CONFIRMED - Yoshihisa Hashimoto has left Sonic Team for Square-Enix

[Mike]

Instead of wondering what'll happen to Sonic Team what do you think Hashimoto will be working on over at SE? You know, if it's true.

Sonic Hearts with Nomura doing the character design? I can see it now! Belts, zippers and teen angst everywhere! Also, Flyboy you might get your wish. D:

[SefHighwind]

Instead of wondering what'll happen to Sonic Team what do you think Hashimoto will be working on over at SE? You know, if it's true.

Sonic Hearts with Nomura doing the character design? I can see it now! Belts, zippers and teen angst everywhere! Also, Flyboy you might get your wish. D:

Man that would be interesting to see. Just imagine Sonic with an organization jacket on..... actually that would look pretty badass.

I'm kind of glad that Sonic Team is starting to break apart because some of their recent work has been kind of crap. I did love Unleashed for all of the Sonic stages, but I haven't touched a single Werehog level since I beat the game. I think Sonic did better with other companies taking hold (especially Backbone Entertainment in my opinion).

[Flyboy Fox]

Also, Flyboy you might get your wish. D:

Ahahaha. Sorry, I just found it funny how you put "brotherly" and still had to qualify it with "(not gay)". That's the only reason I mentioned it I don't actually want a make-out scene in an actual Sonic game, despite being a Sontails fans. I like to keep my games romance-free

[Phos]

Personally, I would have liked it if Sachiko Kawamura left. I hate her charactrer art direction. Hashimoto and Kawamura were responsible for introducing the werehog. But I don't think it's really all their fault. I blame the gameplay programmers for not going over the edge in making the werehog actually... well, fun.

I'm not sure what other duties Hashimoto did. He gets props for finally leading an original, powerful engine, instead of that RenderWare garbage. I just don't like how he okayed the flow of the game. I'd like to see Iizuka direct. Just to see what he can do again without being stuck on a low budget game, like he has been for the past 4 or 5 years. He's more experienced than any of the other directors.

Iizuka has proven time and time again that be can't make a good game to save his life. NiGHTS Wii was doomed from day 1, a five year development cycle wouldn't have saved that mess.

[Mike]

Man that would be interesting to see. Just imagine Sonic with an organization jacket on..... actually that would look pretty badass.

I'm kind of glad that Sonic Team is starting to break apart because some of their recent work has been kind of crap. I did love Unleashed for all of the Sonic stages, but I haven't touched a single Werehog level since I beat the game. I think Sonic did better with other companies taking hold (especially Backbone Entertainment in my opinion).

I wouldn't know about Backbone, never played the Rivals games. I just don't wanna buy a PSP for those two games plus God of War and Crisis Core. There's really not alot to choose from.

[PSI Wind]

As soon as Sonic 06 was released and was terrible, SEGA & Sonic Team have made better games than before. First was SATSR, then Sonic Rush Adventure, then Unleashed, and finally(I love this game so if you hate it, fine) S&TBK. This is true also. TSSZ already posted it.

Oh, and who ever did Heroes, do the next game, please.

[Ferno]

As soon as Sonic 06 was released and was terrible, SEGA & Sonic Team have made better games than before. First was SATSR, then Sonic Rush Adventure, then Unleashed, and finally(I love this game so if you hate it, fine) S&TBK. This is true also. TSSZ already posted it.

Oh, and who ever did Heroes, do the next game, please.

Oooh Snapplez, say it ain't so...<=(

Lets hope the next game can still be good without Hashimoto, after all, there are a bunch of fresh young people working at Sonic Team now.

Edited July 8, 2009 by Inferno

[HunterTSF]

As soon as Sonic 06 was released and was terrible, SEGA & Sonic Team have made better games than before. First was SATSR, then Sonic Rush Adventure, then Unleashed, and finally(I love this game so if you hate it, fine) S&TBK. This is true also. TSSZ already posted it.

Oh, and who ever did Heroes, do the next game, please.

Takashi Iizuka was the creative director behind Heroes. He also was the creative director of Jam, R, Adventure, Adventure 2, ShTH, Rivals, and Rivals 2 as well as being a senior game designer on S3&K. I definitely wouldn't mind if he was the one behind Sonic's 20th, seeing as I enjoyed a fair share of those games.

[Gatestormer]

Fuck :/

I know it's only rumor but if this true I'll be gutted. I loved Unleashed (360/PS3) and I play it very regularly still. I felt in time he could do fantastic things for Sonic, and from what we've heard of him he sounded really excited to be directing Unleashed and he seemed really enthusiastic about Sonic :/ I'll be surprised if it's true to be honest. I really hope it's false...

[Mike]

Oh, and who ever did Heroes, do the next game, please.

Same style as Heroes, but with the fixed camera of Unleashed? THAT'S JUST CRAZY ENOUGH TO WORK!

