Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric was a dreadful game that was poorly received by critics across the board, and it seems that consumers weren’t taken with it, either, as Sega has revealed that it pulled in woeful sales that has seen it become the worst-selling Sonic game in the series’ history.
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Sega has revealed that both the Wii U’s Sonic Boom and the 3DS’ Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal shifted just 490,000 units worldwide, though the actual number of copies sold may be even lower, as the company didn’t specify whether these numbers were the amount of copies they’d shipped to retailers, or the amount they’d actually sold to consumers.
Sonic Lost World sold poorly, too, making Sega’s exclusivity deal with Nintendo a bitter disappointment.
Sonic’s previous foray onto the Wii U, Sonic Lost World, sold 710,000 copies of its Wii U/3DS releases, which is still an incredibly small amount of sales for such a major release for Sega, but at least a larger number that that which Sonic Boom managed to pull in.
Sonic Boom spelled the end of a three-game exclusivity deal with Nintendo, which also saw Lost World and Mario & Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games release solely on Nintendo platforms. Nintendo are likely regretful of signing such a deal considering the lackluster sales pulled in by the series, and Sega has announced that they are shifting the direction of their output to mobile and online PC games, with 300 jobs having been cut at the end of last month by the company.
With Sonic’s next video game outing coming in the form of iOS/Android title Sonic Runners, it’s uncertain when the once-revered mascot will make an appearance on consoles, but whenever he does it’ll have to be something pretty special in order to rinse the taste of Sonic Boom out of everyone’s’ mouths.