Do you think Sega could pull back certain restrictions in the future?

[Mountaindewandsprite]

Many users on this forum feel different ways about certain mandates that Sega has in place such as Sonic 'supposedly' not being able to show emotions and Shadow not having friends or something along those lines. Personally, I'm not a fan of the 'Classic and Modern being separate dimensions' extending to the comics, restricting the use of certain characters. I can accept Mighty, Ray, and the Hooligans not appearing in the modern games, but excluding them from the comics is just wasted potential IMO. Do any of ya'll think that Sega can pull back the restricts on some, not all of their mandates or do you think Sega will remain adamant on keeping them in place?

[Mobotropolis]

Sonic " not showing emotions " was more SEGA telling the writing/artistic team to dial it back on panels showing him crying. They didn't say that Sonic couldn't cry, but that they had to revise the panels with him bawling his eyes out over the loss of his family in one of the M: XYL stories. The one with King Shadow. Over time, the writing team found ways around those limitations to show that Sonic could still experience a range of emotions. Like when they showed him never and/or rarely smiling in certain panels of the Mecha Sally Arc. Most noticeably in Remember the Fallen (the issue after Antoine was blown to smithereens). 

SEGA has representatives check everything from the scripts to the artwork to make sure it's up to standards.

They tell people working on licensed works like the mobile games and comics who they can and can't use based on what characters they're trying to sell their fans on. It may not make sense to allow their licensees to use characters that they have no plans to create merchandise for, or use in their games, or may be planning to use in a game in a way that the comics may clash with or may have legal issues because of poorly written contracts from their days of running fast and free with the franchise. 

Could they change their minds? Sure. Businesses change their minds all of the time, but I wouldn't expect them to change their minds about certain things in the franchise since they are attempting to build up their brand in a particular way. 

[Multikaris]

Back when we had the original design, I was afraid the movie would make SEGA clench as tightly as Nintendo. I sincerely hope this is as tight as the mandates will ever get, and I want to see them relaxed sometime.

[Rabbitearsblog]

I think it depends on how big the backlash would be for some of their mandates.  Like for example, you had the big backlash against Sonic's original design in the movie, to the point where they had to change his design.  If the backlash against both Sonic and Shadow's portrayal in the games and the comics get so large that it attracts huge media corporations, then SEGA might start relaxing their mandates by then.

[Strickerx5]

Could go either way really. Sega is a company prone to chasing the first bit of success they get so if they see these mandates as "working", they'll stick to them for a good bit. That being said, if something slips through the cracks that shows an opposite path and that catches on, I could easily seem them quietly rolling it all back. Keep in mind, a lot of this stuff is harder to enforce/ is really only down to words so it'd be incredibly simple for, say, Mighty or someone to show up in a "modern game" one day.

That or they just forget about them all together. Like, I'm still not convinced they actually give a damn about any of this stuff with the slip ups and kneejerk reactions they've given over the last decade+. Just so long as it doesn't cause people on the internet to make fun of them like 06 did. Hell, that's honestly been their driving force for everything over the last 15 years.

This all being said though, you'll absolutely have a hard time getting the majority of people to go against most of these restrictions as they're simply not that prevalent in the franchise these days. Outside of the comics, most of them really haven't made much of a difference/ showed up at all. This isn't like Sonic's original movie design where shit was right up in everyone's face so you had that large group rightfully calling them on their shit. Things like Shadow's character nowadays are really only concepts I see discussed by fans who are more in the weeds of this stuff really. Probably not the audience Sega truthfully cares about.

[Rabbitearsblog]

Also, you have to compare the number of people who read the comics vs. how many people watched the movies.  There's apparently more people watching the Sonic movies than there are people reading the comics. So therefore, there was a bigger backlash regarding the design of Sonic in the movie than there was for how Shadow was being portrayed in the comics.  I would think that there needs to be more readers of the IDW comics to get SEGA's attention about how they are portraying certain characters in the comics for them to really change up their mandates, since they are the ones who have control over the comics rather than the movies.

[Mobotropolis]

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There's apparently more people watching the Sonic movies than there are people reading the comics.

