One thing I hear a lot and want to bring up is the concept of what the "true" Sonic identity is, and "how" Sonic "should be." We can't say that the "true" Sonic is inspired by Action B movies, or Adventure Inspiration because the "true" Sonic, Sega's Sonic, has no "true" identity. He has no one pure and true source of cultural influence he draws from. Sega makes him to reflect and mimick whatever is popular at the time. I have a friend who told me when he was in school he would wear hats or play yugioh just to copy his friend. Sonic Team is the same way with Sonic. They aren't the ones to move the helm of culture and societal influence, they simply are bandwagoners trying to get in on the next big thing.
Sonic 1 first was made to cash in on the popularity of Mario, but it was also inspired by the competitive egotism of the 90's as it sought to be better and "cooler."
Sonic 3 was based on absurd B movies because that's what was popular at the time.
Sonic Adventure 1 was inspired by Super Mario 64, other early 3d collectathons, and the rising popularity of anime.
Sonic Adventure 2 was inspired by the skate boarding fad and Tony Hawk games. It used "Cool, Radical, etc." when skate boarding off of a jump.
Shadow was inspired by grandtheft auto, call of duty, and halo.
Sonic 06 was inspired by realistic Playstation and Xbox games.
Sonic Unleashed was inspired by Pixar, Dreamworks, and the rise of 3d animation companys like them.
Sonic Colors was inspired by the success of casual Wii games like De Blob.
Sonic 4 and Generations were inspired by the success of New Super Mario Bros. Wii and PS3 HD remakes.
Lost World: a result of a resurgence of the interest in simple platformers again. Rayman Legends, Donkey Kong Returns, New Super Mario Bros U, etc.
Sonic Boom: is odd because at it's core it reflects the old age of and shows how behind the times the developers were, when initial creating it, but in terms of writing it's gained it's cultural influence from recent internet meme culture. I'm the leader to local 11 year old scouts and yep, I can definitely say they have the same awkward passion for internet meme culture that Sonic Boom has, so it's actually perfectly toned for the rising generation. It's just that the rising generation's internet meme/ viral youtube videos culture is a cess pool of obnoxiousness.
Sonic Runners: Well if that is indeed going to be the next game from what I can tell of it, it looks like a 3d version of Sonic Dash meant to cash in on it's success. That would be almost prove my pattern because the next game to come out according to it is supposed to be a cheap, crapped out, cash in to take advantage of hype or popularity of some Sonic game that was made. That's actually not a bad strategy on their part. Sonic Dash undoubtedly has exposed a lot of people to Sonic due to it's free to play nature, but for that reason it can only get so much money out of people, so now Sonic Team is making a 50-60 dollar game resembling Sonic Dash and Jump in hopes people brought in by those games will recognize it and buy it.
After that game, in 2016 we the most likely to get a second Sonic Boom game or Sonic Adventure game. A Boom sequel is still possible because the cartoon is doing well and will continue for most of next year at the very least. Sega didn't directly take the hit when Boom failed, After that and according to the pattern, Sega's going to try and reinvent Sonic once again in 2017 with whatever's popular then. The new Stars Wars movies are going to be very popular and all the rage then, and Toy Story 4 is coming out in 2017, perhaps, the 2017 reboot game will be the true Super Sonic Galaxy, or the aesthic and culture influence will be inspired by childlike imagination of playing with Toys like in Toy Story or the Lego Movie. By 2017 I'm expecting a sequel that movie, and Sega knows the best way to spread Sonic is through kids so there's a strong chance we'll see Sonic trying to make Sonic in that vain. Then again we are going to see the new Sonic movie come out and that's going to be PG-13, so perhaps there will finally be two different flavors of Sonic avaible. One for the younger audience and one for the older. So there could be two 2017 Sonic game or one shortly following the other into 2018. The younger one could be Toy Story inspired like I mentioned, and the older one could be inspired by modern day action thrillers like World War Z; so the tone would end up like modern action movie adaptations of old cartoons like the Rock's GI Joe Movie, Micheal Bay's TMNT and Transformers films, perhaps it may even draw inspiration from the success of Marvel and other Super Hero movies.
So what do you think? Does that seem to be accurate and make sense? Any counter observations or arguments?
