Sonic Team's Takashi Iizuka on how Sega is changing its game

[ROJM]

Article from Wired ...

Sonic Team's Takashi Iizuka on how Sega is changing its game

Takashi Iizuka is a difficult man to read. He often tends to slip into corporate speak, especially when discussing Sonic Team, the game development outfit he heads. Operating under the vast Sega empire, it's been responsible for developing all Sonic The Hedgehog games for the past few years -- and it's been a very, very bumpy ride.

Sega has faced criticism for both the quality of their games and for Sonic's continually-growing cast of supporting characters. But according to Iizuka, characters like Blaze The Cat and Cream The Rabbit were brought in "to create new gameplay and new product values." Asked how he feels about many industry commentators writing Sega off, he says, "I want to live up to… consumers' expectations, by contributing more to Sega."

Sega lost its way in the past few years. Although it reigned supreme in the 1990s, it hasn't been able to keep up with the rapidly changing gaming landscape, both inside and outside Japan. As consoles got more powerful and companies like Sony began to muscle in, Sega suffered -- and no-one felt it harder than Sonic Team.

In the past few years, the team's games have seen some brutally low review scores -- their series reboot on Playstation 3, Sonic The Hedgehog, sputtered in with 43 on Metacritic (a more recent entry, Sonic Unleashed, did little better with 60). As Iizuka says with a touch of irony, "We are aware that there are titles that the audience and the development team were not satisfied with."

But then, something changed. Faced with declining sales and loud mockery from the gaming public, the company took a big risk: they went old-school.

Firstly, they signed a four-game deal with development studio Platinum Games, which resulted in smash-hits like Bayonetta and Vanquish. But when it came to Sonic Team, things had to be more drastic. For starters, Sega drew a line under all previous Sonic titles with average Metacritic review scores, removing them from retail entirely. Then, Iizuka and his team got busy making a new Sonic game. It was called Sonic 4, it was a direct sequel to the old 16-bit games, it was download-only and -- crucially -- it was 2D. Sidescrolling only.

"We have had the desire to create a new 2D Sonic game for quite a long time," says Iizuka. "However, it was difficult from a business perspective, because we [had] many 3D Sonic games released. We were able to overcome this obstacle with the emergence of online distribution. Sonic 4 kicked off because all of the consoles now have online distributions (XBLA, PSN, Wiiware) as well as handhelds such as iPhone."

There's still no verdict as to whether the strategy has made business sense; Sega had a difficult 2010, and its consumer sales division (which handles games) saw a 7.4 percent drop in sales. But the critical success of games like Bayonetta and the applause that greeted the reborn Sonic 4 shows that gamers still have love for what Sega stood for, and that this is a company that -- for now -- has got its street cred back.

http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/201 ... ka-sonic-4

Intresting read even if the journolist came to the wrong conclusion.

[CrazyT]

Iizuka....*chills*

[Barry the Nomad]

Interesting read, stupid writer/interviewer. He basically dumbs SEGA down to being a company that releases Platinum Games titles and develops Sonic games. What about AM2 or the Yakuza titles or Phantasy Star or Total War or Football Manager?

Also, no mention of Sonic Colors? Surly that would be the game that had an upswing in quality compared to Sonic Unleashed, as both are 3D titles are had more influence from Iizuka.

Also:

"Sega had a difficult 2010"

What? Really? What about placing 9th in the 2010 MetaCritic game publisher rankings? What about the Q3 income?

2010 was a great year for SEGA.

[CrazyT]

Yes indeed it was barry the nomad. I sorta felt the same when reading the article but didn't bother pointing it out.

2010 was an excellent year. Let's not forget valkyria chronicles 2. Oh yeah baby

[ROJM]

Wasn't SONIC 4 panned by everyone?
:BTN
Well as far as many people are concerned the Platinum titles are what made Sega "cool" again. As for MC the company standings the industry goes by is usually the GDC top publishers chart which is due near the end of the summer. Depends how far Sega is on that chart.

[Barry the Nomad]

Not to turn this into a Sonic 4 debate, but from my observations:

Sonic 4 was panned by fans who put extra attention on physics (which isn't a bad thing) and consider Sonic 3 & Knuckles to be fantastic games (which they are). Considering I, and most of the rest of us here, spend a majority of our time on SEGA and Sonic message boards, the overriding opinion is that the game was awful. The physics were different (I object to the word "broken" as broken implies that the game is unplayable. it is fully playable. "Broken" would apply to Sonic '06.) and the game was lacking in zones and additional characters. These, in my opinion, were the reasons for Sonic 4 receiving such harsh criticism from Sonic and SEGA fans. Oh, and the music was a mixed bag.

