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Although it is true that initially Sonic was made to appeal to an US audience, it's pretty clear that at the beggining of the Dreamcast era the SEGA wanted to make Sonic (and the dreamcast) more popular in Japan. It's just that the concept of Sonic has never really been that appealing to Japanese audiences. Not that it's a total failure there either. I have even heard one of the biggest Sonic conventions is held there.
