Ahh come on, Sega was big in the arcades before Sonic.

it popular because of the weird fanbase who love to make these weird sonic arts,hell every single sonic game since adventure 1 you see the fanbase complain on each game then they get excited for the next sonic news then repeat, why do you think all these fan made sonic games keep coming from?

Nostalgia

I believe part of it is due to how much the franchise expanded like many long-running series tend to. This has pros and cons.

Pros: you have a character that's been around for a quarter of a century, an admirable feat, because the series adapted enough to gather new fans and new styles.

Cons: you have a fractured fanbase in almost all respects.

You have the Classic Sonic fans who grew up and/or enjoy the original sidescrollers, the Adventure fans who were there for Sonic's rough 2D-3D transition, the Boost fans who enjoy the "gotta go fast!" mechanics of some of the more recent titles, the fans who enjoy the various cartoons; the list goes on.

The character and to a point the series is almost as pure 90s as you can get; it was designed to challenge Nintendo's Mario and the results are what worked to a point back then. Sonic has attitude! The design of the characters are iconic at this point, and every few years you get a decent game out of the series.

But you can't please everybody; it's just not possible. Different teams make different Sonic games, and even Sonic Team themselves can try new ideas that sometimes work, sometimes don't. They constantly learn, forget, relearn, and reforget what makes a Sonic game "work" well as both a Sonic game and as a well-designed game. It's a rollercoaster. And don't forget a series like Sonic gathers new, often younger, fans every year, who don't necessarily know anything about the character, the series, and its history prior to the first aspect of the franchise they're introduced to.

The konye effect most likely

Tell me again how the multiplatform strategy was supposed to fix everything. Look at your results and compare them to Nintendo, which keeps thriving with exclusives. Your loyal fans are gone. And let’s not forget the pile of IPs you purchased only to let them rot.

The worst thing is this is down from last years numbers/expectations which was down from the previous years numbers/expectations. You think about how long “down” has been a consistent part of the communication and you realize those subscriptions are what’s holding that boat together. The price cut of gamespass is still a price raise in a string of price raises. They are trying to use players to offset the missing revenue. Now call of duty is out of gamespass, which is literally WHY they bought the company. To draw people to the subscription. They realized they missed a boatload of money and that wasn’t sustainable. Now you pay for it like you would have if they never bought the company… so why buy the company? Mind you those billions still need to be paid back. Yeah it gives you a chance to say we make the biggest FPS… but the internal conversations must be brutal at high level on topics that really matter. Like revenue. Profitability. And ROI for the shopping spree.

Is this like the 10th quarter in a row they're down 33% on hardware how is that even mathematically possible. You would think their mediocrity would Plateau

yep. they confirmed early that the crude humor the games are famous for is leaving to be more inclusive for the woke. and the rumors about the new online could make or break them.

$100 game incoming, or the most likely scenario is they will just follow Nintendo going for $80 for the base game

Can't believe anyone thinks it'll be over 70. They want as many people on it as they can to sell shark cards. The only way that happens is if they have a $100 deluxe edition with 3 days early access. Which would probably be smart for them because it'd fly off the shelves