Block out your schedule. Minecraft has a release date.
Warner Bros today revealed that Minecraft, the movie based on the wildly-popular video game, will make its debut on May 24, 2019. Deadline is reporting that the flick will be in 3D (duh) and in IMAX.
As a video game, Minecraft was first released in November 2011. Since then, it’s gone on to sell over 106 million copies, with more than 40 million unique Minecraft players each month. Mojang, the company that developed the game, was acquired by Microsoft in 2014 for $2.5 billion.
The movie will be directed by Rob McElhenney, best known for his work as EP and star of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Lego Movie producers Roy Lee and Jill Messick are attached to produce.
While many American video game developers are based along the West Coast, Chicago has a thriving industry comprised of notable studios large and small, not to mention an ever-rising wave of talented indie creators.
From the iconic days of Mortal Kombat and NBA Jam from Midway Games in the early '90s to recent favorites like Octodad: Dadliest Catch, Organ Trail: Director's Cut, and Mortal Kombat X, Chicago has remained an essential part of the wider games industry. Right now is an especially exciting time for Chicago-spawned gaming, with many console, PC, mobile, and virtual reality (VR) projects in development across the city and surrounding suburbs.
Many promising, locally-made games are on the horizon today, and some enjoy a big national spotlight at this month's 22nd annual Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in Los Angeles. Looking for some Chicago flavor in your games? Here are five big titles gaining attention that should be delighting players sometime in the next year.
Injustice 2
Developer: NetherRealm Studios Platforms: PlayStation 4, Xbox One Release Date: 2017
Revealed earlier this month before an extensive E3 showing, Injustice 2 is the sequel to 2013's Injustice: Gods Among Us—a head-to-head fighting game that pit DC Comics legends against each other in brutal, yet beautifully rendered battles. Both titles hail from NetherRealm Studios, the team formed in 2010 from the wake of Midway Games' closure, and are helmed by Mortal Kombat co-creator and studio creative director, Ed Boon.
Injustice 2 doubles down on the superhero skirmishes of its predecessor, promising an even larger cast headlined by Batman, Wonder Woman, and Superman, of course. It also uses the added power of current console systems to deliver more extravagant arenas, which feature cinematic special attack sequences and let players utilize the terrain in combat.
Furthermore, next year's sequel brings innovation to the fighting genre in the form of a new gear system. Players will earn in-game equipment after each match, which allows them to customize their fighters' skills and appearance in meaningful ways. That helps build a personal attachment to the heroes over time, and should make this comic battler an even more enticing entry than its sharp predecessor.
The Brookhaven Experiment
Developer: Phosphor Games Studio Platform: PC (HTC Vive) Release Date: July 5
VR is quickly gaining steam with this spring's release of the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive headsets, and we are starting to see some truly thrilling games built around the tech. Chicago has some early VR supporters, and Phosphor Games Studio is among the first with the upcoming release of The Brookhaven Experiment. Designed for the Vive headset, it's an intense shooter that challenges players to stay alive with a mix of quick wits and very steady aim.
Phosphor is best known for epic mobile games like Horn and The Dark Meadow, and The Brookhaven Experiment started as a tech prototype that quickly became a full-blown project after winning over the team. "VR brings a presence and immersion that you can't experience in any other type of game," asserts Justin Corcoran, studio CEO. "It's hard to even describe properly—you really need to be in it and see for yourself."
Even before the release, there is a strong surge of excitement about the game: reaction videos of people playing the demo and freaking out over the massive, monstrous beasts have racked up more than 20 million views. Embracing a new market like this is challenging, between the design shifts and the limited current install base, but Corcoran remains optimistic about the opportunities. "With so few studios and games out this early, it's easier for us to demonstrate how skilled our team is at making great games, even in such a new medium," he affirms.
Manifold Garden
Developer: William Chyr Platforms: PlayStation 4, PC/Mac/Linux Release Date: Early 2017Within Chicago or beyond, you won't find a more mesmerizing game on the horizon than Manifold Garden. Developed independently since 2012 by visual artist William Chyr, along with help from programming contractors, Manifold Garden is an alluring puzzle experience that tosses players into an abstract world filled with surreal architecture. Players must rotate the environments, manipulate gravity, and overcome other obstacles to progress ahead.
