SEGA president Shuji Utsumi called Sonic Superstars a "disappointment" following the game's underwhelming sales performance.
The executive's remarks come as he thinks that the franchise's latest release, Sonic X Shadow Generations, is "awesome." He noted that Sonic Superstars was not able to perform as well as the company had hoped.
Sonic Superstars Was a Disappointment?
Utsumi said that the development team tried to be creative with Sonic Frontiers. But Sonic Superstars disappointed, in terms of what happened compared to what they delivered to the public.
He added that they now have Sonic x Shadow Generations as well as the third installment of the Sonic movie franchise. They are pushing the series in the transmedia direction, where movies and games work together in harmony to make things even more popular.
Utsumi noted that the core of the experience is the game, which he argued needs to be very good or else it will not have any transmedia effect.
SEGA previously implied that Super Mario Bros. Wonder was why Sonic Superstars sold fewer copies than expected, according to the Video Games Chronicle.
This was primarily due to the popularity of the Mario franchise as a whole and the two titles being released in the same week. SEGA said that Sonic Superstars did not reach the forecasted sales target.
SEGA Sammy Holdings executive vice president Makoto Takahashi and IR/SR department director Nobuaki Yoshii talked about how they evaluated the game's performance.
They said that the timing of Sonic Superstars' launch coincided with competing titles in the same genre.
Underwhelming Sales Performance
Utsumi was also faced with the question of how the Sonic franchise started to put out games much more frequently, which they felt was somewhat of an obligation.
This is in contrast to Mario games, which are released roughly every five years or so, My Nintendo News said.
Sonic Superstars was originally released in October 2023 as a form of callback to the Classic Genesis style of the franchise. It featured 2D platforming mechanics that focused solely on having players go fast.
The game also added several brand-new features that it emphasized, such as four-player co-op support, new powers and obstacles, and a new playable version of Amy Rose. Sonic Superstars also included the return of Fang the Hunter, who had not been seen for quite some time.
When the game was released, it received mixed reviews from players and came as SEGA had a relatively underwhelming 2023 in terms of sales. The situation happened despite Sonic Superstars being the publisher's best-selling title of the year, according to Game Rant.
