Sonic Frontiers was a massive release for both Sega and the Sonic franchise, and though the platforming series has seen its fair share of ups and downs over the last decade or so where its 3D outings are concerned, it’s fair to say the Frontiers was very much a step in the right direction. Earlier this month, Sega announced that the open world platformer had managed to sell 2.9 million units worldwide since its launch in November, and it seems those figures have surpassed the company’s expectations.
In a recent quarterly investors Q&A (translations via Reddit), when asked about the sale and pricing strategy behind Sonic Frontiers, Sega remarked that even amidst the game’s average unite price not having decreased much since its launch, its total sales so far have managed to exceed the company’s original estimations. With “sales strategies such as pricing, promotions, and the development of further DLC”, Sega is hoping to keep up persistent sales.
“We are proceeding with this title based on a strategic sales plan,” Sega said. “We conducted intensive promotions around the November release, and as announced recently, we have been able to achieve good results so far. A temporary sale was held around Black Friday, but the selling price has since returned to normal. We have been able to achieve these results while maintaining a certain level of quality, and the number of units sold greatly exceeded our original estimation. We will continue to sell over the long term based on sales strategies such as pricing, promotions, and the development of further DLC.”
Interestingly, Sega also said that it is expecting “even larger” development costs for future games, due to rising development labour costs.
“We expect development costs for new titles to grow even larger in the future,” the company said. “We will strive to ensure solid quality in the development of major titles from our existing franchises. However, development labour costs will rise due to the impact of the global external environment, and we expect this trend to continue for the foreseeable future. Since it is necessary to take on these challenges for major titles, we are proceeding with a bigger budget, even from the basic research stage. Therefore, we assume that development costs for future new titles will increase accordingly.”
As for what the future holds for Sonic, in the near-term, Sonic Frontiers is set to receive plenty of post-launch content over the coming months. Unsurprisingly, Sega also has plans to build on the game’s success with future instalments, while it’s also likely that we’ll see more 2D Sonic games in the future as well.
In our review of Sonic Frontiers, we awarded it a score of 8/10, saying, “It’s not a home run, but Sonic Frontiers does so much of the things that really matter so well that it is easily the most fun 3D Sonic has been in years – maybe even decades – and a genuinely fun and engaging game on its own merits.” Read the full review through here.
Sonic Frontiers is available on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC.
