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The Supreme Topic of 'Other' Knowledge.

Discussion in 'General Sonic Discussion' started by McGuirk, Jan 10, 2007.

  1. Zigetch

    Zigetch

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    I think the whole 'Project Sonic' campaign was Sonic Team's attempt to push Sonic in Japan, beginning with Sonic Jam. I'm not sure if it directly led into Sonic Adventure's development, but considering how strongly Jam and Adventure intertwine it could be likely.

    This 'Project '22' dealio could be something similar - a campaign specifically created to promote Sonic in Japan with a multitude of projects.
     
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  2. Dark Sonic

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    They keep trying to make Sonic work in Japan it's been 30 years already they don't like him move on to the markets that do
     
  3. shilz

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    I think it's a bit more symbolic to SEGA and the people working at Sonic Team, like Family Guy constantly saying they "don't have an Emmy" (Despite that apparently not being the case). They wanna see "Sonic Everywhere", and that would mean being in an environment that appreciates Sonic.

    Also, "Project Sonic" basically sounds like what they call Sonic itself all the time. I think it was used for Sonic X, even.
     
  4. YuTwo

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    I'm reminded of this video where someone asks Japanese people if they can recognize who Sonic is and most of them could not. There are English subtitles included as an option in case they don't appear automatically.

    I'll admit it wasn't a huge group of people that were asked but it was still interesting regardless.
     
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  5. Black Squirrel

    Black Squirrel

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    Pointless Celebrities, BBC One tonight:

    [​IMG]

    We gave 100 people 100 seconds to name zones in the first four Sonic the Hedgehog platform games.

    [​IMG]

    Everything but Green Hill Zone was a pointless answer.
     
  6. Overlord

    Overlord

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    Kinda hammers home how much hammering home Sonic Team's been doing with GHZ doesn't it? No wonder they're locked into focusing on it now.
     
  7. Zigetch

    Zigetch

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  8. Blue Spikeball

    Blue Spikeball

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    It was originally western-only but it was later used in early Japanese Saturn advertising and the Chaotix title screen.
     
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  9. Zigetch

    Zigetch

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  10. Dek Rollins

    Dek Rollins

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    Not sure why the boot thing is such a new revelation to so many people right now. Ohshima already confirmed they were folded boots like a year or two ago when someone else asked him basically the same question. I believe he said "It's all shoe" that time.
     
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  11. Zigetch

    Zigetch

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    Hm, it was a revelation to me at least. Never too late to learn something new :)

    Also, Oshima's Twitter header is just killing me xD
     
  12. There were more people who knew than I expected. I wouldn't say most didn't know. It seemed to be about 50% or slightly more who knew him, though I didn't keep track. I anticipated most who knew Sonic would recognise him from game centres/arcades, which was only the case for one I believe. The rest knew from Smash Bros (sidenote: the SumaBura shortening is funny to hear) and the Olympic Games titles. I didn't expect the Olympic Games ones to be so well known, but I guess for a lot of casual players (all the ones who mentioned owning a DS and Wii when younger) that would be the case.

    I feel like the community does have this impression that Sonic's largely unknown in Japan but I'm not sure that's the case among 'gamer' gamers. It's likely he just didn't make the same impression on the mass market that he did here with the commercials, TV shows, parade floats, etc., etc. Looking at this 2017 list of Famitsu readers voting for their favourite game, https://nintendoeverything.com/famitsu-readers-choose-the-top-100-best-games-of-all-time/, Sonic Adventure 2 received two spots, one for the DC and one for GCN, while Sonic Unleashed received another. While it's far from a confirmation of anything, the nature of the poll suggests that among those who care enough to read a gaming mag and submit their favourite game, Sonic does hold some brand recognition.
     
  13. Sai Start Marker

    Sai Start Marker

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    And the Sonic & Knuckles Japanese commercial.
     
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  14. Blue Spikeball

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    Whoa. They had the western marketing team make an ad for Japan?
     
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  15. nineko

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    I, too, always thought that the white parts were Sonic's socks, but at least now I know why they looked so odd in Sonic Triple Trouble's title screen, even when I was 10 years old I wondered why those alleged socks were so far from Sonic's legs, it all makes sense now.
     

