Sega Producer Explains Exactly What Went Wrong With Sonic Boom

"Co-Op worked really well in Sonic Boom."

It did? What gave him that impression?

That being said though, I do think a Co-Op Sonic game would be great if handled right.

Ghee......now he realizes speed.

Whose idea was it to slow Sonic down. Speed is part of replay value so if you don't know the level the first playthrough, you will go faster in the second playthrough.

Generations and Colors did this well and even SA2.

What kind of a focus group says no to speed in a Sonic game!?

"In focus tests, we heard all the time, people were sick of speed, Sonic was too fast, they wanted to slow down. Speed was shelved because we were under the impression people didn't want it. Speed is always a Sonic thing, we didn't focus on that."

Well okay then... :-/
Yet it didn't hit that maybe, just maybe the speed wasn't the problem but instead focus tests just don't work like most of these people think they do?
Design by focus test is just such a terrible idea overall.
Just make the best possible product that you can with an actual vision behind it for a change. If it doesn't fly, well at least you tried.

so they asked people and they said sonic was too fast, they slow him down a people complain about him not being fast enough

modern society folks, never happy

Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha. Is he serious?! It just shows that they really don't know where they screwed up!
"The biggest mistake in Boom was adding too many features to it. It was too much to ask of any development team." No, asking for those features were good and many development teams would handle it, GIVEN ENOUGH TIME. This is where Sonic Team/Sega screwed up, they didn't give enough time to the developers. And they've been doing it for years now, what with Sonic '06 being a prime example.

"Sonic Boom" is just the result of today's AAA standards industry: You put too much into a game made by not enough man power and I am often surprised how things like "Sonic Boom" and "Assassin's Creed Unity" don't happen every other month. Things need to change and we as the paying public need to clearly state "No!" to these games.

"Speed is always a Sonic thing, we didn't focus on that".

Duh. That's one of the reasons Sonic Boom failed miserably.

No Mr. Frost. Speed doesn't have much to do with it. It was the fact that the game is a terrible, buggy mess!

I didn't even realise the game failed - I didn't buy it lol.

It's not just about the speed.

Online races in a Generations type game could be really cool.

@FullbringIchigo clap clap clap

And here I was thinking that the biggest problem with Sonic Boom was the same problem with the other recent-ish Sonic games that were universally panned.
It was extremely unfinished.
I mean, not just buggy, but the design needed further development. Watching the Game Grumps play it makes it clear that the combat needed more work to make it actually fun and interesting. I don't know if it could have actually been fixed, but most people can tell there's a serious problem with the combat, so why didn't the developers do anything about it, even if the only solution was to cut it down? The answer is, of course, they didn't have enough time. At least, I hope they did actually realise there was an issue with the combat…

Ok time to say something controversial:

Screw focus groups and screw people's opinions. The majority of people (just like the general public when discussing politics) don't know what they want or even what's best for them. The aim is simply to create something good and then convince the people they need it.

Obviously there is the risk of creating crap and convincing people they need it too, but it's two sides to every coin.

It's like every time there's a sliver of hope that Sonic could finally crawl out of the pit on some genuine good ideas, they change it all round and end up throwing him down again.

OR it could be because the game was a glitchy mess, or because it obviously wasn't finished. Still, who the heck said that speed would be a good idea in a Sonic game!?

Lol it's not the speed that that went wrong with Sonic Boom. It's a broken game -_-

I don't think the problem was speed. I was getting tired of the whole "boost to win" concept. If they had released a glitch/bug free game with a more action RPG-influenced combat system, the game would have been fine. Fighting enemies would have been more meaningful if you could level up or upgrade your fighting skills or stats.

@TheHumbleFellow I don't. I think we need a competitive platform racer. Imagine Sonic Unleashed (Day) as a multiplayer racing game. Sonic already has everything a arcade racer has except human competition.

@abbyhitter You really can't boost to win in these games.

I'm not sure simply speed was ever an issue. It was stuff like unreliable controls, trial and error level desgin and the feeling that sometimes you wasn't really playing the game. Any of those problems can be enough to derail a game but throwing speed ontop of those problems just made them worse

@PewnyPL For years? No. Sonic 06 was the result of a personality who ditched the project for his own studio, who is currently making Rodea as we speak.

