How do you get offered to make a Sonic title from Sega and immediately think it's not going to be released on a Nintendo platform even if you think it'll be a multiplatform game?
Bingo.
Even Sega admitted Sonic sells most on Nintendo hardware, so this was a red flag to begin with. And not to mention it hardly seems realistic to make a Sonic game of all things built for top-end hardware, partifularly for hardware that wouldn't even be out for years later (PS4 and XBO in this case). What Sonic game is even made so PC-specific like this video points it to being here? It's a really baffling choice.
Here's what they should have done:
- Targeted Wii U from the start. It was revealed at E3 2011 (the year Sega went to BRB) so they had plenty of advance notice.
- Built the game with PS360 hardware in mind since they could only go up from there on Wii U (or at least need FAR less changes).
- Used Unreal Engine 3 if they wanted a fancy engine.
Or if we just go back to when the Wii U deal happened:
- Rebuild the game from scratch. Scrap Cry Engine 3 since you knew from the start it wouldn't run on it.
- Again use Unreal Engine 3 if you wanted a fancy engine since Wii U officially supported this. Alternatively, use Unity. Or better, your own engine.
- Sega should've given them all the time and freedom to remake the game for Wii U without a deadline until they had a fair idea of when it'd be done.
- Not tie-in with the show. Or better, build the show around the game, not the other way around (you'd think this would've been obvious).
Or a 3rd, though very unlikely scenario:
- Take a few extra years and make it a Switch-exclusive.
This way they wouldn't have had to throw out the progress they made and still made it a Nintendo-exclusive. This would've been asking a lot since the NX wasn't even announced until four months after release. But the state of the game should've told Sega to just lay low and give the team far extra time to get things working. But the 2nd option should've sufficed and then they could've maybe made it even closer to the original vision in a beefed up Switch port (or sequel!) today, who knows.
Big Red Button is to blame for not planning things right. Sega are to blame for not giving BRB the time and freedom to make the game they wanted to despite the setbacks. The deal was business (and IMO, a good one for reasons I said above). You adjust to changes. Sega did not do that, they forced BRB to slap together whatever they could with glue and ship it out no matter what. And look where it led them and BRB as a result.
