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


Badnik Mechanic

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1 minute ago, Detective Hogfather said:

Show me the press release.

...I don't have to, it's Gamasutra. They're one of the most trustworthy sites about the game industry you can find.

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Just now, TimmiT said:

...I don't have to, it's Gamasutra. They're one of the most trustworthy sites about the game industry you can find.

Ok yeah, meanwhile Global License does an interview with a bunch of top Sega people, states there's going to be an Sonic E3 event.

Sega then denies that. 

If we actually have a press release from Sega saying 'The US is to become a Sonic hub' then it holds a lot more water than an out of quoted statement on an article.

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Just now, Detective Hogfather said:

Ok yeah, meanwhile Global License does an interview with a bunch of top Sega people, states there's going to be an Sonic E3 event.

Sega then denies that. 

If we actually have a press release from Sega saying 'The US is to become a Sonic hub' then it holds a lot more water than an out of quoted statement on an article.

I don't know what any of that has to do with Gamasutra. Besides, they quoted that from the press release.

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1 minute ago, Indigo Rush said:

Ladies, please. You're both pretty.

Source: My heart.

Show me the press release from your heart instead of just quoting it or else I won't trust you.

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I will try again now that I know how to embed a tweet :)

"We solemnly swear we're up to something good." sound promising.

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"best and strongest direction to take"

And Rise of Lyric was also this epic adventure full of character development not seen in Sonic for years.

I no longer buy anything they say. Don't talk. Show. Do.

...

With regards to release dates, you are all most likely right. If they go for an E3 announcement, it will be released next year. I guess they must be really confident in the product if they're willing to abandon fetishization of the Christmas release in favor for a Spring/Summer release instead. Even though it will still be weird to release it outside the anniversary year.

But hey, it means they're thinking outside the box and I can definitely appreciate that. The old model just wasn't working.

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22 minutes ago, Detective Hogfather said:

Well it was.

And then someone in Japan said "Wii U exclusive! Wii U exclusive!"

And then it wasn't.

Even if the game's development wasn't strong-armed into a Wii U exclusive and made release as a multiplatform title, it still wouldn't had been very good IMO. Technical problems doesn't change the fact that the game's design was largely a chore all around. An inferior throwback of better PS2-era platformers that seems to be superficially connected to the Sonic franchise and the Boom sub-series is what I'd hesitate to call an epic adventure. Will give it the bit on character development, though I wouldn't exactly consider that aspect anything really worth writing home about either.

Just like Sonic 2006, RoL not being stonewalled from being a polished product upon release wouldn't had saved it from being a dull, unengaging product.

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1 hour ago, Detective Hogfather said:

Well it was.

And then someone in Japan said "Wii U exclusive! Wii U exclusive!"

And then it wasn't.

I think Gabe hit the nail on the head with this.

I mean, just look at Shattered Crystal's still-meh performance. I think it's clear quality was not the strong suite of the spinoffs with or without the platform choice.

The Wii U port and insistence on the Christmas deadline just added a slew of other issues to Rise of Lyric that made it go from so-so to "Oh god this is awful."

In this day and age, Sonic games' quality is just hit or miss, mostly miss. There is something fundamentally wrong in the design process. Not only any bad choices by developers, but a fundamental disconnect between the business and creative sides of the brand (shocker).

I can only hope that if the 25th anniversary title is indeed released sometime next year, that means the company is learning that it's worth it to have lean years between better products, rather than excreting a title every year to cash in on holiday sales.

A good choice. I think the Sonic fandom is gradually moving into a "screw this" direction where the decade old strategy of slapping Sonic's name on things is no longer producing sales. They've banked on Sonic for too long and it's finally biting them in the ass as fans no longer buy blindly.

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12 hours ago, Raccoonatic Ogilvie said:

I think the Sonic fandom is gradually moving into a "screw this" direction where the decade old strategy of slapping Sonic's name on things is no longer producing sales. They've banked on Sonic for too long and it's finally biting them in the ass as fans no longer buy blindly.

...Somehow I feel the consumers are to shoulder the blame for the franchise more-so than SEGA themselves, because with so many years of consumers buying everything, it was the consumers who essentially told SEGA...

"It doesn't matter"

And thus, the company has done what it's done... So in the end, aren't we to blame more than SEGA...?

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1 hour ago, Chris Knopps said:

...Somehow I feel the consumers are to shoulder the blame for the franchise more-so than SEGA themselves, because with so many years of consumers buying everything, it was the consumers who essentially told SEGA...

"It doesn't matter"

And thus, the company has done what it's done... So in the end, aren't we to blame more than SEGA...?

Why would you blame a shitty game on anyone besides the people that developed a shitty game?

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2 hours ago, Wraith said:

Why would you blame a shitty game on anyone besides the people that developed a shitty game?

In fairness, demand creates supply.

The fanbase seemed content with subpar games, so the company had no real reason to go beyond that.

It takes a leader with really strong visions and ambitions to go above and beyond the minimum. SEGA's leaderships seemed content to go with the flow rather than produce anything really big or novel.

It just makes me ponder where merchandise sales stack up. I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of the value of the IP is in the mountains of merchandise rather than the games themselves at this point.

