Really comes down to how you prefer a franchise be handled. A Sonic where you can't guarantee the quality of the next game, or a Sonic where you can't guarantee the existence of the next game?
I'm actually a little surprised that many were disappointed in the sonic central. I was not aware of SEGA's plans ahead of time and yet it went about exactly as I expected. With covid there was just no way Rangers was going to be near completion. They could have waited until 6 months out or whatever to do an info blowout but I believe fans would prefer the way they're handling it now even if they don't know it. I don't believe for a second that most sonic fans would have been patient enough to wait another year before hearing about the existence of this game. Not at all. Y'all would have started eating yourselves haha. Before the central, people had already started going crazy for their fix and SEGA knew it, imo. They made the right call. Now fans can get off their back for awhile and let them finish, let them focus. You're getting a title later this year and two next year, along with the movie and the show. That's a lot and a little something for most everyone who wants something out of the blue blur. What they're working on now looks very interesting, based on the totality of what we've seen/read. This is the most I've been interested in a 3D sonic game since SA1 tbh, it has the potential to finally go in the direction I've wanted for a very long time...having to suffer through all the other fighting in the eras post 1999 about which 3D gameplay is less janky and has more "heart", blah blah...lol. If it works out, 3D sonic will finally have a solid gameplay foundation and can build on it through the next decade. About damn time. I'm rooting for you guys, Iizuka and company. You have my full support, seriously. This is the moment.
People also said 06 was "the moment." Just saying dont be all doom and gloom if it turns out to be a stinker.
I won't. Cause it'll be a stinker with passion to become something better like 06. Not a stinker that's content to sit and rot like forces.
Yeah I agree.. highly unlikely we will get anything new regarding this game until after the 2nd Sonic movie (I wouldn’t be surprised if we don’t hear anything until either then or after Origins releases)
06 failed because the director of the game quit in the middle of production. How can anything survive that? I hated just about everything about 06, I've never been a big fan of the 'take itself very seriously' era of Sonic, but even I'll admit that game never really had a chance. Nobody knows what it would have looked like had it had consistent vision and effort all the way through. It's anologous to the first justice league movie, right? Snyder replaced by whedon halfway through, it was never going to be good. I think with this game, ST is clearly taking their time and as long as they do that and stick with their vision and release it when it's ready, hate it or love it, it's not going to be a Trainwreck. I actually have confidence that it'll be a surprising title, maybe not all good but definitely more interesting than what we've seen in awhile. Hopefully it's better than that, too. I can keep my expectations in check and hope for the best.
That's just not true. Many games are still good when the director changes. FF15 had its problems and I don't personally like it much, but it's still a good game.
Good point. I could have added, changed director AND rushed out to market (well) before ready, perhaps that would have made the point. Anyway, low effort analogy. Hopefully ST puts more effort into their next game than I do on my analogies!
The problem with a director quitting in the middle is that it takes time to find its footing again. If the company doesn't take that time, then it'll be bad.
Nah it's cool, I didn't mean to roast you I just think we have to be careful sometimes in putting a lot of focus on directors, producers etc. They are obviously very important as the main thrust behind the game, but sometimes common logic doesn't always apply. Really rushed games can be great, dev teams can hate their games and they can be great, etc.
And now Sonic games are made with a skeleton crew of newbies and shoestring budget from the start. We don't need to worry about massive disappointments anymore, because we already know that the games aren't going to be particularly good to begin with! Spoiler I'm half joking here, and can't exactly prove the claim about budget, but we all seem to be under the impression that Sonic games don't get the same cash injection that they used to. And as far as teams are concerned, Forces at least did have fewer staff than previous and lots of them were brand new to Sonic games.
Which is all to say, "Rangers" has a lot in it's favor at the moment. If a gameplay trailer drops next year and it's kinda like forces was at SXSW 2017 where it still looks very unfinished, I'll be very concerned. At the very least I will say that I hope they don't release a real trailer until there's a lot to show. We got the teaser and that's all we needed imo.
I believe that Generations and Colours had a tight budget - compared to Unleashed, and games were actually fun. At least on gameplay terms, plot was ...ughhh. But You are right, the games since 2010 feel "cheap". Unleashed felt like a grand Adventure, orchestrated soundtrack, great CGI cutscenes... I want a Sonic game like that again
I get what you mean about Unleashed feeling like a grand adventure but I wouldn't really say that Generations felt "cheap", it just had different priorities in terms of focusing on gameplay above all else. I guess the best way to describe it is that Unleashed felt like a feature film, Colours and Generations kind of felt like the Direct-to-DVD sequels (in terms of story presentation at least) Forces on the other hand... now that felt cheap lol We don't know how big the map is gonna be for this new one but the basic premise of an open world Sonic at least gives the impression of a bigger budget. It can't be cheap to make that type of game.
Sonic hasn't exactly been selling well, and game development ain't cheap. Unleashed feels more like the exception than the rule. That game was overly ambitious and they've gone on record saying how expensive it was to make. I know we all want games like Unleashed, but you need to sit down and think about how practical it is to make games like that on a consistent basis.
Wow has Sonic really not been selling well lately? A very quick google search brought me to this article saying that SEGA were pretty pleased with Forces' performance and I'm sure Mania also sold well. The 2020 movie also performed extremely well. Not quite sure how Team Sonic Racing did though. I also assume SEGA are probably making mad bank off of the mobile games like Sonic Dash.
I was going to mention that particular tidbit about Forces myself. To top it off, we've recently seen confirmation that Sonic has been SEGA's top selling series this last fiscal year. Incidentally, the relevant fiscal year presentation/report regards Team Sonic Racing by name amongst the contributing titles to that milestone, so it has that going for it at the least.
If you wanted to be pedantic, you could still say "Sonic hasn't been selling well lately". There's only two Sonic games on that list, and one of them was a nostalgia throwback that's completely unlike anything Sega themselves have made in the last 20-odd years, and the other is the game they actually did make 10 years ago. Nothing Sega has produced in the series lately is selling that well. Also that article is from 2018. Initial sales of Forces were likely strong because it's Sonic, and as long as it's not completely broken, it'll move units for a bit at least. It clearly hasn't continued to sell well.
But it's also worth mentioning that Sonic Forces at some point in last year was the most downloaded PS Plus game....ever. While not actual sales per se, it tells you that Sonic is still mad popular if even a game like forces can be this popular -for free, but also competing with other popular free games- the movie success, being one of the most popular videogames adaptations, despite COVID cutting it's legs short, also helped. and tells you that the franchise in better place than most people -or fans- realize.
