Despite the fact that SEGA engineered an eye-catching marketing campaign prior to release — including a tie-in TV show and toy line — Sonic Boom has become the lowest-selling outing for the beloved blue hedgehog, shipping a meagre 490,000 copies.
News comes by way of the publisher’s latest financial report, where it detailed that the abysmal figures encompass sales of Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric on Wii U and Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal on 3DS combined, though SEGA didn’t specify whether the aforementioned figure relates to copies sold-through or simply shipped to retailers. Either way, the writing is on the wall for Sonic Boom, which sold fewer than 2013’s Lost World — itself selling a total of 710,000 copies across Wii U and 3DS.
Granted, the most recent mascot title wasn’t aided by the fact that the final build of the platformer arrived on store shelves with a myriad of technical problems, which resulted in it being widely denounced by critics and fans alike.
But it wasn’t all doom and gloom for SEGA in this report. While one of the company’s long-running franchises is beginning to show its age — or lack of innovation, really — The Creative Assembly’s Alien: Isolation proved to be a bona fide hit among survival horror fans, accumulating a total of 1.7 million copies sold as of the end of 2014.
Whether this encourages the publisher to push ahead with a sequel to Isolation remains to be seen. Those of you who have experienced The Creative Assembly’s haunted-house-in-space will know all too well that the finale provided a fair amount of closure, but if history has taught us anything, it’s that the Alien universe is always a resourceful property for a continuation, for better or worse.
Tell us, what do you make of these dire sale figures for Sonic Boom? Indeed, do you think SEGA should send the mascot on an indefinite hiatus before reintroducing him further down the line? Let us know below.