Two Veteran Sonic The Hedgehog Writers Appear To Have Moved On

This stuff is talking place around talks of Sega restructuring.

Any chance all of this is related?

Regardless, Sonic needs fresh perspective anyway as it's been pretty bad in terms of the 3D games.

Forces burned up the last of my Sonic hype like a meteor through the atmosphere. Anything half decent from Sega’s internal devs will now just be a pleasant surprise.

They had writers for that!? ;p

Well Maybe we will get a good story for now on. also the thumbnail really made me think sonic colors was anounced for switch DARN YOU NINTENDO LIFE.

Sorry..but I have to say that I am glad. I agree, the stories have been so lightweight and forgettable that entire time. I do not care if people think it is silly, but Sonic Adventure 1 and 2 were really good stories for me, with mega high stakes, and meaning. They held such high impact for me. I would love to return to that.

Sonic Colors started the "self-aware" ***** Sonic plots that have stagnated the series, so whatever.

Since Generations the story of Sonic games feel rush and are kinda bad, so hopefully that mean the story will improve now.

Sounds like they were there for the weaker Sonic years, that's for sure.

@Mana_Knight Yeah same, I always wanted to see a return to Sonic Adventure style Sonic games. I think for some reason people really lost sight of what matters when it comes to Sonic games, we got all of these people who never cared for Sonic games saying it's just all about speed and running through loops but there has always been so much more to it than that. All the best Sonic games were known for having a lot of slower sections and a bit of variety, I think they need to realize how a lot of fans liked what they did with Sonic Adventure and how a lot of the things they did in recent years haven't really worked out that well.

Thank goodness, Sonic Colours had the worst writing in the franchise. Only played a bit of Generations so can't comment on that and I don't intend on playing Lost World or Forces since I've read negative criticism of those games.

Good Riddance.I set Team Sonic Racing to japanese dub because even the generic banter lines in it where so underwhelming.Both in english and my native language,italian.

lets gooooooooo

@jump hah exactly what I was thinking lol

I heard good things about Sonic Generations, but otherwise nobody's ever spoken of the story of Sonic games as one of the main attractions, from the original titles to the present. Rockstar, Naughty Dog and CD Projekt probably don't lose too much sleep about what the writing staff of the Sonic games are up to.

so the next 3D mainline Sonic game is gonna feature a new voice cast for Sonic and his friends and screenwriters too?

Nooooooo!!

This is really terrible news, since everyone played the Sonic games for their stories!!! 😭😭

RIP to lines like baldy mc nosehair

"If this is your world, then it's a world that I don't want any part of!" >>>>>>>>>>>>> "No copyright law in the universe will stop me!"

I hope they don't hire anyone good. I'll miss the arguments and fights in forums.

Given these guys openly admitted they didn't care and used fan wikis as references when writing the plots...

Yeah good. They started strong in that lighter Saturday morning cartoon vibe and then it kinda...didn't work after a few years.

What somebody actually wrote that rubbish? Frankly the whole team who's been working on Sonic games for the last 15 years or so needs to go

@Giancarlothomaz thats the best news I've heard for quite some time

Sega is dying 😏😏😏

Reddit is gonna take Sega’s stocks next.

Honestly, I'd be fine with Sega selling the property to someone who wants to put out consistently good games. I mean, Sonic is probably making them tons of money as it is. So it probably wouldn't happen. But if I had to place money on it, I really think Nintendo would do the series justice. Granted, they already have their flagship mascot and existing IPs I think we would all rather they focus on. And you can argue the individual quality of their first party titles all day and wouldn't be necessarily wrong about some of them. But as a whole and a heck of lot more consistently than Sega has been, I trust Nintendo's singular focus would make an amazing first party Sonic game

@KillerBOB
This reads like sarcasm and I'm sorry if it's not but this comment seems incredibly tone-deaf to literally the millions of Sonic fans in the world who legit played the Sonic games for their stories and characters.
You don't have to like the stories but it's very dense to assume no one else played them for it.

