Sonic is going to bury us all. And probably our children too. If we have children, that is. I know I wont.
I think it'll still be around in some form, but what the form is gonna wildly depend. It's very possible that Sonic could one day end up like Mega Man, which survives solely off merchandise, gacha, and rereleases.
I think Sonic's appeal is down to the appeal of the character itself, more than the quality of any individual product. There are already a couple of generations younger than mine who are still interested in Sonic and grew up on the Adventure or Dark Age stuff. I've mentioned this elsewhere but I'm super hyped to introduce my kids to Sonic. When I think about it, most of the stuff that was popular when I was a kid came from my parents' or grandparents generation. Just look how long Batman has been around. So while I don't think a bump in product quality would hurt, I really doubt Sonic is going anywhere.
'Cause when your time has come and gone I'll be the one to carry on (carry on) And you can throw me to the wolves (throw me to the wolves) 'Cause I am undefeatable I often see kids at the store wearing Sonic shirts. Always makes me smile. He’s never going to end just like many other popular characters. They’re icons.
SEGA were very smart to branch Sonic out into other forms of media. He's kind of transcended from just a video game character and into a media icon in general. There are kids who will be into series like Pokémon, Sonic and even Mario thanks to the movie but have probably never played any of their games. I grew up with the Crash Bandicoot games on PS1 but I can't really see Crash sticking around forever beyond his revival. Crash never branched out to any other forms of media beyond gaming. How long will Sonic last? that all depends on how SEGA play their cards. This franchise has endured so much, sonic kind of feels invincible at this point lol. It's not like The Simpsons, which was also a cultural icon of the 90's but feels a bit like it's in its twilight years now. I could see that series ending soon when one of the main cast retires. We can probably all agree that Mario will be around for decades and I think Sonic will continue to exist in some form, whether that's gaming/TV series/films/pachinko/ice cream popsicle or whatever It's crazy how the series could've actually ended with Sonic Adventure 2. Sonic accomplished so much in his first 10 years and it's amazing to think that the series was only 10 years old at one point. I didn't accomplish shit when I was 10 years old!
There's a very good argument to be made if he'll even be recognisable in a hundred years from what he started at beyond "blue anthro with spikes and red shoes". The games have drastically altered (occasional throwbacks aside) and he's beginning to, as mentioned, be pushed somewhat away from games.
we're coming up pretty close to the 100th anniversary of Steamboat Willie and I'd say Mickey Mouse still looks (mostly) unchanged Spoiler If we're talking purely design wise, I would hope that SEGA are smart enough not to mess around with Sonic's design so much that he becomes un-recognisable in the future. I wouldn't worry about him ever permanently becoming like this lol. Sonic's design is intentionally simple, but not that simple :P
I think its pretty telling that Sega haven't touched the design all that much since 1998. Even Sonic Boom is just a lankier version of the current design with some (unnecessary) accessories, and that only lasted a few years before reverting back to the 1998 design. As questionable as a lot of Sega's decisions can be, I do think they recognize the iconography of Sonic's character design and will not drastically alter it aside from a few updates and art-style changes. They brought back Classic Sonic for a reason, because they recognized that there's still an audience for it, even if the Modern design has been the standard for over two decades now. The sheer negative reaction to the initial movie design should tell you how radically redesigning an iconic character design will go over and they opted for a design that's much closer to the Modern one. So yea, I can't see Sonic looking much different than he currently is in a couple decades from now.
The future is unpredictable, so it’s best to treasure what you can while you can. As for sonic from the corporate side, as long as he makes money and sega doesn’t collapse he’ll be relevant. It’s tough to say, but I know he isn’t going anywhere for at least another 20 years. At least if all the knew kid fans have anything to say about it when their older.
If the 00s couldn’t kill the little blue shit then nothing can. Disney’s complete fucking of IP/copyright laws means SEGA will be making money off of Sonic up until 2091 (assuming they don’t fuck them even further). Media since the turn of the millennium has been very IP driven, so I fully expect Sonic to have a huge cultural cache even if he does go public domain.
Wait, that image is from a video? Ive only ever seen that specific image so i just assumed it was someone's proposed redesign and not much more
Oh, it's so much more, believe me. A nostalgic time capsule of the arrogance some indie developers displayed when the success of super meat boy/braid/fez in the early 2010s pushed them to believe they were the saviours of video games and had to teach the big compagnies how it was done...yep, those were the days. I wonder what Phil Fish is up to nowadays? You can probably find a reupload on youtube (video was called "dear sega" iirc), but the fact it got deleted in the first place should tell you everything you need to know about it, lol
Honestly I just live in a kind of awe that some of the things I grew up with are still around. I think I brought this up before but it blows my mind to be out and about and see a kid wearing a Sonic shirt, or Pokemon getting a Super Bowl ad slot. It is kind of amazing to still be able to get new things for the stuff I liked as a kid. With that in mind I don't really have an answer for "how long will this series live", because it's already surpassed my expectations.
I am not trying to derail this conversation but if I see an opportunity to post this video I will post this video
for some reason i keep thinking the concept of sonic boom as a franchise came to the sega execs as convergent evolution to the seed of that video