To give that some perspective, about 800 times the number of people went to watch Sonic the Hedgehog in theaters than read the bestselling issue of any of the non-Crossover Sonic Comic in the past 15 years. If you include Worlds Collide #1, it's 700 times.

How I reached that number -

Spoiler

Sonic the Hedgehog made $319 million in revenue at the Box Office.

If the average cost of the Movie Ticket is $9 that means approximately 35 million people (rounded down) saw it.

The bestselling issue in the last 15 years was Worlds Collide #1 (x700).
The bestselling non-crossover Issue was Countdown to Chaos #1, or STH #252 (x830). 

There was a lot more money to lose if they got the movie wrong compared to the costs of producing the comic, and a lot more money to be made by producing a hit. Since Sonic went on to become one of the most profitable video game movies ever and was almost immediately confirmed for a sequel, I'd say they got something right. 

That's not the say that the Comics aren't good or they aren't profitable. Readership for Archie Sonic improved after Ian came along and peaked around the time of Worlds Collide. It dipped below pre-Ian levels during the third act of Shatter World Crisis and got another boost once they jumped to IDW. SEGA wouldn't have allowed the book to go on or get rebooted so many times if it was not a profitable venture. 

It's still a smaller audience than other media, though. 

[Rabbitearsblog]

6 hours ago, Mobotropolis said:

To give that some perspective, about 800 times the number of people went to watch Sonic the Hedgehog in theaters than read the bestselling issue of any of the non-Crossover Sonic Comic in the past 15 years. If you include Worlds Collide #1, it's 700 times.

How I reached that number -

  Hide contents

Sonic the Hedgehog made $319 million in revenue at the Box Office.

If the average cost of the Movie Ticket is $9 that means approximately 35 million people (rounded down) saw it.

The bestselling issue in the last 15 years was Worlds Collide #1 (x700).
The bestselling non-crossover Issue was Countdown to Chaos #1, or STH #252 (x830). 

There was a lot more money to lose if they got the movie wrong compared to the costs of producing the comic, and a lot more money to be made by producing a hit. Since Sonic went on to become one of the most profitable video game movies ever and was almost immediately confirmed for a sequel, I'd say they got something right. 

That's not the say that the Comics aren't good or they aren't profitable. Readership for Archie Sonic improved after Ian came along and peaked around the time of Worlds Collide. It dipped below pre-Ian levels during the third act of Shatter World Crisis and got another boost once they jumped to IDW. SEGA wouldn't have allowed the book to go on or get rebooted so many times if it was not a profitable venture. 

It's still a smaller audience than other media, though. 

That's really interesting.  Does that mean that the comics would have to reach DC and Marvel levels of readership to make a difference?

[SBR2]

I gotta be honest I really think that people exaggerate how bad and restrictive these are. I have never once felt like any of them have hindered a story at all.

I will admit some of them are pretty dumb. I've accepted the 2 worlds thing but that doesn't mean I don't think it's dumb and a little contradictory to what we've seen and the no money thing is just mind boggling. But even still I don't see how these hamper storytelling in the slightest.

[Mobotropolis]

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Does that mean that the comics would have to reach DC and Marvel levels of readership to make a difference?

The more readers the comic has, the more likely SEGA will give it a second glance. 

The average DC and Marvel book pulls in about 2-3 times Sonic's average. Top 3 for each is closer to 4-5 times Sonic's peak. 

Think the comic has already made a difference in some ways, for better or worse. SEGA is not as fast and loose about what they allow people to do with the franchise these days. There also are not as many characters floating around, but we're seeing more done with the active roster of characters than we've seen in the past. 

[Rabbitearsblog]

13 hours ago, SBR2 said:

I gotta be honest I really think that people exaggerate how bad and restrictive these are. I have never once felt like any of them have hindered a story at all.

I will admit some of them are pretty dumb. I've accepted the 2 worlds thing but that doesn't mean I don't think it's dumb and a little contradictory to what we've seen and the no money thing is just mind boggling. But even still I don't see how these hamper storytelling in the slightest.

When you really think about it, the IDW series still get a lot of praise despite how Shadow is being portrayed in that series.  It's like the only real problem that people have with IDW is Shadow's portrayal, while everything else is praised upon.