SEGA wants to get the Sonic franchise back on track
This information comes from SEGA West CEO Mike Hayes…
“It’s all part of a general strategy with Sonic where we are passionate about getting Sonic back up to the quality levels we’ve had historically. We’ve gone through a major segmentation analysis of Sonic and where it would appeal to the different fans. On the Wii and Nintendo DS, we’re driving those brands to the younger audience. We have our Mario and Sonic brands that are very mass-market. Then we have our brands where we will focus on our SEGA and Sonic loyalists and we made the decision there to listen to what their feedback is. We delayed the launch of Sonic 4 to make sure we got that as right as we could and we’re still listening because as we progress the series we want to make sure we get that right. Where I think we provide Sonic for a younger audience, there we have to take innovation ourselves and try and understand and work out what will be the best game for a more 8 to 12 year old audience,” he said. “For the core fans, we definitely want to hear what they have to say about Sonic. It’s just such a vital brand for us, and the most important thing is to get relevant quality, and that’s what we’re going to spend a lot of time and money doing over the next three or more years to get right. It’s absolutely bang on where we wanted it to be on all the formats. This is the whole part of us moving Sonic up the scale to a much better quality product. Fingers crossed; it’s actually tracking a little bit ahead of where we expected it to be.”
Right now, I have to say that SEGA is making a respectable effort to bring back Sonic to his former glory. Sonic 4, while not perfect, was definitely a step in the right direction. Additionally, Sonic Colors is on the way, and that title is looking great so far.
