In part of a presentation highlighting the company’s strongest performers, Sonic Runners is ranked as a failure. The game generates a little between ¥30 million [$256,563 USD] to ¥50 million [$427,588 USD] a month.
It should come as little surprise to anyone following industry news that the mobile market is a veritable shark tank, fighting with many others for a limited pool of money and attention spans. SEGA is part of those never ending digital meat grinding, and is touting their successes in the market. Sonic Runners isn’t so fortunate.
These numbers appear under the Domestic Market section, likely indicating they are Japan specific, but the fact Runners fails to even show up in the Overseas section doesn’t bode well. In fact, the game is no longer available for download on the U.S. Google Play Store and hasn’t been since Nov. 2015.
This shouldn’t come as a shock given the negative reception that surrounded Runners. Since officially going global Summer 2015, the game was constantly criticized for performance issues, glitches, and microtransaction practices that for all intents and purposes amount to under-aged gambling for new characters. If anything, it was a fine endless runner at its core drowned by countless terrible design decisions.
Most of these came to a head with the recent 2.0 update that added death walls to runs, offered more performance issues and overheating devices, and did little to improve the character unlock structure to make it less like a gamble.
One thing to note though is Sonic Dash 2 (referred to as Sonic Dash Boom and Sonic Dash 2: Sonic Boom) is expected to meet continued successes overseas with pushes to continue expanding its market presence.
Sonic Dash 2
We only just got an official worldwide release to Sonic Runners, and SEGA and Hardlight Studios aren’t wasting any time on the next free-to-play entry.
Sonic Dash 2: Sonic Boom was spotted yesterday on the Google Play Store. As the name suggests, Sonic Dash 2 uses the Sonic Boom variants of all the characters and Sticks. The game also offers new tilt mechanics for the energy rope segments, and includes a three-character team gameplay mode that requires you to switch between characters to adapt to the track based on the situation presented.
Currently, it looks like not many (if any) devices are able to download the game, but if for some reason you’re one of the 100 million downloaders of Sonic Dash, and if you’re itching for even more endless runners/Sonic Runners has disappointed you, SEGA has you covered.
Of course, it should go without saying that an iOS version will be released, but hasn’t been spotted on the App Store at the moment.
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[Source: GameMob]