreement with the above, the game got too convoluted and areas that shouldn't of been were expanded upon and areas that needed attention were not. Like maybe alternate zones or more "randomly generated" set pieces and not the same 10 placed in random orders. And getting good scores is entirely dependent on which buddies you have, and you have fuck all chance of getting the good ones. Also for the entire time this game has been out, I've only unlocked one other speed character, and it was Silver during that time they were giving him out as a login bonus.
November. It didn't get talked about too much, but even so people speculated that it was cause the game was under-performing.
Well I guess that's a reason to keep the game installed on my phone. I like it, even it has micro-transaction garbage out the ass. Then again, my luck with it is abnormally good. I got most characters out of the promotional stuff they threw. Sonic Dash is a much better done F2P mobile game though.
Just Mephiles that we know of. But to date we've not yet exhausted the entire roster at any one time. Tikal, Classic Sonic, the Werehog, Sticks and all the alternative versions of characters have been added intermittently. They could add more at any time. In fact, I'd say it make sense that we get at least one more to go with Mephiles. ESP Silver is future/speed, Mephiles will be future/power or flight and a third will round out the team. It took months for the Werehog and Sticks to be added to finish off Tikals wild-type.
I wouldn't expect many more updates to Runners. It sounds like Sonic Team is all but washing their hands of the title. From internal looks of the game (and you really don't even need to go that deep), you can tell this was the team attempting to learn Unity and doing some REALLY inefficient coding for mobile platforms. From terrible caching issues that made the game's memory explode in size/leak (both hard and RAM), choppy framerates even on devices that should run it no problems, and the countless glitches, there was no saving this game. Version 2.0 effectively killed a good chunk of the player base off that still hung around. Now it's just going to quietly fade to obscurity until they pull servers offline, rendering the application completely useless.
I've heard you can play the Windows Phone port on Windows 10 via the Windows Store? Or maybe that was Sonic Dash. I'm not sure.
Not surprised at all, to the point that's kinda damning even. General consensus is that the core gameplay is actually fun, but the package it comes in --the roulette, microtransactions, the frequent bugs, horrible phone optimization, and the 2.0 update with its own saga of problems-- simply made it not worth sitting through in order to enjoy it. Meanwhile, Hardlight's Jump, Dash, and Dash 2: Sonic Boom have all performed much better in comparison (critically and/or commercially). Add to that the game being pulled from the US App Store/Google Play (Ruby said it was for maintenance, but then why is the game still available elsewhere? Last I heard, Runners still available on the UK, Japan, and Canada stores.) and those who said the development team have likely abandoned the game by this point are completely right. And if the iOS versions Sonic 4: Episode I and II were anything to go by, I wouldn't be surprised if Runners doesn't come back...
Ya I think it's time to say peace out to the app. Nice idea poorly executed. I'm done so good bye Runners app, you can go die now.
Given the reception the game's gotten, especially after the 2.0 update, that maintenance may be too little too late. These numbers certainly don't boost confidence in the game and it feels like Japan doesn't quite get that their gambling unlock structure, which works in Japanese game culture, doesn't sit well with the West. Oh well, file this one under the failed creation folder and now we wait for it to quietly have the server pulled down rendering the game useless.
Disappointed, really. Runners had a lot of potential and could be fun in short bursts. I'll sit and hope they pull a Jump and release a new version a few years down the line.