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  16. kitsunebi

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    I recently mentioned this elsewhere, but I've worked in Japanese elementary schools for the past 14 years and most kids don't know Sonic. I sometimes include famous characters in classroom games and worksheets and the like, and I quickly realized that Sonic wasn't a useful character to use, since so many kids had no idea who he was. Mario and Pikachu are recognized 100% of the time, but Sonic is typically more like 5%. Even the various characters in Minecraft are known by name far far more than Sonic (don't ask me what they're called, though...) Like the video posted above, I imagine that all of the ones that do recognize him know him from his Olympic Games and Smash Bros. appearances. I'd be willing to bet none of them have ever played a proper Sonic game in their lives. And I can confirm another part of that video - even amongst the few kids who recognize him, I've never once met a kid in Japan who knows what kind of animal Sonic is supposed to be.
     
  17. Is this to contradict what I said in the quote? Because I didn’t really mean elementary schoolers, especially those from 2008-present. I imagine many elementary schoolers in the west would have had trouble recognizing Sonic prior to the recent movie lol.

    Either way, I was just speculating based off of his appearance on that 2017 Famitsu list and a similar one they made in 2006 which surprised me. Though I’m sure there are some popular games I couldn’t name the characters of despite reading gaming sites and such, so who knows.
     
    Last edited: Jan 26, 2022
  18. kitsunebi

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    No, I apologize if it seemed like I was contradicting you. I was simply sharing my first-hand observational experience regarding the matter of Sonic's fame in Japan. I've actually never met any adults here in the 30-50 age bracket who will admit to gaming on anything but their mobiles, so my observations are strictly limited to kids. But considering some of the kids I taught when I first got here are nearing 30 now, it's a safe bet that they grew up into people similar to the ones in that YouTube video above who have a limited knowledge of the character at best.
     
    Last edited: Jan 25, 2022
  19. It's cool if you were contradicting me lol. I didn't mean to sound offended or anything since I was mainly talking out my ass. I was just trying to clarify. All I know about Japan's gaming culture is from my bachelor and master programmes being a combo of Japanese language/Asian business, and I didn't even go on exchange since I'm allergic to sesame/shellfish and was too nervous to rely on my language skills. Though I did just finish my thesis and applied for some jobs at Sega, so maybe I can rectify that soon.

    But yeah, it's wild how much the traditional gaming market shrunk in Japan. Mobile devs are making a killing with the big studios having revenue like 2-3x that of Sega. I went through the past 15 years of Sega Sammy investor reports for my thesis and the only console games specifically mentioned as doing well in Japan were Yakuza, Project Diva, PSO2... for Sonic, the only mentions were usually like "a strong performer in the US and European markets was (insert Sonic game)," lol.

    It's easy to see why Sega has trouble making Sonic games when the developers are so removed from the fandom. That's likely why they moved the Sonic pillar to the US offices, but it doesn't help the actual game devs when it comes to having the innate understanding of the property that those immersed in it have (the Mania team being the counterexample). A few years ago I wrote about this using the Porter Diamond, https://hbr.org/1990/03/the-competitive-advantage-of-nations, which credits high domestic demand for encouraging higher quality products.

    "Nations gain competitive advantage in industries where the home demand gives their companies a clearer or earlier picture of emerging buyer needs, and where demanding buyers pressure companies to innovate faster and achieve more sophisticated competitive advantages than their foreign rivals."

    I think the logic holds that developers producing a game for buyers whose behaviour they don't understand will make an inferior product. Though no matter how good Sonic Mania was, I don't think I'd like to see every game be western-produced since Japanese games do tend to have a unique flavour to them which I appreciate.
     
    Last edited: Jan 25, 2022
  20. RyogaMasaki

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    The Sonic characters certainly had a presence in game centers in the past, but there's practically zero Sonic related signage these days. All of Sega's popular stuff uses licensed characters. You can still find some remnants here and there, like the one I found in the restroom at Sega Avion a couple weeks ago, but he's more rare then ever now.
     
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