Sega of Japan are notoriously xenophobic towards their non-Japanese contemporaries, it's the main reason the Saturn tanked, because SOJ resented that the Genesis was more popular in the West than it was in their home country and their attempts at trying to make the Saturn popular in Japan screwed over Sega of America. And given how most of the old guard are probably still there, that mindset probably hasn't changed much. I wouldn't be surprised if there was some level of resentment at how popular Mania was versus the mediocre reception that Forces got; so this might have led to Sega dropping them in their attempt at making their own Mania successor to win over the masses.
So they actually OWN like 51% of DIMPS and have since the company started. That's why the first game the company did was Sonic Advance and they trusted them the most with the handheld games. They may not make any new Sonic games anymore but they're still pretty solid with each other considering they own 1/5th of them. If we still got regular Sonic games I bet DIMPS would still be involved in some way.
So for reference here, Sonic 1 came out on the Genesis in 91, and the Saturn came out in 94 (in Japan). I was born in 91 and am 29 now - that is a huge, huge time gulf on an individual level let alone on a company-wide level let alone on an industry-wide level where I saw games go from 16 bit sprites to Gears of War in my childhood. There are very few companies that keep the same culture and higher-ups (which was why it was a big deal that Nintendo had done so - because it is unusual). Sega themselves has gone through multiple buyouts/purchases and restructures during that time. And also, no, most of the old guard Sonic-wise is not there, that's why we have Naka doing a game with Square Enix* and Yasuhara posting concept art on twitter and in presentations instead of making Sonic games, and the directors of Sonic titles come from the 2006 era where Sonic's reputation was quite possibly the worst it had ever been - you'd think that if they had anyone older left, they're put them on if only for the optics, but no. Quite possibly the oldest person there involved in Sonic is Jun Senoue at this point. Am I saying there isn't some bullshit there? nah. However just assuming these things based on events from over two decades ago doesn't help the discussion or any of the people involved at all. *To further enumerate the time-abyss, Square Enix was two companies, Squaresoft and Enix, when Sonic 1 came out
Adding to this, for instance you could point out that xenophobia is still at least some kind of problem in the JP games industry because Capcom had a presentation leaked about how they were working to hire and retain more women and foreigners (generally not a thing you'd do if you felt it was all fine no?). But that is from this year, as opposed to trading on the grudges of two decades ago.
Let's keep in mind though, Sonic Mania and Sonic Forces may have been received quite differently in Sega's home country, compared to the Western world. Three of Famitsu's four reviewers on Forces gave it a score of 9 out of 10, with the last one giving an 8. Mania, meanwhile, actually got slightly lower scores: 8s across the board. While the scores of one magazine are hardly a conclusive metric (I'd love some insight on what the Japanese fanbase thought), and I'm sure Sega takes international reception into account as well, it's likely for a variety of reasons (sales, most notably) that Sega considers Forces to be a significantly bigger success than we do.
I'm not going to yell foul play but that review came out before any of the others did and for some reason they're the only company in the entire world to get a review copy. Felt pretty suspect to me.
I get that Sega is a Japanese company but if they base Sonic off what their 3 fans in Japan think then they're dumb as hell. I think post Forces this changed so we'll find out eventually.
The Retro Engine (which Mania and the classic remasters run on) is created and owned by Taxman. I imagine Sega likely owns the code and assets corresponding to Mania; but would have to ask / pay Taxman to use the engine itself. (I think I can hear Sega / Sonic Team executives yelling in frustration, "why the hell would we do that, we've got two perfectly fine 'classic Sonic' game engines right here!" and then pointing to Sonic 4 and Sonic Forces as I type this down.) For what it's worth, Famitsu as a publication does have a history of being substantially kinder to games that were reviewed far more harshly overseas. Devil's Third scored 33/40, Umbrella Corps scored 36/40, Animal Crossing: amiibo Festival got 32/40, etc. Even Sonic 2006 (360) got 30/40 (the PS3 version scored 29/40). As an aside, Mania ranked at 22 in Nintendo's list of Top 30 most downloaded Switch eShop games in Japan for 2017. (Note that the list doesn't count games available both on retail and the eShop. So games like Zelda BOTW, Mario Odyssey, MK8 Deluxe, etc. don't count.)
So recently I saw a meme on Twitter that was like "Things that will never happen: Sonic Mania 2" Stealth liked the Tweet Idk if that means anything, but it sure was funny :specialed: Edit: It was a Lapper tweet as it turns out, and it seems he's unliked it. Probably because someone posted a screencap of the interaction. Either that or a malicious user just decided to photoshop an image of him liking a tweet...
I found the tweet, he liked it and hasn't taken back the like: https://twitter.com/LapperDev/status/1341142803901001733 It's "Things that never happened", not "things that will never happen". So it may not mean anything.
I'll still be forever shocked they never made a Mania 2. Maybe I'll be proven wrong but it's like they don't want money.
Sonic S5cramble, with the S shaped like a 5, Musou game. Originally a spiritual successor to Tembo the Badass Elephant, but with more enemies on the screen.
You kid, but I would 110% be down for a Sonic Warriors game. Spoiler I've actually dreamt up my ideal Warriors game, but they'll never make Random Shit From Sid Starkiller's Childhood Warriors.
SEGA might worry about diminishing returns for Sonic Mania. It probably is a fair concern. I doubt Mania 2 would have the same shattering success and hype as Mania 1. How many times can you make SEGA Genesis Sonic games? It probably won't bring in younger children and continue the sustainability of the franchise either. That aaid, they absolutely should have hired Team Mania to produce 2D titles.
If Sonic Team wanted to triple down on on the whole concept of classic sonic being a star in the 3D series, I always thought it'd be extremely interesting if they commissioned the mania folks to do 2D stages in the mania engine. I probably wouldn't like it as much as a Mania 2, but it'd be something
I don't think they would have bothering establishing the whole "Classic Sonic is from another dimension" shenanigans if they weren't planning to release more classic style games. It seems obvious to me that they were freeing him up for use in future games without having to worry about the pesky timeline. I don't get why people are so worried that they may not make a Mania followup.
