Should of SEGA stopped considering/market Sonic as their Main Franchise?

[George]

YEah and Final Fantasy have tranny character designs are are as Japanese as it gets. So what? FFXIII sold over 3 million copies.

You say it was a 'different time', what do you mean? Anime wasn't popular, JRPGs didn't sell as well to warrant the advertising budget FFVII got. It had more things going against it than Valkyria Chronicles has now.

Doesn't make sense that 'Americans' are scared of other cultures. I think culture in games is what makes some more interesting. See Assassins Creed.

[Radrappy]

When I say it was a different time, I mean as far as console rpgs go, there was no alternative.  And back in the day, you being a gamer was practically synonymous with you being a fan of anime and Japanese culture.  Not so much anymore.  It's hard to appeal to both markets these days.  Vanquish mostly succeeds, as does Resident Evil, Mario, Zelda, and Metroid.       

FFXIII sold a ton because FF has a strong following that has remained loyal all these years.   

[Waffle]

Being a gamer in the mid-90s meant you liked Japanese culture and cartoons? Haha, what?

Sorry, but that was too much not to laugh at.

Though on the topic of Final Fantasy: it was a well known franchise at the time. If anything, more open attitudes toward anime today have made it 'queer and nerdy', scaring off average gamers. The limitations of NES/SNES held the strange tones back when it initially became popular, but not so much today. Girly emotional boys with big swords shooting fireballs is not exactly something of mass appeal, and I do not think it ever was.

Overall I cannot see where this discussion is going. Do people mean they want SEGA to turn into Square Enix? Even Square Enix themselves are shying away from being known as the go-to company for Japanese RPGs. SEGA has never been known as an RPG company and their attempt a few years back was abysmal and embarrassing (like it should be). Phantasy Star, Shining Force, and Valkyria seems solid enough for an RPG franchise line-up, they just need to focus more on quality. Though like George stated, a few commercials around release-date would not hurt either. People do buy just about anything simply due to a commercial.

And a last note concerning anime. Personally I feel the Shining series needs to drop it and go back to the style it had pre-PS2. It is fine to experiment with a variety of styles, but they really ran this series into the ground. It is no longer true to its source material which seemed more like a goofy Dungeons and Dragons sort of atmosphere.

Phantasy Star also suffers from this, though not as much. The games need a more serious tone, I think, and be less effeminate. The men really do look like women now and they never did before, and I cannot figure out what those elf girl fashion diva freaks are wearing. These sort of things really turn me off of the series despite my liking for laser guns and robots. PSO and the 8/16-bit series seemed much more mature and approachable. So considering the view SEGA projects to people, Phantasy Star should be able to benefit it if the series goes back to its 80s and 90s style. Though even if they do increase marketing and resolve the style (plus keep Sonic Team far away from it), I do not think it could ever be a 'mascot series', but it should be bigger than it is now, especially considering its history and potential.

[Ben]

Final Fantasy VII getting a huge marketing budget was definitely a risk that was taken, and it was a risk that paid off. It's important to keep in mind that Sony did help market the game, as they saw it as a huge snag at the time, having gotten the franchise from Nintendo. Still, yeah, Squaresoft and Sony of America put a big marketing budget behind a game that was part of a popular, but certainly not BIG, series. And it paid off. They knew they had a game that was something special.

I wish Sega would take similar risks with some of their software. They shouldn't let the fact that the game is "Japanese" prevent them from giving it a shot. It's true that Western gaming has grown and that more Western gamers seem to prefer Western games. But that doesn't mean there's no longer a place for Japanese games. Times have changed but not that much.

FF13 shipped 5 million copies worldwide. Resident Evil 5 was also a huge worldwide success, as was Metal Gear Solid 4. And Zelda continues to be. Obviously somebody is buying these games.

The question the industry needs to ask itself is: "how can we get these people to try out new IP?"

Anyway, as far as the topic goes. Sega should not drop Sonic, he is their main icon and though he's part of a dying genre, the fact remains that he's Sega's most successful IP. They've never been able to launch a similarly successful one. And he's the face of the company, for better or for worse. At least he's back to starring in decent games.

[ROJM]

Final Fantasy VII getting a huge marketing budget was definitely a risk that was taken, and it was a risk that paid off. It's important to keep in mind that Sony did help market the game, as they saw it as a huge snag at the time, having gotten the franchise from Nintendo. Still, yeah, Squaresoft and Sony of America put a big marketing budget behind a game that was part of a popular, but certainly not BIG, series. And it paid off. They knew they had a game that was something special.

