We wouldn’t blame you if you didn’t notice a new Sonic game released back in October, considering that month was pretty packed, even leading to Alan Wake 2 getting a small delay to avoid the crowd. Unlike Remedy Entertainment, though, Sega kept its planned October 17 release, seemingly getting drowned out by the likes of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, and, more damningly, Super Mario Bros. Wonder, which released only days later — October 20.

During its financial quarterly report (via Eurogamer), group CEO Haruki Satomi and senior executive vice president and CFO Koichi Fukazawa answered a question as to why its flagship platformer had a “weaker start” than it anticipated. The execs chalk it up to other companies’ big releases, but with those games mostly done and dusted, Sega plans on ramping up promotion toward the holiday season.

It was also noted that Sonic Superstars has a higher score across both users and critics. Because of this, it’s obvious Sega wants this game to continue to sell well, and if it means pushing the game to the forefront, so be it, but this is just another instance of Sonic’s rivalry with fellow family-friendly mascot, Mario.

“We believe that the impact of other companies’ major titles released at the same time is significant, but we plan to expand the promotion towards the holiday season, especially in the overseas market. Both the Metacritic score and user score are higher than Sonic Frontiers, and we would like to continue to sell firmly.”