Sonic Ready to Take 2018 by Storm at SXSW 2018

Re Glaber: ...he enters Adventures whilst waving goodbye from Forces, so, uh. I mean, maybeee?

Having watched the stream in real time, some answers from the QnA (NOT IN THE ORDER THEY WERE ASKED):

• Re Sonic 3nK mobile port: Aaron goes "Uuhh, we've kind of stolen Taxman and Stealth for a little while longer, but we'll pass that on to the mobile team."
• Re Dunkey mode: Everyone is bewildered by the question. Iizuka in English: "Dunkey mode..?" Aaron says "not sure about that, sorry."
• Re Sonic 3nK Collection for PC changing the music (Michael Jackson was mentioned in the question by name): Everyone on the panel goes DEAD SILENT for like 20 seconds. Glances exchanged. Iizuka starts speaking in Japanese; this is translated as "I wasn't part of that specific project but there were various demands from across the company that needed to be met to allow the port to ship." Aaron goes "That is a GOOD QUESTION, by the way."
• Re "I am a YouTube lore master who makes theory videos... Is Classic Sonic in Generations the same one that later shows up in Mania and Forces?": Iizuka: "Yes!" Aaron: "Nice simple answer! Closes up theories, opens up hundreds of new ones!"
• Re "Tyson! If you had to boil down Sonic to one 2D animated appearance, what one would it be?": Tyson: "You know? I couldn't. I've watched basically everything - the 90's cartoons, CD, OVA, the anime... I don't think I could. Sorry! I hope I didn't ramble."
• Re "I love Sticks... Do you think she'll appear in the games one day, or is she relegated to the spinoff dimension?": Aaron: "OH NO, THE DREADED SPINOFF DIMENSION!" Iizuka answers in Japanese, translated as something along the lines of "It's not planned but definitely possible."
• Re "I love Silver, do you think he'll ever get his own game?": Iizuka says something which translates to "Silver is a character who is much beloved both in America and Europe, but also in Japan. We like him a lot but can't promise anything specific."
• Re "Sonic was my childhood, I got the DS Classic Collection when I was 6, will you ever bring back Hyper Sonic?": Aaron: "Iizuka's answered this before so in the interest of time I'll repeat his previous answer - we don't want to be like a certain anime series and constantly be giving Sonic new powers and forms-" kid interrupts, laughing: "I see what you did there!!" Aaron asks how old the kid is now, he's 11. "That is a great question, and from an 11 year old - those games came out before you were born!" Everyone's having a great time, enthusiastic smiles on their faces.
• Re "WHERE ARE YOU KEEPING BIG THE CAT??" - Iizuka grins, says "2058 new Big the Cat game" in English, an extension of a joke made earlier in the panel of "Sonic Schoolhouse 2 coming 2050". (An aside - that showed up on the slides with a logo made by Rafa Knight!)
• Re "Do you think there'll be a franchise split of Mania games made by Whitehead's team, Adventure games made by some other team, Boost games made by Sonic Team?" - The question asker stutters a lot, and as a result nobody on the panel realises he's talking about a THREE way split of the franchise, rather than the two-way split that this panel has already confirmed. Iizuka says some stuff I can't remember about collaboration and Sonic Mania and that the modern game series isn't ending, and Aaron says "Sounds like it's already happening." Perhaps the only disappointing answer to an interesting question during the entire QnA.
• One of the QnA slots is taken up by a pair of Sonic fan artists advertising a meetup in Dallas. Aaron: "We obviously can't officially endorse anything like that, but of course on the side we're going 'Go! Go! Have fun!'" The artists have fliers they'd like to give the panelists. "Not now but yes please, after this we'll have a meet and greet, we'll stick around to see everyone."
• Re Taxman mobile remasters on Switch: Aaron: "What does the crowd think?" They scream excitedly. "We'll pass that on!"
• Re "I know, not Sonic related, but... I miss Billy Hatcher!": Iizuka smiles a genuine smile, says some stuff that's translated as "It's been a long time since I've heard anything like that. There will be quite a few people from Sonic Team who will be very happy when I tell them he was asked about." This question/answer combo almost makes me feel kind of sad.
• Re the possibility of a Crush 40 concert at SXSW, given it's known as 'music week': Aaron: "I can't speak for SXSW, but that sounds fun! What does the crowd think?" Some big screams. "Awesome! Can't promise anything, of course, but..."
• Re Jon Burton (the GameHut Traveller's Tales guy) finding a 3D Blast demo track with unused music by Jun Senoue, and wanting to release it: Aaron: "Can't give permission, but he can reach out and we'll run it up the flag pole."

I'll update this post if I remember any more details!

 

Holy balls I blocked this out of my memory but yes.

