Sonic the Hedgehog is currently celebrating his 25th birthday, and it seems Sega has some big plans in store for the speedster.
Chief brand officer Ivo Gerscovich recently spoke with MCV about Sega’s plans for Sonic. Apparently it’s the company’s intention to elevate the character to “entertainment icon” status – ambitious, considering all but the devoted have abandoned Sonic by now.
Gerscovich said:
We are really focused on turning Sonic into an entertainment icon, not just a games icon. We want to go across all platforms and elevate his status even further, which explains why we are doing so much. Sega is really–as of this last year–putting a huge emphasis on quality.
Quality control for ol’ Sonic certainly wouldn’t be a bad idea at all, as a number of his games in recent years have been dragged out unfinished, which only hurts the poor guy’s already struggling reputation.
This follows the news from a few months ago that Sega is planning to put together a Sonic the Hedgehog movie. The flick will reportedly be a blend of live action and CG, and is to be produced by Sony pictures – so expect a reboot or ten if the movie bombs.
Still, while Sega might be hard at work trying to make Sonic an entertainment icon, they haven’t forgotten where his roots are.
Sonic Team recently confirmed a new game is in the works, and should be out by 2017. Hopefully it takes more inspiration from Sonic Generations than it does from Sonic Boom. Hell, how sweet would Sonic Adventure 3 be?
After 25 years of games that range from absolute classics to laughably poor glitch filled messes, it’s my hope that Sonic Team and Sega use this birthday year to finally turn the hedgehog around for good.
Ewan Moore is a journalist at UNILAD Gaming who still quite hasn’t gotten out of his mid 00’s emo phase. After graduating from the University of Portsmouth in 2015 with a BA in Journalism & Media Studies (thanks for asking), he went on to do some freelance words for various places, including Kotaku, Den of Geek, and TheSixthAxis, before landing a full time gig at UNILAD in 2016.