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The story
Sega’s new racing game “Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds” has become a hot topic on 5ch’s Hardware & Industry (Geha) board, after it emerged that the roster features a massive crossover lineup — including Minecraft’s Steve, SpongeBob, Hatsune Miku, Evangelion’s Asuka, and Final Fantasy VII’s Cloud. In the thread, opinions clashed head-on between those saying “the game itself is actually solid” and critics arguing that “the gadgets aren’t balanced, so the combinations feel monotonous.” The discussion ranged widely — from complaints that the ad artwork makes the characters too small to see clearly, to speculation about why there’s no voice acting, to suggestions that Sega should go free-to-play to combat poor sales.
What people said
Pui-pui? (Molcar's signature catchphrase)
Concurrent player counts are dead (there was almost no period where it was ever "alive"), yet they keep pushing updates — no wonder people say that.
Not just real — the game itself is actually really well made.
The fact that it's not selling anyway is just so Sega.
Mario Kart Arcade GP was made by Bandai Namco, remember.
Pac-Man and Mametchi are in that one too.
In the 1st and 2nd games you could pick Pac-Man, Akabei, and Mametchi.
https://bandainamco-am.co.jp/am/vg/mariokart2/special/character/
In the DX version, everyone except Pac-Man got cut.
It's the opposite.
This is a case of good quality that just isn't selling.
Re: #12
Some of you are probably asking "well which is it," but both are true.
It's just way too generic-Mario-Kart, and the gadgets aren't balanced, so everyone ends up running the same combo.
You could say it played things too safe, the opposite of Mario Kart World, and that backfired.
Yeah, and sales dropped a lot going from [Mario Kart] 8 Deluxe to [Mario Kart] World too.
Same, I thought that too.
I opened the image wondering what other characters were in it, and it was so hard to see that it freaked me out.
Made me realize Mario Kart actually put real thought into the size balance between characters and karts.
Sorry, but that's not what I'd call "well made."
Though I don't know what you mean by "quality" exactly.
Games that are crap but still sell are pretty common, you know.
Like Dora Base 1 (the janky but beloved Doraemon baseball game).
Is it really that hard?
Probably a pay/royalty issue or rights issue?
Japanese and English alone might be manageable, but preparing it for all the other languages seems tough.
The director was complaining in an interview about not having the budget for it.
and just call it "Sega Kart," shouldn't they?
You don't need that many Sonic characters — does anyone even use them?
Everyone just plays as the crossover characters anyway, right?
Well then, should we rename Mario Kart to "Nintendo Kart" too?
Axel's already in the game.
Do a little more research before you post.
The party-racing genre is still basically a blue ocean in the free-to-play space, so I think they could dominate it.
And they could monetize endlessly with skins, Fortnite-style.
Might be better to hook players into spending with new characters.
A lot of Sega fanatics basically vanished the moment Sega quit the hardware business (myself included).
The people supporting Sega now aren't Sega fanatics.
Even ex-Sega-fanatics have their pride.
Because Sega doesn't understand at all that Vocaloid and Puyo Puyo are more popular than Sonic.
I mean, having Minecraft characters, FF7 characters, and Mega Man all in one game — that's Nintendo-level pull.
Even with a worldwide multi-platform release, actual sales haven't even hit 500,000 units. If you count unsold shipped stock sitting in warehouses, it's around a million, but the president himself called it a flop at the earnings briefing.
If they put that thing on the track, people would say it's ripping off the Chocobo.
Background and Key Points of This Discussion
“Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds” was conceived as Sega’s answer to Mario Kart, and as noted in the thread, its defining feature is a large-scale crossover lineup that goes beyond Sega’s own IP — including Steve (Minecraft), SpongeBob, Hatsune Miku, Asuka (Evangelion), and Cloud (Final Fantasy VII). Oddball crossovers aren’t new in themselves; Bandai Namco’s “Mario Kart Arcade GP” had Pac-Man and Mametchi appear as guest characters too. The thread’s discussion split roughly into two main points. The first was the question of overall quality: some said the core gameplay itself wasn’t bad, while others criticized it as a “generic Mario Kart” where the gadgets aren’t balanced and the lineups end up feeling similar. The second was the cause of poor sales — pointing to the small, hard-to-see character art in ads, speculation about why there’s no voice acting (budget or rights issues), and proposed fixes like going free-to-play or monetizing through character add-ons. Note that one claim in the thread suggesting “Sega deliberately leaked information” has been omitted from this article for lack of supporting evidence. As for actual sales figures, one post in the thread cited “roughly 500,000 units sold worldwide,” said to be based on a remark from management, though this could not be independently verified within the thread itself.
※This article was compiled by excerpting and summarizing the 5ch (Hardware & Industry / “Geha”) thread “Sonic Kart Turns Into a Game Where Steve, SpongeBob, Hatsune Miku, Asuka, and Cloud All Race Together.”
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