Game News

Free Riders Falls Flat?

Microsoft’s little motion doohickey Kinect came out and with it a slew of titles, including the Sonic-Heroes-on-airboads racer, Sonic Free Riders. Now that the thing has been out just over a week, how has it been doing against the likes of Dance Central and Kinectimals?

Not too good.

With just under half a million Kinect units sold, preliminary numbers via VGChartz show the title is one of the unit’s worst sellers at only 18,000 units moved.

Kinect Week One Sales, Americas:

  • Kinect Adventures – 479,992
  • Kinect Sports – 142,991
  • Dance Central – 132, 554
  • Kinectimals- 98, 303
  • Your Shape: Fitness Evolved: 61, 338
  • Fighters Uncaged:31,939
  • Kinect Joyride: 31,854
  • Sonic Free Riders: 18, 402
  • Motion Sports: 16,198
  • Adrenaline Misfits: 3,602
  • Dance Masters: 3,459

While VGChartz isn’t always completely accurate due to leaving out certain retailers from their data collecting methods, the numbers, which will be as close as we’ll ever know with how secretive Microsoft is on figures, show another resounding flop for the franchise.

Would the inclusion of normal controller support be enough to tip sales instead of solely relying on Kinect? Probably. But it’s up to Sega to see if it’s even worth the effort to do that.

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19 Comments

  • Reply

    It’s a bit late to go back and add controller-optional support. It would create consumer confusion and require units to be sent back to factory.

    The nice thing about Free Riders was that it was dirt cheap for Sega to make. Microsoft probably did a lot of the adaption work, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Sega hasn’t broken even on the game already with a mere 20,000 sold already.

  • Reply

    And yes, I’m aware XBL could be used to push out an update returning the controller support that was gutted. I’m referring to the stock that is in-inventory at stores, not to mention the fact that there are probably copies of Sonic Riders still on the shelves alongside Free Riders.

    • Reply

      Of course. A recall like that to bring out an updated version on disc is just plain insanity unless there was a super serious game breaking glitch or something that couldn’t easily be patched up.

  • Reply

    And the funny thing is even Mega64 wants people to get this game.

    Sick right?

  • Reply

    it was a bad move to make it Kinect exclusive anyway…

    No one can afford a $150 camera that only cost Microsoft $56 to begin with according to Kotaku.
    http://kotaku.com/5688040/

    Dear Sega,
    bring the game to controller or even to other consoles instead.

    • Reply

      I’ve got a better letter.
      “Dear SEGA,
      Stop making Sonic Riders games.”

      • Reply

        LOL I’m with him. ^

        Also, those shitty Rivals games on PSP.

        • Reply

          Best be trollin about Rivals 😐

      • Reply

        Why is Sonic racing on a skateboard anyway? That would only slow him down. Dumb idea.

  • Reply

    A Sonic Riders game doing poorly? NO WAY!

    • Reply

      I know, but this one’s doing exceptionally poorly.

  • Reply

    sega need to realise that people are starting to lose apeal from sonic, and making decent/average games are not gonna help it anymore. It didn’t care in 2006, but it is starting to affect with time.

    • Reply

      They learned that already. That’s why they de-listed all the poor/average titles. The problem is that they keep making poor/average titles.

  • Reply

    I  think this game would have done better if they had a controller option. Instead of relying on the Kinect saying “with Kinect, you can pretend to be Sonic and friends!”

  • Reply

    I think the funnier thing is Kinect isn’t even selling 2 games per unit in general – tot all the numbers up apart from the very top one (which is the pack-in), and they don’t total the top spot’s sales. Not a good sign, MS, not a good sign.

  • Reply

    why did the game fall flat well heres why o_o – its only on xbox having people needing to buy one to play the game – its 50 dollars – nobody wants to exersize

  • Reply

    …Holy cow, Sonic and the Black Knight outsold the strongest Kinect game.

    …No wonder Free Riders is doing so poorly.

  • Reply

    I’m really not surprised, if this was just required for the a game system it would sell better, but since you have to buy a 150 dollar controller (basically what it is) with it.. People aren’t going to get it right away, i’ll give it to christmas/holiday season.

  • Reply

    Not suprised really…It would do well if it was on Wii and PS3 or at least have a controller option and better voice actors D: ugggh

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