In a recent interview with Marketing Week, Sega of Europe's Marketing Manager Jon Rooke said the company plans to change direction with future Sonic games. He added that those future games will be more inspired by the 2D sidescrolling classics, and that transitioning the franchise to 3D proved difficult.
Rooke, former global brand director at Creative Assembly, also discussed reshaping consumers' perception of Sega, along with exploring the smartphone space.
“Now my biggest challenge as marketing director is to make sure people are aware that Sega isn’t just this heritage brand that made all the Sonic games but we’re making cutting edge adult narratives such as Alien Isolation too. Not a lot of people realise we make Football Manager either – that has to change.” He said.
Rooke admits that Sega has had “great success” on mobile, citing Sonic Dash’s over 100 million downloads. Despite this, he insists that Sega looks to produce quality content first and then decide which platform to put it on.
Sega has faced much criticism recently. In addition to contemporary Sonic games not being up to snuff, the publisher also produced the much-maligned Aliens: Colonial Marines. Things have begun to look up, however, with the release of Alien Isolation last year to lukewarm reviews.
While no new Sonic games have been announced, we now have a better idea of what form they could possibly take when they do arrive.
Marketing Week via VGChartz.