In Chyr's original vision, the game first known as Relativity would have been done years ago. Inspired by M.C. Escher and the film Inception, the initial three-month project expanded in scale and complexity the more he worked on it. "[Manifold Garden] has grown to be much more than the original idea," he admits, noting an added gardening component as an example. "The game is now more about inhabiting interesting architectural spaces as opposed to mere puzzle solving."
Chyr credits the Chicago indie games scene—which he says "has been really wonderful"—for helping him playtest, expand upon his original concept, and lear how to market his game to prospective players. He even founded a "Design Club" to help other creators improve their games. "Chicago has been a really great community for me to be a part of as an indie developer," he says.
TumbleSeed
Developers: Benedict Fritz, Greg Wohlwend, more Platforms: PC/Mac Release Date: Early 2017
Image Credit: TumbleSeed developers
TumbleSeed is an even stronger testament to the collaborative power of Chicago's indie game development scene. It was initially prototyped by Benedict Fritz (Dudeski), inspired by a 1983 mechanical arcade game called Ice Cold Beer (or Zeke's Peak) that was housed at Logan Arcade in Logan Square back in 2014. Fellow fan Greg Wohlwend, who helped bring mobile hits like Threes! and Ridiculous Fishing to life, saw Fritz's rolling ball prototype via a Vine video and wanted to see how far they could take the concept together.
"How do we build this toy into a full game?" they wondered, says Fritz. Through intense design experimentation, they built something even more compelling than the original inspiration. After trying concepts like an endless runner or an arcade-style high-score game, they finally settled on the core concept earlier this year. As the game's "rolly roguelike" tag suggests, it's sure to be a challenging, survival-centric affair.
Since the initial prototypes, the pair have looped in additional team members Joel Corelitz, David Laskey, and Jenna Blazevich—but TumbleSeed remains a fully Chicago-made game. "Everyone met in the local Chicago indie scene. You just bump into people and can sense when they have similar interests and tastes to yours, and often you end up making something," affirms Fritz. "Everyone on the team has worked on other projects with people in the city. TumbleSeed is very much a game made in Chicago by people living here."
Dragon Front
Developer: High Voltage Software Platform: PC (Oculus Rift) Release Date: 2016
Collectible card games are thriving in the digital space, driven by the immense popularity of Blizzard's free-to-play smash Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft and its 40+ million players. High Voltage Software, based in Hoffman Estates, promises real innovation for the genre with this year's release of Dragon Front—a VR take on card combat.
Designed exclusively for the Oculus Rift headset and published by Oculus Studios, Dragon Front lets players experience the showdowns from an immersive, first-person view, with the fantasy-meets-dieselpunk world surrounding them. "VR in Dragon Front brings two players together in a way never before experienced in any card-battler," explains Eric Nofsinger, High Voltage's chief creative officer. "VR allows you to sit across the detailed battlefield from your opponent where fireballs, lightning, and catapults rain down around you."
High Voltage is also working on Damaged Core, a first-person shooter that will release on the Oculus Rift later this year, and between the two, the studio is making a big push into the VR market. "We get to do [VR] first, at the cost of a lot of trial and error. We are leading the way and marking the path for future VR titles," adds Nofsinger. "We couldn't be more excited to be at the leading edge of this new medium."
By Andrew Hayward - http://chicagoinno.streetwise.co
(Business Wire)--2K today announced Brock Lesnar® as the cover Superstar for WWE® 2K17, the forthcoming release in the flagship WWE video game franchise. Best known for his unparalleled accomplishments in WWE®, UFC®, NCAA Division I wrestling and more, Lesnar’s work ethic, intensity and attitude have made him a prolific sports and entertainment fixture for more than 16 years. In addition, the “Unbeatable, Incumbent Mayor of Suplex City” will usher in WWE 2K17’s worldwide marketing campaign, inviting fans to explore a new side of Lesnar’s inspired world while learning more about the video game. WWE 2K17 is currently scheduled for worldwide release on October 11, 2016 for the PlayStation®4 and PlayStation®3 computer entertainment systems, as well as Xbox One and Xbox 360.
It just had to be, didn't it? The much-discussed and (sadly) regularly-delayed exploration experience No Man's Sky still remains the most exciting prospect on the gaming horizon. While we can be a little upset that this is still yet to be released after so many delays, the intriguing concept and mechanics it's offering are still such a buzz for so many.