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13 minutes ago, Raccoonatic Ogilvie said:

In fairness, demand creates supply.

The fanbase seemed content with subpar games, so the company had no real reason to go beyond that.

It takes a leader with really strong visions and ambitions to go above and beyond the minimum. SEGA's leaderships seemed content to go with the flow rather than produce anything really big or novel.

It just makes me ponder where merchandise sales stack up. I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of the value of the IP is in the mountains of merchandise rather than the games themselves at this point.

Are you getting that from sales, or the actual fanbase speaking out? Cause from what I've seen of the last few games, people seemed to complain more than praise.

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45 minutes ago, KHCast said:

Are you getting that from sales, or the actual fanbase speaking out? Cause from what I've seen of the last few games, people seemed to complain more than praise.

That's over the last decade plus.

It's only in recent years where it seemed the fanbase vitriol finally boiled over to the point that low sales are a constant.

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1 hour ago, Raccoonatic Ogilvie said:

That's over the last decade plus.

It's only in recent years where it seemed the fanbase vitriol finally boiled over to the point that low sales are a constant.

There were parts of the fanbase that definitely despised the bad Sonic games, but still. this is kinda true. There were people that liked and still heavily defend Sonic 2006, and it did sell enough to get a Platinum Hits release. I haven't seen nearly as many people defend Rise of Lyric outside of a Youtube channel that was paid by Sega. (See the description)

It wouldn't surprise me if the terrible reaction to the game was at least part of the reason why Sega America had a restructuring the year after.

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And thus my point that like it or not, we as the consumers shoulder half, if not MOST of the blame for how much the franchise has suffered. The consumers went from a market that demanded the best treatment to a bunch of folks who pretty much paid for anything with the name Sonic on it, good or bad, big or small budget, high quality or low, AAA or anything really.

While the company shoulders the blame for catering to such a low standard, the consumers shoulder the blame for allowing it and encouraging it.

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While I wouldn't say that fan complacency is irrelevant, for as far as it matters I think Sega dug their own grave by trying to rely on it, so they carry the bulk of the blame.

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On 5/26/2016 at 4:20 AM, KHCast said:

Cause from what I've seen of the last few games, people seemed to complain more than praise.

You make that sound like a recent thing.

It has been going ever since I joined the community in 2008.

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3 hours ago, SSF1991 said:

You make that sound like a recent thing.

It has been going ever since I joined the community in 2008.

It started I think with Heroes to a degree, then Shadow made it multiply, then 06 made it go nuclear level...

Unleashed is in a strange position to me because thanks to Twilight Princess releasing the main issue was it "ripping off Nintendo" because it essentially used the same concept for the main character.

...I wonder if SEGA was aware of what Twilight Princess was doing with Link at the time of Unleashed being developed...?

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13 hours ago, Chris Knopps said:

It started I think with Heroes to a degree, then Shadow made it multiply, then 06 made it go nuclear level...

Unleashed is in a strange position to me because thanks to Twilight Princess releasing the main issue was it "ripping off Nintendo" because it essentially used the same concept for the main character.

...I wonder if SEGA was aware of what Twilight Princess was doing with Link at the time of Unleashed being developed...?

Well, twilight princess released in 2006~, and unleashed in 2008~. 

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16 hours ago, Chris Knopps said:

And thus my point that like it or not, we as the consumers shoulder half, if not MOST of the blame for how much the franchise has suffered. The consumers went from a market that demanded the best treatment to a bunch of folks who pretty much paid for anything with the name Sonic on it, good or bad, big or small budget, high quality or low, AAA or anything really.

While the company shoulders the blame for catering to such a low standard, the consumers shoulder the blame for allowing it and encouraging it.

Wait what is this topic about again why are we victim blaming the poor people who were subjected to bad games?????

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17 hours ago, Chris Knopps said:

And thus my point that like it or not, we as the consumers shoulder half, if not MOST of the blame for how much the franchise has suffered. The consumers went from a market that demanded the best treatment to a bunch of folks who pretty much paid for anything with the name Sonic on it, good or bad, big or small budget, high quality or low, AAA or anything really.

While the company shoulders the blame for catering to such a low standard, the consumers shoulder the blame for allowing it and encouraging it.

No we don't. Fuck that. 

There's always going to be lowest common denominator fans like children and people who will pay for the game no matter what. That's true for any franchise. The job of the developer is to always go beyond that and try to attract MORE people who wouldn't otherwise be interested and give the consumers things they didn't know they wanted. Only catering to people who would have bought the thing no matter what makes no sense because that crowd is always going to diminish instead of expand.

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4 hours ago, Wraith said:

No we don't. Fuck that. 

There's always going to be lowest common denominator fans like children and people who will pay for the game no matter what. That's true for any franchise. The job of the developer is to always go beyond that and try to attract MORE people who wouldn't otherwise be interested and give the consumers things they didn't know they wanted. Only catering to people who would have bought the thing no matter what makes no sense because that crowd is always going to diminish instead of expand.

We're talking about SEGA... Keep that word in mind and their history. They couldn't even get along with each other as human beings through most of Sonic's existence up to nearly today, actually, heck, that may STILL be an issue between divisions, who knows?

I'm just saying using common logic for SEGA doesn't work.

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