Saturday, January 3, 2015
"Why Has Sega Suddenly Abandoned Me?" Sega's Marketing Strategy
Contrary to how it may seem Sega has not suddenly changed. They have not suddenly decided to abandon their fans. They've been this way the entire time. Sega's like the confident and aggressive player who covinces you to sleep with him by saying, "Show me your tits." He's different and in an odd way charming, so you give into his demands. After the fact you try to get a hold of him, but he doesn't respond, and if he does he's very rude about it. You then wonder why he suddenly became a jerk to you. In reality, he was always a jerk, you just didn't realize it until he left you, but your traumatized, and now you can't help but crave and desire bad boys. Why does Sega treat it's fans poorly, yet I still crave it? You wonder. Why do fans remain loyal? Others wonder. Why do we still crave the jerk when we have every reason to hate them. In both cases it's the same. It's the psychological response to loss. http://www.caregiverslibrary.org/caregivers-resources/grp-end-of-life-issues/hsgrp-grief-and-loss/psychological-responses-to-loss-article.aspx
Let's face it. Sega' doesn't really care about any one particular type of Sonic. It doesn't favor any one particular type of fans over the other. They just want your money. Much like the player that just wants your body, but just as players are never contempt with one woman, Sega is never content with one group of fans. They have a systematically approach; a pattern for how they go about seducing new fans. Here's how Sega decides to market it's games. First, they make a game to attract new fans. For example Sonic 1. Next, they pump out a sequel as fast as they can to capture and capitilize on the hype of the new audience. For example Sonic 2. Then, they feast on their new found herd of cattle; draining them for every penny they've gone. Lastly, as they're now satisfied, bored of their old meal, and craving more, they go back to step one to once again go on the hunt and seek out new sheep to replenish their herd with fresh, new meat.
I name these 3 target markets:
1. New Potential fans
2. Hype Train People
3. Loyal fansIn my marketing classing I learned businesses actually think and identify groups like this, so I wouldn't be surprised if they actually had some sort of official targets like these. Anyway, here's how it looks when applied to the games.
Sonic 1: New Potential fans
Sonic 2: Hype Train People
Sonic 3: Loyal fans
Sonic Adventure 1: New, potential fans
Sonic Adventure 2: Hype Train people
Sonic Hereos: Loyal fans of Classics
Shadow: New People
Sonic 06: Hype from Shadow's game
Sonic Unleashed: Loyal Fans of Adventure games
Sonic Colors: New Nintendo, casual fans
Sonic Generations: Hype Train of "Sonic's finally good again"
Sonic Lost World: Fans of Sonic Colors
Sonic Boom: New
Sonic Runners?: Hype?
Sonic Boom 2? For Boom Fans? Adventure 3 because boom failed?: Fans?
There's a lot of conclusion we can draw from this. The most mind bloggling of them to fans who see the classic games as the same is that No, Sonic Adventure 1 & 2 are relatively nothing like a Sonic game, as defined by it's predecessors. Yep, that's right the Sonic Adventure 1, the critically acclaimed, fan favorite. The magnus opum of Sonic games was nothing like one. SA1 was a drastically different type of game. The six playstyles and characters was to have broad appeal. It was nothing like a classic Sonic game. It was more or less an "Open World", RPG, inspired by the genesis games rather than a direct sequel to them. Sonic Heroes was the first serious attempt to make a genesis Sonic game into 3d outside of 3d blast. SA1 did exactly what Sonic Boom attempted to do, in other words it introduced new fans (myself included) who at this point have taken over the fandom. It's a good thing for us adventure fans, that Sonic Boom was a flop, if it was a success we'd have found ourselves in the midst of a serious Sonic civil war. A multifactioned war, even more severe than any current disputes within us.
A second conclusion is that the hype train games are the most well known, and so far according to my capacity to perceive the public opinion that idea seems to hold up. Sonic 2, Sonic Adventure 2, Sonic 06, and Sonic Generations are the most well known Sonic games.
A third conclusion is that Sonic 06 is the slammed out the door sequel to capitolize on the success of Shadow the Hedgehog. In a lot of way this statement is correct. It focused on realistic, high fidelity, graphics (something that call of duty and halo fans tend to care a lot about) the story revolves around Shadow. It focuses on hedgehogs in the campaigns and not Tails or Knuckles, so people who only played Shadow's game won't be confused. Shadow's gameplay in 06 was designed to bring back elements from Shadow the Hedgehog. From magazine articles and from when I first played 06 and all other clues, I didn't feel like the game was for me, a fan of the adventure games, but towards the typical Sony and Xbox gamer. The game, it's story. I didn't know it was supposed to be a sequel or connected to the adventure games it felt like a reboot to me.