If you don't know, No Man's Sky will be an adventure survival game that will give its players the chance to explore an open universe featuring 18 quintillion planets. This universe will feature procedural generation, and you'll be able to share coordinates with other players when you uncover a particularly useful or unique planet.
The game is not just about exploring, however, and combat, survival and trading with others will also play a huge part. You'll be able to gather resources from planets and their lifeforms, but doing too much of this will invite the attentions of sentinels who may just take exception to your selfishness and attempt to kill you for it. No Man's Sky will feature a huge and vibrant universe full of activity and wonder the likes of which we've never seen before. Once we get out hands on it, developers all over the world will have to step their game up if they want to compete.
Online multiplayer battles are one of the biggest draws for many gamers these days, and all manner of shooters and fighting games offer this as a standard feature. At present, the most successful tend to be shooters, but Ubisoft's For Honor may be about to change that forever.
The competitive battling system within For Honor will be built around the game's 'Art of Battle' mechanic; players will enter into duelling modes with one another as they attempt to target their enemy's weakness by judging their own strikes in time with the enemy's movements. Attacks can be launched from various directions, and precise timing coupled with tactical observations will be crucial to success.
In a generation where gamers and critics alike have lauded the free-flowing combat of a mere button-basher like Batman: Arkham Asylum, For Honor will be putting a whole new level on what we can expect melee combat to look like in modern games. It could take a while to get to grips with the nuances of the 'Art of Battle' system, but once we do it's not likely we'll accept anything less ever again.
Admittedly there's a recurring theme for epic games to be considered important within this list, but each of them is set to be carrying something a bit different or special. Horizon Zero Dawn is no different, and Guerilla Games' upcoming action RPG featuring an abandoned planet and a hunter protagonist fighting against robotic dinosaurs is a great prospect.
Described as being a cross between the Assassin's Creed Series and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Horizon Zero Dawn will have players employing all manner of tricks and tactics as they attempt to fell the mechanical beasts roaming the lands. The electricity and metal that these creatures are made from will be vital to our hunter's survival on the devastated planet, and it's a daunting task indeed.
But, when all's said and done, it's one small step that makes Horizon Zero Dawn so impressive. This open world RPG is set to be the biggest game ever to feature no loading screens - none at all! Given how even masterpieces like The Witcher 3 are hamstrung by unfortunately long and regular loading times, this will be a massive achievement if Guerilla Games truly pull it off.
With the biggest FPS series' moving further and further into futuristic, speculative territory in the past few years, many fans have been crying out for a return to the historical settings that were once commonplace in the genre. Few could have predicted just what this would yield, however.
Battlefield 1 is EA Dice's answer to these pleas, and it's proved to be an unprecedented one. Rather than opt for WW2 like so many expected, the studio are instead taking a further step back and setting their next game in the middle of the first World War. Early signs are that this is a popular move with fans, and Battlefield 1 is now one of the most anticipated games of 2016.
Despite its senior producer having initial reservations about the early WW1 pitches he heard, the tenacity and passion of the idea's creators won over after a few rewrites and reimaginings. Battlefield 1 will be the combined fruit of passionate developers and ardent fans coming together to reshape a stagnant series: look what we can achieve when we all get along!
Adding strategy elements to action RPG titles is a fairly commonplace idea these days; more often than not games in this genre grant players the ability to control teams of companions or other NPCs as they progress through stages. With the exception of Skyrim's later DLC, however, none have done this on the same scale as Platinum Games' upcoming Xbox One and PC title.
In Scalebound, players will be bound to and accompanied by a dragon, whom they can call on in a number of ways throughout the game. The dragon, Thuban, will be controlled by in-game AI until direct commands are issued, and his behaviour when he's not under command will mimic the current actions and behaviour of the player. Thuban will be more aggressive if the player is in combat, or make himself available to flee if the situation dictates.
Scalebound is going to make companion-based gameplay bigger and more spectacular than it's ever been in an action RPG, and the game itself will benefit hugely from the enormous scale of how the combat and conflicts will play out. That's right, folks: games are still getting bigger!
When Bethesda brought us Dishonored in 2012, the stealth adventure game presented the studio's audience with something markedly different to the likes of Fallout or The Elder Scrolls. As a first attempt in taking a turn towards a new direction, it was pretty great; for starters, it actually had a truly compelling story for a change.
