Sega Plans 2015 - Service Games Games

[Detective Shadzter]

This is interesting. This time round SEGA Europe is publishing, while Nintendo of Europe will be in charge of sales, marketing and distribution. Says it's released in Europe this Winter.

https://www.nintendo.co.uk/News/2015/June/Sonic-races-to-Nintendo-3DS-in-Sonic-Boom-Fire-Ice-1023468.html

[Salamander]

Must say, I feel for the PC, Xbox and PlayStation Sonic fans, who must be pissed. Even after the exclusivity deal, Nintendo fans are getting another two games :/ If a game is released on non-Nintendo systems late next year and you don't count S&ASRT, then it'll have been four and half years without a Sonic game on non-Nintendo systems.

 

I think it just so happens that the two spin-off series they have going at the moment are both exclusive to Nintendo platforms; they could just as easily have been, say, Microsoft-exclusive (Kinect Free Riders series, for example) or Playstation exclusive (Vita Rivals series).  I also have a suspicion that Runners probably counts and has therefore interrupted the Nintendo-exclusive sequence.  Added to that, RoL was planned to be multiplatform, so that's the only real anomaly...

 

To me, the real question isn't "Why are they continuing with Nintendo exclusivity," since these titles would have been Nintendo-exclusive no matter what else was going on; the real question is, "Where is the next main game?"  I'm suspicious of this hypothetical three-year development of a mainline Sonic game which they've apparently taken a break from to produce Runners.

[Komodin]

Must say, I feel for the PC, Xbox and PlayStation Sonic fans, who must be pissed. Even after the exclusivity deal, Nintendo fans are getting another two games :/ If a game is released on non-Nintendo systems late next year and you don't count S&ASRT, then it'll have been four and half years without a Sonic game on non-Nintendo systems.

 

Considering those very games that we Nintendo guys got with that exclusivity deal, I think the non-guys got off a bit lucky.

[Tani Coyote]

Why do I get the feeling that Nintendo gave SEGA another bag of money for Fire and Ice...

This game very well might be pure profit if so.

[Milo]

I think it just so happens that the two spin-off series they have going at the moment are both exclusive to Nintendo platforms; they could just as easily have been, say, Microsoft-exclusive (Kinect Free Riders series, for example) or Playstation exclusive (Vita Rivals series).  I also have a suspicion that Runners probably counts and has therefore interrupted the Nintendo-exclusive sequence.  Added to that, RoL was planned to be multiplatform, so that's the only real anomaly...

 

To me, the real question isn't "Why are they continuing with Nintendo exclusivity," since these titles would have been Nintendo-exclusive no matter what else was going on; the real question is, "Where is the next main game?"  I'm suspicious of this hypothetical three-year development of a mainline Sonic game which they've apparently taken a break from to produce Runners.

 

Actually, Rivals was exclusive to the PSP, not the Vita. Vita hasn't received any Sonic games at all (for obvious reasons).

 

As for the development time for the next mainline Sonic game, it's also worth noting that the Unleashed team still hasn't made anything since Generations. So if the next console Sonic game is from them, it would be a five-year development period. Personally I'm hoping after Lost World, both the Unleashed and Storybook groups has been restructured back into one singular team again. History dictates that Sonic Team's management over the years can't control multiple teams and get them to consistently produce good games (concerning both the current Unleashed team / Storybook team split as well as the Sonic Team Japan / Sonic Team USA split of the early-late 2000s).

[Salamander]

I know Rivals hasn't been on Vita, but if it had continued I assume it'd be a Vita series right now.  Purely examples.  Good point about Generations, though, I just flat-out forgot that it had been out for even longer than I thought; in my head it came out in 2012.  This is a very long time not to have heard from the main Sonic development team and I don't know if I buy that they have been working on something this entire time.

[Tenko]

I wonder if what they have been working on was always intended to be the next anniversary game, or if its been delayed or pushed back for various reasons and was intended to be out sooner?

I realize the likelihood of Boom being that factor is pretty slim, as Sega Japan probably wouldn't let Sega America projects dictate when their games could be released. But what with Izuka and Sega Japan taking a somewhat small interest in Boom and being that Japan were used to bounce ideas off etc, as well as it ending up getting a Japanese release ala Sonic Toon it makes me wonder of the next game could well be finished by now but being held back till Boom and its planned titles for 2014/2015 were out to market so as not to saturate said market with Sonic games. That was one of their key points back when they remodeled their practices, trying not to saturate the market with a single brand after all.