Mania Plus' Hydrocity soundbyte is now going to be Iizuka going "danukii modo?"

 

So...the future of Sonic is undecided? They haven't thought this through, right? Aren't they're like widening the gap between good and bad Sonic games?

 

It sounds like they were genuinely caught off guard by the S&KC question. I imagine pretty much all of them forgot that it had ever existed, honestly. It could also have to do with MJ's involvement, which I'm sure is a sensitive issue too, but I imagine a good chunk of those 20 seconds were spent muttering back and forth "collection? what the hell collection are they talking about?" more than it was "OH GOD THE MICHAEL QUESTION."
(Especially since they talked breezily about the possibility of a mobile port of S3K just a minute or two earlier.)

 

I was laughing. As bad as I feel for Iizuka and buddies in those situations, I feel like if he's going to be the one in charge of Sonic as a whole, these are the kind of things he should be aware of and at least know that the fans aren't stupid. Even just to say "I can't talk about this for legal reasons but thanks for asking the question" would be a lot more honest than every non-answer we've been given in the past. Same with the S3K port. It's one of the biggest elephants in the room and I feel like if Iizuka says "Yeah, I know the Elephant's there. You know it's there, but there's nothing we can do right now" then it would definitely relieve some tension.

I think Sega/Sonic Team needs some kind of dedicated, non-meme loremaster to talk to the fans. Lucasfilm has guys like Dave Filoni and Pablo Hidalgo who are more or less the official story bois of the Star Wars universe. Hidalgo especially is always there to answer the most difficult fan lore questions and anything regarding that one non-canon book or comic or whatever. I feel like SEGA needs a least one of these guys who can level with the fans and not hide behind the PR stuff so much, as well as close the lid on every silly "is this game still canon" question.

That being said, I think Aaron does a great job handling the spicy questions. I don't think I've seen him sweat once at these things.

 

Also.

 

So... Can this be watched anywhere, now that it's over? I missed a lot of stuff due to effing buffering.

 

Yeah, but the video's labeled wrong:

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/239466892##

 

I specially like the "in a sombrero" part, that would be a huge reveal from a teaser. XDDD

Jokes aside, I was wondering if it could be a game where Sonic and the gang run on foot and race against cars held by anonymous characters; for example, a crossover: "Need For Speed? Just Gotta Go Fast!"

 

I can't believe Sega just teased SONIC RACISTS

 

About this, just came here from watching that part. To clarify what was said: “They had to change the music to finish the project”

I mean, that's not UN-true, but they honestly lost their shit here and it shouldn't have taken that long to answer. They need to anticipate this question by now. I'm proud of the kid who asked. This lets me know that the fan base will NEVER let this die until we have some real answers! We know Carnival Night contains Jam and that Ice Cap is hard times, so there is definitely a story to tell here.

 

Just because there is a story to tell doesn't mean it's legally wise to tell it.

 

Just to add something more to this. I think this reaction also gives less weight to the "S&K PC Changed the music because MIDI can't handle the Genesis samples" reason that gets thrown around. If it were just a simple change because of hardware, we definitely wouldn't have had such a tense reaction from the big man.

 

I wont buy any game where Sonic speeds around



In a car.

 

That was a more detailed answer (if still vague) from Iizuka than I would have expected. He could easily have said no comment, but actually admitted the music needed to be changed. Which is obvious of course, but I'm still surprised he said it.

The problem is we are never gonna get the full story, at least from SEGA. Even if a Sonic 3 remaster is eventually green-lit, the whole music legal stuff is always gonna remain partially unclear.

Yes, that kid was brave to ask the question but he was never gonna get a complete answer. If kids think they can trick Iizuka into revealing information that he shouldn't, then they're wasting their time.

The question that fans really need to start asking SEGA is something along the lines of: "Sonic 3 is a fantastic game and we want it to be released on modern consoles. We appreciate that sometimes games can't be re-released with all of it's original content intact-that for various reasons sometimes content has to be changed to allow for a new release. So if you can't release the game in its original form, then can you please go ahead and make whatever changes are needed and then re-release the game?"


At least in the meantime we have the excellent Mania Plus to look forward to, but I'll never be completely satisfied until we get a Sonic 3 remaster.

Oh and I like the way Aaron handled the Sonic 3 mobile question. "We've kind of stolen Christian Whitehead". If SEGA has any sense, they'll never let him go :v:

 

Does "in a car or on foot" mean what I think it means?
Because if it does then I'm hyped!

 

Hoo-boy, this looks convincing, and the implications of that tagline can be taken so many ways. E3's gonna be interesting.

 

The resetera thread was locked before I could try to see if this screen capture was legit. The admin says thats not the name...what info are they baseing that on...??