But Dishonored wasn't perfect, and in truth it wasn't even close. Bethesda are hardly a studio likely to shy away from learning a lesson or two, however, and they've given Arkane Studios the chance to rectify that when Dishonored 2 arrives later this year. The series' unique blend of supernatural elements and steampunk-theming will return, and a honing of some of the predecessor's mechanics will be what makes this sequel stand out.
Gameplay footage shows Dishonored 2 working with some of the most fluid and believable action we've ever seen for a first person game, while other examples still force players into rigid, unnatural models. This is most impressive when you consider the supernatural abilities of the game's protagonists and, if the example can be followed by other studios, we will be seeing much better first-person perspectives in future games.
When it was first revealed at E3
2015, ReCore's desolate desert landscape which its protagonist and her robot
companion traversed looked to be a fairly uninspiring place. Get past that
initial distaste, however, and you'll find that ReCore is actually quite the
charmer.
With players being so used to
gaming worlds being packed full of neatly rendered buildings and lush
landscapes, the harsh, rockiness of ReCore is something of a shock. Its
simplicity will be a strength, however, as the game will aim its focus towards
themes of friendship when its protagonist looks to form bonds with robotic
companions. NPC companions in games are
nothing new, of course, but in the past they've often felt shallow or
throwaway. In ReCore, while their robotic shells may literally be disposable,
the friendships and bonds that are made and carried in their cores will make
that companionship feel like it has a genuine importance. Could we be about to
say goodbye to the days of wishing our hero's companions would just disappear
and get out of the way? Let's hope so!
There's no denying the footage of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wind was one of the standout moments of E3 2016. It was the first time Nintendo gave eager viewers an in-depth look at their upcoming Wii U title, and what we saw definitely did not disappoint. Breath of the Wind is due to feature the largest open world of the series so far, and it looked gorgeous in testing.
But creating a vibrant open world isn't a reinvention of the wheel these days, so what makes Breath of the Wind so special? Well, in truth it's probably Ninendo's biggest gambit on whether their Wii U console has a sustainable future. With their new machine, codenamed 'NX', set to release in 2017 and run alongside the Wii U, Nintendo's current flagship device has an uncertain time ahead.
A massive title like Legend of Zelda is undoubtedly the best way to attract gamers to the Wii U, a device that many players have otherwise ignored. The success or unlikely failure of this game will be a big indicator of what fate will befall the Wii U over the next couple of years. Expect commentators to be keeping very close eyes on what this one does for Nintendo's strength.
Rocket League is the quintessential party game of the generation.
Taking the concept of having a random kick about with your mates and
propelling it to a Sci-Fi remote-controlled motorised bonanza is, by
all means, almost bat sh*t crazy. But it works, and it's easy to see
why.
The game's main feature is of course entirely focused on an online
component, pitting teams against each other with the objective of
yep, you guessed it, scoring as many goals as possible. It requires a
really important level of teamwork however, as players have to
coordinate a strong defence, midfield, and attack in order to
successfully dominate the pitch. At the end of the day all you're
really doing is hurling a toy car at a giant ball, but still, there
is an element of cooperation to it.
Psyonix's decision to release the game free to all Playstation
Plus members was a corporate masterstroke too. The subsequent buzz
generated from its initial mass uptake has led to the title being
downloaded millions of times, easily blasting the studio's original
car-themed footie experience into orbit.
Of course, this won't be the last we've seen of Rocket League.
It's now a downloadable phenomenon, resting in the libraries of
countless gamers on PS4, PC, and Xbox. If sales figures alone are
anything to go by, there's little doubt that Psyonix will be taking
full advantage of their fledgling brand's popularity in the coming
months.
If you're a fan of Hong Kong cinema, you simply have to
check out Sleeping Dogs.
Inspired by classic crime thrillers like Hardboiled and Infernal
Affairs, United Front's open world crime shooter showed just how good
GTA could be if it had the guts to switch up it's Anglo-centric
setting. It had a fantastic combination of driving, shooting, and
punching, with the environmental aspect of hand to hand combat
showcasing some particularly gruesome animations too.
It's a shame we're yet to get a sequel, especially since United
Front decided to work on an MMO spin-off instead. That got cancelled
last year, so here's hoping they've recalculated their efforts and
are now hard at work making a true successor to their 2012 hit.