When you move outside of those circles you begin to see things shifting towards the positive. For example, a good number of the general gaming sites gave the game positive reviews and many general gamers were just happy to see HD Sonic running about, despite the physics differences. I have fond memories of a number of NES/SNES/Genesis games, but I am not hardcore about all of them. So when I come around to playing HD versions of those games (Bionic Commando Rearmed, Rocket Knight, Super Mario Bros. Wii), I don't notice the changes in mechanics and physics that more hardcore fans might. Check out the metacritic scores. Sonic 4 Wii sits at an 81, and the HD versions are around a 73. Far better than '06's 43 and Unleashed's 60.

So in general, outside of our little fanboy groups, Sonic 4 can be considered a success by the media and general gamers.

However, I don't think Sonic and SEGA fans should be more forgiving, as thanks to negative opinions the game was delayed and improved (slightly). Hopefully more negative opinions, presented in a level headed non-aggressive way, will lead to an even better episode 2.

[Sega Stylista]

Sega lost its way in the past few years. Although it reigned supreme in the 1990s, it hasn't been able to keep up with the rapidly changing gaming landscape, both inside and outside Japan. As consoles got more powerful and companies like Sony began to muscle in, Sega suffered -- and no-one felt it harder than Sonic Team.

I retired from the futility of trying to make that point here.

But then, something changed. Faced with declining sales and loud mockery from the gaming public, the company took a big risk: they went old-school.

Another point I tried to make here but gave up.  Emphasis "they went old-school".  Modern generation of gamers don't even know what that means, the same people complain about the fucking cinematics and story in Vanquish when the whole point of it is that the gameplay is a technical masterpiece, a triumph of on edge game design.

Old school gaming is dead, it can only be seen in fleeting little bits like Vanquish, Demon Souls and recently Hard Corps.  Modern gaming and modern game audiences killed the old Sega. As long as gaming is about presentation over gameplay and big name, big budget franchise hype over the actual critical merits of the game then gaming is doomed. Luckily the fall of modern gaming, that I long predicted, is happening now as escalating costs and dwindling audiences that are finally tiring of shallow, repetitious, homogenized content and are going the way of smartphones, tablets, and social gaming are breaking the model.

Sega might just rise in a post-mainstream gaming 2 or 3 years from now.

Sonic 4 was an unequivocal turd and was inexcusable in the face of such triumphs as Bayonetta, Vanquish and Yakuza.

Takashi Iizuka, if that's really him on Twitter, is a goof ball and the wrong guy to be in charge of Sonic unless it wants to continue to be frozen in its corporate, casual baby form.

People, if you give a shit about great gameplay with technical depth and on the edge game experiences then get some fire under your ass and make a cause for it. If you're still playing action/movie hybrid shit like Uncharted and tasteless, mind numbing console fps, you need to get some self-confidence, a life and grow out of that shit that has killed true gaming.

Sega and old school can come back, make it happen.

[Team Andromeda]

Modern gaming and modern game audiences killed the old Sega

Stop talking so silly. SEGA did a lot of the downfall it's self with the way it handled the 32 bit battle and how it was so very wasteful with limited resources.

it can only be seen in fleeting little bits like Vanquish, Demon Souls and recently Hard Corps.

There is nothing Old school in Vanquish, its quite a modern game. High end action 3rd person shooters were not wide spread in the 16 bit or 32 Bit generations.

If you're still playing action/movie hybrid shit like Uncharted and tasteless, mind numbing console fps,

I'm so so willing to bet you've never played DRAKES II at all (becasue it's simply one of the best games ever made) , and as for FPS's .... Well like Platform games in the 16 bit days, there are far too many of them, but that doesn't mean they're all bad .
If I were you, trying playing the likes of Half Life II, Singularity, FEAR, Mirror's Edge, Battle Field II  for decent and very well done  FPS, that offer something different

is a goof ball and the wrong guy to be in charge of Sonic unless it wants to continue to be frozen in its corporate, casual baby form

No he is very talented man, and like I said 2 years ago. Sonic Team have some new plans and new strategies (not so new now)  to get the Team back on Top form.
They will surprise many and imo Sonic Colours was brilliant and we've seen 'nothing' yet

Sonic 4 was panned by fans who put extra attention on physics (which isn't a bad thing) and consider Sonic 3 & Knuckles to be fantastic games (which they are). Considering I, and most of the rest of us here, spend a majority of our time on SEGA and Sonic message boards, the overriding opinion is that the game was awful. The physics were different (I object to the word "broken" as broken implies that the game is unplayable. it is fully playable. "Broken" would apply to Sonic '06.) and the game was lacking in zones and additional characters. These, in my opinion, were the reasons for Sonic 4 receiving such harsh criticism from Sonic and SEGA fans. Oh, and the music was a mixed bag.

