Sonic's Future

[Pkrockinomega]

So with the introduction of Boom out of the way and the last main series game a few months shy of hitting it's second birthday, where do you think Sonic will go as a series after all this? Is your outlook positive? Negative? Indifferent?

I'll start by saying that I'm actually pretty positive on the future potential for the next Sonic game.

Lost World was definitely interesting with how unique it was with it's new movement options and taking a few influences from the Adventure games, but what it mainly suffered from was simply how experimental it was. Due to Sega trying a bunch of new concepts, the game was left unfocused and some mechanics just plain worked better than others. But now that Sega knows what works and what doesn't, it gives me hope that they'll know what direction they should take with the next main series installment, especially after their whole self-revelation thing from working with Atlus, that inspired them to focus more on straight-to-the-point quality. Next year's his 25th anniversary, so I have a feeling that they're going to hold off on announcing the next main-series game until either later this year or early next year.

[NoirSuede]

It feels like a make or break moment for Sonic right now since if either the game or the movie bombs then it's pretty much the end for Sonic and a huge loss for Sega.

[AshGreninJovan]

I hope that Sega would sell Sonic to Nintendo or Sony, and I don't care about Microsoft because Xbox One is so horrible.

[Polkadi~☆]

I hope that Sega would sell Sonic to Nintendo or Sony, and I don't care about Microsoft because Xbox One is so horrible.

Because selling the franchise who's keeping their company relevant and alive sounds like a great idea for Sega.

[blooob]

Because selling the franchise who's keeping their company relevant and alive sounds like a great idea for Sega.

I'm sorry but It seems that Sonic series is not important to Sega as you think. you know that Sonic is not main profit source on Sega games(Not Segasammy). Their main profit source is mobile games now. On topic : It's true that Sega is diminishing their package game part. They are focuing to make mobile games. Considering Sega's business strategy, I think All planned Sonic game will be just another mobile game like Sonic Runners. Iizuka said they won't stop develop console Sonic games. However, he is not CEO, and he is not even director.

[Polkadi~☆]

I'm sorry but It seems that Sonic series is not important to Sega as you think. you know that Sonic is not main profit source on Sega games(Not Segasammy). Their main profit source is mobile games now. On topic : It's true that Sega is diminishing their package game part. They are focuing to make mobile games. Considering Sega's business strategy, I think All planned Sonic game will be just another mobile game like Sonic Runners. Iizuka said they won't stop develop console Sonic games. However, he is not CEO, and he is not even director.

"Not important"? Sonic lead them to fame, and is still a decent moneymaker. Sure, mobile games is Sega's thing now, but remember that Sonic Dash is their best mobile game. So if they lose Sonic, they'll lose that, too. Like I said, Sonic is keeping Sega relevant and alive.

[blooob]

"Not important"? Sonic lead them to fame, and is still a decent moneymaker. Sure, mobile games is Sega's thing now, but remember that Sonic Dash is their best mobile game. So if they lose Sonic, they'll lose that, too. Like I said, Sonic is keeping Sega relevant and alive.

Of course I should respect your opinion. Yeah, Sonic is Sega's symbol. However, losing symbol isn't be significant damage to them, Look at Capcom. They throw out rockman series. However It seems that they didn't take damage because Rockman was not profitable. Also. We don't have proper evidence that Sonic series is still moneymaker So. It's hard to say Sonic is still profitable.. In addition, even Sonic Dash downloaded over 0.1B times. It's hard to say it makes a lot of money. Because It's free-to play game. Most player would follow this sequence. "download > play 1~2 hours > delete" . Plus, they have mobile games, resort, pachinkos, and other things that is more profitable than Sonic Series. Sonic Series is not big moneymaker. It's just Segasammy's one of the minor business So even if they lost Sonic they wouldn't take significant damage (P.S. sorry. Taptalk doesn't support forced linefeed.. )

[Polkadi~☆]

Of course I should respect your opinion. Yeah, Sonic is Sega's symbol. However, losing symbol isn't be significant damage to them, Look at Capcom. They throw out rockman series. However It seems that they didn't take damage because Rockman was not profitable. Also. We don't have proper evidence that Sonic series is still moneymaker So. It's hard to say Sonic is still profitable.. In addition, even Sonic Dash downloaded over 0.1B times. It's hard to say it makes a lot of money. Because It's free-to play game. Most player would follow this sequence. "download > play 1~2 hours > delete" . Plus, they have mobile games, resort, pachinkos, and other things that is more profitable than Sonic Series. Sonic Series is not big moneymaker. It's just Segasammy's one of the minor business So even if they lost Sonic they wouldn't take significant damage (P.S. sorry. Taptalk doesn't support forced linefeed.. )

Mega Man is not Capcom's symbol. Street Fighter is. And Street Fighter is much more profitable than the Mega Man series.