@ChessboardMan What was the recent then?

@Artwark Yeah. It's a mild speedrunners type of franchise.

@ryanator008 Sonic R would get the revival it deserves.

So Sega opted to take away the only defining trait of sonic?

Had any of the people in the focus group ever played a sonic game?!

Pity none of them decided to say "I would like a game that isn't a complete mess."

Maybe, just maybe, the fanbase for Sonic games is shrinking because too many recent games are terrible. Nintendo maintains its core fans by continuously releasing great games.
In fact, maybe the biggest problem in Sonic Boom wasn't the lack of speed. Maybe it's the fact that the game is an abomination, a rushed insult to fans which his company published in the state it was in.

""Speed is always a Sonic thing, we didn't focus on that""
No Soup.

Is it wrong that I find Sonic Boom more enjoyable than just about every other Wii U game? Because I do. I really like Sonic Boom and I don't understand all the hate. It was a fun ORIGINAL game, unlike every Mario rehash Nintendo released on the Wii U.

I don't blame him for not knowing that Sonic is about speed. SEGA doesn't even fully understand that (just look at the Adventure games, Shadow the Hedgehog, and Sonic Lost World).

Speed and coop, exactly what I'm looking for.
Sonic Heroes 2 sounds pretty much like the ideal combination of this, just with other players being able to contain the team members.

@C-Olimar

Amen to that! Not only that, but it's hard to maintain a fanbase when you won't stick to a consistent formula, like ever. Like, instead of improving on critical successes like Generations and Colors, they try and go reinvent the wheel with each new game. Each new Sonic game ends up becoming the "Mario Sunshine" of the franchise, where they try to add something new to freshen things up, but people just want a good game that sticks to what they enjoy about it.

The problem was that the game was not done.

Sounds like the focus group might of been more for team Mario

There's nothing wrong with adding gameplay mechanics if they make sense. Adding them for the sake of adding them or because a focus group leaned a certain way is ass-backwards design. Focus on the core gameplay, see what is organically driven by the world, characters and existing gameplay and then expound upon those concepts. Bolt-on gameplay rarely adds anything of substance and usually feels forced and is a disrupter, breaking the flow of the game and taking the gamer out of the experience. As far as coop/multiplayer: Again… if it makes sense. I have no freakin' idea what he is taking about regarding Boom's multiplayer. What exactly worked well? Because I must have missed it...

"Speed is always a Sonic thing, we didn't focus on that"

This "IS" who Sonic is. It may be a gimmick, but it's "his" gimmick, and when it works, it works well. Instead of coming up with all these design philos, focus on speed and speed oriented things can be implemented in a way that makes sense and makes the most of who Sonic is. There is no reason Sonic should have EVER fallen from glory in the first place if the right care was put in place. Every Mario isn't the best, but the TLC is there. Until Sonic can produce for example, Sonic Colours, or even some earlier titles in it's history consecutively, we will continue to get mediocre Sonic. And that's a shame. Sonic should never suck, period, and I haven't even been a lifetime Sonic fan.

The game isn't even half as bad as people said it was. I felt like it was more playable than most triple A games that get gleaming reviews.

Yeah it had problems, but a I felt the level design was solid, the mechanics were flawed, but the game could have been amazing.

And yes, not focusing on sonic's speed is A SEROIUS PROBLEM, yet Sonic Lost world sure started that 'slow sonic' cow poopy.

@Kirby_Fan_DL3 So you preferred Sonic Boom to a game like 3D World? Welp, each to his own...

On topic, I don't think speed was the problem - I'd gladly take a Sonic who slows down a bit to explore his surroundings. The problem was a long list of bugs and glitches. Sega should have done more to polish the game before release.

@VeeFlamesNL Omg yes... I agree and feel the producer is taking wrong conclusions to be honest.

Sounds like they need to step it up

I've generally found the later Sonic games too be too speed focused, to the point where it's impossible to control so they just take control away from you. The notion they had with Lost Worlds was right, focus not on speed but keeping momentum. A game doesn't have to be fast to feel fast, look at the last few Rayman games, that's what Sonic needs to be!

And yet he says nothing about it being an unpolished, unfinished, buggy mess.

I'd be totally fine with a Sonic Rivals 3 with 10-15 stages and online play as an eshop title.

