Sonics Popularity in Japan or Lack of...?

[warnpro]

Does Sonic not have the following in Japan, that is does in the U.S.?
I'm wondering because I noticed on the console charts that Sonic Advance 2 sold only a pathetic 24,000 copies its first week, whereas Sonic games usually sell very very well in America. I can't recall how other Sonic games have sold in Japan, but is this an anomaly or is there a lack of interest in Japan over Sonic?

[sggg]

Sonic Advance 2 was released on 19 December which was a Thursday (I remember that because it was my birthday!). That could explain why it had low first "week" numbers.


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Coincidentally, I just saw more accurate sales numbers at GBACentral: « While other sites report the sales results of two weeks ago, we've got the stats for last week, being Dec. 30th to Jan. 5th. ..(*snip*).. Sonic Advance 2 continues solid business with 32,725 units and a total of 85,534 since the 19th of December. »

[Tsubaki]

Originally posted by sggg
Coincidentally, I just saw more accurate sales numbers at GBACentral: « While other sites report the sales results of two weeks ago, we've got the stats for last week, being Dec. 30th to Jan. 5th. ..(*snip*).. Sonic Advance 2 continues solid business with 32,725 units and a total of 85,534 since the 19th of December. »

Yes but it's only going to level off from here. Sonic's presence was never very great in Japan. I don't think Sonic Advance 2 will break 150k sales in Japan. IIRC, the first Sonic Advance sold 180k total.

[warnpro]

Originally posted by sggg

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Coincidentally, I just saw more accurate sales numbers at GBACentral: « While other sites report the sales results of two weeks ago, we've got the stats for last week, being Dec. 30th to Jan. 5th. ..(*snip*).. Sonic Advance 2 continues solid business with 32,725 units and a total of 85,534 since the 19th of December. »

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With such a high user base in Japan for the GBA, those #'s are still hella crappy. I shouldn't be surprised, seems most Sega games sell for shit these days, home & abroad.

[ferricide]

(almost) everything sells incredibly crap on the GBA in japan for some reason. there are TONS of games i never heard of until i started browsing toys r us japan's GBA selection because they never even charted in the top 50. it's rather amazing -- just as many random crap GBA games as there are in the US but totally different ones. the disparity between releases is really high.

so something selling 150k is actually a success for a third party, as sad and difficult to believe as that may be.

still, sonic isn't that popular in japan. although with SA2B probably selling around 200k when all is said and done, i'd hardly say "unpopular."

[piku]

so something selling 150k is actually a success for a third party, as sad and difficult to believe as that may be.

It is like that in America too. I can't remember what magazine, but I remember reading a rather interesting article going on about how basically it is incredibly tough for third parties to make money on the Gameboy Advance, and Nintendo is really the only one who makes a killing with the system.

[GohanX]

Maybe it has something to do with the fact that Sonic Adventure 2 sucks ass?

Just my two cents, I actually have SA2 Japanese on DC.

[Kinopio]

The royalty fees are also high on the GBA, so when 3rd parties do sell more than a few copies, they don't make much off of it.

people buy Nintendo systems for Nintendo's games. simple logic, really.