Why doesn't Sega ever port Sonic Unleashed to the PC?

Heroes at least has the benefit of an older PC port though, Unleashed doesn't. I'm fairly certain the only reason SA1 was on Gen 6 consoles was because of the PC port of DX and it looked bad to have its sequel be alone. Heroes, while having a former port they could modify in a similar way, just isn't popular enough to warrant it (at least that's the assumption since the money is lying on the table there). Unleashed would require a lot more time, effort, and money and it was less popular than Heroes on release.

 

Austin Keys' Linkedin profile still mentions Sonic PC ports,

Manage porting projects of popular Sonic titles to new-to-SEGA PC platforms (EA Origin, Amazon Luna, Epic Games Store), expanding availability of Sonic titles to a wider digital audience

which is a little bit different from its previous description,

Port popular Sonic titles to new-to-SEGA PC platforms, expanding availability of Sonic titles to a wider digital audience

That is, despite focusing on other (or specific) PC platforms from now on, we shall expect more Sonic ports coming to PC in the future indeed (even though that would mean Epic exclusives ).

 

The Heroes PC port is a completely broken mess on the level of the original SADX port. Any port of Heroes would no doubt be a new one because that one is so busted you'd have to basically make a new one even if you started from it.

^ that honestly reads to me more as "we will port new Sonic games to PC" which they have been doing.

 

Not necessarily. The Broken DX port was used as the basis for the port to Gen 6 consoles. If anything, that created even more bugs. I would not put it past them to do the same with Heroes if they were to do it.

 

Imagine getting Sonic 06 port, and not Heroes or Unleashed
I mean, there is an ongoing fan project to port it, right?

 

There's currently like 17 fan projects aiming to bring 06 to pc in some form or another, and this is likely all we'll get.
There's NO way Sega will ever re-release this game, pc or otherwise.

 

I apologize if this comes off as pedantic (and admittedly it somewhat is), but the Dreamcast and GameCube are both 6th gen consoles. I think you mean 7th gen.

 

Yeah, I know. I still have a soft spot for it though - it wasn't great, but it had its moments, and the music was great. Solaris Phase 2 and that remix of His World E3 Version) will always be on my playlist.

But that kiss will forever haunt my dreams.

 

I'm gonna be honest. After seeing Colours: Ultimate, I'd be fearful of an Unleashed port. Considering the quality of the port for their better received title, I have a feeling Unleashed will fare much, much worse.

 

Because people still play it.

Seriously. I actually beat the game for the first time recently after avoiding it for 4 years, and it was still active.

Granted, I used a heavily modded version that added things like the extra Chaos fight, so my experience wasn't even the normal one.

 

For whatever it may be worth, Unleashed does have the advantage of not being built for the Wii. Seems like many of the compromises in Colors Ultimate are based around having to gut and replace the renderer.

 

If I could make a perfect version for me, I would give a Sun Medal after every act and collectable medals would be all Moon Medals. The requirements for Sun Medals would be still there, but it wouldn't matter which acts were finished. Finished Day Act 1, 2 and 4 (from DLC)? Go ahead. Finished two night Acts and a side quest? Fine. Day Act from HD version, Day Act from SD version and a boss? 3 Sun Medals for you, good sir. Of course numbers would have to be rebalanced, but I think 3 medals per zone would be balanced.
Combining content from base game, DLC and SD version would result in package so big that werehog could be 90% skipable who offer challenge from DLC acts over werehog - but still there for those interested or who like werehog over day stages.

Moon medals could be used for something else, like customization (Avatar?) or another characters (could be reskins, Shadow, Metal and Blaze for the day, Knuckles, Amy and Omega for the night).

But I can just dream and another bare-bones release is more likely.

 

Right because Unleashed is my favourite Sonic game and I love every aspect of it, but I don't want them fucking shit up for me lol. The thought of the soundtrack receiving cheap generic EDM remixes alone makes me shudder.

Something a lot of people don't talk about is that some of the nighttime DLC levels were much more enjoyable than the original "Act 1"s, from what I've been told. I remember reading reviews on the DLC back in the day praising some of their level designs, particularly for Dragon Road. I'm gonna look into this lol. Does anyone have experience playing them? Because I sadly never got to (even though I bought all the DLC at some point).

 

I never got a chance to play the DLC and have no idea where my copy of Unleashed is anymore (I really need to buy a new one) but I remember that the night stages got a little bit of unfair flack from people. My biggest complaints with Unleashed at the time were the framerate dropping to next-to-nothing especially in the night stages, and the medal collection process impeding my progress from completing the game. I would love to see a port to modern systems, including PC, at some point, but I'm not holding my breath for the prospect.

 

I wouldn't say what contributed to the positive reception of the nighttime DLC was that they had better level designs, but more that they were a bit shorter and it's more likely your Werehog was leveled up so it made it easier to play them.

I do feel the daytime and nighttime DLC levels suffered from the same thing in that there were a lot of theme acts (drift perfectly, homing attack chains with spikes, spikes on rails, spikes on platforms, jump to battle arena to another one etc etc) instead of being full acts.

While I don't remember enjoying more the Dragon Road nighttime dlc, I do remember enjoying the daytime Dragon Road Act 2 because it was one of the few stages that actually felt like a full act than a gimmick stage.

Saying that, I definitely liked the daytime DLC stages more than the extra acts/missions for Colors and Forces.

 

Making the gimmick stages DLC and not in the main game? What a revolutionary idea.

 

I mean I would've loved the DLC to had been in the game than having to buy it. At least Colors, Generations, Forces (other than that cheap move of trying to make Super Sonic DLC you had to buy) did that right.

I do wonder if it would've affected the review scores if all those acts were included to begin with.

 

Unleashed already had extra acts and side missions before it got DLC.

 

Ah yeah, that's right. That was my bad.

I guess that shows how long it's been since I've played it.