Sega Admits It “Can’t Convey the Appeal” of New Games, as Launch Sales Collapse

While SEGA’s Sonic Racing CrossWorlds had a decent launch, the company is now acknowledging some internal problems. Despite releasing high-quality titles, its new games are consistently underperforming at launch. SEGA believes that new releases aren’t falling short because of quality, but because of increasing genre competition, high pricing, and a growing trend of players waiting for “complete” or “definitive” editions of games. 

This information comes from a Q&A session held after SEGA’s financial report summary, gathered by Japanese publication Game Biz. Games like Persona 5 Royal, Death Stranding Director’s Cut, and NieR: Automata Game of the YoRHa Edition often deliver more content, improved performance, and bonus cosmetics. But is this really a major reason why some games don’t sell well at launch? Not quite.

Sports Games Face A Different Problem

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Admittedly, I’m one of those “patient gamers” who rarely buy a game full price at launch. The last time I did that was Cyberpunk 2077, and I’ve been scarred ever since (the game’s great now, though.) And while there are tons of people out there like me, I don’t think that people waiting around for a “complete” edition is the reason why SEGA is seeing poor launch numbers. 

SEGA admits that Football Manager 26 has received harsh criticism, but “sales are progressing at the fastest pace in the series’ history.” FM 26 has numerous flaws, but we also found that the player base is still strong. Launch sales depend on just a couple of things: a game’s quality, player interest, and how effective the FOMO push is around the game. Arc Raiders and Battlefield 6 are excellent examples that possess all three qualities.

With that said, if we’re talking about sports games, it doesn’t really matter what SEGA thinks, because this genre has a different problem entirely. Games like EA FC, Madden, or NBA 2K don’t generally get “definitive” editions at launch, but they do launch with multiple tiers — Standard, Deluxe, Ultimate, Champions, All-Star, you name it. These are launch-day upsells designed to pressure you into spending more.

As a result, instead of some players buying a sports game at launch, they might wait for the price drop on the “better” edition.  Even then, I still don’t think this is such a major problem as SEGA is making it out to be. But when it comes to sports games, I do find that buying early is a worse value. Not because of price, but because of the fact that a lot of them launch with numerous bugs and glitches.