[TimmiT]

DigitalDuck, on 07 July 2015 - 04:29 PM, said:

Josh, on 07 July 2015 - 03:55 PM, said:

Yeah, I think THE primary thing that kept the petition from being more successful was simply SEGA's failure to release 1 and 2 on consoles and PC [...] Sega has re-released ports of the Genesis titles over and over and over for years [...] online petitions are rightly treated without a modicum of respect.

*sigh*

Does nobody realise that outside of the hardcore Sonic fanbase, people are barely even aware there is a Sonic 3? The vast majority of people buying these are people with nostalgic memories of the games they played when they were younger.

The original Sonic was a big sensation. Sonic 2 was bundled with the system. Everyone with a Mega Drive played these. "Oh, I remember this, I played it as a kid. Yeah, it was alright. Sonic 3? There's a Sonic 3?"

The reason a petition for Sonic 3 was always going to fail is the same reason SEGA haven't already released Sonic 3 in some form on mobile, and it's got fuck all to do with the music (that apparently only applies on Thursdays when the moon is waning).

People don't give a shit about Sonic 3.

[citation needed]

I mean, sure, Sonic 3 & Knuckles sold less than Sonic 1 and 2. Which was likely at least partially because it wasn't bundled with the Mega Drive/Genesis. But that doesn't mean not enough people care for a remaster made by two people to be financially viable.

This post has been edited by TimmiT: 07 July 2015 - 05:05 PM

[DigitalDuck]

TimmiT, on 07 July 2015 - 04:59 PM, said:

[citation needed]

I mean, sure, Sonic 3 & Knuckles sold less than Sonic 1 and 2. Which was likely at least partially because it wasn't bundled with the Mega Drive/Genesis. But that doesn't mean nobody cares. I mean, you could also argue about that nobody cared about Shenmue. But apparently at least 50k people care enough to throw money at a new sequel.

I see.

50k isn't a lot, in most cases. The reason it's enough for Shenmue III is because a staggering eleven people have backed $10k each, and more than 180 have backed >$1k each.

Indeed, as an ordinary product, Shenmue III would almost certainly fail. With 50k, hell, even with 500k people purchasing the game I very much doubt it'd make a profit. And this is the reason it hasn't already been made - businesses aren't going to invest in a product that will lose money.

TimmiT, on 07 July 2015 - 04:59 PM, said:

But that doesn't mean not enough people care for a remaster made by two people to be financially viable.

If you like, we can try to find ten people willing to throw $10k at Stealth and Taxman for a remade Sonic 3.

Too ambitious? How about $50k in total? An insulting figure for two people, but we can manage $50k, right? We're looking at a $3 mobile game, so minus store fees that's around 20k people.

Yeah, I'm not holding my breath. It's a tragedy that S3K, the greatest game ever made, isn't more popular. But that doesn't mean I'm going to bury my head in the sand and pretend that it is.

[.Luke]

I have a similar opinion on the matter, even if it kept getting brushed to the side of the rest of the discussion. Of course, I was still in diapers when Sonic 3 released, magazine subscriptions were out of the budget to my parents when I was old enough to read, and I never knew of the game until I was probably nine years old browsing around in Toys 'R Us anyway, so what do I know?

[GeneHF]

Going to say it now, given that Sonic's 25th is next year, I'm expecting another collection of the old games and because of this, Sonic 3 Remaster never stood a chance. This also is a reason why 1 and 2 ain't coming to consoles and such.

No excited chatter. This is just speculation on my part given how Sega's operated the brand so far and it would be extremely unsurprising.

[HEDGESMFG]

A sad but not entirely unexpected end. I still think the campaign had good potential, but people did put some pretty decent effort into it and I trust Stealth enough to at least believe he stopped giving his active support for a reason.

And without that, I'm not sure if we ever really do have a chance.

Shame too. Yet another reason why I just can't financially support this franchise right now. Lost Worlds was a disappointment, but Boom has downright pushed me away altogether. Maybe the 25th anniversary title will bring back excitement like Generations did? But even then, what can they do? Generations 2?

The fact that the titles were regulated to mobile ones will also leave me sore for awhile. I'm glad we got them at all, but I was hoping to see them released elsewhere.

[Donnie Paradox]

At least the race was a good experience. And it seems a lot of people enjoyed it. Too bad the campaign just didn't go the way as planned. Oh well.

