Sonic Mania, the 2D Sonic The Hedgehog game made by Sonic fans with full backing from Sega is not only the best scoring Sonic game since years, but it has now sold 1 million copies.
The news was mentioned by Sega in the recent issue of Famitsu, the highly-regarded Japanese gaming magazine while talking about Sonic Mania Plus, a brand new version of the game with more new content added.
This should be a great sign on how fan games, if they are good and supported, can be a good product. While Sonic Team has been struggling for years to recapture the magic of the blue blur in 3D and 2D, the faithful fans-turned-developers managed to be more faithful to the classic games than we’ve ever seen with good new twists sprinkled in.
It’s a win-win situation for Sega (they now have a good Sonic game) and the developers Headcannon and Pagoda West Games (their fan game roots now backs up their credibility as game developers), and publishers should see fan games as opportunities for future projects.
Via Gamasutra