@hosokawasamurai Ya chungus!

I bought this game on launch and still haven't played it yet....@_@....

That guys words in that interview, pretty much sums up why Sonic has been dead since Sonic Heroes...
At least to me.

Just hand Sonic over to Nintendo and be done with it, already.

In focus tests, we heard all the time, people were sick of speed, Sonic was too fast, they wanted to slow down. Speed was shelved because we were under the impression people didn't want it. Speed is always a Sonic thing, we didn't focus on that.

Who were the subjects of these focus tests? Old people and little kids that think Smartphone games are the best thing since sliced bread? I mean, you take a look at the Sonic Boom cartoon and its clear the target audience is VERY young children. Adventure Time and Steven Universe take its audience far more seriously than Sonic Boom.

Solo Sonic games, I don't know how long that can last there isn't enough variety to sustain it. The future of Sonic games needs to be Co-Op, it worked really well in Sonic Boom, community and online play, that sustains it. In general, you need to do multiplayer and add online multiplayer aspects, that will sustain and keep the franchise alive.

No the thing that made 3D solo Sonic games post Sonic Adventure 2 terrible is because the games themselves were poorly designed from story to game play.

Sonic Lost World was awesome and had controls that may have been difficult at first but worked. By far not as slow as many think. But it too suffered from the kitchen sink mentality Sega has had with Sonic. I felt for the most part that the level design, especially the galaxy-esque tube design was awesome and lends itself to some great replayability. My biggest complaints with Lost World was the ingame tutorials that don't mention that you don't need to use the touchscreen and the awful story. Boom on the other hand... was the Sharknado of game design... albeit unintentionally. I love to play Boom just for the baffling design decisions alone.

These People are incapable of making a good sonic game? Please sell the sonic rights to Nintendo...

Unlike what most people think Sonic games were never focused on just speed seeing as the Genesis era games main appeal for many was exploring the levels trying to find all the secrets. It was just a faster paced platformer, not a speed focused game like Sonic Unleashed was. Play those old games and I can guarantee you that you will see that there is just as much or even more emphasis on exploration rather than speed.

Didn't even question the game's quality. Big Red Button had a mass decrease of staff during development, too little developers can't expect to make a big budget title. I don't understand the "content" part there was more things to do in the Jak and Dexter games

Sounds like a case of dumb managers who don't have a clue relying on other people to tell them what to do rather than someone with a creative vision guiding the process.

How to fix Sonic...

*Anything Sonic R and later is no longer cannon.

*Make a new Sonic 4 on the 16-Bit hardware, port the finalized game to modern systems then upscale it.

No Cream, No Cheese, No Heroes, No Shadow, No Silver, No Chris none of that extra stuff. I kept Sonic 3D Blast part of the series but it could easily be argued that it could go too.

If they want extra characters use Knuckles Chaotix or the Sonic Comic.

I've always played sonic as a platformer. What I mean is that I would get tis crazy amount of speed going and then all of a sudden: BLAM! A strategically-placed enemy rift in my path just to slow me down and take my rings. Therefore I bega to play more cautiously, like a Mario game for example.
Speed is good but I think they need a way to slow you down gradually instead of us crashing into an enemy without spin-dashing. I relate the feeling of this to watching an excellent movie and then having someone run into the room and blurting out the ending.
My favorite sonic games will always be 1, 2, 3, knuckles, sonic CD, Sonic 4 P1 & P2 (but even these had strange feeling controls...)
Gain control of yr IP or give up and port Shenmue 1 and 2 to 3DS, Sega.

"Speed is always a Sonic thing, we didn't focus on that"
Well duh! Tell me something else new Sherlock!

Are you freakin kidding me ?
"In focus tests, we heard all the time, people were sick of speed"
There, first error: Focus Group tests.
People have no clue what they want until they got it. Thats simply how things work.

"Sonic was too fast, they wanted to slow down"
If you look back at EVERY Sonic game before the PS360 era, Sonic WAS slow. Heck, the argument that Sonic is a pure "hold right and win" game is bollocks.
Just look at Marble Zone and tell me, that this is high octane, constant running gameplay. Even Sonic Adventure had proper platforming, you know, the slower, wait for the right moment to jump kinda platformer.

