SEGA talks Sonic deal with Nintendo, hopes Sonic can help Wii U, improving franchise’s quality
SEGA has partnered with Nintendo to put out three exclusive games on Nintendo platforms. Two have been revealed thus far: Sonic Lost World and Mario & Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games. There’s also one final mystery title in development.
SEGA’s European chief Jurgen Post spoke about the deal with MCV, stating:
We have Sonic: Lost World on Wii U and 3DS and then Mario & Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics later in the year too. Plus there is a third game we haven’t announced.
Historically Sonic games have always sold very well on Nintendo platforms, so it’s a good fit. And Nintendo and Sega have always worked together in a positive way – the first game Sonic debuted on after we stopped making hardware was a Nintendo platform.
Post later addressed the Wii U’s slow start. It’s a concern for sure, but Post hopes Sonic can help improve the situation:
Oh yes, it is a concern. But I certainly hope Sonic can help. The Lost World might just be our best Sonic game yet, it is one of the games that can help them. I saw Nintendo’s briefing at E3 and it has a very strong line-up of games for Wii U. I think it’s helping people think that things might change.
And look at what happened on 3DS. At E3 Nintendo pointed out that 3DS did 400,000 in the first week, then it dropped below 100,000 for the next few months, then they dropped the price.
Now, Nintendo hasn’t said it will drop the price of Wii U, but why point this out otherwise? So who knows, maybe there’s a bigger plan in the back of their heads and they just aren’t ready to talk about it. There’s a lot of next-gen noise at the moment Nintendo has to wait through.
Finally, Post said the following on how SEGA has changed its approach to Sonic over the past few years:
We started to make quality the number one priority. Even in the back catalogue: if we had Sonic games with low quaity, or a bad Metacritic, we took them off the shelf. We focused on the core game – not offering all that back catalogue deals when a new game comes out.
I think we’re seeing the results of that now.
Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed had good Metacritic scores last year and the last few years the Sonic games have had better and better reviews. We’re on the right track with Sonic.
