SEGA Japan President hinting at Sonic reboots and remakes

In a recent interview with SEGA Japan President and COO Yukio Sugino via Famitsu, the boss man had expressed interest in ‘reboots and remakes’ of Sonic the Hedgehog games. The interview talks mostly about the success that the Sonic the Hedgehog brand has been having lately with a strong fiscal year and great reception of Sonic Frontiers. Not only that, the success of the Sonic the Hedgehog 2 movie.

When talking about Samba de Amigo: Party Central, a new revival of a previously dead Sonic Team franchise, Sugino confirmed that the game isn’t a reboot but a new title in the series but was interested in exploring reboots and reboot-like features within new games. He refrenced Sonic Superstars as an example

“a return to 2D action, and although it is a new game, I would like to implement reboot-like measures as well. Of course, we have to do new things, but as with all IPs, we don’t have new works or reboots,. We will develop while selecting which is appropriate at this timing for each IP, such as ‘This is the best way to do this IP’. ‘Sonic’ is also SEGA’s signature IP, and in parallel with the new game, we are considering reboots and remakes.”

This isn’t surprising since Sonic Colors Ultimate was a thing. Considering that a lot of Sonic fans have grown up with older 3D titles that they have been asking remakes for a decade plus, I’d say that I’m all for a Sonic Adventure, Sonic Adventure 2 and even Sonic Unleashed reboots or remakes. What older modern Sonic games do you think deserve a full on remake?

[Via Sonic Stadium, Dualshockers]

Atlus says they want to remake Persona 1 and Persona 2

With Persona 3 getting a remake soon, the question in a lot of fans minds is when Atlus will reach back and remake older titles that deserve a brand new coat of paint. During a recent interview, Atlus was asked if there where other remakes in development which they said:

“Atlus and Sega are experimenting with many remake ideas for different franchises. But there is nothing in end production like P3RE right now. Atlus really wants to make a P1/P2 remake.”

While the original Persona (2009) game and the sequel Persona 2 (2011) had remakes on the PlayStation Portable, as all Sony PSP games, these these titles are rare and hard to buy. I think giving the original titles a fresh coat of paint could be interesting. But should modernize the gameplay to match the newer Persona games or keep it original? I guess we shall see.

SEGA says Shenmue 1 & 2 HD remakes have their full attention

Shenmue_HD_remasters_Sega_comment[1]SEGA Europe’s boss Jurgen Post has recently talked about the possibilities of doing Shenmue 1 & 2 HD remakes and ressured the fanbase that they have been looking into renewing licensing to do the remakes correctly.

This is what SEGA Europe said about the Shenmue 1 & 2 HD remakes:

“There is definitely a desire [to go back to our classic games], Even online, people are constantly talking about products they would like to see come back, and Shenmue 1 and 2  are probably in the top two places. We are looking into it. It is an old IP, it is a beloved IP – and not just by consumers, but also within Sega, we have people saying that if we could do Shenmue 1 and 2 all over again, we’d definitely go for it. The issue is that it is a big game. It is a project from many years ago. If we are to do it, we’d want to do a fantastic conversion to the current platforms, and there are a lot of licences in the game, which were cleared many years ago, so we will need to renegotiate those contracts. We are looking into it. We haven’t given it a green light, but it has our full attention.” – Jurgen Post, President and COO of SEGA Europe

This whole licensing issues from old games have plagued SEGA in the past when they ported over Crazy Taxi on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, omitting the iconic soundtrack due to SEGA not wanting to pay the licenses for the old tracks. This lead fans to getting upset and ever since then SEGA has made an effort to gather all the licenses when remaking or porting games. The last big examples include Castle of Illusions (which, now expiring license is making them pull it from shops) and Jet Set Radio.

What are your thoughts? Does Shenmue 1 & 2 HD remakes seem like a reality now? Jurgen Post has been teasing the return of classic franchises for awhile now, do you really think SEGA Europe actually have something up their sleeves?

[Source: MCVUK]