The Fall and Hopeful Rise of Sonic the Hedgehog

Sega has finally, finally realized that Sonic just isn’t the same anymore, and that the fans are pretty much fed up with the direction of the franchise. For the past several years we’ve seen tons of Sonic games unleash a few good ideas and a few good levels, and perhaps even a few glimpses of hope for a true-blue comeback. Nonetheless, the sales haven’t been impressive, the word-of-mouth is just not there, and Sega has yet to truly capitalize on its biggest franchise. It does also hurt them that the games are rather crappy.





The best-selling video game in the Sonic line was Sonic 2, which sold an astounding 6 million copies. The Sonic trilogy sold 12 million copies within the SNES/Genesis death battle in early 90s. However once the new millennium started the console Sonic games just weren’t selling in the high numbers Sega was used to seeing. No matter how many reboots were thrown at Sonic, no new image or attitude could deliver. Sonic Generations couldn’t do it, Sonic Unleashed couldn’t really do it, Sonic Boom is a disaster. Even though the Sonic Adventure games did do surprise-surprise success on the Gamecube, it was far from the days when the hedgehog could be mentioned with the likes of Mario and Donkey Kong.

But if there’s a place where Sega should fully focus on, it should be the handheld market. For some odd reason, Sega is focusing all its efforts on the Playstation and XBox fronts----when this century has seen the best of Sonic in the Nintendo handhelds. Sonic Advance series (great games by the way) has sold 5 million copies on the Game Boy Advance---a handheld that saw tons of software sales but seldom in pure bulk. The Sonic Rush series (which features the best Sonic game in the past decade) sold over 4 million in the DS line. The numbers do exist, and the fanbase is willing to return back to Sonic in the way Nintendo gamers continue flocking to the Mario franchise. It just might not be in the eighth or ninth generation console battles.

Back to basics should be the approach, and scaling Sonic back into the Nintendo handheld market might be the best way to do it. Sonic flourishes best on the DS systems because it has the technology to make the games very fast, intense, and without issues---yet also isn’t strong enough to pull off the console gameplay that we’ve learned to hate. The other reason is because the Nintendo fanbase resonates and accepts Sonic far better than the fanbases of the competitors. Sonic needs to remain in 2-D as the style of gameplay suffers immensely with an added dimension. Mario can work on 2-D and 3-D because speed isn’t its special point—its creativity, variety, and replay value. Sonic’s best work involves furious speed, roller-coaster-like action, and relentless challenge. Pitting Sonic on 3-D and trying to duplicate this style just doesn’t work---you’d have to give them a totally new gameplay mechanic—which would then remove its Sonicness from the equation.

Sonic Rush is where they need to truly focus on if they want to win their fans back. Sonic Rush was lengthy, had big boss battles, elongated levels, and stripped back on storyline in favor of just throwing you tons of content. Sega needs to stop trying to tell a story, they have plenty of other franchises to pull off storylines to interweave with the gameplay. Sonic just needs to go, and keep going. And they need to give Sonic a break from the console market, instead building hype and anticipation through scattered games in the handheld front. Let’s take Pokemon for an example—when they finally upgrade it to the console market with a true official adventure, it will probably become the best-selling Nintendo game since Wii Sports. Sorry, drifting, let me get back on topic.

And once they decide to return back to the Playstation/XBox/Wii world, the path should be more New Super Mario Bros. and less Super Mario Galaxy; more Sonic Adventure 2 and less Sonic Colors. Less story, less exploration, less pointless side-quests (Seriously, the Chaos World was abysmal), and focus mainly on levels, speed, and plenty of characters to roam with. The Sega team does have some ideas, does still have the potential of delivering another classic, but needs more direction and less production. There is hope, nonetheless a restructuring of the franchise is needed. At least Sega knows that something needs to be done.

Admitting it is always the first step……..if only other companies would follow along….

Is The Madden Brand Fading?

Is Madden still a thing? Honestly, is it still a thing?



