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Is there Room Enough for Two?


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It is too early to tell since Sega is one unpredictable company however at least for now, both Boom and Modern Sonic will work together catering different demographics (that can also relate). As for in the future, not sure.

 

Sonic Boom so far has a game in development, 52 short episodes (say 26 episodes overall since a majority of cartoons are 22 minutes in length) and merchandise. Now they can be more Sonic Boom based games depending on the success on the first game as well as any spinoffs that can happen, however in terms of the cartoon side it will probably finish since cartoons (excluding long runners such as Simpsons) have a finite life span and at the moment lucky to get more than one season. At least the animated series will get DVDs or even Blu-rays if it is like the other Sonic animated projects. I'm sure toy makers will release a bunch of toys relating to Boom from launch to a few years time. I'm also sure that after the game and the cartoon are finished, Archie will start (or continue if they already started) a Sonic Boom comic and will work on it until interest dies. So even if Sonic Boom is the only game, there will be a couple of things to keep interest.

 

There have been different takes of Sonic in the past such as the various cartoons, comics and stuff like the OVA however probably the closest that Sonic Boom has in terms of another side line series is the Sega of America one from the early 90s (the one that SatAM and Archie comics follow with Sally, Bunnie, Antoine). That one had from my faulty memory a fanbase divide in the early 00s from the SegaSonic fans who were looking forward to the Adventure/Heroes games and the Sega of America fans who would rather watch SatAM on tape and read the comics, both sides had different character designs (SoA was sort of Classic Sonic but was changed to Modern in the Archie comics, SegaSonic was Adventure era Modern Sonic at the time), SoA side did have a game that was made in the US that had the characters (Sonic Spinball, there would have also been a tie-in game if Yuji Naka didn't say no), both had merchandise and both felt conflicted on which one was better (there were some who liked both though). Currently, the only remains of this series is in the Archie comics and even then the characters are mostly redesigned plus the tone has changed a bit. So far it does seem already that people are favouring one over the other with some preferring Boom while others prefer Modern Sonic.

 

Modern Sonic "SegaSonic" won't disappear since despite Sonic Boom is a Western take of the series, the game and the show won't be aired in Japan. So what does that leave Sega of Japan, Sonic Team and any Japanese fans of the series? It will most likely continue as normal and from what little knowledge that I have regarding Japanese business ethics, Japanese can be proud of their work and since Sega and Sonic Team are both Japanese companies [one being the publisher, the other being the developer] Sonic the character will be the same or similar unless they decide to redesign it and the games will be continued even if they need a bit more time. Besides doesn't Sega of Japan and Sonic Team have the highest position regarding the character? If Sonic Boom gets really popular and the Modern Sonic games flop, Sega of Japan/Sonic Team can have the right to reject any decision like how Yuji Naka rejected the decision for Sega Technical Institute to use the NiGHTS engine in Sonic Xtreme or how he rejected the SatAM spinoff game and possibly causing tension between the two sides like the mid 90s. Hopefully it wouldn't come to that but as a saying goes history can repeat itself. Unless Sega of Japan give all responsibility of the Sonic series to Sega of America (doubt since Sonic Team is in charge, even in Boom to a degree like with the trousers), Modern Sonic is seen as the main series while Boom is the spinoff.

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In all likelihood. We've established SEGA Japan has a delicate ego, but they also hold the reins of power and so I'm not seeing Sonic going away on that front alone. Unless there was a HUGE shift in management recently I doubt much will change.

I'm just hopeful SEGA Japan won't smother Boom out of spite, and instead channel their jealousy of its success towards improving the quality of their own work instead.

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I can't see SEGA Sonic disappearing completely, but I can see Boom Sonic replacing Modern Sonic, with Sonic Team officially reviving Classic Sonic.

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To me, this isn't really even about the designs, it's about the facts that lie behind it.

 

All these redesigns and shit are doing is the same thing every fucking Sonic game since Heroes has tried to do: Bring a "Fresh" and "exciting" new experience to the franchise, when usually it just ends up as tangential bullshit from something previously that could have been built upon.

 

And when they decided to do that they chose to do it with the most bottom-of-the-barrel horseshit bland mechanics we call the boost games.