Just don't make us play through it 4 times. 2 is good. 3 is pushing it.

[Tombi]

Oooh Snapplez, say it ain't so...<=(

Not to rekindle any Stadium beef with TSSZ, but just because it's on there doesn't mean it's true.

Like I said before, the only proper way we'll know is if one of the two companies announce something about it; and until then it's still just a rumour. I'm still not sure how this managed to start from GoNintendo of all places anyway, since it concerns the 360 and PS3 versions of the game - I'm suprised a "reliable source" would go to them.

[redmenace]

Rumors don't turn my mill, sorry.

[Tristan]

I'm still not sure how this managed to start from GoNintendo of all places anyway

That's because it didn't.

They cited us.

First at TSSZ, Second At ah you know the rest.

I'll repeat briefly what I said over at Retro: I'm not treating the story as rumor, and right now I have no reason to. Square Enix has a rather formidable LinkedIn presence when it comes to other established employees, and from that site and other sources I've obtained a credible, direct E-Mail address for Hashimoto, which I've used to try and get further comment on the matter.

I can understand why others are treating it as a rumor, given our recent blunders, but this looks solid to me.

EDIT/Second Fact Check: I believe Hashimoto served as Director and oversaw *all* console editions of the game, not just 360/PS3.

SECOND EDIT: Neither Sega nor Squeenix would send out a presser about this, especially if this was under...less than ideal circumstances. As good as many may see him regarding Unleashed, he's not one of the founding fathers of gaming, like Yuji Naka or someone of that caliber. Though he means a lot to us, it's no different than changing jobs in any other industry, I'm afraid.

-T

Edited July 8, 2009 by Tristan

[blackherox]

This should come as no surprise, from my understanding, Unleashed was the worst selling primary Sonic game ever. It did "eh" in America and didn't even interrupt the crickets in Japan.

Were did you get this from? Not only have Sonic sales always been ad in japan to start with, but the recent ''top Franchise Sales of 2008'' reports that both Mario and Sonic and Sonic Unleashed had a share in getting Sonic to that 11th. I'm pretty sure Sonic Unleashed on the whole was a pretty profitable game, moreso than a lot of other Sega published titles. If that was the case, why don't Sega fire other directors for other games that haven't done as well in the market (and there quite afew of those games too).

[lounge]

I actually think RenderWare was a lot better than that graphics engine they used for Shadow.

That is true, RenderWare is capable of crisp, clean graphics. They also used it for Secret Rings and Sonic 06. But at the same time, they have to sacrifice many technical capabilities. As said by Iizuka in a Heroes interview. For example, Tetsu Katano (black knight direc.) was the player character programmer and lead programmer for both SA2 and Heroes. Compare the quality of coding of those games. Also, they weren't able to add the awesome spark effect for grinding. RenderWare had a big effect on Heroes programming.

They used an internal engine for Shadow, but the programmers didn't do a good job with it. Pop up. Despite the low quality in texture detail, sometimes environments wouldn't render fast enough. They at least improved on motion blur and VFX.

Which is why props should go to Hashimoto for organizing a group to develop a powerful engine.

[lounge]

I actually think RenderWare was a lot better than that graphics engine they used for Shadow.

That is true, RenderWare is capable of crisp, clean graphics. They also used it for Secret Rings and Sonic 06. But at the same time, they have to sacrifice many technical capabilities. As said by Iizuka in a Heroes interview. For example, Tetsu Katano (black knight direc.) was the player character programmer and lead programmer for both SA2 and Heroes. Compare the quality of coding of those games. Also, they weren't able to add the awesome spark effect for grinding. RenderWare had a big effect on Heroes programming.

They used an internal engine for Shadow, but the programmers didn't do a good job with it. Pop up. Despite the low quality in texture detail, sometimes environments wouldn't render fast enough. They at least improved on motion blur and VFX.

Which is why props should go to Hashimoto for organizing a group to develop a powerful engine.

[Phos]

That is true, RenderWare is capable of crisp, clean graphics. They also used it for Secret Rings and Sonic 06. But at the same time, they have to sacrifice many technical capabilities. As said by Iizuka in a Heroes interview. For example, Tetsu Katano (black knight direc.) was the player character programmer and lead programmer for both SA2 and Heroes. Compare the quality of coding of those games. Also, they weren't able to add the awesome spark effect for grinding. RenderWare had a big effect on Heroes programming.

They used an internal engine for Shadow, but the programmers didn't do a good job with it. Pop up. Despite the low quality in texture detail, sometimes environments wouldn't render fast enough. They at least improved on motion blur and VFX.

Which is why props should go to Hashimoto for organizing a group to develop a powerful engine.