Frick, even 06 had some decent platforming "ideas"...Remember the last, recent Sonic games that were praised ? Colors and Generations. What did they have in common ? Freakin platforming gameplay !

Remember what Unleashed was criticised for ? Its freakin beat em up sections, god darnit....Is it really that hard to notice, that this is NOT what your buying audience, NOT the focus test group wants ?
A solid, slow paced platformer interrupted by OCCASIONAL high speed sections ? Is it really THAT hard to notice ?

"The biggest mistake in Boom was adding too many features to it. It was too much to ask of any development team"
It worked for Adventure, where basically every Character played completely different. And it worked there, whats the problem, and what "features" are you even talking about ?
Mach seed sections ? Done before, no witchcraft, no level design required. At the very least a proper scene designer.
Beat em up gameplay ? It couldnt have been more mundane then it was. Also, you pulled it off in Unleashed and even there, it was a secondary mode so to speak.
The Hubworld ? What was so difficult about that ? It was barren, empty, void. There was literally nothing, just one, giant map to design.
Who did you hire ? A class of apprentices ?
This title HAD no features at all. Not even something that didnt work out. There was nothing, it was as basic and mundane as it could have been. You couldnt make it more bland, even if youd tried...

" I was tasked with creating an experience that appeals to an audience which doesn't play Sonic"
First: WHY ? Second: Then dont make a Sonic game...Sonic is 24 Years old. If people arent interested in him now, they will never be.
Oh, you mean the "new" audience ? Yeah, they are not interested thanks to your previous efforts...isnt that hard to figure out, isnt it ?

"Solo Sonic games, I don't know how long that can last there isn't enough variety to sustain it. "
Implying that Boom offered any variety at all...

"The future of Sonic games needs to be Co-Op, it worked really well in Sonic Boom"
There is NOTHING that even remotely worked at all in Boom.

"community and online play, that sustains it. In general, you need to do multiplayer and add online multiplayer aspects, that will sustain and keep the franchise alive"
No, you dont. You know what keeps a frenchise alive ? Good freakin games. Online shenanigans arent going to turn poop into solid gold.

Please tell me that this man had a serious head injury and isnt really as dumb and blind as his answeres make him sound....

Considering speed wasn't a focus, it's still faster than Sonic Lost World... and more fun. Sorry... but Sonic Lost World just sucked...

The old Sonic was failing? The old Sonic hasn't been seen since 2001. He made some brief appearances in Smash Bros. though cause, you know, Nintendo can make a quality game.

I never played sonic boom on wii u. I pmayed a demo on 3ds and was disapointed. Everytime I read an interview with devs it seems they dont get Sonic. The original games had speed. They also had control. All games post SA2 have had either speed or control but not both. Even the sonic advance games struggled with control. Sonic is single player at heart, coop only works in the right situations, stop shoehorning it into every game.

Sonic hasn't always been about going fast. You go fast eventually once you master his technique. The Genesis games were not non-stop speed.

Controlling Sonic in Smash, you can tell Sakurai and his team understand how to use Sonic. Give him the franchise and 3 years to develop a new game and you'll see the resurrection of the franchise.

Solo Sonic games can be sustained. Just don't make him a werehog, tether him to other characters, give him a sword, keep him on rails, try to make a Mario Galaxy clone...etc. All one has to do is make Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles playable, cut all the other characters, stick to the formula from the Genesis games, Adventure games, Advance games, Rush games, and Colors/Generations. There's good stuff there.

Co-op isn't the solution. Competitive is. Beating down your friends in a 1v1 race in Sonic Adventure 2 was always a great way to play. What ever happened to those head-to-head modes? I wish they had something like that for Sonic Generations, but they didn't. A Sonic with the Unleashed engine with a competitive multi-player would be much LESS of a headache to incorporate, but still fun.

No.... Fun was always a Sonic thing, focus on that.

This is what you do to fix Sonic:
1. Take the gameplay from Sonic Unleash's -Daytime Stages-,
2. And the world hub from Sonic Adventure 1.

That's it.

No "Colors"-esque power ups, no Werehog, no anti-gravity, no laser-tethers, no team-up attacks. Anything other than the two things I mentioned above, burn it, and fire anyone at Sega who thinks otherwise.