Another conclusion is that Sonic Unleashed was clearly marketed and made for Adventure fans more than anything else. Even outside of the pattern it was almost called Sonic Adventure 3. As someone who has been introduced to Sonic with the Adventure games, Unleashed feels the closest to a third adventure game.
From there, and the ending of Sonic Boom, it looks like a sequel for Boom might actually be in the works, or at the very least it looks like that's what was planned until Boom and Big Red Button failed. The sheep are wising up to the player's tricks and they're getting old, so I wonder what the Sega has up their sleeve now.
Let's face it. Sega' doesn't really care about any one particular type of Sonic. It doesn't favor any one particular type of fans over the other. They just want your money. Much like the player that just wants your body, but just as players are never contempt with one woman, Sega is never content with one group of fans. They have a systematically approach; a pattern for how they go about seducing new fans. Here's how Sega decides to market it's games. First, they make a game to attract new fans. For example Sonic 1. Next, they pump out a sequel as fast as they can to capture and capitilize on the hype of the new audience. For example Sonic 2. Then, they feast on their new found herd of cattle; draining them for every penny they've gone. Lastly, as they're now satisfied, bored of their old meal, and craving more, they go back to step one to once again go on the hunt and seek out new sheep to replenish their herd with fresh, new meat.
I name these 3 target markets:
1. New Potential fans
2. Hype Train People
3. Loyal fansIn my marketing classing I learned businesses actually think and identify groups like this, so I wouldn't be surprised if they actually had some sort of official targets like these. Anyway, here's how it looks when applied to the games.
Sonic 1: New Potential fans
Sonic 2: Hype Train People
Sonic 3: Loyal fans
Sonic Adventure 1: New, potential fans
Sonic Adventure 2: Hype Train people
Sonic Hereos: Loyal fans of Classics
Shadow: New People
Sonic 06: Hype from Shadow's game
Sonic Unleashed: Loyal Fans of Adventure games
Sonic Colors: New Nintendo, casual fans
Sonic Generations: Hype Train of "Sonic's finally good again"
Sonic Lost World: Fans of Sonic Colors
Sonic Boom: New
Sonic Runners?: Hype?
Sonic Boom 2? For Boom Fans? Adventure 3 because boom failed?: Fans?
There's a lot of conclusion we can draw from this. The most mind bloggling of them to fans who see the classic games as the same is that No, Sonic Adventure 1 & 2 are relatively nothing like a Sonic game, as defined by it's predecessors. Yep, that's right the Sonic Adventure 1, the critically acclaimed, fan favorite. The magnus opum of Sonic games was nothing like one. SA1 was a drastically different type of game. The six playstyles and characters was to have broad appeal. It was nothing like a classic Sonic game. It was more or less an "Open World", RPG, inspired by the genesis games rather than a direct sequel to them. Sonic Heroes was the first serious attempt to make a genesis Sonic game into 3d outside of 3d blast. SA1 did exactly what Sonic Boom attempted to do, in other words it introduced new fans (myself included) who at this point have taken over the fandom. It's a good thing for us adventure fans, that Sonic Boom was a flop, if it was a success we'd have found ourselves in the midst of a serious Sonic civil war. A multifactioned war, even more severe than any current disputes within us.
A second conclusion is that the hype train games are the most well known, and so far according to my capacity to perceive the public opinion that idea seems to hold up. Sonic 2, Sonic Adventure 2, Sonic 06, and Sonic Generations are the most well known Sonic games.
A third conclusion is that Sonic 06 is the slammed out the door sequel to capitolize on the success of Shadow the Hedgehog. In a lot of way this statement is correct. It focused on realistic, high fidelity, graphics (something that call of duty and halo fans tend to care a lot about) the story revolves around Shadow. It focuses on hedgehogs in the campaigns and not Tails or Knuckles, so people who only played Shadow's game won't be confused. Shadow's gameplay in 06 was designed to bring back elements from Shadow the Hedgehog. From magazine articles and from when I first played 06 and all other clues, I didn't feel like the game was for me, a fan of the adventure games, but towards the typical Sony and Xbox gamer. The game, it's story. I didn't know it was supposed to be a sequel or connected to the adventure games it felt like a reboot to me.
Another conclusion is that Sonic Unleashed was clearly marketed and made for Adventure fans more than anything else. Even outside of the pattern it was almost called Sonic Adventure 3. As someone who has been introduced to Sonic with the Adventure games, Unleashed feels the closest to a third adventure game.
