SEGA-SAMMY annual report 2014 is out

[Aki-at]

Sigh. Im just done with it man. Sonic needs to be unleashed(pun intended)

We are talking mostly about the financial clout the series holds and it still is up there. One bad spinoff game and mediocre game is not going to destroy it's pull after Sonic Heroes > Shadow The Hedgehog > Sonic the Hedgehog 06 already happened and the series still rebounded with multimillion sellers. Sonic Generations is still selling too and I can only imagine it'll end up being the best selling mainline Sonic game of last generation or close to it.

And honestly the boost could be abused in Sonic Generations but it's not advisable. Playing it recently I found just holding boost will either lead you to your death or just a hard stop. Only people who have memorized the layouts or able to break the game can play the whole run through using the boost. It can be improved but it's not actually as bad as people make it out to be.

At the end of the day it's just a video game series. You can skip past the things you do not like and focus on the stuff that you do like, it's how I deal with my comics. I dislike a horde of things Marvel does to their heroes but only focus on the bits I do like.

I'd like to ask something else. How well do the kid demographic games perform on ps4 and xbox one? Seeing as Aki is saying thst a sonic multiplat could still easily do 2 million, i kind of doubt that at the moment. The installbases are not very diverse. I think a good indication would be how well little big planet 3 is performing on the ps4. Because if not than i expect the next sonic to be a cross gen game for the 360 and ps3 as well

I've noticed a decline in that type of games sales on consoles in general. It could be that the whole "mobile took a huge chunk of market share from consoles" could be true in the case of these type of games. Unless you're minecraft

LEGO Marvel Superheroes, The LEGO Movie, Disney Infinity, Skylanders, Minecraft et all still sell on the Playstation 4.

There is a decline absolutely, but this effects the entire console market, not just the children's market. But we still see decent sales for family games on the Playstation 4, also keep in mind by the time the next mainline Sonic game launches (Late 2015 I'd imagine.) the Playstation 4 should have 20 million+ sales, Xbox One with 10 million+ and the Wii U could be over the 10 million+ mark depending on how well Smash Brothers performs for the console.

[CrazyT]

Yeah next year will definitly be very healthy for a sonic game if everything goes right. Im hoping the lack of pressure to score was an actual thing because of the partnership, because now without the safety net, they will have to score. Its a whole different environment nowadays. It seems you either play it safe or take the risk and possibly fail hard. With this in mind I wouldnt be upset if the next sonic game was a solid installment built around already well proved concepts. Sometimes tweaking something that wasnt broken can make it better too

[Aki-at]

Yeah next year will definitly be very healthy for a sonic game if everything goes right. Im hoping the lack of pressure to score was an actual thing because of the partnership, because now without the safety net, they will have to score. Its a whole different environment nowadays. It seems you either play it safe or take the risk and possibly fail hard. With this in mind I wouldnt be upset if the next sonic game was a solid installment built around already well proved concepts. Sometimes tweaking something that wasnt broken can make it better too

Yeah precisely. Personally I believe towards the end SEGA gave up developing on Sonic: Lost World which is why we saw a lot of reused "harder" levels towards the end. There was just no reason to continue in trying to make a major title anymore as the game looked destined to bomb and it probably hurt the overall package.

The deal with Nintendo was probably conducted before the Wii U sales started to tank horribly. SEGA thought they had good a great deal in getting Nintendo to pay for the development and they got to publish it. Even with modest Gamecube level sales, I'd imagine they thought a 2 million seller is a certainty. Then the horrid sales of the console came to light and they stepped back and thought it would be best to cut their losses and ties with the console and pumped as little money as possible in all the Sonic exclusive games.

I think it shows when you consider them delaying games like Phantasy Star Nova, letting The Creative Assembly make a highly risky AAA title (That looks to have failed in America, how unfortunate.) whilst Sonic: Lost World became very lazy towards the end. Say what you want about Sonic Team's track record, they hardly reused assets like this in their other games and I think it leads some weight into SEGA panicking about losing even more money on what should usually have been their star IP.

[Trippled]

Lost World seems almost like a Secret Rings effort.

[CrazyT]

I don't think wii u sales is what caused the games to be crap  to be honest Aki, at least not for lost worlds. Third parties mostly try to sell a consoles with their own games, well mostly ofcourse. Seeing how 3rd parties try to sell the ps4 in japan is something I'm really glad to see. I can give ya that the wii u state was absolutly terrible last year, not only that but the wii u had a terrible image hence no one even gave it a 1st look. But this holiday for example could have really worked out well for a good game on top of nintendo's systemsellers. Also the fact they had already got the dough for the deal so what should have stopped them to make the best of it? Sonic lost world doesnt seem like it became lazy, seems more like the usual sonicteam thing when they try something new IE unleashed boost, werehog, sonic 4 eps 1, classic sonic in generations. Sonic boom however could be true that they backed out with that one, but perhaps moreso because of the undeniably turd it was looking to become.

[Aki-at]

I don't think wii u sales is what caused the games to be crap  to be honest Aki, at least not for lost worlds. Third parties mostly try to sell a consoles with their own games, well mostly ofcourse. Seeing how 3rd parties try to sell the ps4 in japan is something I'm really glad to see. I can give ya that the wii u state was absolutly terrible last year, not only that but the wii u had a terrible image hence no one even gave it a 1st look. But this holiday for example could have really worked out well for a good game on top of nintendo's systemsellers. Also the fact they had already got the dough for the deal so what should have stopped them to make the best of it? Sonic lost world doesnt seem like it became lazy, seems more like the usual sonicteam thing when they try something new IE unleashed boost, werehog, sonic 4 eps 1, classic sonic in generations. Sonic boom however could be true that they backed out with that one, but perhaps moreso because of the undeniably turd it was looking to become.

Third parties were only trying to sell the Playstation 4 in Japan because Sony was courting them and certain franchises like Ryu Ga Gotoku, Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest etc enjoy significant/entire sales in that region so it's in their best interest the console sells, it has nothing to do with the goodness of their hearts. They need the Playstation to be a success in Japan and they'd rather pick the console maker that provides the best service to them, which in this generation was Sony followed by Microsoft with Nintendo a dead last.

Ditto for the Wii U, SEGA, Ubisoft et all probably thought Nintendo would be able to galvanize the crowd behind the product but after seeing it fail and fail hard they were done with it. I'm sure but outside of a complete relaunch, nothing was going to save the Wii U or even help bolster it's sales this Christmas except for a massive game like Smash Bros who's effect could only be short lived.

And my point was that Sonic: Lost World was more than just a bad idea (That's debatable I suppose, I think having a run button is a horrible idea.) it got downright lazy, level layouts reused, boss rushes, reused bosses from the previous game. Sonic Team have plenty of bad ideas but being lazy, recently anyway, is not one of them.

[Berto]

And my point was that Sonic: Lost World was more than just a bad idea (That's debatable I suppose, I think having a run button is a horrible idea.) it got downright lazy, level layouts reused, boss rushes, reused bosses from the previous game. Sonic Team have plenty of bad ideas but being lazy, recently anyway, is not one of them.

I agree. I already hated that additional "run" button on Sonic Lost World, but to add salt to injury, Sonic Boom even had more additional button than Lost World  (4 freaking buttons : jump, run, enerbeam, attack).
Sonic at it best when it only has one button : jump !!!