[Hero of Legend]

This is interesting. This time round SEGA Europe is publishing, while Nintendo of Europe will be in charge of sales, marketing and distribution. Says it's released in Europe this Winter.

https://www.nintendo.co.uk/News/2015/June/Sonic-races-to-Nintendo-3DS-in-Sonic-Boom-Fire-Ice-1023468.html

[goku262002]

Ohhhh!!! 

 

 

That is official! From Vegas Licensing Expo.

Whats SOE doing at an american event first of all?

And second thats got to be 1 of the best Sonic mascot costumes I've seen from Sega, props for that.

[Tani Coyote]

Whats SOE doing at an american event first of all?

And second thats got to be 1 of the best Sonic mascot costumes I've seen from Sega, props for that.

 

I don't know if the suit is SEGA of Europe's; I presume it's America's.

 

But it would make sense for SOE to be at this event, since it is a licensing expo. That way a person can secure licenses on both sides of the ocean all at once.

 

When we look at the trainwreck the Boom initiative underwent in getting merchandise and the cartoon in different territories... keeping all the different regional reps in one area has perks.

[ChikaBoing]

http://recruit.sega.jp/fresh2016/

 

SEGA Japan is hiring! Nothing more that that, other than the neat site design I guess. 

[Tani Coyote]

Huh, I wonder if they laid off any particular people or if they're just expanding.

[blooob]

http://recruit.sega.jp/fresh2016/

SEGA Japan is hiring! Nothing more that that, other than the neat site design I guess.

Oh.. if they have deficit of management resources. Why they fired many skilled (?) employees?

[ChikaBoing]

Well any japanese gaming company has the annual recruitment, that may involve the employee getting a producer and director role 10 years from now (unlike the part-time recruitments), well from what I have researched from Sega anway. The director of Sonic Generations was someone who joined as a designer in 2004. 

[Badnik Mechanic]

Oh man... I really wish you had gone now.... As I predicted, there's barely any photos or coverage at all of the booth... however this photo caught my eye.

 

Look to the left of the image.

 

 

Product information booklets, looks like they have different content/covers(?). 

 

what looks like some kind of release schedule(?) sign, (top ends with 'ARY,' only so many words that could be which would make sense as a sign headline title).

 

Also is that mural a new location?

[Shaddy Zaphod]

Nah, it's just the town from the show.

 

 

...

 

...actually I just realized the whole thing is built to look like Meh Burger.

[Tenko]

Its nice to see classic Sonic still has a presence there, pride of place even, right at the very top with the Sega logo

ARY? January? February? It is a shame no one was there to snag any of that marketing material, especially if it has possible future plans in it >.<

[Pawn]

It might be ANNIVERSARY with a big 25 below it? If true, that would mean teasing something for next year I guess?

[Tani Coyote]

"Boys."

 

Well it's good to know SEGA has joined the bulk of the media in making gender the basis of marketing all while completely ignoring the innumerable girls and women who love the franchise.

 

Never mind, looking closer I notice they're just mentioning the best category rather than declaring what their show is meant for.

[Tenko]

It might be ANNIVERSARY with a big 25 below it? If true, that would mean teasing something for next year I guess?

[Mauro Fonseca]

"Boys."

 

Well it's good to know SEGA has joined the bulk of the media in making gender the basis of marketing all while completely ignoring the innumerable girls and women who love the franchise.

[Badnik Mechanic]

On mobile so cant link.

Sega are promoting it for girls, they have data that the appeal split is 60% boys 40%girls.

[Detective Shadzter]

While searching for Sonic stuff in the past week's Google results I appear to have stumbled across a development version of the official Sonic site.

http://dev.sonicthehedgehog.com/

 

Here's a Google cache version from June 8th 23:59.

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?hl=en-GB&q=cache:SEe750jcMEQJ:http://dev.sonicthehedgehog.com/%2Bhttp://dev.sonicthehedgehog.com/&gbv=2&&ct=clnk

[Tani Coyote]

Are they really gendering it, though? The product itself is same as usual, they're just saying what demographic their product has #1 in.

 

Oh, I didn't notice the #1 on the sign there.

 

I guess there's no issue then.

[Badnik Mechanic]

Look what was the top read story on licensing.biz http://www.licensing.biz/news/read/this-week-s-most-read-stories-on-licensing-biz/042144