Rumors are coming to light that suggest Sonic Boom was a victim of troubled development, with no less than Christian Senn claiming he left the project against his will.
Sonic Boom Rise of Lyric has received a mixed reception since releasing a week ago, with many fans pointing out the disparities between previews of the game when it was a WIP and the final product. Many fans have also been sharing pictures and video of the game’s glitches, as well as parts which seem unfinished or filled with placeholder content. Information has slowly been leaking out that the games ended up this way because of problems during development.
First off, news appeared of a huge exodus of employees from Sonic Boom’s developer, Big Red Button Entertainment. Fans verified many of these exits from the employees’ LinkedIn pages. Employees left from across the board, including senior designers, artists, PAs, project managers, etc. It was also noteworthy how many high ranking devs were among those who left. One ex-employee, speaking in anonymity, revealed they did not like how the game was progressing, but did not speak ill of BRB or Sega. LinkedIn data suggests the exodus occurred in July, only four months before release.
Shortly after, some of those former artists shared conceptual art for the game, revealing BRB had been working on it since 2010. In fact, some artists chimed in that they were already working on it the year before. This means work on the game predates the reveal of the Wii U, and a possibly indefinitely delayed release.
In the latest revelation, Christian Senn, famed Treyarch and Sega designer known for Comix Zone and Sonic X-Treme, revealed that he himself was fired in the process, and this firing was neither voluntary nor warranted. Christian worked 5 AM to 7 PM and claimed to be committed to the project. He declined to share details, and noteworthily, Bob Rafei from BRB has postponed a podcast interview, citing scheduling conflicts.
It’s not clear what role Sega had in these events, but it appears that they failed to properly manage the development of the next major release for their flagship character. This is not quite as big a debacle as Aliens: Colonial Marines, but lacking any comment on Sega’s end, it only looks bad for them.
Sega and Big Red Button will eventually be compelled to react to these rumors and revelations, but for now, you can check out some of Sonic Boom’s concept art below.