 

They've had all these good ideas and just fucking gave up on them before they even did anything with them. I wouldn't be surprised if this game takes off well and they mistake it as a sign that they should take some more shitty risks. Get ready for the next game to be more of the same old goddamn horseshit you know and love, regardless of how well this does.

 

To be fair, Sonic Team aren't the ones developing this game, so the likelihood that the next game is horseshit is less likely, although still a distinct possibility.

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I can't see SEGA Sonic disappearing completely, but I can see Boom Sonic replacing Modern Sonic, with Sonic Team officially reviving Classic Sonic.

This makes me wish they'd have a Sonic 5 spinoff that wouldn't suck.

Then again, if made by a Sonic Team that has the threat of being laid off breathing down their neck in the wake of Boom's success... it very well could be a good title.

I think SEGA issued a statement a while back they had no plans for the Classic design and that Modern was here to stay, however; it explains the odd choice of Modern Sonic for Sonic 4 despite it taking place after Sonic and Knuckles.

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As it's already been answered as to "can they co-exist," I suppose all I've left to discuss with is "will they." Short answer yes. Long answer yesssss. At least, as long as Boom lasts.

 

Boom is, in a sense, too big to truly fail by this point. People already bought Sonic things, this is just more incentive to. Whether or not the media aspect fails doesn't really affect the situation too badly, as it really only has room to go up. People are talking about and are interested in a Sonic series again. That's a nice shot in the arm after Lost World failed to make a good impression. I don't think Sega honestly cares whether Boom lives or dies once the show's concluded and contracts are fulfilled; it's just a matter of jump-starting brand interest for the short term. The minor instances of brand-confusion this causes (Boom or Sega Sonic?) are a sort of necessary evil.

 

Sega Sonic is also just not going anywhere. I can't imagine that a series that releases multiple games a year in various states of continuity would suddenly cease to do so because one is more popular than the other. Money is money, and big corporations want more where they can get it. No Sega I know would give up on playing to people's nostalgia. Older always beats out younger in a long-running franchise unless you're a comic book; not because of quality or anything, but because there will always be a magic to the franchises roots that brought people to begin with and will continue to once the new entry has gone. Sherlock BBC is an excellent and popular series, but it has no chance of ousting the original Great Detective even with all the most awful slash fan-fiction in the world. In a similar way, Sega Sonic has a leg up on Boom no matter how great Boom is. That same thing that enchanted people about Sonic to begin with will still be there once Boom's been cancelled, and it will be sooner or later.

 

I mean, I know Sega can be incompetent, but give them a little slack here. They've kept this series up for twenty years, there must be something in it that keeps people coming back.

 

/awful disconbobulated tired rant over

 

QFT. I think Soma's right on mark with everything he said; I really couldn't say it better.

 

And even if Sega were to view it like "whichever one is least successful we don't continue on", it wouldn't happen during the span of one game made by another company compared to the direct next one made by the long-running one. There'd easily be one or two games past then before they make any sort of official decision to shut one or the other down.

 

But I don't think that would happen. Sonic Boom will cater to the younger crowd (as well as some veteran fans), and Sega!Sonic will continue being as iconic as it's always been to both the "everyone" category and the gamer crowd. While the former thrives in it's productivity with television, toys and side-games, the latter does what it's always done, but this time without the pressure of splitting teams to as large of an extent, plus not having to go out of their way so much to coo kids into being interested, so they could rather just work on making a better game overall. Everyone wins.

 

also hi guys i return from my two day break

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Keep in mind, SEGA isn't 1 being but 3. SEGA of America and Europe is the one handling Boom while SEGA of Japan handles complete control of the franchise. a complete series reboot/replacement order would have to come from SoJ themselves and seeing as they are keeping Sonic Boom away with a 100,000 mile pole they arn't too likely to give that order anytime soon and in reality in order for a full franchise replacement to happen Boom!Sonic would have to be very popular in Japan.

