Why is Sonic Boom so bad?

[Spak]

killed off Sega of America.

RIP Sega of America. We will always remember you for doing what Nintendon't.

 

[finalark]

Sonic Boom is so bad that it's one of the reasons why Sega is cutting 300 jobs and restructuring to handle digital releases.

Digital only, huh? I'm not going to be happy if this means that future Atlus games are digital only. And future Sonic games. And future Yakuza games.

THIS IS WHY YOU DON'T HAND OFF YOUR MOST SUCCESSFUL IP TO AN UNTESTED STUDIO. Like, ****. As much as I love SEGA due to Genesis and Dreamcast nostalgia I'm getting to the point where I'm sick of their horrible business decisions. I just want Nintendo or Sony or somebody more competent to absorb them already.

 

[Cthulhu_MD]

Digital only, huh? I'm not going to be happy if this means that future Atlus games are digital only. And future Sonic games. And future Yakuza games.

THIS IS WHY YOU DON'T HAND OFF YOUR MOST SUCCESSFUL IP TO AN UNTESTED STUDIO. Like, ****. As much as I love SEGA due to Genesis and Dreamcast nostalgia I'm getting to the point where I'm sick of their horrible business decisions. I just want Nintendo or Sony or somebody more competent to absorb them already.

How about just absorb the IP? The talent has long been gone at this point. That's why I usually joke with my friends that Super Smash Bros. Brawl and 4 were Sonic's best games. Of course, I love Sonic games like Colors and Generations; the current Sega has no way of handling their IPs.

Sega needs Sonic to survive, but by rushing out awful games, they're devaluing his worth - and thus their profits.

 

[Spak]

That's why I usually joke with my friends that Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Melee were Sonic's best games.

Sonic isn't in Melee...

 

[finalark]

How about just absorb the IP? The talent has long been gone at this point. That's why I usually joke with my friends that Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Melee were Sonic's best games. Of course, I love Sonic games like Colors and Generations; the current Sega has no way of handling their IPs.

I'd like to disagree, I think there's still some talent there. I thought Sonic Team's last few games, namely Colors, Generations and Lost World, were pretty good. It wasn't until SEGA let some no-name studio handle the series that cries of "LOL SANIC" and "PUT HIM TO REST ALREADY" rang out again.

However, post-console SEGA has always been bad at handling IPs that aren't Sonic. You'd think that a company known for making strange little games with unique style and game play would realize that these games could potentially appeal to the indie market. That being said, you'd also think that an MMORPG that had an explosive number of English players while the game was still in Japan would cause that company to want to localize the game ASAP instead of delaying it indefinitely, or more likely now, quietly canceling it.

EDIT: Also, I'm pretty sure you meant Smash 4, not melee.

Sega needs Sonic to survive, but by rushing out awful games, they're devaluing his worth - and thus their profits.

The problem is, it doesn't really matter at this point. For every genuine Sonic fan who just wants to see the blue blur star in a good game there's ten others who would rather just make fun of Sonic and eat up bad Sonic games like candy on Halloween.

At this point SEGA has proven that they need someone to hold their hand and tell them not to shove earthworms up their nose. I'd really like to see the company get acquired by Nintendo, since they have some of the best quality control I've ever seen. Hell, if they can make a studio as draconian as Silicon Knights put out a good game then they can get SEGA into working order.

 

[Cthulhu_MD]

Sonic isn't in Melee...

Fixed my mistake, thanks for pointing it out.

I'd like to disagree, I think there's still some talent there. I thought Sonic Team's last few games, namely Colors, Generations and Lost World, were pretty good. It wasn't until SEGA let some no-name studio handle the series that cries of "LOL SANIC" and "PUT HIM TO REST ALREADY" rang out again.

However, post-console SEGA has always been bad at handling IPs that aren't Sonic. You'd think that a company known for making strange little games with unique style and game play would realize that these games could potentially appeal to the indie market. That being said, you'd also think that an MMORPG that had an explosive number of English players while the game was still in Japan would cause that company to want to localize the game ASAP instead of delaying it indefinitely, or more likely now, quietly canceling it.

EDIT: Also, I'm pretty sure you meant Smash 4, not melee.



The problem is, it doesn't really matter at this point. For every genuine Sonic fan who just wants to see the blue blur star in a good game there's ten others who would rather just make fun of Sonic and eat up bad Sonic games like candy on Halloween.

At this point SEGA has proven that they need someone to hold their hand and tell them not to shove earthworms up their nose. I'd really like to see the company get acquired by Nintendo, since they have some of the best quality control I've ever seen. Hell, if they can make a studio as draconian as Silicon Knights put out a good game then they can get SEGA into working order.

I can see what you're saying and I can agree on certain stuff as their management and how they'd eat up Sonic.

