What is it that Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and Armored Core 6 have that Sonic Frontier doesn’t – creators of Sonic Frontiers discuss sales 

Sega released Sonic Frontiers on November 8, 2022. With a year behind its launch, the title has proven to be a big critical and commercial success, selling 3.5 million copies worldwide. In a recent interview, Sega creators who led the development of Sonic Frontiers open up about the title’s performance and their expectations, questioning what the game lacks in comparison to other big-name games. 

Just as Sonic Frontiers celebrates its 1-year anniversary, Sega game director Morio Kishimoto and producer Sachiko Kawamura gave an interview for Famitsu , in which they discuss various details about the game’s development and the large-scale updates released following the launch. But they also touch upon Sonic Frontiers’ performance in terms of sales, as well as their ambitions for the game to reach greater heights. 

Commenting on Sonic Frontiers’ cumulative worldwide sales of 3.5 million copies, Kawamura says, “Well, to be honest, I want to go much much further. I think we can go further,” adding that Sonic titles tend to go on selling for a long time and that, in that respect, 3.5 million is not such a big number for a Sonic game. She comments that even though Sonic Frontiers is a year old, its updates and active community have kept it alive, so it still has potential for more growth going forward. 

Comparing how Sonic Frontiers has performed in the US and Europe versus in Japan, Kawamura confirms that, as is the case with the Sonic series in general, Sonic Frontiers too sold a lot more in the West than domestically. On the other hand, the title did do much better in Japan than its predecessors, achieving 3.5x more domestic sales than the previous Sonic title. 

In this sense, Kishimoto comments that they are grateful for the positive response from players worldwide, including Japan. He mentions that user feedback, combined with the large-scale free updates, were what allowed them to take the game to a whole new level.  

On the other hand, Kishimoto also questions, “But how do people who haven’t yet picked up the game see things? What is it lacking? What failed to resonate with them?” and goes on to very openly say “What did we miss when thinking of ways to appeal to players? If there’s something that The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom or Armored Core 6 have that Sonic Frontiers doesn’t have, we want to know!” 

As for his ambition with the Sonic series, Kishimoto states that he wants to do “whatever it takes” to get a Sonic game up among those titles, and that he believes that with a character like Sonic, that can be achieved. 

In the development of Sonic Frontiers, a big goal seems to have been making a Sonic game that would appeal to fans of action games worldwide, including those not familiar with the Sonic series. Reaching out to the previously underrepresented Japanese audience also had a big hand in the game’s concept and game design, and the efforts seem to have borne fruit, as Sonic Frontiers performed outstandingly, including domestic sales. However, it seems that the developers still have a much bigger picture in mind with the Sonic IP, aiming to expand its recognition to a wider audience.