All that happened was that SoJ gave a piece of the franchise back to SoA and SoE to do what they want with it (probably after all the complaints from international fans and begging from SoA and SoE), they otherwise have no real power to say what does happen with SEGA!Sonic which is a good thing because if SoA and SoE had any sort of complete control of the franchise SEGA!Sonic would've died off ages ago for some wild and crazy idea that probably wouldn't have panned out. SoA and SoE are lesser branches after all, they have to listen to whatever SoJ has to say.

Sonic Boom is just a chance for SoA and SoE to prove themselves again after they got their power ripped away from them in the late 90s. I see it as if Boom!Sonic survives then its SEGA of America and Europe' property to do what they see fit with their own version of Sonic. SEGA!Sonic is never going away so long as SoJ is in total power of SEGA itself and the franchise.

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These thoughts were what my brain immediately jumped to... but er, isn't kind of premature to assume what will happen? With either franchise?

 

Jussayin'.... yknow...

 

*saunters off, whistling*

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Felt this was related. Honestly I'd be totally fine if this is how they implement it! Would make for nice cross universe adventures!

 

1392020920011.png

Come to think of it, if time travel for this case works like how time travel did in the J.J. Abrams Star Trek, wherein there existed both the current Spock and the future Spock from a different continuity, then yes, this could very well work.

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Felt this was related. Honestly I'd be totally fine if this is how they implement it! Would make for nice cross universe adventures!

 

1392020920011.png

 

The only problem I have with this theory is this.

 

It's a Sonic game.

 

If Sonic ended up having as it's reason for Boom (story wise) I can see a lot of people getting confused very quickly.  Yeah the Sonic fans that have been around for a long time will get it but newcomers (I.E. Sonic Booms main focus ATM) won't be able to get it.

 

The reason why Star Trek can get away with this is not only because it invented many of the time travel and inner dimensional stuff and because the target audience was young adults and adults.

 

Remember Sonic is a game series about a blue anthropomorphic hedgehog who can run really fast and has a fox with two tails for a best friend.  Time travel and dimension shift (story wise) won't work with it.  But since these games are both going to be separate canons I will probably live with it.

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Yeah, it's best to not intertwine the two.

 

Not just for complication-related purposes regarding the demographic (Zelda sort of proves against this but Zelda is a LOT more 'everyone'-centric so there's that), but because like Archie!Sonic, it's a bit too different to really fit in and so it does fine being on it's own branch where there's no mess between the three.

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I think the greatest plot connection we'd ever see would be Word of God and seldom anything in the actual titles.

The main reason there's some concern over how the two branches will pan out is Sonic never really had two story-based branches going on before. There's been lots of spinoffs, but they all tended to have no story and so didn't really clash with the established continuity. This, if it's a "sub branch," isn't going to stop at one game and will actually coexist with Sega Sonic.

Two cartoons have coexisted peacefully before, as have two comic books. I think two game timelines could do the same.

Never mind for reasons mentioned Sega Sonic would never go away simply because that's SEGA Japan's pet timeline. I mean, consider that even though Sonic's not that popular in Japan, SEGA still has a great deal of Sonic fanfare there. I think it's more sentimental than financial in origin.

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The only problem I have with this theory is this.

It's a Sonic game.

If Sonic ended up having as it's reason for Boom (story wise) I can see a lot of people getting confused very quickly. Yeah the Sonic fans that have been around for a long time will get it but newcomers (I.E. Sonic Booms main focus ATM) won't be able to get it.

The reason why Star Trek can get away with this is not only because it invented many of the time travel and inner dimensional stuff and because the target audience was young adults and adults.

Remember Sonic is a game series about a blue anthropomorphic hedgehog who can run really fast and has a fox with two tails for a best friend. Time travel and dimension shift (story wise) won't work with it. But since these games are both going to be separate canons I will probably live with it.

... Am I the only one who didn't take the image as anything more than a clever joke? :V

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Its hard to tell what's a joke and what's not lately. Life is confusing now with a new sub-canon, Discoid. The pain is real. :'v nahjkboomfolks

 

But yeah yeah on a serious note related to that. Sega!Sonic owns the video game frontier, Boom!Sonic owns the cartoon frontier, and Archie!Sonic owns the comic book one. Some may dabble in one or the other (Boom with a game series, Archie with SatAM long ago, Sega with CG shorts and comic tie-ins) but they're all seemingly gonna sit neatly in place. Thinking of it like that is pretty cool. I can dig it.