And Free-to-Play games do make money when done right, just as much as freemium games. And if Sonic Dash, Sega's best mobile game, gets 0.1B downloads, then they aren't doing too bad.

Also, Sega Sammy is not the Sega we mean. That's the parent company they belong to. We're talking about it's subsidiary, Sega, which is the company that needs Sonic to keep them afloat.

[sonicDX]

Of course I should respect your opinion. Yeah, Sonic is Sega's symbol. However, losing symbol isn't be significant damage to them, Look at Capcom. They throw out rockman series. However It seems that they didn't take damage because Rockman was not profitable. Also. We don't have proper evidence that Sonic series is still moneymaker So. It's hard to say Sonic is still profitable.. In addition, even Sonic Dash downloaded over 0.1B times. It's hard to say it makes a lot of money. Because It's free-to play game. Most player would follow this sequence. "download > play 1~2 hours > delete" . Plus, they have mobile games, resort, pachinkos, and other things that is more profitable than Sonic Series. Sonic Series is not big moneymaker. It's just Segasammy's one of the minor business So even if they lost Sonic they wouldn't take significant damage (P.S. sorry. Taptalk doesn't support forced linefeed.. )

I think you're new to SEGA and the Sonic series. Sonic is a franchise that has a big and long past, with a lot of games, cartoons, comics and toys. Sonic is may not the 'very-main' moneymaker for SEGA, but it has a very long path behind it, and it would be the greatest loss for SEGA if they'd lose Sonic. Most of the followers of SEGA are following it because of Sonic. This doesn't mean that SEGA hasn't got other important games, but Sonic is one of them.

[blooob]

Mega Man is not Capcom's symbol. Street Fighter is. And Street Fighter is much more profitable than the Mega Man series.

And Free-to-Play games do make money when done right, just as much as freemium games. And if Sonic Dash, Sega's best mobile game, gets 0.1B downloads, then they aren't doing too bad.

Also, Sega Sammy is not the Sega we mean. That's the parent company they belong to. We're talking about it's subsidiary, Sega, which is the company that needs Sonic to keep them afloat.

O.o ???. Why Capcom's symbol is Street fighter?!.. ah. Yeah, Capcom made a lot of great titles. As a result, Many games can be Symbol of Capcom. And.. of course. Puzzle and Dragon is very good example. P&D is downloaded 20~40m times. However, It makes HUGE money(really.. really huge). But I don't think Sonic Dash makes a lot of money even compared to Sega's mobile games According to their presentation. They only earn 10% of total net sales on digital game business from overseas(all countries except japan I mean). It's impossible that they earned huge money from Sonic Dash unless only Sonic Dash released on worldwide. Plus. Why you think Sonic Dash is Sega's best mobile game?. Lastly, you said that Sega is SGamy's subsidiaries. So. Sega sammy has serious influence to Sega. If Sega Sammy ordered to sell Sonic.(just example :)). They should Sell Sonic. That's why I said "Sonic Series is Sega sammy's one of the minor business

[Milo]

If Sonic was no longer financially relevant to Sega, you'd think they would had canned the series a long time ago. There's a reason why Sonic is arguably the only major Sega IP that's older than ten years old that is still being supported; whereas every other major IP has either been restricted to the Japanese market or has been buried outside of the occasional cameo (either it be in a different active IP or in the Sega All-Stars line of games). Even when the sales of Sonic games has been historically been depleting, he's still a cash cow in merchandise, which holds true for all three depictions of the character and his universe (Genesis/Classic, Adventure/Modern, Boom).

So if anyone who seriously thinks Sonic is no longer a relevant moneymaker to Sega...I really don't know what to say.

[Neo_Fire_Sonic]

Unless sonic team, or whoever made the good sonic games, pulls some cool adventure-ish game out of their ass, sonic won't do well, except for in fan-games.