Arkane Studios'
2012 blockbuster, Dishonored, is a cult classic in the making. It's
got star power, an innovative premise, and a gorgeous level of
architecture to boot. Its sequel too looks just as good, taking the
foundations of the first game and building upon them in a layered
manner which is only bound to increase the franchise's success. Dishonored's
atmosphere and setting has clearly done a great deal to make the
franchise resonate as well as it has done. Bethesda's involvement - a
publisher synonymous with critical acclaim - probably helped a little
bit too, but Arkane really do deserve most of the credit for the
series' wide uptake. Considering
just how much the popularity of the stealth genre has waned in recent
years, it's really encouraging to see a franchise that, having
marketed itself primarily as being a stealth title, has managed to
spawn such a successful IP. Here's to many sequels ahead!
Though the Souls franchise misses out on getting a spot as it came out
in '09, Bloodborne still serves as a great representation of FromSoftware's
expertise.
It's still got that same, hyper-difficult blend of gameplay from Dark
Souls the studio have found fame with, and its gothic aesthetic takes huge
inspiration from Lovecraftian sources. It makes for a wonderfully unique look -
one that borrows heavily from the supernatural elements of gothic and fantasy
novella.
The title takes place in the grey and grimy town of Yharnam - home to a
hodgepodge of gothic architecture, complete with Eastern European design -
where the nameless protagonist must save the local populace from the ghouls and
demons that have caused a rather nasty infection in the area. What follows is a
lengthy campaign, complete with nightmarish distortions of monstrous archetypes
you'll never be able to erase from your memory - they're that messed up.
Seriously.It can only be described as a crushing experience, but at least you can
take a friend along for the ride.
Superhot is a genius title. It's got a simple aesthetic, yes, but its premise alone is enough to warrant a purchase. I mean, who doesn't want to reenact dozens of action movie sequences in game form? No one, that's who.
The crux of the gameplay centres around the use of time. Basically, whenever the player moves, so do the enemies and objects around him. What follows is a methodical style of gameplay that charges the player with eliminating every bad guy in the sequence in creative and effective ways. At your disposal are assault rifles, handguns, swords, and shotguns, but each one is just as much fun to use.
As you chuck your way through levels using what can only be described as blackbelt gun fu, you'll come to appreciate Superhot's simplistic design. It's an FPS for the intelligent gamer, and one I can only hope sees further exploration in the future.
What do you get when you cross Batman: Arkham with Assassin's Creed and place it in Middle Earth? A pretty stellar game, actually.
Whilst far from the first game based on the Lord of the Rings franchise, Monolith Productions' surprise hit of 2014 is a testament to portraying film licenses well in the medium, turning in an impressive release that managed to push genre boundaries, whilst at the same time adhering to the tried and tested gameplay of third-person action adventures gone by. The end result was a game that held an undying reverence for J. R. R. Tolkien's lore, as well as one that felt confident enough to carve out its own path within the mythos.
It was a little strange that we saw no mention of Mordor's sequel at E3, but here's hopingWarner Bros. are saving an announcement for somewhere later down the line.
Overwatch is just a wonderful, wonderful game. Not only does it have some of the best multiplayer combat to have ever featured in an FPS, it's got an incredibly rich history and lore. Never before have I seen a series take to water so effortlessly like I have with Blizzard's biggest cross-platform release yet. It is without doubt the biggest video game success of the year, and one you really have to experience for yourself.
Rapper Charles Hamilton was only three or four years old, growing up in Cleveland, when Sonic the Hedgehog took hold of him. He was parked in front of the family TV, but a video game controller wasn’t even in his hands. Hamilton didn’t need to experience Sonic’s gameplay to fall in love. All it took was the demo reel the iconic 1991 video game would run through when its main menu sat idle for long enough.
“I was amazed,” Hamilton says. “Watching Sonic take over the world was all I needed to see to believe I could do anything.”
Almost two decades after staring entranced at that demo reel, Hamilton landed major-label deals and magazine covers by fully incorporating Sonic the Hedgehog into his identity. In 2008, Hamilton released Sonic the Hamilton, a mixtape of tracks entirely inspired by Sega’s speedy mascot character. He sampled everything Sonic—from the music that played over levels in 1991’s Sonic the Hedgehog and its 1992 sequel, to sound effects of Sonic grabbing bubbles of oxygen underwater or racing to finish a level before the game’s timer expired, to bits of the character’s self-titled 1993 Saturday morning cartoon show.
