While I think the lack of Shenmue/Skies of Arcadia HD is a missed opportunity, the recent Steam port of Valkyria Chronicles shows the boat has not sailed forever. PC is also one of the 2 platforms where Sega actually reached their sales target (according to the latest financials). After the restructuring I expect a lot more old games rereleased on digital platforms.
I think sometime in 2011 (or whenever the whole initiative was conceived), someone at Sega of America (or wherever) said, "Let's do a transmedia spinoff with re-designed characters, re-imagined personalities, and make it more western-friendly with western devs. We can do games, toys, and a TV show." I believe that this is an inherently terrible idea. Someone should have immediately responded "no, let's not". The franchise was already segmented, the fans already split. The reputation was already in the can by this point and the prevailing idea that Sonic Is Bad Now was still in the gaming community's collective consciousness. The best thing to do was (and now, definitely is) to go on some sort of hiatus, take a year off (subsidised by Mobile games like Runners), and come back once Sonic Is Bad Now has died out (...if that makes any sense....I hope it does ). (Then establish a new team called Sonic Team UK comprising of Stealth, Tax and other FanGame contributors and let them make Classic Physics 3D: The Game :specialed: ) As regards to Sonic Boom, I believe Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) in Jurassic Park said it best:"They became so preoccupied with whether or not they could that they didn't stop to think if they should.
AND in about a year or so they will release a garbage mediocre half-baked movie to boot. Can you imagine if Sega actually said, "WHOA -stop! stop the fucking smurf/Sonic movie... they've gotten wise to us folks.... Get Hayao Miyazaki on the line pronto!" I am experiencing a cognitive dissonance with Sonic... I love the little guy, but I am actually really happy to see SEGA in pain. They've stabbed us in the ass for far too long now. I honestly think that I, having nearly ZERO business experience and ZERO programming ability could direct the Sonic IP profoundly better than SEGA can...
You probably could, I think atleast caring about your IP can help make a good game come out. Everyone wants their kid to be an honor student right? Sonic evidently hasn't had anyone who's actually cared about him in a long time.
Same here. I have some cool well-thought out ideas for at least FOUR Sonic games right now. And I became a Sonic fan barely TWO YEARS AGO! (I'd like to take this moment to thank the internet for providing me all the resources I needed to learn everything about the Sonic franchise within just ONE year, cartoons and comics included.) The best example I can think of is probably Ian Flynn. He understands the characters and their personalities and it's really sad to find out that he had a chance to become an official writer for the games, if SEGA hadn't decided to give that job to a couple of clueless hacks who have never even heard of Sonic before.
Like I stated, I kinda love seeing SEGA in pain over the major flop Sonic Boom has been, probably because I'm hoping it instigates change for the good… that they will be forced to stop trashing the IP, stop treating Sonic like a “cash cow” because they no longer have that luxury. However, I'm now starting to feel sick, I'm starting to realize a more likely prognosis. Basically it goes like this. A lot of people are hoping SEGA will sell the Sonic IP to Nintendo, and I agree that probably would be best. This may never happen though, because Sonic is SEGA's greatest money generator. No Sonic means no SEGA and therefore Sonic will only ever be sold off if SEGA declares bankruptcy (which is a possibility some day). SEGA will continue to restructure, as it already is, becoming a smaller and smaller company, with less and less resources and financing for big budget development. Their focus will inevitably move exclusively to small scale productions like phone games. Therefore, Sonic will most likely be DOOMED to low budget superficial experiences. I would not expect things to get markedly better until SEGA eventually goes tits up. -Poor reception...
I apologize if I am reading this incorrectly, but I'm reading this as you calling me an armchair ceo and you are sick of reading such opinions. If that is correct, I apologize for speculating on what a constellation of factors, being recent news events, sales figures released yesterday, and recent large scale corporate restructuring, may signal in terms of a ongoing trend I've observed. Perhaps SonicRetro is an inappropriate avenue to discuss the Sonic IP and SEGA Corporate. Do you have anything to add Aerosol, or are you satisfied to merely dissuade fellow members from participating in the forums?
I'm not referring to you in particular, but if you want to take offense, feel free. I'm no-one in particular, and I don't think I have enough clout to dissuade anyone from doing anything in particular. Since you're asking, yes, I'm satisfied stating that Sega's mismanagement of the Sonic brand is irritating. Would you like some pepper?