I think it was also panned for the Price and the graphics , with people unfairly comparing it to bullshit CGI remakes of Part III and that Sonic II HD (which need one hell of a PC to run) . It's a great SEGA game, but SEGA needs to up the graphics  big time, and make the game better value for the price . I think they'll do just that, as Sonic II was a massive leap in GFX and size of the game, over that of Sonic. Myself I thought it gave those wanting a Sonic 2D game, exactly what they were asking for

And I think that's the plan of Sonic 4 Ep II, and that's to follow the needlemouse bule prints

[Barry the Nomad]

Yeah, price was another point of contention. I had no issue with it, as $15 seems inexpensive to me, but I can see how others were pissed about it.

It would have been nice if SEGA offered up free DLC down the road that gave the game a bit more content. Even holiday themed levels would have been cool, like how Christmas NiGHTS changed based on the dates. Perhaps when episode 2 releases, it could either lock on with episode 1 and allow for Tails to played as or if they don't lock-on, Tails could be added via free DLC. It would make for a nice bit of advertising on episode 2's part, as the DLC would be free even if the player didn't buy episode 2. However when they did play as Tails in episode 1, they'd be tempted to buy the next ep (assuming they enjoy playing as Tails).

I found Sonic 4 to be very much "old school" in that it relied on high scores, time attacks and multiple play troughs. In fact. Sonic 3 actually suffered (in my opinion) from too many cutscenes. I played through the game again recently and was surprised to find how many times I had to sit and watch characters pantomime the story. It was cool and amusing, but got in the way of the gameplay when it came to score/time attacking. Sonic 4, thankfully, trimmed that fat and allows one to play from the start of an act to the end without having to rewatch a cutscene.

[Ben]

What? Really? What about placing 9th in the 2010 MetaCritic game publisher rankings? What about the Q3 income?

2010 was a great year for SEGA.

9th place isn't much to cheer about, they were behind almost all their competition.

Ranking:
1.Take-Two
2.Nintendo
3.Capcom
4.Microsoft
5.EA
6.Activision/Blizard
7.Sony
8.Square-Enix
9.Sega
10.Namco
11.THQ
12.Ubisoft
13.Konami

Being towards the bottom of a list for a company that used to be renowned for their excellent software is kind of a kick to the balls for SEGA, they need to either improve the quality of their licensed titles or stop entirely with them. It's dragging them down.

The Q3 income...they did indeed profit. However, the profit was down from last year. This is mainly due to no Mario and Sonic game, but declines aren't a good thing.  

SEGA, in my opinion, needs to draw attention to their entire lineup instead of being so hit-based in their marketing. They select a couple games to market and then nearly ignore all the rest, as a result, you get the writer of this article, who hasn't heard of much of what SEGA released this year, only knowing of the hits.

[Sharky]

Its writing like this that boils my blood... Sega have released a load of great games in 2009 even more in 2010 and 2011 looks to be even better.

Sega/Sammy have been profiting as a whole through this recession and this last report every part of Sega was making money while many others are losing it.

As for the metacritic shit, I generally don't care... Segas score was dropped massively by 2 really shit Marvel games but they still put out games like Sonic Colours, Bayonetta, Napoleon, Yakuza 3, Vanquish, Valkyria Chronicles 2 and Phantasy Star Portable 2 etc etc last year...

Some stunning games.

Sega currently is in great shape if you ask me.

[ROJM]

Stop talking so silly. SEGA did a lot of the downfall it's self with the way it handled the 32 bit battle and how it was so very wasteful with limited resources.

Yes it was ALL sega's fault :roll: How high the mighty have fallen that they need to continue sony's propaganda.  :lol:

There is nothing Old school in Vanquish, its quite a modern game. High end action 3rd person shooters were not wide spread in the 16 bit or 32 Bit generations.

Do you have to keep twisting everything people say?
You know what he meant by that comment, but then you'd have to be playing games for at least 30 years to know what he meant...

Another point I tried to make here but gave up. Emphasis "they went old-school". Modern generation of gamers don't even know what that means, the same people complain about the fucking cinematics and story in Vanquish when the whole point of it is that the gameplay is a technical masterpiece, a triumph of on edge game design.

Old school gaming is dead, it can only be seen in fleeting little bits like Vanquish, Demon Souls and recently Hard Corps. Modern gaming and modern game audiences killed the old Sega. As long as gaming is about presentation over gameplay and big name, big budget franchise hype over the actual critical merits of the game then gaming is doomed. Luckily the fall of modern gaming, that I long predicted, is happening now as escalating costs and dwindling audiences that are finally tiring of shallow, repetitious, homogenized content and are going the way of smartphones, tablets, and social gaming are breaking the model.