 

[Heroine of Winds]

Digital only, huh? I'm not going to be happy if this means that future Atlus games are digital only. And future Sonic games. And future Yakuza games.

THIS IS WHY YOU DON'T HAND OFF YOUR MOST SUCCESSFUL IP TO AN UNTESTED STUDIO. Like, ****. As much as I love SEGA due to Genesis and Dreamcast nostalgia I'm getting to the point where I'm sick of their horrible business decisions. I just want Nintendo or Sony or somebody more competent to absorb them already.

Not to mention the upcoming Sonic Runners is a mobile game, so I think it gives off some signs that Sega is indeed gonna go digitally from now on. Yeah, I seriously blame Sega for this. If they didn't give off their most well-known IP to an unknown studio, then the layoffs and the restructuring wouldn't happen. It's their fault for making terrible decision after terrible decision. This is why they're in the rut right now.

At this point, I'm just gonna give up on Sega. Even after the restructuring, they'll still pull off terrible decisions. Best bet is to just sell off their IP's to another company. They can't do good anymore.

 

[finalark]

Let's just go ahead and assemble a list of poor business decisions SEGA's made. In order:

* Released the 32X after seeing that add-ons don't work via the SEGA CD
* SEGA of Japan's absolute refusal to communicate with SOA properly
* Releasing the Saturn early with a hefty price tag and zero third party support
* Hiring a CEO for SOA who just got fired from Sony for nearly driving the PS1 into the ground in the US
* Hiring a group of people to make commercials for the console who clearly had no idea what the hell they were advertising
* Refusal to let the Saturn build a strong library by keeping its best games Japan exclusive and not advertising its non-sports titles
* Rapid decline of quality control in their post-Dreamcast years
* Refusing to advertise their non-Sonic games and then wondering why they don't sell well, resulting in...
* Keeping many of their worthwhile games Japan exclusive
* Releasing Phantasy Star Online 2 and finding that it actually had an extremely popular English fanbase. Instead of localizing the game they instead tired to kick all foreign players off the servers and kept the game Japan exclusive
* Handing off Sonic to an unknown studio, completely setting him back to square one when he had been on the rise in the past few years

I'm sure there's a ton in there that I'm missing, but that should be proof enough that it's time that somebody more competent absorbed SEGA. I doubt they're going to sell their IPs, especially since Sonic is keeping them afloat and the Shining and Phantasy Star series have a decent following in Japan. But good god to they need somebody to help them get their **** together.

I do miss Dreamcast era SEGA, though. That was the point in time when I feel like the company was as its best.

 

[Cthulhu_MD]

Let's just go ahead and assemble a list of poor business decisions SEGA's made. In order:

* Released the 32X after seeing that add-ons don't work via the SEGA CD
* SEGA of Japan's absolute refusal to communicate with SOA properly
* Releasing the Saturn early with a hefty price tag and zero third party support
* Hiring a CEO for SOA who just got fired from Sony for nearly driving the PS1 into the ground in the US
* Hiring a group of people to make commercials for the console who clearly had no idea what the hell they were advertising
* Refusal to let the Saturn build a strong library by keeping its best games Japan exclusive and not advertising its non-sports titles
* Rapid decline of quality control in their post-Dreamcast years
* Refusing to advertise their non-Sonic games and then wondering why they don't sell well, resulting in...
* Keeping many of their worthwhile games Japan exclusive
* Releasing Phantasy Star Online 2 and finding that it actually had an extremely popular English fanbase. Instead of localizing the game they instead tired to kick all foreign players off the servers and kept the game Japan exclusive
* Handing off Sonic to an unknown studio, completely setting him back to square one when he had been on the rise in the past few years

I'm sure there's a ton in there that I'm missing, but that should be proof enough that it's time that somebody more competent absorbed SEGA. I doubt they're going to sell their IPs, especially since Sonic is keeping them afloat and the Shining and Phantasy Star series have a decent following in Japan. But good god to they need somebody to help them get their **** together.

I do miss Dreamcast era SEGA, though. That was the point in time when I feel like the company was as its best.

Also add the animosity between SOA and Sega Ltd.

 

[Heroine of Winds]

* SEGA of Japan's absolute refusal to communicate with SOA properly

This is one of many reasons why I hate Sega of Japan. Should I even mention just how racist they are towards people that aren't Japanese? I'm dead serious here.

 

[finalark]

This is one of many reasons why I hate Sega of Japan. Should I even mention just how racist they are towards people that aren't Japanese? I'm dead serious here.

I actually just finished reading a book called Console Wars which was about the business side of the SNES/Genesis era. Apparently SOJ was pretty damn jealous of SOA since SOA managed to hold about 50% of the market share while in their native Japan they only held about 15%. Doesn't help that the CEO of SOJ was actually more partial to SOA. On top of that, SOJ refused to listen to any advice that SOA had to offer in terms of how to market the Genesis.