[Johnny Boy]

I'm just hoping the 25th anniversary game is good. If not, then the future is looking bleak for Sonic.

[Phos]

It doesn't look rosy to me.  Does SoJ still make games?  

[Graystripe2000]

 Yeah.

[MightyRay]

I'd like to hope that Sonic Team A will pull out their trump card and get Sonic back into a better state but the odds of that happing isn't looking too good. Fingers crossed maybe?

[Johnny Boy]

I'd like to hope that Sonic Team A will pull out their trump card and get Sonic back into a better state but the odds of that happing isn't looking too good. Fingers crossed maybe?

They've been working on this game for 4 years now. There's no excuse for it not to be good.

[blooob]

They've been working on this game for 4 years now. There's no excuse for it not to be good.

Long development time doesn't ensure a game quality.

[Shaddy Zaphod]

It ensures that a game should be of good quality, though. And it gives reason for people to be optimistic.

Edited August 5, 2015 by Shaddy

[Milo]

It ensures that a game should be of good quality, though. And it gives reason for people to be optimistic.

He has a point though. Duke Nukem Forever spent more than a decade in development hell, and the general consensus on the final product was that it was pretty average and didn't live up to people's expectations. Speaking of which, that's the bigger picture, by the way. If your game is taking a pretty lengthy time to be made, people will be expecting the final product to be good if it's taking such a lengthy time to be produced.

Though it also depends on the quality track record of the franchise's games and/or developer for said expectations to be set, which in Sonic/Sonic Team's case I personally wouldn't hold my breath...

Edited August 5, 2015 by Señor Gabe

[NoirSuede]

He has a point though. Duke Nukem Forever spent more than a decade in development hell, and the general consensus on the final product was that it was pretty average and didn't live up to people's expectations. Speaking of which, that's the bigger picture, by the way. If your game is taking a pretty lengthy time to be made, people will be expecting the final product to be good if it's taking such a lengthy time to be produced.

Though it also depends on the quality track record of the franchise's games and/or developer for said expectations to be set, which in Sonic/Sonic Team's case I personally wouldn't hold my breath...

Well the problem with DNF (lol racing joke) was that 3D Realms kept going "hmmm this isn't a shining beacon of game design let's scrap it" whenever they even managed to finish a level, while Sonic Team took so long because obviously they had to learn how the 8th gen consoles work and also figure out a formula that can somehow make every game critic that isn't PC Gamer go "Aww this game is a shining beacon of game design Sonic doesn't suck anymore !"

[Milo]

Well the problem with DNF (lol racing joke) was that 3D Realms kept going "hmmm this isn't a shining beacon of game design let's scrap it" whenever they even managed to finish a level, while Sonic Team took so long because obviously they had to learn how the 8th gen consoles work and also figure out a formula that can somehow make every game critic that isn't PC Gamer go "Aww this game is a shining beacon of game design Sonic doesn't suck anymore !"

I was only using DNF as an example that long development time =/= good game. That and where are you getting all of this stuff about Sonic Team from? We don't know what goes on within Sonic Team; unless you have proof of any of these statements, it's all speculation on your part.

Edited August 5, 2015 by Señor Gabe

[NoirSuede]

I was only using DNF as an example that long development time =/= good game. That and where are you getting all of this stuff about Sonic Team from? We don't know what goes on within Sonic Team, unless you have proof of this, it's all speculation on your part.

Well it's mostly just logic, the 25th anniversary Sonic game is obivously gonna be released for the 8th gen consoles, and since Sonic Team has never made a game for PS4/XBONE they obivously gotta learn their quirks first if they're gonna work with them.

[Milo]

Well it's mostly just logic, the 25th anniversary Sonic game is obivously gonna be released for the 8th gen consoles, and since Sonic Team has never made a game for PS4/XBONE they obivously gotta learn their quirks first if they're gonna work with them.

We don't even know if there will be a 25th anniversary game next year.

...granted, it is a safe assumption to make, I'll give you that, but you never really know with Sonic Team/Sega...

Edited August 5, 2015 by Señor Gabe

[AshGreninJovan]

Speaking of which, what kind of presents will Sumo Digital give us in Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing's 6th Anniversary?

So, only Disney Infinity 3.0 that they gave us this year. Sucks. I hate Disney Infinity.