“The mixtape was basically me believing I'm Sonic,” Hamilton, who signed a deal with Republic and appeared in an episode of Empire last year, explains. “I never believed in myself, so when I created the opportunity to believe I was my hero, my self-esteem jumped through the roof.”
Heroism is what Hamilton says draws him, like millions of other fans, to the character of Sonic. “He never gives up,” the rapper says. “He believes in himself and is a team leader. He also has a great heart. He risks his life for the entrapped wildlife [in the Sonic games and cartoons], and instead of sticking around to receive glory, he's off to save another life. That's what I love about him."
'Sonic the Hedgehog' (1991)
Sonic was fast; he had attitude, rising to video game icon status by tearing through levels like a pinball, at a speed that was unseen in the early ‘90s. In 2016, Sega will mark the 25th anniversary of the first appearance of Sonic the Hedgehog. In that time, video game mascot characters—Bubsy, Spyro the Dragon, Toejam & Earl, Crash Bandicoot, Zero the Kamikaze Squirrel, Conker the Squirrel—have risen alongside him, but very few have had the endurance that Sonic has. Many have disappeared from the scene altogether, the victims of corporate upheaval, changing tastes, or maybe just too many poorly selling games in a row.
Conversely, Sega has sold more than 140 million copies of Sonic games across the franchise’s 25-year run—and he’s still going. The mascot currently stars in a Cartoon Network animated show that’s heading into its second season this fall, his fifth show since 1992. He also continues to persevere in the video game world, with a new title, Sonic Boom: Fire & Ice, hitting the Nintendo 3DS this year.
Forever an underdog with a fierce bite, Sega’s flagship mascot still survives through the nostalgia of gamers, the excitement of die-hard fans, the uniqueness of his character, and his history at the front lines of a war between video game consoles. But on the other hand, his story will always be somewhat shadowed, tied to the fact that the console that created him lost that war.
Sonic the Hedgehog first came into being in the late 1980s, when Sega, a Japanese company that had made its name in the arcade industry, looked to cut into the market share of home gaming giant Nintendo.
But Sonic transcended the games he starred in almost immediately. Sega wasn’t content making a game that could stand beside Super Mario Bros. It wanted a mascot that could go toe-to-toe with him anywhere. Nintendo’s Mario received a widespread media, marketing and licensing push, and Sega provided the same for its mascot, pumping out toys, comics, and cartoons. Within two to three years of the first Sonic game hitting shelves, he was starring in not just one, but two TV cartoons in the US: The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, which ran for 65 episodes, and Sonic the Hedgehog, which had two seasons. Both featured Jaleel White, of Steve Urkel and Family Matters fame, providing the voice and attitude of the Blue Blur, as Sonic was nicknamed. Two other Sonic cartoons, Sonic Underground in 1999 and Sonic X in 2003, aired 40 and 78 episodes respectively. Parents could buy their kids Sonic shoes and Sonic-themed Spaghetti-O’s. In 1993, Sonic was the first video game character to appear as a float in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
While other characters were only defined by what appeared in their actual games, Sega immediately gave Sonic the Hedgehog something more: multiple, diverse platforms that let fans dig deeper into the franchise. As much as the games succeeded and the character of Sonic resonated with players, it was Sega’s massive marketing push that helped make him a force to rival Mario.
“The fact that [Sonic] was the mascot of a company that made video game hardware gave him a lot more exposure than other companies had,” Horowitz explained. “That led to a lot of licensing deals. Contrary to characters like Spyro the Dragon and Crash Bandicoot and Zero the Kamikaze Squirrel and all those others, you saw Sonic on bedspreads and pajamas and lunch boxes, just like Mario. And I think that that level of exposure put him on the same level as Mario.”
The rivalry between Sonic and Mario pushed developers working on Sonic games to constantly create better and better games, Takashi Iizuka, the current head of Sega’s Sonic Team, tells Complex. With each new iteration of Sonic games, the team looked to find new ways to expand not just the game play, but the character. “They’re always trying to look for ways of improving on Sonic so we don’t just have the same character kind of doing the same thing in different games, we’re really adding more to the character, fixing any problems that we have, taking what people like and stretching that out to be even better than it was before,” said Iizuka through a translator.
Unfortunately, Sonic was only as powerful as its maker. In the new millennium, Sonic’s continued relevance was restricted by Sega’s inability to expand and progress.