Sega might just rise in a post-mainstream gaming 2 or 3 years from now.

Sonic 4 was an unequivocal turd and was inexcusable in the face of such triumphs as Bayonetta, Vanquish and Yakuza.

Takashi Iizuka, if that's really him on Twitter, is a goof ball and the wrong guy to be in charge of Sonic unless it wants to continue to be frozen in its corporate, casual baby form.

People, if you give a shit about great gameplay with technical depth and on the edge game experiences then get some fire under your ass and make a cause for it. If you're still playing action/movie hybrid shit like Uncharted and tasteless, mind numbing console fps, you need to get some self-confidence, a life and grow out of that shit that has killed true gaming.

Sega and old school can come back, make it happen.

I don't think its specifically a sega problem more so a widespread japanese problem. Japanese gaming has evolved down the years to IMHO the terrible trash that used to be in abundance at the grey importers shop back in the early nineties. They're just not making the japanese games that has an appeal to western gamers anymore and if they are they usually locked away in the arcades but even that has changed with the type of nonsensical games that have dominated there in the last five years. Western audiences aren't into the type of japanese game that are typical of that market at the moment, they are into the type of games that became prominent in the eighties and dominated during the nineties. It may be cool to see Platinum waving the flag for this type of game built on old school values but if they are going to be run by a very weak Sega its to no avail.

[Team Andromeda]

Yes it was ALL sega's fault  How high the mighty have fallen that they need to continue sony's propaganda

In the west it most was...  Trying to Market much less support dual 32bit systems, the Master System, the Mega Drive, the Mega CD and Game Gear was asking for trouble and to bleed money. That and getting no SONIC game ready and launching with poor tools were all of SEGA making. SONY just sat back and watched SEGA and NCL make screw up after screw up and lapped up the pickings.

Do you have to keep twisting everything people say?

How  is it twisting ? 3rd person action games were not ten a penny in the 32 bit era and only came to province in the PS2 era. There is nothing old school in Vanquished, same goes for Gears Of war.
You want old school on the 360 then play the likes Deathsmiles, now that's pretty much as old school as it gets.

Its writing like this that boils my blood... Sega have released a load of great games in 2009 even more in 2010 and 2011 looks to be even better

SEGA has published lots of great games. The trouble for SEGA it was It's Powerhouse Japanese studios output; To what SEGA Of Japan used to output on almost a yearly basis in terms of leading tech, incredible design and games getting praise from both the press and gamers alike it's not the SEGA of old.

Don't you really miss the days of this ?

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When SEGA used to drop jaws and show up all other developers ?. I do ...

[ROJM]

How is it twisting ? 3rd person action games were not ten a penny in the 32 bit era and only came to province in the PS2 era. There is nothing old school in Vanquished, same goes for Gears Of war.
You want old school on the 360 then play the likes Deathsmiles, now that's pretty much as old school as it gets.

 :lol:
SS was talking about the experience not the genre. The fact that VANQUISH takes a western idea, adds fast paced kinectic action with
elequent designs is essentially the story of jap gaming,in depth gameplay mechanics too. VQ is a throw back to what was great about japanese gaming in the golden age of gaming.  Fact you don't get that doesn't suprise me.

In the west it most was... Trying to Market much less support dual 32bit systems, the Master System, the Mega Drive, the Mega CD and Game Gear was asking for trouble and to bleed money. That and getting no SONIC game ready and launching with poor tools were all of SEGA making. SONY just sat back and watched SEGA and NCL make screw up after screw up and lapped up the pickings.

So wait you're blaming sega's entire output for their failure? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!

[Team Andromeda]

The fact that VANQUISH takes a western idea, adds fast paced kinectic action with

Japanese game studios have been taken Western idea's and adding their own spin since the birth of Video games, even RPG and Traditional Shooters owe their origins to America

SS was talking about the experience not the genre

Well the experience is very much new~ish, These sorts of games have only been possible since the X-Box/PS2 days, where consoles could handle and draw the action the developer wanted to through at it. Though almost every genre has been done and covered now, there is really nothing much that is really new and unique in terms of new gameplay experience

So wait you're blaming sega's entire output for their failure?

No, I simply saying SEGA spread its self too thin, spend too much money pushing and developing for multiple platforms in 1994/5 and lost direction and focus as result . SEGA bleed money and support.

A SEGA behind a single machine, with a single developer and marketing budget, would have been a better SEGA to take the fight to SONY and the PS . Sadly before the DC ever made it out, a lot of damage was done, where SEGA lost its image, its street creed, 3rd  development support and retail Support, from which it never really recovered.