I almost enjoyed Sonic Generations' online multiplayer on the 3DS. Anyone who has tried it will know what made it unenjoyable, but take that stupid element out and make it a speedrunning contest, and you have a solid multiplayer experience similar to Sonic 2, 3, & Knuckles. Multiplayer could be a good area of focus for future Sonic games, but it doesn't HAVE to be co-op.

@Nintendo_Ninja the anti sonic one

@Einherjar You, sir, are extremely right.

But really, what were they expecting? Sonic Boom looks like a beta of Jack and Daxter with Sonic. Huge hub world, some poopy speed sections, and a some fighting. Now, J&D had at least some cool exploration, and everything was polished to a very nice level. (don't like the game myself but I can't deny it's good)
You won't make me believe that developers today can't redo what they've done in the great era of 3D platformers of the N64. If Sonic Boom was a bit like Banjo-Kazooie, with a lot of exploration and collectibles, but with a Sonic sauce, speed and platforming, it'd be perfect. Even a sort of ring road around the stage where we can speed could be cool...
The best example of nice Sonic exploration is in Sonic Adventure. The Speed Highway day section, with Sonic (after running down the building) was so much fun to explore! We never got that after SA2.

Now I want a Mario game that doesn't jump and God of War without an attack button...

"What do you think about Frost's comments? Do you think he's being too harsh, or not harsh enough?" I think Frost was right to leave the company because he clearly doesn't know the beginning of why Sonic Boom was a disaster. "Oh, it failed because he wasn't fast." No bro, it failed because it was a rushed game that, even if it had been finished, still had nothing to deliver other than bland platforming and lame one liners for a licensed tv show.

@Kosmo I think the Jal & Daxter comparison isnt too far off actually. They even have a similar premise of abandoning seperate stages in favor of one giant seemless world.
The difference is...it worked in Jak & Daxter...
The Ironic part ? The guy who founded Big Red Button was the Art director at Naugthy Dog.

You see, what got me the most in this interview was the fact that he thought the game was too much to handle for the studio. Its a roughly 60 people strong studio.
Now look at one of the most successfull titles to be released in the last couple of days: Cities Skylines. Team strength: 7
Towm buildier "Banished" ? 1 single Person.
Both highly complex games that worked from day one without major flaws.

Again, Boom brought nothing new to the table. All of its ideas had been done before. Even outright copying them would have been better then the job they had done.
What exactly was too much for them to handle ?
The Leveldesign was broken, the basic beat em up gameplay was broken, the hub world concept was broken, the running sections were broken, heck, even the cutscenes are broken and messy.

There is not a single piece of this game that works properly.
I know of many many games with tacked on minigames and sub-modes that didnt work out, but at least the core game worked.

Big Red Button is simply put, completely incompetent when it comes to making games. There is no other way to put it.

@MaverickHunterX
You cant fill an entire game with that. Dont get me wrong, those sections were stunning, but for an entire game, they are much too simple.
To this day, i still think that the best ballance between speed sections and platforming was hit in Adventure 1 and 2 and maybe even in Generations, which offered both playstyles.
Sonic isnt just about running in one direction at mach 1.
It has always been a platformer, sometimes even a slow paced one (Again, look at stages like Marble Zone).
High speed sections are fine, but not as its core gameplay, as it would get bland rather fast.
And whats wrong with gimmicks like powerups and such ? They are the lifeblood of any proper platforming franchise. As long as they are thought out well and are properly integrated into the overall gameplay, im perfectly fine with tinkering with the formular.

Focus testing created sonic boom, and fuse...

@FJOJR Nintendo screwed up Sonic, making it uncontrollable in Smash Bros.

@Kosmo Sonic is best in Lost World, Colors, and Generations. I recently play Adventure 2 and it was not on par with today's standard - frustrating camera angles, tressure hunt sections are not fun, homing attack a wrong target...

I think Sonic's problem as of late has more to do with Sega attempting to please everyone over making the best Sonic game they can. Design by committee (or focus groups) is usually going to leave a bland or lifeless product when it is finished.

One of the most endearing things about Mario is Nintendo does what they think is best with him. That means that from the beginning Nintendo was unafraid to change things to make a new game. They do a great job of keeping the familiar, while still doing something different.

