How can Sonic sell better?

[Wittymations]

You know, looking back on this thread, it's amazing how fast the mindset changed with Sonic Boom. With posts like this:
 

 

I'm of the opinion that SEGA needs to, or are probably, gonna make some bold moves in the near future.

If not a revamp of the core gameplay (most logically dialing back towards the Adventure/Classics formula), then bigger story and character focus, something that'd grab peoples attention.

 

Well, I hope you guys have a few spare centuries to wait, because the really crappy media and Sonic Team thenselves is not gonna let Sonic be anything except safe.

Don't think anybody really saw this all coming.

I do wonder, really wonder how much this is going to all do. If it really makes it sell better. Apparently history is repeating itself, I was too young to really notice.

I was really curious about Sonic Heroes, it felt like there was more stuff happening in development. It felt like the story was written, then undid to make it more appealing to a casual market, I mean, you had things like the Egg Fleet and all those robots, characters constantly commenting on it. It almost felt like they had a better, more strong story.

 

That lead me to look at Retro's Wiki for Sonic Heroes development, and I found something very, very similar:

 

http://info.sonicretro.org/Game_Development:Sonic_Heroes
 

 

In order to hype up the release and reaffirm Sonic's status in the gaming world, the year of 2003 was called "The Year of Sonic" in numerous interviews across the board. With the premier of the animated series Sonic X, the first McDonalds Happy Meal tie-in in nearly a decade, and the release of multiple Sonic-related titles (including the port of Sonic Adventure and the Game Boy titles Sonic Pinball Party and Sonic Battle) the character of Sonic the Hedgehog was pushed in all corners, something that hadn't been done since the original release of Adventure. To add to the excitement of the new release, a demo of the game was included with some early copies of Mario Kart: Double Dash, hyping the console the game was first developed on. However, Sonic Heroes was only released in Japan that year on December 30th, not seeing western shores until February of 2004 and missing the coveted holiday push altogether, an unforseen delay in production being the cause.

 

 

Yeah... that was... very, very uncanny. Makes it funny since that was about a decade ago. It's like they waited until the 10th anniversary to really get this going.

 

Not too surprising that Heroes and Boom look (at least by first shots) similar, as well as Sonic Adventure.

 

I guess the biggest difference is this isn't getting multiple shoddy ports, this is just getting the two systems (that could be about as bad, really). And Sonic X didn't have a direct connection to any game (aside from the SA1 and SA2 adaption), and this show will (in theory) directly promote Sonic Boom's game, which could spruce up interest.

 

Given this, I hear that Sonic Heroes sold pretty awesomely (which may have hurt it due to the shoddy ports). But if history repeats itself, and this promotion did cause Heroes to sell well, it may do it again -- if the promotion is enough to make people pick up a Wii U or 3DS.

[Milo]

Regarding Heroes's ports, only the PS2 port was the shoddy one. The Xbox and GC versions of the game were fine (though considering the PS2 was the most popular console at the time, I can sorta see what you are getting at).

 

And the 3DS has an already sizable fanbase, so unless the game quality was crappy a la SLW 3DS, I don't see it underperfoming (and even then regarding SLW 3DS, it had the lion's share of sales compared to the Wii U when you put the sales of both versions of SLW together). It's the Wii U/console version in particular that needs promotion/marketing/word-of-mouth/etc. that's strong and/or favorable enough to get people to get a copy (and a Wii U too-if they don't already own one, that is).

[Wittymations]

I thought that Xbox's port was shoddy as well as the Playstation, though the Gamecube was fine, aside from the typical bugs, like in the Special Stage, just Playstation had it the worst.

[Irish David]

This is actually tricker than I first thought and this probably down to the gaming world having a vast array of interests, Sonic has to appeal to a number of gamers whether that be young gamers, teenagers to older folks who have followed him since his creation in 1991 for him and the franchise to become a little more successful.

 

I think SEGA has to use the following method- Keep It Simple, I hate to use Mario as an example but on this occasion I feel I must, his last number of games have been critical successes because they have stuck to the principle of keeping the gameplay simple and making the controls as easy to use, not attempting to change too much and introducing new ideas which keep the game fresh to gamers that have played his previous titles such as the Cat Suit in Super Mario 3D World, Going into Space in Super Mario Galaxy or FLUDD in Super Mario Sunshine. 

 

Sonic Boom is interesting me for a number of different reasons, I think the direction is a bold move by SEGA, from the trailers the gameplay will be interesting but the new direction gives the opportunity to market the brand such as Toys, Stationary, etc. The cartoon is something I am personally looking forward to because I love my animation to bits, again this has big potential to be successful and the fact that Cartoon Network has agreed to take it on a very big sign of progress and I hope this will go across the board in terms of them showing it in the UK and other regions.

 

Sonic has lots of potential to be a force in gaming again, whether that be in his current guise or in Sonic Boom, SEGA just have to in my opinion keep things simple. Just my 2 cents 

[Phos]

Not much has really changed, just since this thread was started Sega has found new and unexpected ways to put off old fans without really attracting new ones.  I still have no idea what they expect to get out of this spin off subfranchise thing they're doing.  

[Salem the Engineer]

With Unleashed, Colors, Generations, and Lost World. I kinda felt that SEGA already knows the identity they wanna give Sonic. Those 4 games I mentioned were very cartoony, and isn't that what Sonic's always been like? A video game that's very cartoony. I hope they keep that way and not have to resort using guns again.

 

I guess they're also trying something new with Boom, and trying to attract an entirely new audience that want more the out of a Sonic game, than what the past 4 had to offer.

 

That's what I think, even though I was kind of off topic.

[SenEDDtor Missile]

Getting a better and more coordinated staff when it comes to directing the game design and narrative direction.

Making more consistently well designed games with a simple to understand, but incredibly involving gameplay style that can work with multiple characters.

Marketing the game better.

Ignoring the dumber critics and not taking their every word as absolute gospel.

Not swinging from one extreme to another whenever stuff doesn't go right.

Better development of existing characters gameplay and character-wise.

Branching out into more mediums???

[Milo]

Bump, because A. whatever responses were made in the post-Boom fallout were wiped and B. I haven't given a serious answer in this thread, so here goes:

 

How can Sonic sell better? Consistently good games supported with consistently good marketing. 

 

In theory, this is the obvious solution. In practice, the franchise has had neither aspects working simultaneously in its favor for a long time, largely because the series is in the hands of people who are incompetent and / or apathetic to the tasks at hand.

 

Having a cohesive direction for the series would also be a great way to maintain good games/good marketing/better sales; but again, not happening because nobody even knows what the series is about anymore to establish a direction, let alone know if the series has a direction anymore.

[Guest]

I think the best way Sonic can sell better nowadays is to stop aiming for the little kids or just kids in general. And aim for the teenagers and college students which are a bigger and better audience to sell your product or game in this case.

Because you'll do better in most likely sells. Because teenagers and college students love to spend there money.

This is not fact, just my opinion.