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Its hard to tell what's a joke and what's not lately. Life is confusing now with a new sub-canon, Discoid. The pain is real. :'v nahjkboomfolks

Eh, I think that's over-thinking. How is it confusing anyway? They're two different canons and continuities, plain and simple.

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Overall I think it's just a case of there never having been two game timelines before so it seems kind of weird. I imagine it will be fine, however.

Even if SEGA's massive push does come off almost like a soft reboot, though that really could just be them hoping to have Boom make waves and redeem the franchise in the eyes of those who have viewed it with such scorn. Success of the Boom brand could lead to the success of the game brand.

SEGA does not have issues with cross-promotion... far from it. They've been trying to get people who like the Archie comics or games to like the other for quite a while. One of the freebies at Sonic Boom 2012 was an Archie comic book, and I wouldn't be surprised if the game adaptions the comic books run sometimes come from above.

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Personally, I would want the main series and Boom to coexist. I think they can, and I'm not too worried as long as Sonic itself goes on.

 

If Boom does end up overshadowing the main series to the point of replacing it, however, then if nothing else, I'd want the main games to end on a high note.

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Go figure I was listening to the "Last Scene" track from Sonic Adventure 2 upon reading that post.

Now I'm imagining them actually writing up a good conclusion to epilogue SEGA Sonic...

Fortunately the mere fact SEGA Sonic is of Japanese origin means he won't be going away barring a sudden shift in SEGA ownership.

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Go figure I was listen to the "Last Scene" track from Sonic Adventure 2 upon reading that post.

Now I'm imagining them actually writing up a good conclusion to epilogue SEGA Sonic...

Fortunately the mere fact SEGA Sonic is of Japanese origin means he won't be going away barring a sudden shift in SEGA ownership.

I'd like them to create a game which resolves a number of plotholes and makes the games tie together properly. Not an Epilogue to the series, though, but something to allow the games to continuity and still indicate that they are connected properly.

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That would be nice indeed.

I was moreso responding to SurrealBrain's post, however. If Hell froze over and SEGA did can the Sega Sonic continuity, I'd be hopeful they'd at least give it a dignified send off rather than just dropping it and letting no mention ever be made of it again.

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Something they could do in Sonic Boom to establish that there is more than one Sonic.
They could have Sonic Boom Sonic and friends see a vision of the mane Sonic time line.
OR
Blaze the Cat could show up in Sonic Boom.
She discovers that the Sonic she finds is not the sonic she knows, and explains about the other Sonic.

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I'm about to say something that maybe some of u will not agree on.

 

I really like the fact that the Sonic Franchise can open up to multiple universes and iterations, and I'm sure that they can co exist pretty well together.

 

I'd like to see even another Sonic series right now, which would be a Classic Sonic sub series, developed by DIMPS or another developer.

This way we can have Classic Sonic back (as well as other characters), with a new 2D experience resembling the classic titles, to be targeted to a young crowd, and it beeing a multiplatform downlodable game (including iOS/Android). This way we can have a deliberatley light plot, something like Rayman Origins

 

The Main Sonic Team Sonic series should take a fresh start with the 25th anniversary game, change some elements and go back to a full 3D Adventure with a plot  and a feeling like the first Sonic Adventure, and re-introduce a few more playable characters. This way we can have a proper 3D Sonic experience made in Japan (XboxONE and PS4 Exclusive), with a more serious and interesting plot (not like SA2 and 06 though). I would like to see just a little re-design of the main characters too (not as drastic as Boom of course). A Re-telling of the Adventure games' story would be really appreciated, as well as a re-introduction of characters like Silver and Blaze in a proper way. This series, the main one, should aim at a more mature audience.

 

Then we have the Sonic Boom series, which is an All Around in terms of target, and the gameplay is more accessible to non-Sonic fans too, while it being still full of Sonic-y elements. The very nature of the cartoon will gather a lot more interest from younger kids and parents too. After the first one, I'd like the series to become multiplatform too

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