I wish Sega would take similar risks with some of their software. They shouldn't let the fact that the game is "Japanese" prevent them from giving it a shot. It's true that Western gaming has grown and that more Western gamers seem to prefer Western games. But that doesn't mean there's no longer a place for Japanese games. Times have changed but not that much.

FF13 shipped 5 million copies worldwide. Resident Evil 5 was also a huge worldwide success, as was Metal Gear Solid 4. And Zelda continues to be. Obviously somebody is buying these games.

The question the industry needs to ask itself is: "how can we get these people to try out new IP?"

Anyway, as far as the topic goes. Sega should not drop Sonic, he is their main icon and though he's part of a dying genre, the fact remains that he's Sega's most successful IP. They've never been able to launch a similarly successful one. And he's the face of the company, for better or for worse. At least he's back to starring in decent games.

The thing is Sega kinda did drop Sonic as their main mascot during the Saturn era to disastrous results. The failure to really create a proper Sonic title for the saturn during its lifetime was part of the reason that the saturn failed in the west. They were trying to push titles like Clockwork Knight,NIGHTS and even BUG! as some sort of alternative to sell the saturn to consumers. Of course this "system mascot" mentality died out at the beginning with the DC era and Sonic returned as one of the first generation Sonic games which did boost Sega's chances with the DC for a while.
The real problem is how they handle such IPs. Sega, because of the ammount of games they make has a siseable cast of non offensive cutie type characters than Nintendo has, yet they don't necessarly take advantage of that fact, even with a title like SEGA SUPERSTARS you don't necessarly see all of them. And of course if they do start to create a new game based around one of these characters,it turns into the much maglinged NIGHTS sequel. Nintendo only seem to use mario for at least two main platform games and several spin offs like Mario kart each generation while other characters in their portfolio get used to fill the gap. I think that's what Sega needs to do is to really downsize the sonic spinoffs and keep it at a level of two or three main sonic games while updating or creating a new cutetype character IP to fill the gap but making sure its crafted to perfection ( on sonic and other games like ALEX KIDD or whatever character they would update or create) instead of just churning them out.

[Sega Uranus]

SEGA Japan has seen Kazuma Kiryu as their mascot for awhile now, but this 20th anniversary Sonic stuff might change that.

George is right in that they need to focus more on other IPs and not just Sonic. Back in the day, stuff like Shining, Golden Axe, Ecco, Phantasy Star, Streets of Rage... Pretty much everything had largely the same marketing budget and were put together in bundles. Now there are Sonic fans who simply hate SEGA and want them to sell the IP to others. This can only further hurt the franchise as fans like that become more vocal.

I personally think they should move Sonic away from Sonic Team for maybe two or three major releases and let them focus on Phantasy Star, new IPs or something. A new group really might be what the franchise needs to give it new life and Sonic Team the break from the series they probably need. I guess Waffle said it best, the past 10 years+ of Sonic games has been embarrassing, even the good ones make a lot of people cringe and make the player look awkward.

[ROJM]

SEGA Japan has seen Kazuma Kiryu as their mascot for awhile now, but this 20th anniversary Sonic stuff might change that.

George is right in that they need to focus more on other IPs and not just Sonic. Back in the day, stuff like Shining, Golden Axe, Ecco, Phantasy Star, Streets of Rage... Pretty much everything had largely the same marketing budget and were put together in bundles. Now there are Sonic fans who simply hate SEGA and want them to sell the IP to others. This can only further hurt the franchise as fans like that become more vocal.

I personally think they should move Sonic away from Sonic Team for maybe two or three major releases and let them focus on Phantasy Star, new IPs or something. A new group really might be what the franchise needs to give it new life and Sonic Team the break from the series they probably need. I guess Waffle said it best, the past 10 years+ of Sonic games has been embarrassing, even the good ones make a lot of people cringe and make the player look awkward.

Kiryu isn't their mascot. For sure he's the star of their premiere franchise but not a mascot. Using that logic MUSHI KING would be their mascot because it was their best selling game series that Sega Japan was heavily promoting back in the mid noughties because it made a lot of dosh and it appealled to a lot of children. Sega japan doesn't heavily use Sonic as a mascot anymore unlike Sega of america and sega europe. SOJ seem to be focusing on franchises or creating them and not using a single banner to unify them. And that's the problem. The more franchise focus they become the more type of fans as ytou described they will attract. When it comes to the traditional Segafan IE like sega for most of their games they are getting smaller compared to the individual game franchise fanbase that has grown since the mid noughties.  Sega managed to use Sonic to get their fans together but i will admit having their own system didn't hurt too. Now the only reason they seem to keep making Sonic is because it sells well in the west.

As for PHANTASY STAR well it seems that's exactly what's happening slowly but surely, Sonic Team are more focused on that series than they are on Sonic.