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

At the time of the game's release, console gaming had really taken center stage. PC ports for titles started to become an afterthought, so they didn't do it then.
The reason they don't do it now is because it's just not a viable thing to do, Sega probably believes that it's not economically viable to do so.

 

PC ports were also an afterthought when Kingdom Hearts 2 came out. But that's seen a port too.

Maybe Sega are just cheap. Gives Forces a pitiful burget, license a Colours port to a cheap 3rd party, commission some cheap ports of the Classic games, a few cheap animated shorts to promote it all, the whole franchise just reeks of austerity.

 

Kingdom Hearts series was ported because Epic Games saw potential in getting it on their store and basically bought them. They've apparently said that had Epic not asked for it, they wouldn't have been on PC at all.

Maybe campaigning towards Epic for Sonic Unleashed PC through them could work, who knows.

 

I'm confused, if financial/commercial/critical failure prevented SEGA from porting Unleashed, why did we get a Lost Worlds PC port? I didn't think that game did all that well all things considered, and it was on a console that was considered a failure too. Just my two cents.

 

What I said earlier:

 

A better use of this desire at this point would be to ask for enhancements to the Xbox version to further gauge interest. It's already on one modern platform because of backwards compatibility. The work required for publishing and coding for other platforms isn't worth it to them, apparently. Editing the code to be enhanced would be significantly cheaper. Generations got a 4K upgrade a few years ago, with seemingly little fuss. I imagine with enough persuasion, this would be an easier thing to move Sega on than a full on remaster at the moment.

 

Not going to lie, I was still on page one when I wrote my comment.

 

I'd wager that there's just not enough people who'd be interested in an Unleashed PC port to make it worth going through the trouble to program it. Gamers haven't gotten any less critical in the days since the original was released, and I imagine there'd need to be some major overhauls done to it in order to avoid the rerelease getting the same backlash the original received (I can't say for certain what all it would need as I've only ever MAYBE played a few minutes of it on a Wal Mart kiosk or something). And honestly why would they go through all that, when that time and money could be used to just drum up something new and (possibly) better? I understand that Unleashed has its fans, but when you consider the company we're talking about (and the franchise we're talking about...), cult followings just don't pay the bills so to speak.

 

I was talking about this on SSMB, but I can't see why we don't do big game collections anymore. If you bundle SA1, 2, Heroes, Shadow, 06, and Unleashed together, then even though two-thirds of those games are trash (I'll let you figure out which ones yourselves) they're coupled with the ones people still like, which can be at the forefront of advertising, and any reminders that some of them suck can be dismissed with the fact that it's preserving the franchise's history. Players who like any of the games there get the games they wanted and can ignore the ones they don't, and the hardcore community that plays everything no matter how shit gets some new toys to play and compare with. I know that someone wants to try and stitch all of Shadow's levels and cutscenes into one giant frankenstein playthrough, and it might make forcing down the game's stupider plot points a little easier.

 

...Sonic Origins is a thing, though?

On a more serious note, companies release compilations of things that they think will sell well. There is no way Sega would waste time on Heroes, Shadow, Unleashed, and especially 06. If they were actually inclined to do an Adventure era compilation, it would most likely be just the Adventures, with maybe the Advance games to sweeten the pot.

 

Capcom re-released Mega Man X6 and X7, and everyone is in agreement that those games are burning hot garbage.

Let's break it down assuming Sega aren't gonna touch the Heroes to Black Knight games with a 50ft pole. They're already releasing a compilation with Origins, and they're not gonna invest the money needed to polish Adventure 1 and 2 to the same level of Colours Ultimate so we can discount them. Generations is gonna be outdated cos it doesn't have levels from Lost World, Forces and Rangers (and the aforementioned lack of money means they won't make those levels either). But they also won't re-release Lost World and Forces because they're too recent. And they literally just re-released Colors (unless they come out with some stupid Even More Ultimate edition for PS5 and Xbox Series?)

As for handhelds, Advance's rights are tied up in the death of THQ, Rush/Rush Adventure would be disorienting unless it was remade to be on a single screen, and same for Colors plus brand confusion from them already releasing Colors Ultimate. "Wait, I thought they already released that game?" the average gamer will say. Generations 3DS has the same issue as its console counterpart, and the less said about Lost World 3DS, the better. (I'd speculate that potential royalties issues with the original developers Dimps must also be hindering re-release efforts somehow.)

Theres nothing left to rerelease unless Sega dives into the quote unquote "dark age". They might get one more compilation out of Game Gear games and spinoffs, but thats it. What else after that? Sonic Schoolhouse?

 

They aren't gonna polish SA1 and 2 because they're making remakes of them of course

 

They also re-released the original Devil May Cry trilogy in HD, even though no one in their right mind would want to play the second game.
Shit, they re-released DMC2 standalone on the Switch lol.

Companies WILL re-release poorly received games for the sake of a complete library.

 

But Capcom did do this with DMC2 tho, that's what my whole point was about really.
I mean Capcom isn't Sega of course but there's definitely a precedent.

 

Well again I was coming from a thread where people were frankly way too upset that Colors got a rerelease over Unleashed, in a way that was only slightly more embarrassing than this thread. I was just saying I think if we're gonna ask for crappy games to get a rerelease, the best way is to bundle them with good games.

 

yeah bundle Sonic Generations with Sonic Forces. They're basically the same game anyway.

 

You can actually already do this in Shadow, but you have to unlock Expert mode, and it's just "get to the end" for every level IIRC, none of the other missions.

As for re-releases, the only one I can see making sense would be a duo of not-fucked-up (tall order, I know, legitimately) ports of SA1 and 2. Those are the only pre-2010 games with enough nostalgia behind them to justify the work. Everything is either a spinoff, infamously terrible, or just not nostalgic enough.

...but SA1 and 2 are also prime candidates for full-blown remakes, so I'd expect those over ports.

 

Is a future port of Unleashed really that unbelievable? Of course they're going to port a successful game that's stuck on Wii first. But that doesn't mean they will never decide to port more. I'm pretty sure a Sega representative said they were going to start putting more effort towards PC ports a while back (can't remember who), and I see no reason why that wouldn't apply to more 3D Sonic games eventually.

I think '06 and the storybook games have a fairly high chance of being neglected here, but ports of games like Heroes and Unleashed seem plausible to me.

Though I do hope they would properly remaster the Adventure games first if I'm being honest.