From there, and the ending of Sonic Boom, it looks like a sequel for Boom might actually be in the works, or at the very least it looks like that's what was planned until Boom and Big Red Button failed. The sheep are wising up to the player's tricks and they're getting old, so I wonder what the Sega has up their sleeve now.
The Future of Game Consoles
A bit off topic, but I can relate it Sonic as it was me pondering about the direction of Sonic that lead to these ideas....
Instead of Nintendo DS's we need Nintendo phones that play's all you favorites. Instead of home entertainment consoles we need home entertainment Nintendo and Sony tablets that plug into your tv and that you can play with friends. Instead of Play Station One and Xbox 4 we need official playstation and xbox gaming pc's that run operating systems like windows, and can use word documents and google chrome and such. Basically, the big 3 gaming companies need to make their gaming devices more functional and practical if they want to remain relevent much longer into the future. It feels like too much of an investment to now only spend over 60 dollars per game, but then to also have to buy this device that serves you no other practical purpose, but to entertain your and play the expensive game you bought. It'd save people a lot their reserves and money if this strategy was implemented.
I've actually thought of the idea and wanted it for almost a decade now, but I'd really like to have a phone that also plays Nintendo games and such. It's still socially unacceptable and embarassing to be seen in public playing a gaming handheld. There's no problem with this with phones. They can't see what you're doing. For all they know I could crafted my master thesis for the killer presentation I'm going to make to my boss later; So suck you social stigmatizing #$%^#$%$! Buy a Nintendo laptop or a Sony gaming pc would also solve another one of my problems; Feeling like a wasteful spend thrift when I buy a dedicated gaming machine. Not only do I feel bad because it's expensive, but I also feel bad because the entire reason and purpose I'm getting this horribly expensive device is because I want to waste time mindlessly mashing buttons as things happen on screen. It's like needing to spend over dollars on a cack making machine. You can't feel good about yourself for buying it, but; however, if it said crack making machine also produces vegetables.....then you're a golden eagle!
Yeah, so now how this all come from thinking about Sonic...yeah about that....well you see, it all starts with a conversation about Sonic, but it ends with a conversation about drugs. Thinking about Sonic always leads to a maniac depressive drug addiction to cope with the pain...I don't see the current direction of Sonic or Nintendo as hatred or abandonment of the fans or hardcore gamers. No, with my understanding of economics, marketing, personality, and the big picture, I can clearly see that they've been making highly informed and extremely calcuated decision in hopes of making as much money possible. Shocking I know, but here's what makes me think this.
Consider how many people bought the last generation of gaming consoles, and then consider how many bought them now in comparision. It's a HUGE difference. Last generation has outsold this current one by a factor of 9 ! or even over 20 in the case of Nintendo! Game consoles five to seven years ago were selling 9 times the amount of game consoles today, wow. That's some massive deflation right there. The direction and popularity of gaming is changing, and both Sega and Nintendo realize this. They've seen ahead and been aware of this shift in the direction of gaming for a long time, and have been planning, preparing, and executing for it. Sonic Colors sold financially well consider the time and the fact that it only sold on one console. Sega took that as feedback that it's aesthitica style and casual Mario esque gameplay was what Nintendo fans like and would come to expect from now on. Lost World was once again a Nintendo Exclusive and was meant to have the same look and style of Sonic Colors for the purpose of mass identification and marketing. My point being is that they have been choosing how to make the games almost purely off of marketable and appealing the game with be the masse audiences. Basically they were designing purely out to have the most calculated chance of success. Actually if you think back that's almost always been their approach; superficial marketable appeal to the mass audiences.
The quality of a game almost doesn't matter for sales numbers because I'm not going to know just how terrible a game is until I after I buy and at that point it's too late to return it and get my money back. At least that used to be the caes. It used to not matter. With gamers becoming wiser and thinking to check internet reviews and word of mouth more often. A game's poor quality is indeed a problem. The best example of this being Sonic Boom. Unless new comers were to find out about the game purely from tv and then immediately go buy if without looking it up, then sure the quality of the game would matter; however if the whole point is to hook more fans into the series then how is giving them an unpolished game going to convince them to keep coming back for more. Even moments into the game, it looks bad from a superficial level which is just as deep as a person goes when it comes to something new and is all it takes to deter them since they were leerly or expectant of it anyway. So Sega and Nintendo aren't stupid in calculation they're geniouses at that, they're stupid because they are short-sighted and can't see the big picture of things. Since Nintendo makes sure to polish their games and works hard to maintain good customer relations, they're much better at having foresight and looking ahead. Treating your dedicated fans poorly is a sure way to die in the long-run. So, Nintendo doesn't struggle with that, they struggle with looking at the big picture much more.