Be fair. I don't think the average Joe on the street could do any worse with Sonic then they've been doing lately.
Its obviously that Boom sold the way it did partly due to it being bad. But I do find it a bit weird that no one mentions that sales on the Wii U are just not as great as previous consoles and that also has to do with this being the 'lowest selling Sonic game', at least on consoles. I know, you aren't allowed to say anything negative about Nintendo (look at their ad taking revenue thing they proposed, if SEGA did that, the internet would be crying foul for-ever). But if we see other franchise platformers they did and that (in my opinion) where excellent, they didn't do 'too hot' either. Nintendo has been hush hush on sales (outside of high selling games), like Donkey Kong Country: Topical Freeze. This is what we do know: "Tropical Freeze sold just 35,717 copies and barely lifted Wii U hardware sales, which were at 8,782 units." - Japanese sales. http://www.siliconera.com/2014/02/19/week-sales-ouch-donkey-kong-country-tropical-freeze/ "During its first eight days of release in North America, Tropical Freeze sold an estimated 130,000 units." - American sales according to Wikipedia How much legs does it have? According to 'VGChartz' it probably broke did a million (honestly think it did less than that). ------- Not only that, it is said that Super Mario 3D World only moved half a million units, so Mario games have seen a even bigger drop (at least this one) in sales on the Wii U: http://gamingtrend.com/2013/12/14/super-mario-3d-world-wii-u-trending-poorest-selling-mario-game-date-historical-look-mario-sales-figures/ ---- Again not saying its NOT a issue related to the quality of the product, it is. But not mentioning the fact that Nintendo platforms have been selling less and less software is also a bit backwards especially when your a site like Polygon and The Verge. You'd think these people would do some research and be logical instead of going 'Lol sega sucks'. Personally think Sonic 06 was a bigger 'oh shit, Sonic is fucked' compared to Sonic Boom. Sonic Boom was a side franchise, outside of the Sonic games. Sonic 06 used the 'Sonic the Hedgehog' handle, was incomplete, was done by Sonic Team... yeah... way worse. EDIT: That chart is 'old' but my point stands, the title didn't even reach 3 million, seems like Mascot platformers as a whole are down.
In my opinion, its normal that Sonic Boom has alot of glitches, since it wasn't made by Sonic Team and besides its impossible to make a perfect game. Some glitches are actually fun. Like the glitch where you get to run on water outside of the wall. I spend hours doing that. The story was actually good for some reason I felt like I was playing something else than just Sonic. It felt new and I love that fact.
Yeah, but the Dimps games weren't made by Sonic Team either and most of them are great, and as far as I know there hasn't been a really buggy Dimps game yet.
That or maybe the Wii U is just a bad selling console cause Nintendo fucked up when it came to marketing, third party support, hardware and probably a bunch of other reasons. Wii U games are a pretty poor example to use. The Mario games actually sold pretty well considering how badly the Wii U sold. And if you consider how well mascot games do on phones (see Angry Birds) and how well similar games did on the Wii. (The similarity might also be another reason for poor sales) The 3DS is also a better example of Nintendo sales. While Mario 3D World for Wii U sold 2.17 million, Mario 3D Land for 3DS sold 9.27 million. This sales data is also outdated, as it was all from March 31st, 2014 and we likely won't see current sales data until March 31st of this year. Also, what do you mean "no one mentions it"? Whenever a Nintendo game sells badly I always see it mentioned. If anything it happens more than to Sonic. Mario isn't immune from getting badly researched Polygon articles either. They also often get articles about how they need to stop making consoles, which is not too far off from Sonic getting articles about how the franchise needs to die. And they all get the same backlash.
It would be complicated for me, I would assume a team of professional game developers with the backing of a major publisher charging £50 for their end product would find it less so.
Glad you didn't read where I edited. My point exactly, Wii U software sales are on a decline period. Sonic Boom sucked and released around the time of Super Smash Bros, which had Sonic in it, why would kids or anyone with a fully developed brain want to buy Boom over Smash Bros? There is more to the story than "LOL SONIC IS DEAD AND SEGA IS CLOSE" and the mainstream media doesn't do research. Since when was Angry Bird a mascot platforming game? My point stands.
