Confirmed: Iizuka is at Sega of America "Rumour: Overseeing Multiple Sonic Games/SOA to be Sonic Hub"

[Badnik Mechanic]

For Info: As far as I can tell this is not an April Fool. If it is, somebody at Gamasutra has gone all out.

So figured this was strong enough to justify it's own topic. 

According to Gamasutra Takashi Iizuka is at Sega of America right now to oversee development of new Sonic games. They had nothing to back this up, until Aaron Webber posted this...

Source of that one:

Then twitter user Doctor Cupcakes who tends to post a lot of unknown stuff stated this...

That SOA is their new 'hub' for Sonic. (This is completely unconfirmed).However, the one thing which backs this up is that recently Sega also appointed Ivo Gerscovich as their new head of Sonic brand for SOA.

So yeah... that happened. 

[Guest]

Gamasutra gets stuff like that from press releases, so not a rumour.

[Chili Dawg]

USA USA USA!

[SSF1991]

I really wish I knew where these press releases are. No one's publishing the full things now.

[Your Vest Friend]

Oh goodie. Right now I'd trust SoA just a bit less than I can throw them. 

[Badnik Mechanic]

4 minutes ago, SSF1991 said:

I really wish I knew where these press releases are. No one's publishing the full things now.

Snap. 

[SonicWind]

If this is a good sign for the franchise, I'm all for it.

[SSF1991]

Snap? Is that an actual site that exists?

[Badnik Mechanic]

Just now, SSF1991 said:

Snap? Is that an actual site that exists?

Card game term. 

[SSF1991]

Oh, right. Still...I'm confused about why SEGA doesn't release the entire press releases anymore.

[Sega DogTagz]

They market Sonic harder to the west anyway, so this makes sense to me.

Doesn't mean much for the franchise as a whole, save for a more "western" slant to marketing and maybe a few dialog choices. Sonic Team JPN is still going to have final say over pretty much everything, not matter what country the "hub" is in.

[Milo]

...given the cryptic hints passed by Ruby, maybe this is what the 4/1/16 numbers were leading up to?

...obviously it's effectively breaking news, but I do have a lot of questions nonetheless. Namely in regards to whether this is a major shift for the series' direction as a whole and if this has any significant impact on the development of the games. I'm keeping expectations realistic/low and largely interpreting this as SoA only managing specific Western iterations of Sonic (Boom sub-series and the upcoming film adaptation), while game development and merch for the main series still remains under SoJ's jurisdiction.

Also, it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to say this was planned back when Sega undergone the 2015 restructure and SoA relocated their headquarters, would it? Aside from lower costs and redundancies, it doesn't seem too far-fetched to assume SoA's move to Southern California from San Francisco was done in anticipation for these new operations.

[Chris Knopps]

Well, guess we better be on the lookout for more trucks trying to pop up out of nowhere and murder us, we know how much he and the others from the east hate traffic in the USA.

[LoseR]

If this means a new direction for the Sonic games I'd honestly be all for that. I haven't been too fond of the direction they've taken since they LEFT America.

Though that doesn't necessarily mean they'll take things in a good direction.

[Chris Knopps]

3 hours ago, N8te said:

If this means a new direction for the Sonic games I'd honestly be all for that. I haven't been too fond of the direction they've taken since they LEFT America.

Though that doesn't necessarily mean they'll take things in a good direction.

Ever since the franchise definitely took on a "kawaii desu sonikuuuu!!!" vibe that grew with every installment.

[Jango]

Quote

The last time their hub for Sonic was in the US, it was to make Sonic Adventure 2.

 

 

Sonic Adventure 3 fans. SONIC ADVENTURE 3 FANS!!!

 

Seriously tho, that sounds more and more like Boom, which is totaly produced in America, is here to stay. Iizuka will be more involved, so the next games won't fail... too hard. Or, it could mean something else entirely...

 

INTRIGUED I AM.

 

[Chris Knopps]

No, not Sonic Adventure 3...

But... It does have my hopes high for another game with the plot depth of Unleashed, since the west loves its stories.