Instead of Nintendo DS's we need Nintendo phones that play's all you favorites. Instead of home entertainment consoles we need home entertainment Nintendo and Sony tablets that plug into your tv and that you can play with friends. Instead of Play Station One and Xbox 4 we need official playstation and xbox gaming pc's that run operating systems like windows, and can use word documents and google chrome and such. Basically, the big 3 gaming companies need to make their gaming devices more functional and practical if they want to remain relevent much longer into the future. It feels like too much of an investment to now only spend over 60 dollars per game, but then to also have to buy this device that serves you no other practical purpose, but to entertain your and play the expensive game you bought. It'd save people a lot their reserves and money if this strategy was implemented.
I've actually thought of the idea and wanted it for almost a decade now, but I'd really like to have a phone that also plays Nintendo games and such. It's still socially unacceptable and embarassing to be seen in public playing a gaming handheld. There's no problem with this with phones. They can't see what you're doing. For all they know I could crafted my master thesis for the killer presentation I'm going to make to my boss later; So suck you social stigmatizing #$%^#$%$! Buy a Nintendo laptop or a Sony gaming pc would also solve another one of my problems; Feeling like a wasteful spend thrift when I buy a dedicated gaming machine. Not only do I feel bad because it's expensive, but I also feel bad because the entire reason and purpose I'm getting this horribly expensive device is because I want to waste time mindlessly mashing buttons as things happen on screen. It's like needing to spend over dollars on a cack making machine. You can't feel good about yourself for buying it, but; however, if it said crack making machine also produces vegetables.....then you're a golden eagle!
Yeah, so now how this all come from thinking about Sonic...yeah about that....well you see, it all starts with a conversation about Sonic, but it ends with a conversation about drugs. Thinking about Sonic always leads to a maniac depressive drug addiction to cope with the pain...I don't see the current direction of Sonic or Nintendo as hatred or abandonment of the fans or hardcore gamers. No, with my understanding of economics, marketing, personality, and the big picture, I can clearly see that they've been making highly informed and extremely calcuated decision in hopes of making as much money possible. Shocking I know, but here's what makes me think this.
Consider how many people bought the last generation of gaming consoles, and then consider how many bought them now in comparision. It's a HUGE difference. Last generation has outsold this current one by a factor of 9 ! or even over 20 in the case of Nintendo! Game consoles five to seven years ago were selling 9 times the amount of game consoles today, wow. That's some massive deflation right there. The direction and popularity of gaming is changing, and both Sega and Nintendo realize this. They've seen ahead and been aware of this shift in the direction of gaming for a long time, and have been planning, preparing, and executing for it. Sonic Colors sold financially well consider the time and the fact that it only sold on one console. Sega took that as feedback that it's aesthitica style and casual Mario esque gameplay was what Nintendo fans like and would come to expect from now on. Lost World was once again a Nintendo Exclusive and was meant to have the same look and style of Sonic Colors for the purpose of mass identification and marketing. My point being is that they have been choosing how to make the games almost purely off of marketable and appealing the game with be the masse audiences. Basically they were designing purely out to have the most calculated chance of success. Actually if you think back that's almost always been their approach; superficial marketable appeal to the mass audiences.
The quality of a game almost doesn't matter for sales numbers because I'm not going to know just how terrible a game is until I after I buy and at that point it's too late to return it and get my money back. At least that used to be the caes. It used to not matter. With gamers becoming wiser and thinking to check internet reviews and word of mouth more often. A game's poor quality is indeed a problem. The best example of this being Sonic Boom. Unless new comers were to find out about the game purely from tv and then immediately go buy if without looking it up, then sure the quality of the game would matter; however if the whole point is to hook more fans into the series then how is giving them an unpolished game going to convince them to keep coming back for more. Even moments into the game, it looks bad from a superficial level which is just as deep as a person goes when it comes to something new and is all it takes to deter them since they were leerly or expectant of it anyway. So Sega and Nintendo aren't stupid in calculation they're geniouses at that, they're stupid because they are short-sighted and can't see the big picture of things. Since Nintendo makes sure to polish their games and works hard to maintain good customer relations, they're much better at having foresight and looking ahead. Treating your dedicated fans poorly is a sure way to die in the long-run. So, Nintendo doesn't struggle with that, they struggle with looking at the big picture much more.
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