Topic: Sega Removing Low-Scoring Sonic Titles from Retail

[NWR_Karlie]

Sonic games with a below average Metacritic score will no longer be on sale.

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/24235

Sega have announced that they have de-listed Sonic titles with average or below average Metacritic scores. From now, such titles will no longer be available to buy new at retail.

"Any Sonic game with an average Metacritic has been de-listed," Sega’s SVP of EMEA Jurgen Post told MCV in an interview. "We have to do this and increase the value of the brand. This will be very important when more big Sonic releases arrive in the future."

He stated that the number of Sonic games should be kept under control to avoid cannibalising the brand, citing that if there are ten Sonic games on shelves and people see titles such as Sonic Rush DS or Sonic Rush Adventure, it may not help with overall strategy as multiple Sonic titles targeted at different demographics will be released this holiday season. 

Judging by Sega's criteria, Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity and Sonic and the Black Knight will be among the de-listed games.

[broodwars]

So they're removing all Sonic titles from retail then?   

[BlackNMild2k1]

So they're removing all Sonic titles from retail then?   

www.instantrimshot.com

the joke everyone was gonna make, but waited so that someone else would do it instead.
seriously, I almost typed it out twice but decided against it both times.

[BeautifulShy]

What Sonic and the Black Knight is going to be delisted?

Doesn't make any sense. The only reason it was scored low was because it wasn't what they were expecting. They compared it to Unleashed which isn't even part of the same series.

Black Knight is part of the Story Book series so they should have compared it to Secret Rings.

[NWR_pap64]

Black Knight is still part of the Sonic franchise and it's still a low scoring game.


This is a rather surprising move on Sega's behalf. Do they believe that Sonic 4 and Sonic Colors are so good that they want to erase every other game released? I don't want to get my hopes up because every time they say they understand that Sonic has issues they just add more to it.


Still, this stuns me... Is this the first time a company has asked to remove a game from store shelves due to low scores?

[King of Twitch]

If people can't buy our product, they'll never know how bad we are at making games.

-Sega

[Ian Sane]

I'm blown away that Sega actually acknowledges that they've made shitty games.  Most companies act like everything they've ever touched turned to gold.

Nintendo re-released Urban Champion on the VC for God's sake.  And Donkey Kong Jr. Math.  They re-introduced those games to the market.  It's the exact opposite of what Sega is doing.

Though why isn't Sega smart enough to just quietly do this?  Unless this is a "we're getting our **** together" statement I don't see why they couldn't do this on the sly without admitting publicly that you've made **** games.

[Killer_Man_Jaro]

Right. It does seem to be quite a vote of confidence in Sonic Colours and Sonic The Hedgehog 4, as this seems to suggest that Sega thinks these two will redefine the market's view of the series. It's also strange because their attitude over the past decade never indicated that they cared what people thought of Sonic.

I disagree with the article's point that Sega would probably remove Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity from retail -- that wouldn't set a very good precedent at all for Sonic Free Riders, a similar game coming to Xbox Kinect sometime soon.

[Ceric]

I enjoyed Sonic and the Black Knight.  Even though I felt it was to far a departure from Sonic and the Secret Rings, which I really enjoyed once the control scheme clicked.  I will buy day 1 another in the Sonic Story book series with not hesitation day 1.  Anything else with Sonic in the name I'll need some hardcore convincing.

[Caterkiller]

Well how about that huh? I hope this means good things for the future. I guess the only Sonic game left will be Brawl.

[MegaByte]

What I don't get is, why did he mention the Sonic Rush games?  Those are two of their highest-rated games.

[NWR_pap64]

I enjoyed Sonic and the Black Knight.  Even though I felt it was to far a departure from Sonic and the Secret Rings, which I really enjoyed once the control scheme clicked.  I will buy day 1 another in the Sonic Story book series with not hesitation day 1.  Anything else with Sonic in the name I'll need some hardcore convincing.

While I thought the game was flawed in terms of controls I too enjoyed it. I like the overall idea of Sonic in classic stories and hope Sega doesn't abandon them and instead they refine it.

Regarding Sonic 4 and Sonic Colors, I admit I am cautious about them, but I watch the videos and screens and don't feel anything wrong with them. What I mean is that I usually pick up on something that I know will ruin the game. When I first saw video of the Werehog stages in Unleashed I knew that the gameplay would be repetitive and drag the overall solid game down. With Black Knight I realized that the strong focus on combat would be a turn off for many.

But with Sonic 4 and Colors, I don't see that. Of course, there might come a point where all of their flaws come out at once, but for now I see that they look good. Again, I am still cautious.

[Kytim89]

Would this include Sonic Chronicles?

[BeautifulShy]

I was reading on another site and this really only applies for the UK.

[Mop it up]

Hopefully this results in massive discounts. It's finally time for me to check these games out.

[Ian Sane]

What I don't get is, why did he mention the Sonic Rush games?  Those are two of their highest-rated games.

Maybe we misinterpreted what Sega is doing.  They want to get the GOOD Sonic titles off the shelf so that they do not make the new Sonic titles look bad.  Their theory is that it's all a relative thing and if people are unaware of how good Sonic can be they won't notice the flaws of the current games. 
 
I joke but this IS Sega.

[KDR_11k]

They said they're pulling the games with average scores, i.e. the better Sonic games.

Nintendo re-released Urban Champion on the VC for God's sake.  And Donkey Kong Jr. Math.  They re-introduced those games to the market.  It's the exact opposite of what Sega is doing.

Sega released Sonic Adventure on XBLA a few weeks ago. The content of the Gamecube game is 50% extra.