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Should SEGA Sell Sonic To Nintendo?

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If you play many games you will likely know about Sonic the Hedgehog and Nintendo’s Mario. Since Sega has been out of the gaming market for a while, Nintendo has been pressing to buy Sonic the Hedgehog. 

So should Sega sell Sonic to Nintendo?

If you are a die hard Sega fan, then there is no way you think that they should sell Sonic to Nintendo. But if you are a Nintendo fan, then you would love to see Sonic and Mario battle it out! If you are looking at a pure financial standpoint though, Sega should sell Sonic to Nintendo as the payoff would be big enough to put Sega back on the gaming map if they chose to come out with a new console. 

If you want to know more about Nintendo wanting to buy Sonic, and the Sega and Nintendo companies, you will want to keep reading.

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SEGA Struggles with low sales

Sega faced a downward trajectory in its sales year after year for a little over a decade from the early 2000s straight into 2015. Game enthusiasts from all over have felt that SEGA Sonic is facing a slow and steady death. SEGA has developed over 90 Sonic games to date. These 90 games have not done well and have become slightly turned off because the games have not been developed in their entirety. The sales have been low as well considering that Sonic was once one of SEGA’s Flagship games.

Let’s look at the numbers from 2010 to 2015

In 19 games in this period SEGA, 13 of the game’s releases have sold less than a million copies. Yes, you read that right. Only 6 games made it past the million-copy mark. One of the games was a free mobile game so it is safe to say that the free speaks for itself. That leaves 5 games selling over a million copies. In two of these games Sonic was not alone but had a joint venture with not just other SEGA characters but even Nintendo’s Mario. That leaves only 3 of Sonic Hedgehog character games passing the million mark. For a Sonic franchise that is well known and loved those sales look pretty bad.

It gets worse when you match these numbers against Nintendo’s Mario numbers. Firstly, Mario did not sell 19 games, in fact, they sold way less in this same period. However, Mario sold over 2 million copies of each game. Now that’s just sheer impressive. Mario also went on to release one of its most ground-breaking games, Super Mario Odyssey. Managing to sell over 2 million copies in less than 4 days, Nintendo set the bar incredibly high and according to Nintendo, it has been its fastest-selling game to date. Shortly after this win for Mario, SEGA released Sonic forces which only managed to sell just over 10,000 copies in seven days. This was a big flop for Sega. 

If you are looking at these numbers through the lens of a businessman then for sure all you are seeing is yes, they should sell.

SEGA struggles with bad reviews

If you are looking at it from just the perspective of branding then this also indicates that Sonic might be in for a new home. Game enthusiasts have trampled upon the brand of Sonic. Sonic started as something big but according to fans, the games are not the best out there. The storylines are not developed well, 2d designs were not done well, and the multiple releases have made a bad situation even worse. To the fans, it seems as if SEGA has not tried to improve its quality of Sonic over the years. These discussions between gamers about Sonic have sunk the brand of Sonic and even SEGA. SEGA was once a billion-dollar company. It is unfortunate that while SEGA has been known for and has prided itself on amazing games originally, they let stuff slide and slowly began losing their customers. 

SEGA has made amends

Sonic made amends in the 2017 release of Sonic Mania and its partnership with paramount to create a movie. In Sonic Mania, fans of Sonic and other game enthusiasts believed that they finally hit the mark and found what they were looking for all these years. Sonic Mania was reviewed by all and it was said to have resembled Sonic’s original games. The problem in past Sonic games was that the games just focused on Sonic being fast.  This game did not just focus on Sonic being fast, but also focused on the quirks of the games such as the voice, the momentum of sonic, and the platforming.

In 2020 SEGA went on to partner with Paramount to create the movie Sonic the Hedgehog. This was an adventure comedy based on the SEGA franchise of sonic. While this is not a game, it has still brought a bit of nostalgia and prestige to SEGA which it lost for many years. 

The Movie was an instant hit, and at the box office, made over $306 million! This partnership was the best thing Sega could have done, and the movie even had some secrets along the way. If you have not seen the movie yet, you can purchase it to watch right here

SEGA has loyal supporters who stand by Sonic

There are some loyal supporters who still stand behind Sonic and do not believe it should sell. These supporters focus mainly on the basis of, does “Nintendo even want the Sonic franchise?”, and even if they do, how will people be sure that they will manage the franchise just as well as their brainchild, Mario. These are indeed valid questions packed with a lot of thought. Some loyalists believe that SEGA has done well with the concept of Sonic especially since its inception and should not sell.

History of Sega and Nintendo

SEGA and Nintendo have been around a lifetime and have had a long-standing rivalry over games and gaming consoles starting in the 1990s. Now the two have a good relationship but fans in each camp still are specific supporters of these two game developing powerhouses. SEGA has the beloved Sonic the Hedgehog and Nintendo is housing the great Mario. These two games ran the gaming industry for a while, and have entered pop culture. After all these years both SEGA and Nintendo have managed to keep Sonic and Mario relevant, respectively. Sonics’ journey has not been as smooth as Mario’s though.

SEGA hit quite a few speed bumps with the Sonic games. Game enthusiasts believed that SEGA was just not hitting the right marks and developing quality games, they were simply focusing on the number of games released that were not doing well. Nintendo, on the other hand, was doing great with Mario and the sales in games showed that after a while Mario was doing better than sonic. The Sonic games became less and less impressive so much so that some people have called for SEGA to sell Sonic to Nintendo! Some people have even gone as far as to get a petition for this and get people to start signing it.  

Conclusion

Sonic will always be a legend in the gaming industry whether they sell the franchise or not. Nintendo will also maintain its top spot in history with Mario and its original gaming consoles that set the standard for what gaming should look like today. So no matter the outcome of Sega and Nintendo, you can rest assured that both companies are great gaming corporations that have a bold following.