[Indigo Rush]

12 minutes ago, Chris Knopps said:

Ever since the franchise definitely took on a "kawaii desu sonikuuuu!!!" vibe that grew with every installment.

At this point, all I can do is laugh. How do you even challenge this kind of rhetoric?

[Wraith]

16 minutes ago, Chris Knopps said:

Ever since the franchise definitely took on a "kawaii desu sonikuuuu!!!" vibe that grew with every installment.

 

Aint he just the CUTEST thing you've ever seen?? Kawaii!

[Chris Knopps]

3 hours ago, Viridian Hop said:

At this point, all I can do is laugh. How do you even challenge this kind of rhetoric?

I'm just saying the franchise definitely had more of an eastern feel to it than western. In some ways it wasn't a bad thing, but the franchise could definitely use more western love in it, a better balance of preferences/styles and such.

Sonic is at his best when he's got napoleon going on.

And that game is waaaaaaaaaaaaaay back when Wraith, keep in mind I said over time, meaning presently. SA-06 is pretty much like bringing up the Genesis games nowadays as they are essentially "classic" games just the same, not so much a representation of Sonic today.

[Azul]

GUYS. YOU'RE NOT SEEING THE BIG PICTURE HERE:

-A man named Ivo has been appointed the head of Sonic Brand for Sega of America

-Gerscovich with an extra g,m,a, and n, is an anagram for Eggman

-The hypotenuse of a right triangle can be solved using the Pythagorean theorem

This can only mean one thing...

Spoiler

Half Life 3 confirmed.

 

[Chris Knopps]

3 hours ago, Azul said:

GUYS. YOU'RE NOT SEEING THE BIG PICTURE HERE:

-A man named Ivo has been appointed the head of Sonic Brand for Sega of America

-Gerscovich with an extra g,m,a, and n, is an anagram for Eggman

-The hypotenuse of a right triangle can be solved using the Pythagorean theorem

This can only mean one thing...

  Reveal hidden contents

Half Life 3 confirmed.

 

Big has begun mass production and soon the world will be overrun with giant purple cats fishing your children right out of your homes for enslavement as the new food source of all machines produced at SEGA...

[MegasonicZX]

23 minutes ago, Chris Knopps said:

I'm just saying the franchise definitely had more of an eastern feel to it than western. In some ways it wasn't a bad thing, but the franchise could definitely use more western love in it, a better balance of preferences/styles and such.

Sonic is at his best when he's got napoleon going on.

And that game is waaaaaaaaaaaaaay back when Wraith, keep in mind I said over time, meaning presently. SA-06 is pretty much like bringing up the Genesis games nowadays as they are essentially "classic" games just the same, not so much a representation of Sonic today.

Sonic 06 is about the only game that i'd actually say had more of an eastern feel to it but everything else afterward, ehhhh maybe unleashed but thats about it.

[Chris Knopps]

3 hours ago, MegasonicZX said:

Sonic 06 is about the only game that i'd actually say had more of an eastern feel to it but everything else afterward, ehhhh maybe unleashed but thats about it.

No... I'd say Unleashed was primarily a western pixar/dreamworks take on Sonic...

It was after Unleashed with the whole Wisp thing that pushed Sonic more into Japanese territory than western, with Chip being the starting point in my opinion, although I like Chip yet detest Wisps, go figure...

[Wraith]

26 minutes ago, Chris Knopps said:

I'm just saying the franchise definitely had more of an eastern feel to it than western. In some ways it wasn't a bad thing, but the franchise could definitely use more western love in it, a better balance of preferences/styles and such.

Sonic is at his best when he's got napoleon going on.

And that game is waaaaaaaaaaaaaay back when Wraith, keep in mind I said over time, meaning presently. SA-06 is pretty much like bringing up the Genesis games nowadays as they are essentially "classic" games just the same, not so much a representation of Sonic today.

You could just as easily argue(and you probably have before) that Sonic has more of a western influence now than an eastern one, since the games are now written more like third rate children's comedy shows instead of the third rate children's shonen anime that was it's inspiration in it's heyday. The tone shift has nothing to do with any east vs west nonsense because there are works varying in tone on both sides.