Honestly, I really wish they would have just made another Phantasy Star or Streets of Rage for Nintendo instead of forcing Sonic down everyone's throats again.

Speed wasn't the problem. Plenty of games are fine without a main character that goes way too fast (that's why other 3D Sonic games can be a chore to play)...the problem was it was full of glitches (once the 'infinite Knuckles jump' glitch was discovered, the game pretty much became a laughing stock), the level designs weren't that great, the music was poor, most people didn't like the new character designs, etc.

I'm one of the people who bought it at launch knowing full well that it was going to flop, enjoyed it for what it was but I can still easily see why it failed. If the game's producer can't see why it failed, then it's no wonder Sega are in financial difficulty and reduced to making mobile games to try and scrape a quick buck back.

They totally misread what the focus groups were saying. I partially blame the bad communication skills of the general public, but the problem with the type of "speed" they use in the modern 3D Sonic games is bad because of the angle of the camera they always use that doesn't give you any time to react to anything.
You can solve that by slowing down the game in those sections, or you could be smart and just change the view so players have more time to react.
And all of that is moot in the face of them having slowed Sonic down in the platforming areas which is just stupid.
Sonic is and always will be about speed. Like everyone else said, the real problem isn't speed it's lack of development time, understanding of what makes the old games so much fun, and proper vision of what needs to be accomplished.

The dumbest part is the assumption that the core fans are dwindling because of disinterest in the franchise, when the truth of the matter is that the constant re-imagining of the franchise is what is to blame.
Hey, morons, if you keep trying to do the same thing over and over and the results are worse and worse then stop it.
Here's a clue, make a sonic game where you one hit kill neat little robots with animals inside you have to rescue, you get to play with a bunch of different established sonic characters, add local and online co-op, and write a story that is simple and intelligent enough for at least a teenager to appreciate and you're done. Oh, and fire those Saturday morning cartoon writers. They're idiots and shouldn't be writing video game scripts.

PS- Stop trying to make Sonic edgy. Sonic is based on Bill Clinton. Bill Clinton isn't edgy. AND NO MORE SPORTS TAPE!!
...
Get the echidna off the 'roids. Drugs are bad for you.

People getting sick of Sonic going fast? That'd be like people getting sick of Mario jumping, or catching Pokemon on Pokemon games.
I can already imagine what that would be like...

"Mario Explosion - You fight people (like the voice in your head telling you to stop playing)!
Coming: Never 2010 for Wii U
(Jump button not included.)"

I'll throw in my own " what focus group would say this?!?"

I would have replaced that group.

I played through a couple demo levels. By the time I finished that gigantauran factory level in the demo, I was already sick of it so no buy.

I'm not gonna say that Sonic can't be done well in 3D. Sonic Adventure DX (Game Cube) was great. Sonic Lost World was okay.

Sega needs to take a hard look at what made the classic Sonics great. Sonic 2 had Co-Op and it was brilliant.

Relying on focus groups and releasing a bug ridden game doomed the Boom

@TRON First of all, love your picture. One of my all-time favorite films (the sequel was not one of my favorites at all).
Second of all, what was this guy smoking? Take away Sonic's speed? ARE YOU MAD?! That's what made him stand out from all the other characters!! Also, why was the layout so boring and why did you make rings the life system? Why didn't you address all the game-breaking bugs and poor enemy lineup? What about the story? Have you guys ever heard how to write a compelling story? Get a person who's written a book into the team, someone who knows narrative and respects these characters which you clearly don't. Stop treating gamers like idiots and spelling out character traits. Also, get rid of the name Eggman. It sucks. It's embarrassing. Bring back Robotnik. Make me have a reason to care about Amy Rose, don't make her so damn annoying. Give Knuckles depth. Don't make Tails use gadgets as a crutch. They all should have flexibility as characters.

Hey SEGA, you know, as a long time sonic fan, I actually liked the show's humor, however life directed me away from home during that period so I was not able to play anything but computer games for a few years.

think about this for a minute, how hard would it be to make a third Sonic Boom, but change the game mechanics to focus on speed and just continue the story like the slowdown never happened?

now is the perfect time becuase Sonic Prime just ended. literally just reconfigure Sonic Boom's game for speed and recontinue the Sonic Boom show. it was comedy gold.