Renderware is just a graphics engine, if they couldn't make the game fun using it, they couldn't make the game fun using something else either. Neither Sonic 06 nor Secret Rings were using renderware, Sonic 06 was using an internally created engine that was intended to have real time day/night cycles, though they never actually finished it. Pop in is caused by the draw distance not being set far enough, it usually means the developers bit off more than they could chew.

[Candescence]

Sonic 06 was using an internally created engine that was intended to have real time day/night cycles, though they never actually finished it.

I have heard suggestions that the day/night cycles were scrapped for plot reasons. Considering the rampant idiocy seen from the game's design (dear lord, a fire pillar in front of a speed pad that is nigh-impossible to avoid was only one of them), it doesn't sound far-fetched. No amount of time could've saved that game.

Edited July 9, 2009 by The Sniper

[Gabz Girl]

If it's true that Hashimoto has left Sonic Team, that is pretty sad. Afterall, Sonic Unleashed was probably one of the best 3D games we've had in ages and was well received by many fans (not alot of critics though X_x).

As for the Hedgehog engine, I'm sure they wouldn't just use it for one game. It's too good, far too good.

[Candescence]

At this point, I'm inclined to agree with Blacklightning. Sonic Team would be better off disbanded and the Sonic series handed off to another SEGA dev.

And the Hedgehog engine was neat, but some parts of it are already outdated. The Global Illumination techniques in the HE are purely pre-calculated. But now there are already complete real-time GI solutions, (seriously, I tried the Lightsprint demo, and it even runs on my crappy laptop!) and hell, a fan-game is doing GI better than Unleashed.

Edited July 9, 2009 by The Sniper

[lounge]

Iizuka has proven time and time again that be can't make a good game to save his life. NiGHTS Wii was doomed from day 1, a five year development cycle wouldn't have saved that mess.

Iizuka is a good director. It's just some of the setbacks he's had with low budget games. NiGHTS JoD was a good game. I think the problem there is some of the game design that he okayed from the other game designers. Such as those children levels. Which weren't fun at all. He said in an interview that the simple platforming and roller coaster levels were for children to enjoy. The problem again, just like the werehog, is that, that part of that gameplay wasn't executed so well. It's playable. But the stages offer no intuitivity or excitement. It's just like, Thank God I never have to play that stage ever. But still, the worlds had a lot of content. As well as raising those chao-like things, and online. I felt they actually did try.

if they couldn't make the game fun using it, they couldn't make the game fun using something else either.

Tetsu made SA2 more fun than Heroes. Sequels are supposed to improve on things. That's the only explanation I can think of, RenderWare. But like you said, it's a graphics engine. Still, RenderWare's selling point was to offer easier solutions to PS2 programming difficulties. So it's possible gameplay suffered because of the multi-platform priorities.

Neither Sonic 06 nor Secret Rings were using renderware

Whoops. I confused the CriWare logo. As soon as I saw Cri, I thought of Criterion Software, the developer of RenderWare. But CriWare is actually CRI middelware.

[Candescence]

Still, RenderWare's selling point was to offer easier solutions to PS2 programming difficulties.

How ironic, the PS2 version of Heroes was actually the worst.

[lounge]

How ironic, the PS2 version of Heroes was actually the worst.

That's the best they could do. Imagine how terrible the PS2 port would have been without Renderware.

[Solly]

This isn't really a big surprise- the dev teams that work on the games change constantly. I wasn't seriously expecting the same team to do another one.

At this point, I'm inclined to agree with Blacklightning. Sonic Team would be better off disbanded and the Sonic series handed off to another SEGA dev.

I agree.

And the Hedgehog engine was neat, but some parts of it are already outdated. The Global Illumination techniques in the HE are purely pre-calculated. But now there are already complete real-time GI solutions, (seriously, I tried the Lightsprint demo, and it even runs on my crappy laptop!) and hell, a fan-game is doing GI better than Unleashed.

I've probably said it before, but I'll say it again- running GI in a demo is a bit different than running it in a game in such a huge environment at a very fast rate. Even if it's pre-calculated. Speaking of which, the fan-game GI is also part way pre-calculated as well, so I wouldn't exactly say it "does it better than Unleashed".

[Candescence]

I've probably said it before, but I'll say it again- running GI in a demo is a bit different than running it in a game in such a huge environment at a very fast rate. Even if it's pre-calculated. Speaking of which, the fan-game GI is also part way pre-calculated as well, so I wouldn't exactly say it "does it better than Unleashed".

I said "better", I know Attitude has a BIT of pre-calculated stuff (almost none, in fact, though I should've noted it), but that's a vast improvement over the HE's smoke and mirrors that only serve to take up copious amounts of space on the disk. The Lightsprint demo itself was using rather high-quality models, and it's been licensed for the gorgeous-looking LA Noire and Capcom's Dark Void. The demo itself has broken the 1000 FPS barrier, which means that the current-gen consoles can use the tech.

Edited July 9, 2009 by The Sniper