It's been almost two weeks since the launch of Balan Wonderworld, the newest game from Sonic the Hedgehog and NiGHTS Into Dreams creator Yuji Naka. The game is the debut title from Balan Company, a new studio owned by Square Enix, lead by Naka and Naoto Ohshima, character designer for Sonic and NiGHTS and director of titles such as Sonic CD and Blinx the Time Sweeper. The game has been met with harsh critical reception and it looks like Balan Wonderworld might be off to a disappointing start sales-wise too.
Balan Wonderworld was first announced during the pre-show for Microsoft's Xbox Games Showcase in July 2020, where it was revealed that Square Enix would be supporting Naka and Ohshima's newest studio and releasing the game worldwide. In January 2021, Square Enix released a demo showcasing three of the game's main worlds, which was heavily criticized for rigid animations, unpolished visuals, and underwhelming level design. This caused many fans to encourage Square Enix to delay the game for extra polish, similar to how Microsoft delayed Halo Infinite after fans criticized its gameplay reveal. While the developer admitted it could not delay the game further into 2020, it announced that a day 1 patch would launch alongside the game which would address some of the criticisms fans had.
It appears that this patch may not have been enough to save Balan Wonderworld, as the game has been critically panned across the board, with the Nintendo Switch version sitting at 27% on Metacritic, putting the game in the top 4 worst Switch games on Metacritic. Despite a suspicious amount of 10/10 user reviews of the game close to its launch, the game also sits at a 6.5 on the site. It appears Balan Wonderworld's sales have been as poor as the game's critical response. According to Twitter user @CartridgeGames the game has sold only 2,100 copies in Japan, coming far too short of the Japanese gaming charts' top 30. The game is also nowhere to be seen on the Switch or PS4 digital sales charts almost two weeks after launch.
It's also worth nothing, these sales come after Balan Wonderworld launched with no pre-release reviews, with most of the game's reviews coming after the game's release. This is likely due to the negative reception aimed at the game's demo. While Square Enix's plans to release the demo were likely earnest, as it's something few developers do for large releases nowadays, it seems to have backfired on them, effecting the game's sales directly.
What this means for the future of Balan Company remains to be seen. However, it seems Square Enix should consider bringing the game to services like Xbox Game Pass and PlayStation Now sooner rather than later, as it has with other recent titles like Outriders and Marvel's Avengers.
Balan Wonderworld is available now for PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
