Japanese Sonic the Hedgehog fans will once again be treated to another Sonic fan event, due to take place at the SEGA JOYPOLIS theme park in Odaiba, Tokyo on Sunday, 27th of December, 2015.
The event, similar to those that have taken place at this venue in the past, will include appearances from Takashi Iizuka, Yuji Uekawa, Tomoya Ohtani and Jun Senoue, and a musical performance. For the first time, a cosplay contest will take place, which will require entrants to submit their photo applications prior to the event in order to be selected for the finals which will take place on stage at the event.
Are you going to Japan in December and are you planning on attending the event? Let us know in the comments!
This confuses me. As someone who weekly pays attention to Media Create and Famitsu sale charts showing how games are selling in Japan, Sonic games sell absolutely mediocre numbers, and I mean are commonly barely able to scratch 5000 in the first week, and that’s if it’s even able to make the Top 20/30 that week. And this is regardless of platform; Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft, etc. Sonic’s not had a decent hit since… Sonic Rush I think? Mario & Sonic 1 also did really well, but it’s debatable if that counts. 😛
This tells me there’s such a small fanbase in Japan, or else the series would sell so much better, so why fund an event for such a small group?
What are your thoughts?
My thoughts on something doesnt sell that in some people eyes high numbers doesnt mean there no one to like it
Some words got remove I meant to say that don’t take numbers so seriously
Maybe that whole, “Sonic is a joke and should die” attitude doesn’t exist in Japan so people may go to the event out of respect of the classic character and his heritage rather than because they love Sonic and everything about him.
I agree with you, at least that’s why I still like it, because I still adore Sonic’s best games and moments, not necesarily because I like the current direction.
Agreed. Why did Sega change what they were doing after Generations? Lost World and boom (by no means bad (except RoL )) but they were steps in the wrong direction.
Yeah.
I’ve seen quite a few fans think that Sega will reveal something there.
Are you guys on that boat or not?
I’m not on any boat. I’m just waiting for something at some point.
I’m on the boat! Though I think it will a really small teaser for the upcoming Sonic game, perhaps it will only be the name and logo, at much perhaps they show a short demo of a still unfinished stage.
Regarding costs:
They own the venue, so that’s that. All the key SEGA people are local, so that’s that.
These events are probably super cheap to hold at Joypolis, so that explains why they’d do them despite a smaller overall fanbase.
That’s the most reasonable explanation I’ve heard thus far, though I think its important to note that SoJ has a huge soft spot for the Japanese market. Hence, it tends to focus its efforts on Japan a lot even when stuff is less popular there. Plus SoA recently had a massive restructure and moving offices, which doesn’t leave a lot of time for organizing events. So that probably contributes to the seemingly disproportionate amount of events in Japan as well.
I don’t get why people keep using the SOA restructure and move as an excuse… Wasn’t that months ago? They’ve had time to sort themselves out since…
Not really. Its a massive restructure. The move has only recently completed and the new location still hasn’t been officially announced, and there’s still some last touches to make regarding the new office, like sorting out new positions and general settling in stuff.
Even so, it being a massive restructure, its likely an expensive restructure too. SoA probably doesn’t want to spend a lot more right now.
Ah, fair point, I didn’t realise this. (Sorry about late reply lol)
It’d be great if something were announced… ^^;
Ehh, I’m thinking January at earliest anyway.