This post has been edited by Donnie Paradox: 08 July 2015 - 09:46 PM

[360]

Taxman posted this on NeoGAF:

Quote

I'm working on my own original IP/Game right now, amongst other things... so no 3mastered sorry. I put the proof of concept video for my portfolio once it was a dead project.

I know Stealth is keen to complete it if the chance ever came up, but personally I would need to complete my stuff first (and that will be a WHILE) before I would think to consider it again.

Anyway, here's hoping Sonic Team bring their A-game next year!

So he lacks the time to commit to the project due to pressing and immediate obligations that hold more importance to him. So even if we'd succeeded it doesn't look like Taxman would have been able to agree to the project in the immediate future. Obviously we didn't know this back in January when the campaign started but at least now we do.

[Skyler]

Something just occurred to me - What's the likelihood of doing just Sonic & Knuckles remastered? If we can't get the full game, I would like having at least one part of it.

[The Taxman]

360, on 08 July 2015 - 09:57 PM, said:

Taxman posted this on NeoGAF:

Quote

I'm working on my own original IP/Game right now, amongst other things... so no 3mastered sorry. I put the proof of concept video for my portfolio once it was a dead project.

I know Stealth is keen to complete it if the chance ever came up, but personally I would need to complete my stuff first (and that will be a WHILE) before I would think to consider it again.

Anyway, here's hoping Sonic Team bring their A-game next year!

So he lacks the time to commit to the project due to pressing and immediate obligations that hold more importance to him. So even if we'd succeeded it doesn't look like Taxman would have been able to agree to the project in the immediate future. Obviously we didn't know this back in January when the campaign started but at least now we do.

To put it in context, I was responding to a thread about Aaron talking about projects being in the works for Sonic's 25th Anniversary - Sonic 3k largely being a hot assumption. So when I say "no 3mastered", I don't mean EVER per se.

I think it's difficult for you guys to try and read into the time frame of things, when so much goes on for me behind the scenes. Given I run my studio as a solo gunslinger (contracting other people if necessary like Stealth), I can only develop one full new game at a time (working smaller jobs like code maintenance/tech/demos etc in between). So the community running their campaign as if success meant immediate continued development (or me dropping other work) would definitely be misguided. I can't promise anything, but believe me, I know the vocal demand for this game, and Sega Networks does too. If the right circumstances come up to work on Sonic 3k in future, I'd love to finish it off and complete the series.

This post has been edited by The Taxman: 09 July 2015 - 02:13 AM

[Yash]

DigitalDuck, on 07 July 2015 - 04:29 PM, said:

Josh, on 07 July 2015 - 03:55 PM, said:

Yeah, I think THE primary thing that kept the petition from being more successful was simply SEGA's failure to release 1 and 2 on consoles and PC [...] Sega has re-released ports of the Genesis titles over and over and over for years [...] online petitions are rightly treated without a modicum of respect.

*sigh*

Does nobody realise that outside of the hardcore Sonic fanbase, people are barely even aware there is a Sonic 3? The vast majority of people buying these are people with nostalgic memories of the games they played when they were younger.

The original Sonic was a big sensation. Sonic 2 was bundled with the system. Everyone with a Mega Drive played these. "Oh, I remember this, I played it as a kid. Yeah, it was alright. Sonic 3? There's a Sonic 3?"


The reason a petition for Sonic 3 was always going to fail is the same reason SEGA haven't already released Sonic 3 in some form on mobile, and it's got fuck all to do with the music (that apparently only applies on Thursdays when the moon is waning).

People don't give a shit about Sonic 3.

I'd say people gave even less of a shit about Sonic CD but that was greenlit.

[TheKazeblade]

Yash, on 09 July 2015 - 10:55 PM, said:

I'd say people gave even less of a shit about Sonic CD but that was greenlit.

That was a different situation. S3&K has been ported to almost every system under the sun. CD only had 3 releases: Original Sega CD, Windows 95/98 port, and Gems Collection. It was difficult to port, and when they saw Taxman's PoC, they realized he had saved him the work of doing it themselves.

S3&K doesn't have those things going for it. Genesis/MD emulation is a walk in the park nowadays, 1/2/3 have saturated the market before, with the added misfortune of S3&K selling significantly less than the other two.

Not saying any of these reasons are good reasons for Sega not to take the plunge, but they have a myriad of rationales they could employ as to why they won't.

On the plus side, Taxman's work has provided the best iterations of 3 classic Sonic games, and has opened up doors for him to work on his own IP's and non-Sonic projects, which has me pretty pumped. I'd say that's a pretty good consolation at the end of the day.