RUMOR: Sanzaru hasn't been working on Sonic Boom: Fire and Ice for months

[Operationgamer17]

http://board.sonicstadium.org/topic/20015-rumour-sanzaru-have-not-been-working-on-boom-fire-ice-for-several-months/#comment-974366

[JRcade19]

Sounds honestly like they might be better off cancelling it at this rate.

EDIT: Assuming the Rumor is true

[Happy Cat]

It's probably true. Wouldn't be the first.. or second time this has happened with a SEGA America managed game. It's amazing that this keeps happening with that branch.

[Moody]

SoA just cannot catch a break. There's a certain point where I'm not sure I should feel sorry or angry that they keep falling for this. I really hope this isn't true, but the evidence is pretty...I wouldn't say convincing, but it's not inspiring.

[Trippled]

It's clear as day that SoA has no development capabilities anyway, I don't get why they don't just scrap it completly.

[Bit,]

The delay hasn't been given a set date yet, regarding how much has been finished Sega seem's they wan't to add more content to the game rather then just releasing it at this state. This is at least something there taking care of; regarding the quality of the final product, it seem's like they took some feedback and removed the heavy ammount's of exploration people have been complaining about in shattered crystal.This does still consern me about the delay of the game though and how long it will be.

[Phantasos]

That is fucking hilarious.

[Bit,]

That is fucking hilarious.

No matter how we look at it, the delay is still something nice since they've noticed this and want to add more content to the game rather than release it now. Like this has been the same problem for most sonic game's but they finally noticed this and delayed the game to prevent this from happening again.

[Tad]

Maybe they just weren't happy with the direction he was taking it in? It could mean anything at this stage.

[George]

Not to be a dick, but Sanzaru is a contractor, the person that usually shows games at events are publishers. THAT IS THERE DAMN JOB. SEGA didn't do many trade shows. Not saying he is wrong but saying 'they didn't show it at E3' is not proving anything since SEGA is the publisher and they didn't show off any games at the event. At this point they would be doing SEGA's job.... something that they aren't being paid to do.

The linkdin thing is suspect, for sure.

[pirovash88]

If true, this is really bad. Is development for this game really that unimportant? They should just do everyone a favor and cancel it.

[FlareHabanero]

If true, this is really bad. Is development for this game really that unimportant? They should just do everyone a favor and cancel it.

Considering that the game recycles a lot of assets from Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal in the first place, it doesn't surprise me that they're treating this more so as a low budget side project. The poor reception of Sonic Boom games in general also don't help with confidence in general.

[Bit,]

If true, this is really bad. Is development for this game really that unimportant? They should just do everyone a favor and cancel it.

Sega has been known to hardly show sonic at TGS out of every other event, making a special trailer just to show off at a Japanese audience would be a waste of time and resources.George does have a point but it is still nice that we have a delay rather than a typical rushed sonic game that has been going on for way too long.

[Tad]

What exactly is the problem here? So what if they're not being used, their last game was pretty dire. If SEGA are trying to boost quality in all aspects, this is probably for the better. If however, it's getting cancelled, then that's fine too. The project had little to go on anyway.

[Draikin]

Can anyone explain to me how Sanzaru could simply decide to stop working on a game funded by Sega? If they're being paid to create the game then they need to deliver. Sanzaru also stated this on their Facebook page regarding the delay:

Happy to see Sega investing the time and money to add in the features that we feel will make the best Sonic Boom game to release alongside the popular Cartoon Network series.

This means Sega is spending more money on the project. If this rumor is accurate, I'd imagine Sega is aware of it as well. Given what happened with Colonial Marines, would Sega of America really make the exact same mistake again?

What I do find a bit odd is that Sanzaru's message didn't state "investing the time and money for us to add in the features". But perhaps I'm reading into things here...

EDIT: Unless this really does imply that Sega wasn't satisfied with the game that Sanzaru delivered, and decided to take all the assets and source code and look for a different studio to finish the game. That way, Sanzaru would be free to move everyone to their VR project, which would explain why nobody is working on the game at the moment. If that's the case, then I guess Sega would have to decide between cutting their losses and canceling the game, or continue to invest and try to find a developer willing to finish/improve the game. They know they can't afford to release another subpar Sonic game. But it seems to me most of the fans wouldn't even be all that upset with the game being canceled.