There's probably some racial undertone to why they refused to listen but the book I read offered the suggestion that SOJ just didn't have the guts to try any sort of ambitious marketing and were more interested in just staying afloat instead of actively fighting Nintendo. Which ever version you choose to believe is up to you, but I'd like to think it was a bit of both.

 

[ChikoLad]

Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric ended up like it did because:

-Untested studio working on an engine that never had a published game using it on Wii U. (CryEngine 3 can allegedly run fine on Wii U according to Crytek, and they apparently got a fully functional Wii U port of Crysis 3 working for Wii U, but EA wouldn't let them publish it because EA fell out with Nintendo).

-The game went through development hell just like Sonic X-Treme and Sonic '06 before it. Lots of layoffs in the middle of production, including people integral to the project, such as the famous (within the Sonic community) Chris Senn.

-There is evidence to suggest that the game was not originally going to be a Sonic game, and that SEGA would only publish the game if BRB tied it to the Sonic Boom brand.

Among other reasons.

Also, a few other things to note:

-Sonic is not going mobile and PC only:
http://www.technobuffalo.com/2015/0...nue-to-be-released-on-consoles-says-producer/

-Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric should not be considered representative of the state of the Sonic franchise at large, or even the Sonic Boom initiative. Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal is actually decent, and the TV show and accompanying toyline have been majorly successful. The Archie Comics of Sonic Boom have also been received well. And Sonic Team have not produced an inarguably bad game since Sonic '06. All of the other games since then have ranged from having a niche appeal (the Storybook games), to great (Lost World), to being thoroughly excellent (Sonic Unleashed, Sonic Colours, Sonic Generations, Sonic Runners).

-Other Western Sonic spin-offs, such as the Christian Whitehead Classic Sonic remakes, or Sumo Digital's Sonic Racing games, are of excellent quality too and have been quite successful.

-In non-gaming media, Sonic has also been doing fine. Ever since they were rebooted, the Archie Sonic comics have been received quite well, even having a very well received crossover with the Mega Man comics, and another being on the way. There is a Sonic movie for the big screen in production. And of course, the non-gaming elements of the Sonic Boom initiative.

-SEGA as a whole are actually doing very well, even almost having a monopoly on the arcade and pachinko market in Japan (which yes, makes them a **** ton of money). While they have laid off certain unsatisfactory branches such as SEGA of America, they have been buying studios such as Atlus (whom they outbidded Nintendo on, and bought Atlus' parent company too, Index Corporation), and Relic Entertainment (whom they outbidded ZeniMax Media on, the owner of Bethesda Games), for millions of dollars ($26.6 million for Relic, $141 million for Atlus). On top of this, they have been setting up new branches to headline their PC/mobile efforts, such as SEGA Networks.

Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric was did not wreck the train that is SEGA/Sonic, it merely scratched it with a mark that can easily be painted over.

 

[Heroine of Winds]

-Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric should not be considered representative of the state of the Sonic franchise at large, or even the Sonic Boom initiative. Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal is actually decent, and the TV show and accompanying toyline have been majorly successful. The Archie Comics of Sonic Boom have also been received well. And Sonic Team have not produced an inarguably bad game since Sonic '06. All of the other games since then have ranged from having a niche appeal (the Storybook games), to great (Lost World), to being thoroughly excellent (Sonic Unleashed, Sonic Colours, Sonic Generations, Sonic Runners).

-Other Western Sonic spin-offs, such as the Christian Whitehead Classic Sonic remakes, or Sumo Digital's Sonic Racing games, are of excellent quality too and have been quite successful.

I do admit that Shattered Crystal was a decent game. Only major thing I hated about it was the terrible writing from Pontaff. Everything else about it was on the okay side. I have to give the show a watch someday because I hear really good things about it. As much as I hated Lost World, it's still nowhere near in the same level as 06 was. If Sonic Runners was ever available on the US iTunes store, I'm gonna give it a shot. It may look bare bones, but since it's a mobile game, it's to be expected. The Sonic Racing games were awesome, though.

I just hope Sega will actually get a wake-up call for once to never rush out a game again, but knowing them, they probably won't.

 

[Dastardly Ridleylash]

I just hope Sega will actually get a wake-up call for once to never rush out a game again, but knowing them, they probably won't.

Seeing as they've begun a complete company overhaul to go into mobile gaming, this may be the end of Sonic the Hedgehog on consoles.

 

[ChikoLad]

Seeing as they've begun a complete company overhaul to go into mobile gaming, this may be the end of Sonic the Hedgehog on consoles.

Didn't you read the article I just posted?

 

[Heroine of Winds]

Seeing as they've begun a complete company overhaul to go into mobile gaming, this may be the end of Sonic the Hedgehog on consoles.

Wrong, they're still gonna do Sonic games on consoles. Didn't you read the article that was posted earlier?