After a series of struggles on the home-gaming hardware side, Sega stopped making consoles in 2001, unable to build the popularity of its Dreamcast console. It was a major blow for a company that had once been on top of the US video games market. In response, Sega shifted its focus to making and publishing games for its former competitors’ many platforms. The move has produced lackluster financial results so far. In the early 2000s, a big chunk of the company’s shares were purchased by Japanese pachinko game manufacturer Sammy; in a July 2015 investor call, Sega announced it was projecting 42 percent fewer net sales for the year than it had expected. It made cuts to the company, and on another call in December, Sega slashed its profit expectations by 90 percent for the fiscal year. In 2016, the company managed to become profitable again thanks to even more cuts and restructuring, but it was still struggling to increase sales of its games. Revenue for Sega’s Entertainment Contents business, which includes arcade machines and toys as well as games, was stagnant between March 2015 and and 2016, while revenue from games continued to drop slightly.
The problems at Sega affected Sonic greatly. The character seemingly lost some of his unique verve as Sega was forced to expand their properties to competing platforms. He began appearing on Nintendo platforms and in games alongside his one-time nemesis, Mario. He showed up in Nintendo’s mascot fighting game Super Smash Bros. Wii-U, and shared the spotlight with Mario in the Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games series. “Nintendo and Sega were once opponents in the video game world, as were Mario and Sonic, but once Sega got out of the hardware business, that enabled a strong and lasting partnership to occur,” Charlie Scibetta, senior director for corporate communications at Nintendo of America, says. “Nintendo jumped at the chance to bring their characters on board.”
Still, Sonic games over the last decade or so haven’t fared well among fans or critics. The most recent titles, 2015’s Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric on Nintendo’s WiiU console and Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal on its 3DS handheld (both of which Sega outsourced to separate developers), combined to be the worst-selling entries in the character’s 25-year history, moving less than half a million titles together in their first month. Rise of Lyric also carries the franchise’s worst Metacritic score at 33/100.
And yet, there’s still an appetite for more Sonic. According to Ivo Gerscovich, chief brand manager for Sonic the Hedgehog and senior vice president at Sega of America, the 2013 free mobile game Sonic Dash has been downloaded 188 milllion times. And Sonic Boom, the cartoon show to go with Rise of Lyric and Shattered Crystal, is faring even better than its video game counterparts. The show started off strong on Cartoon Network when it premiered in 2015, grabbing top ratings among boys in the 7 a.m. slot and dominating that demographic throughout its first season. There’s another season of Sonic Boom coming to Cartoon Network this fall, and the network signed an exclusive deal with Hulu to stream all 52 episodes of the first season.
The days of huge market share and mind-blowing sales are long gone, but Sonic the Hedgehog is forging ahead with a generation of kids who weren’t even born when the original Sonic dropped. Part of the reason why is that Sega is figuring out how to engage with that changing audience.
The next generation of Sonic: At E3 this June, Warner Bros. unveiled the trailer for 'LEGO Dimensions,' which featured Sonic the Hedgehog as its mic-drop.
Aaron Webber, a self-described “Sega kid” from Missouri who landed a job with the company as a game community manager in 2008 when he was 19, is today the Sonic brand’s public relations and social media manager. Last year, he took over the public relations and social media for Sonic the Hedgehog, most notably its Twitter feed. Determined to take a new approach, he became embroiled in the expansive meme and fan culture surrounding the brand, turning an official, corporate Twitter account into something that seems to have almost gone rogue, in keeping with Sonic’s rebellious character.
“When I came back on [at Sega], I realized after looking at a lot of the [social media] posts that, just to be perfectly honest, it was really boring,” Webber explained. “It was ‘buy this game, look at this trailer, blah blah blah.’ And it was the same thing that every gaming company was doing. This isn’t entertaining, this isn’t fun. And Sonic is a very fun brand. He’s got an attitude. So I said what if we take Sonic’s attitude and try to apply that to social media?”
The change in approach has been wildly successful with fans. “Engagement is through the roof,” Webber said. The Sonic Twitter account more than doubled its followers since Webber took over, with more than 343,000 at present. A year ago, it had only 150,000 followers, according to Sega. “We wanted to change that discussion away from the negativity that was kind of existing back around the late 2014, early 2015 era—there was a fair bit of it.”