The Madden brand just doesn’t seem to have the power it used to have, when it was the best-selling game for 2-3 months out of the year every year during the sixth generation. During the PS2 games, it was expected that Madden would sell at least 2 million---and then would scrape up a few more millions with the XBox and (sometimes) the Gamecube.



Then something odd happened. The sales started dropping during the seventh generation.



The XBox 360 became the dominant system for Madden, yet it was averaging just half of what Madden was selling in the PS2 days. Its best-selling Madden edition, Madden 2010, was outsold by the 2006 edition by 2 million copies----and that wasn’t even the best-selling installment. And now that we’ve reached the newest generation, the best-selling Madden in this era is the 2015 edition---which barely passed 1.5 million.

So why is the Madden brand fading? It’s a mix of reputation and the overall decline in sports simulation sales. EA and Madden doesn’t have the positive vibes that it carried in the early 2000s, and by destroying the competition the effort level to enhance the franchise diminished completely. After the NFL 2K5/Madden 2005 incident (still an unforgivable act to this day, forget you EA Games), Madden 2006 began the quality downward spiral that went egregiously out of control with the XBox 360 games. And guess what, reputation goes far in the gaming industry; no matter how successful you were before the streak will end if you unleash bad product. Mortal Kombat suffered from this for about a decade post SNES/Genesis period.

The games aren’t as good anymore, and it took a couple years before gamers realized this and decided to spend their hard-earned money elsewhere. The last final blow the NFL 2K series delivered was that awesome price tag of $20 on the 2K5 edition. Ever since that year, the $50-$60 just looked much more expensive to give to a Madden game that monopolized its way to being your only option. EA never tried to lower its price, and now it’s being outsold by the NBA 2K series even though the NFL grosses about 5 billion more than the NBA.

But sports simulations just don’t sell as well as they used to, with just the FIFA series remaining a major success. The number of sim franchises has diminished severely, and the ones that have stuck around have been stagnant in the past few years because of declining quality and/or declining interest. MLB the Show peaked at the PS2 days and has yet to sell a million copies worldwide. NHL from EA also peaked in the PS2 days and the latest installment just sold 400,000 more than an N64 version of the hockey franchise. The NCAA games thanks to legal issues are non-existent.

It has become harder to justify buying the same game every year. Even Call of Duty at least changes up its story and ways of playing each year resulting in consistently outselling the competition in November (even though this franchise has also been seeing a decline). Then there’s the increasing popularity of the more entertaining, more engaging, and more rewarding fantasy football, which makes Madden look like child’s play. Fantasy sports is not just child’s play, it can also become a career. Fantasy football is a $70 billion dollar business---while Madden 2015 made somewhere over $345 million—which is a far cry from the $405 million they earned in 2005.

So how can Madden ever go back to the dominant sales days in an era where games are making more than ever? The solution is simple: convince gamers that the Madden brand is refreshed and will be worth your money. Madden should be more connected with the NFL stats and should adjust the gameplay accordingly. If you want to truly create the realest experience, you need to find a way for player and team stats to update alongside the gameplay of the consumer throughout the season. EA needs to creep closer and closer to fantasy football within the gaming experience as humanely possible.

The biggest hurdle however is taking on the legend that surrounds NFL 2K5. What made 2K5 such a gem was the presentation and the easy-to-pick-up gameplay. Madden is a pure chore to churn through when trying to survive franchise mode. It needs to loosen the realism and look more like your simpler Blitz/2K games. Too much realism and simulating hinders the experience—video gaming is an escape pure and simple. Gran Turismo might be the most realistic racer in the planet, but it survives because it’s still an easy game to handle. Madden stopped being simple a long time ago, and needs to return to this. It needs a good balance, something the 2K franchise was amazing at.

However, there is a chance that ultimately, the sports simulation franchise just might be a thing of the past. It has to be more than mere coincidence that nearly every sports sim franchise has slipped in sales (FIFA also falls in this category, although 5 million sold on the PS4 is nothing to laugh at). The sales bleeding in Madden might never stop---even if the games finally start improving. A reboot might be necessary, some time off might be required. Skipping a year or two couldn’t hurt EA anything---they still have the rights and still have their fantasy football league to rely on. But staying the course is not the answer, EA has lost too much money. A reboot, drastic change, or massive overhaul is required to return to PS2 Madden sales.

