General Sonic The Hedgehog thread

Yeah, that's the thing. Even if Sony were to buy Sonic and try to "restart" this rivalry, people would just be like "...ok?" or roll their eyes. Nobody cares about that anymore, and by any metric, Mario "won" as soon as Sega folded and became a third-party developer, and the quality of Sonic games dipped.

The best thing that can come out of this is SEGA finally realizing that their business practices are actually hurting them.

@Beaver: What type of gameplay do you want?

to be honest I don't even know if Sega has anything they make anymore besides Sonic and Yakuza. I suppose Bayonetta, but they wouldn't even fund the second game.

Keep in mind this has been going on for years; too little too late.

There's still room for a turnaround if SEGA are actually willing to work for it.

I sincerely doubt the people at Sega of Japan are willing to admit that they were wrong in any capacity, going by the company's history.

Well, if they want their Western branches to collapse (which I doubt they care, SoJ is sitting pretty, still), they can keep pretending there's nothing wrong with their management, by all means.

edited 30th Jan '15 9:49:00 AM by PhysicalStamina

Unfortunately, that's exactly what was happening, is happening, and presumably will continue happening. Sega of Japan really had contempt for their American branch, stemming all the way back to how SoA marketed the Genesis and managed to get so much more success with it than they themselves could with the Mega Drive back in Japan. A lot of that obstinacy played major factors into why the Saturn was such a bomb outside of Japan - I mean, you know how Nintendo turned down Sony's offer to develop the PlayStation? Sony turned to Sega immediately afterward, and while Sega of America was all ears, Sega of Japan bluntly said no, possibly solely because Sega of America was interested, thus letting Sony create the machine that ruled the industry for two straight generations.

Anyway, I'm not sure how much of SoJ's contempt still lingers from then, but it's not really outside the realm of plausibility that it's still there.

Did you read the book Console Wars?

I haven't, but I've heard good things.

I did hear a story about how some people from Sega of Japan saw Comix Zone and said it encapsulated everything wrong with American culture. The American developers, for their part, took that as a sign they were doing everything right.

This is all ironic, considering that Sega was originally an American company.

x4 So Tall Poppy Syndrome, basically?

Seems like an appropriate trope, sure.

Amusingly, if Nintendo were to get their hands on Sonic, they could probably continue the "rivalry with Mario" advertising and themes a lot more effectively than a different company could - including by way of putting it in their actual games.

However, I do think people put too much stock in what was more or less a mere advertising campaign from decades ago that nobody in the industry actually cares about these days.

I wouldn't be surprised if Tall Poppy Syndrome is the same reason why Dimps had their creative freedom taken away (that and poor sales of Rush Adventure).

This would be the first I've heard of SEGA being a bad company also.

I don't know if re-igniting a rivalry would help at all, or if the concept is even worth resurrecting. Like cheat codes, "video game rivalries" seem to have been phased out.

These days, it seems like most gaming news and discussions I read are about the superior system, rather than the superior character or series. (ex - Watch Dogs. Count how many times you've heard someone compare Watch Dogs to any other game about surveillance or computer hacking or open-world, GTA-style vigilantism. Now count how many times you've heard someone compare the console and PC versions.)

The last time I heard of two "competing" franchises butting heads was Battlefield and Call of Duty. Games are always battling for sales and pre-orders and, now, Seasonal Passes. But there aren't any "rivals" in particular. It's not like No Man's Sky is fighting against another open-world space exploration title, or Shadows of Mordor against The Witcher 3 or Syrim.

I think those rivalries between different franchises were half the fun in following them.

edited 30th Jan '15 2:04:04 PM by FOFD

You have no idea how much fans of Dota 2 and League of Legends are willing to fight with each other, despite both being free-to-play PC games.

I also seem to recall the gaming media propping up Skyrim and Dark Souls as Dueling Games despite the fact that besides being WRPG's (dark souls being a wrpg from japan) their engagement, presentation, and artistic goals are entirely different. most fans seemed to realize this and just ignored it.

Well, now the gaming media considers both of them to be dueling with Zelda just because they star protagonists with swords that crawl through dungeons. Never mind that the former two are more about the overworld and Zelda is all about the puzzles.

https://twitter.com/segabits/status/561161814755377152

Here's Sega's press release.

It's too bad I don't know how to zoom in or maximize the page or something.

Here◊ are◊ the pages.

Thank you. I just this isn't just legalize, and that the media really has gotten it wrong or missed some details.

Here they are again, but bigger