Thanks to Sonic’s history and the nostalgia surrounding him, a few bad games aren’t enough to stop Sega’s powerhouse mascot. And the company has more big plans for him in the future. A new Sonic Boom game, subtitled Fire & Ice, is on its way for the Nintendo 3DS later this year, and Sega is working on a Sonic feature film with Sony Pictures, set to release in 2018. In the future, Iizuka says, Sonic Team is looking to take the character back to his “edgy” roots even more, while also expanding beyond the sort of games he’s starred in before.
“We’re all really working hard to build Sonic to become the entertainment icon—not just a game icon, but an entertainment icon, where he belongs,” said Gerscovich. “Sonic can live everywhere.”
In 1991, Sonic had Charles Hamilton believing he could do anything he put his mind to. Twenty-five years later, he still has the company that birthed him, Sega, believing the same thing.
Since the game industry just had its biggest annual event with the Electronic Entertainment Expo last week, things have been pretty slow when it comes to video game rumors. The event, known as E3, generated so much news that there was hardly time to keep track of it all, let alone room for leaks and speculation. Still, we’ve managed to find a few interesting tidbits that may or may not come true. Here are all the latest video game rumors and leaks, along with speculation about how likely they are to pan out.
1. What new kind of Mario game is Nintendo working on?
Source: Nintendo
In an interview with IGN last week, Mario creator Shigeru Myamoto hinted at a new Mario game being in development. He said, “We’re always challenging ourselves to create something new, so hopefully you’ll see a new kind of Mario in about a year or two. Maybe next E3 we’ll be able to share something.”
Another Mario game would come as little surprise, seeing as Nintendo plans to launch a new console next year, and whenever there’s a new Nintendo console, Mario isn’t far behind. What’s interesting is that Mr. Miyamoto called it a new “kind” of Mario.
The last time we got a truly new kind of Mario game was the Super Mario Galaxy games for Wii, which were extremely well received. (The less ambitious Mario offerings on Wii U were great games, but they didn’t break new ground). If Nintendo wants to make a big and bold change for the next Mario game — as it’s doing with the next Zelda game — I say bring it on.
2. Will Resident Evil 7 include an RE2 Remake demo?
Source: Capcom
This one’s a stretch, but let’s dig into it anyway. Last week Capcom announced Resident Evil 7 and released a demo for the game on PlayStation 4. A Reddit user somehow noticed that the demo includes a brief shot of some seemingly random numbers. Turns out those numbers are the very same as ones that identify the game Resident Evil: Director’s Cut in a PlayStation cataloging system.
When it was released in 1996, that particular game came with a demo for Resident Evil 2. Here’s where the leap of logic comes in. The Reddit user hypothesizes that, because this number is in the Resident Evil 7 demo, the finished RE7 game might come with a demo for the Resident Evil 2 remake announced last year. Like I said, it’s a stretch, but it’s possible.
3. Did Nintendo reuse Spaghettios art for the cover of a new game?
Source: Twitter
We’ve seen several signs that Nintendo has been phoning it in lately as its best development teams have shifted to working on games for the upcoming NX console, but this might be a new low.
Just when you thought you’d seen it all, Nintendo goes and (allegedly) recycles Spaghettios art assets to use on the cover of an upcoming game. The game in question is Mario Party: Star Rush, a 3DS game set to launch in November. The cover shows Mario, Luigi, Peach, and Toad posing happily. If this tweet from Twitter user @starwindbliss is correct, the art was basically lifted from a can of Spaghettios that features the Mushroom Kingdom crew.
Even more lazy is that the white-and-gray checkered background is the standard pattern in Photoshop for a transparency effect. Who needs to create a new background when Photoshop provides one for you? Of course, Nintendo can do whatever it wants with its art assets. But you’d think the cover of a game would warrant more work than copying the label of a can of pasta.
4. An unreleased Ecco the Dolphin game leaks online
If you’ve been gaming since the early ’90s, you may remember a Sega Genesis game called Ecco the Dolphin. It had some seriously killer graphics for the time and offered smooth underwater gameplay you couldn’t find anywhere else. The series continued all the way to the Dreamcast/PS2 era with Ecco the Dolphin: Defender of the Future, but that’s where it ended.
Or did it? Apparently a sequel called Ecco II: Sentinels of the Universe was in the works, but Sega canceled it when the company decided to get out of the hardware business. Now, thanks to a leak and a game preservation site called Hidden Place, you can play the scrapped sequel on an emulator. If you do, note that the game is unfinished, so it only has a few levels, and it lacks audio assets.