Bottom Line: Madden is not a thing. The lackluster sales and depleting interest is evidence of this. It still makes good money, especially because of lack of competition, but its power grip on the gaming industry is slipping rapidly. Similar to the JRPG genre, it could be a fading trend that not even Kevin Hart can save. Ghosts of NFL 2K5 remain hovering on the games, and believe or not its incredible gameplay and $20 price tag hit EA deeper than we could have ever anticipated. With sports being bigger than ever, Madden should be pulling in Call of Duty numbers. Instead, it’s being outsold by the likes of Just Dance 2015 and Monster Hunter. A change is needed, otherwise who knows how much longer the brand will be around.

 All Data Thanks to VGChartz

P.S. I really miss the NFL 2K series....as well as NFL Blitz....

The Shifting Culture of Third-Party Publishing

Old-school gamers, let it go: the 90s are over.

We will never see what we witnessed in the 90s ever again. The business of gaming has changed far too much. And the latest, greatest example is Sega deciding to ditch console gaming altogether at the same time as Titanfall 2 being announced as multi-platform as opposed to just being an XBox One exclusive like the original.

Those backyard wars days are over. Companies don’t team up anymore, they just join all the parties that want to participate. You now need to fetch extra money to have exclusive material. The XBox and the Playstation has had a similar lineup of games for the past decade. This is why their sales become eerily similar in recent generations and recent times:

PS3: 85 million
XBox 360: 84 million
PS4 (In 2015): 1.5 million
XBox One (In 2015): 650,000


However the close numbers from the 90s was because the entire world was split between choosing the Genesis and the Super Nintendo: two drastically different pieces of hardware with similar power but totally dissimilar lineup of games. You could go with the sports-heavy, more mature, more underground Sega Genesis, or go with the Japanese-friendly, platform-heavy, family-oriented Super Nintendo. Third-party companies were picking sides, trying to figure out the winning team while simultaneously establishing stronger relationships with whomever they picked. Capcom picked Nintendo, EA picked Sega, Square Soft picked Nintendo, and Disney/Virgin Interactive picked Sega.

Nowadays, good luck getting a major third-party publisher choose you and only you. Grand Theft Auto used to belong to just Sony: now the XBox shares the series. Final Fantasy and Metal Gear Solid are Japanese favorites that found their way to both Playstation and XBox. Nowadays you need a strong first-party lineup and a good slew of indie games to separate from the rest---which fully explains why PS4 is outperforming the XBox One.

Currently the best-selling game in the planet is The Order: 1886, a Sony-published game. The best-selling game of 2015 so far? Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask, a Nintendo-published game. Depending on third-party companies to cater only to you is a pipe dream; games have become more expensive to produce and contribute, and why limit yourself to one hardware when you can also make money on the competitive machine?

Titanfall 2 becoming a PS4 game as well as an XBox One game should not have surprised anybody. Although the original did well on the XBox systems with over 4 million sold, wouldn’t it be better to have your game available to 32 million systems as opposed to 12 million? On a business standpoint, it only makes too much sense. Microsoft however needs to see that their first-party offerings must be stronger since their most successful new franchise is now becoming a Sony property.

Those playground arguments nowadays sure are more boring, since the top two systems have nearly the same games to choose from. This is why more focus has been made on graphics and the specs. There is no Mario vs. Sonic—you can actually now find Sonic across all the platforms, console-wise and handheld-wise. There are only a handful of games that each system has exclusive to themselves. Of course there’s Nintendo but it’s consistently remained a third-wheel whether it’s frighteningly ahead of the pack (Nintendo Wii 2007-2009) or far behind (Nintendo Gamecube 2001-2006, Nintendo WiiU 2012-Now).

There is a very thin line between choosing a PS4 over the XBox, and vice versa. This is very contrasting to what was occurring in the 1990s. Even different companies were developing the same game for the system they had chosen; Aladdin was made by Capcom for the SNES and was made by Virgin for the Sega Genesis. Then let’s not forget when pretty much everybody joined the Playstation team, leaving little to nothing for the N64, Gamecube, Dreamcast, and XBox. That third-party lineup of friends for Sony was amazing from 1995-2005. Third-party business now focuses on achieving the most widespread amount of exposure to hit as much money as possible. To accomplish this, you simply can’t pick sides anymore.

Can’t behave like the 90s. Sega is officially gone, Nintendo’s punch is weaker, there is no Midway, there is no Akklaim, there is no Neversoft, and we are close to seeing the end of Capcom if nothing is done to help them. The game has changed. There is much more money involved, from the spending to the earnings. With Sega gone, an entire chapter of gaming history has pretty much reached its final page.





And we never got that sequel to F-Zero GX….

Should Sega Buy Capcom?

The amount of articles I could write about how Capcom should be bought immediately will reach infinite status, guaranteed. This is prime property, prime good ol’ money-making potential. Sony should buy them. Nintendo should buy them. If Disney has a way around the legal system, they should buy them. If Microsoft had a shot, they should buy them. The point is Capcom is the cinematic version of LucasArts, a company run by all the wrong people, but has all the right stuff to turn it back around.

I have already mentioned how Nintendo would be the absolutely perfect fit for Capcom’s new home. But let’s change the stakes just a little. There is a company out there with enough money to buy the stock necessary for said takeover. It is a Japanese company with plenty of American experience, and as of now has the finances necessary to get this job done. Lastly, if anyone is willing to make a big splash in the gaming industry, it would be these guys.





What about Sega?



Can you imagine if Sega forked over the money, became the primary owner, and single-handedly altered the landscape of the industry? Can you imagine Sega being allowed to pick and choose who they want to make games for, which Capcom franchises belong to which systems? Sega can hold the Mega Man, Resident Evil, and Street Fighter franchise practically hostage. While other companies in the third-party realm are indeed bigger, most of them are from the Western Hemisphere and are unable to create that strategy.


Now let’s look at Sega’s other option: competing in the console wars once again.



This one is far more a long shot because of all the risks involved and because the wound of Dreamcast still feels fresh (You don’t think so? 15 years ago Sega was third in the console wars. 10 years ago they became a third-party. Pretty sure it still stings). But if Sega were to expand their profits, developing a successful console is the way to go. PS4 is selling at a record pace. The Xbox One actually has one of the best first-year runs in gaming history, and it’s in third. Lastly Nintendo despite a pure lack of software and third-party support is etching in second place while inching towards 84% market share in the handheld market.

The money is indeed there if you are just competing, this isn’t the 90s anymore. The only reason Sony is reporting losses is because of their other fields being very unsuccessful, especially the television division. But the eighth generation is proving to be the most profitable, as the game lineups from all three systems have remained ho-hum, but are still selling like hotcakes. So why not see a Super Dreamcast in the future? Sega has proven to be innovative with its hardware capabilities, and all they really need to do to make an impact is improve the software (Not sure Sonic has gone back to Sonic and Knuckles quality just yet).

The hardware idea is much more a pipe dream because I am sure Sega will be more than satisfied remaining low and just developing games for everyone else. But the stock value and the quality value of the Sega name will increase dramatically if they can claim the sinking Capcom. Sega’s brand name has been rather fleeting since 1999, and that run needs to end very soon especially when you see companies like Rockstar and Activision put up heavy numbers.

If none of the Big 3 is interested, then Sega should definitely take the gamble, pay the millions, and create the takeover. Its lineup of available franchises will practically quadruple, and it will create possibilities in the software division, the hardware division, and even in the arcade division (where Sega reigned heavily once upon a time). This is a pure win-win situation for Sega, no doubt about it.

Seriously though, gaming companies, one of you needs to stop fooling around and just buy Capcom. Make the world a better place.