@weisske You don't have to worry about that, there will ALWAYS be arguments in forums regardless of any outcome so rest assured.

sonic doesn't need a strong story. It's good gameplay what matters

Sonic storylines over the last few years Robotnik (Eggman sorry old habit) wants the new macguffin which might end up unleashing a bigger baddie. Stop him Sonic and a bus full of unnecessary friends with squeaky voices.
Like yeah I'd agree sonic doesnt need alot of plot like mario but it always trys to pretend it does with cut scenes etc and it never lands eg Forces.
Hopefully they improve going forward all round.

Honestly, their writing was totally fine and helped Sonic have a more consistent tone over the last decade.

Buuuuuuut

With Roger Craig Smith gone, and them gone, I'm hoping that this means Sega is finally taking Sonic seriously and switching things up.

The issue was the Boost formula was fun enough but really basic unless you want to spend hours working on your twitch reaction controls.

Lost world was a really cool idea and prob my favourite sonic game to play since Generations. But for every 10/10 level it had some levels that should never have passed an alpha testing stage.

So if they can actually switch things up, bring on devs who worked on proof of concept fan games (Sonic Utopia comes to mind) they might be able to make Sonic games tollerable again.

Hire the writers of the Sonic Boom cartoon to work on the games! It's very funny.

It feels like we're getting a Colours type of brand refresh for the 30th anniversary. Roger Craig Smith departing as Sonic, Pontaff gone, Tyson Hesse saying Sega aren't going to return to Classic Sonic "wholesale", on a recent stream Aaron Webber said not to expect Green Hill anytime soon. Things are adding up.

@Lukandon Sonic Colours was their best writing job. It only got worse from there.

@RupeeClock I would say the fifth era. The modern era's last game was Black Knight, after that things moved into the nostalgia/meta era in 2010.

Reading between the lines here with multiple longtime employees "moving on", the CCO's departure, and of course the company's overall actions over the past few weeks, and it's easy to see one of two things is happening: either A) there is a sweeping changing of the guard (something that frankly was needed three decades ago BEFORE the higher-ups managed to drive what had been one of the Top Two companies in the industry out of the hardware business through their meddling and mismanagement) and/or B) Sega is in the process of being bought out...most likely by an entity who will be demanding a fresh start anyway. The fact that so many of the departures have ties to Sonic speaks volumes as well; perhaps Sega is finally moving away from its myopic focus on that tired-out franchise to revisit more of its long-dormant IPs.

Me personally, I'd rather see a renewed and independent Sega emerge from whatever's going on and reclaim its old place as one of the hobby's premier publishers. But deep down I know that's almost certainly a pipe dream, because so much of the talent that made Sega what it was "back in the day" left the company for greener pastures (and to escape meddlesome interference from upper management, according to what I've read) long ago (example: Team Camelot). And as I've said before, I really hope they're not purchased by the likes of Microsoft because we've already seen what became of Rare and many of its older IPs. A Sega that's only pumping out its "more mature" franchises to appeal to its ownership and their "core audience" would essentially be the same as the one we've had that only ever seemed to care about Sonic for the past 20 years.

In any case, one constant remains for the gaming enthusiast: we're at the mercy of the industry when it comes to our hopes and dreams for the hobby and the franchises or even entire genres we love to play.

@Orpheus79V Ah yes, lines like "Baldy McNosehair" and "No copyright law in the universe is going to stop me" are totally worthy of being called best writing.
No, those lines and many others in Sonic Colours belong in a cringe compilation.

Best writing in Sonic was Unleashed.

@Lukandon "Gotta go FAST!!!"...to make sure the door doesn't hit 'em on the way out.

Why would you even need one writer for that franchise, let alone two. 😃

I agree with a lot of people here. Sonic lost his mojo a long time ago and while I liked some Sonic games like Adventure 1+2, Shadow and Unleashed... something got lost. Sonic 06 was a catastrophe and Colors just boring. Maniac was better, but I wish that this could be translated onto a 3D games. But maybe, just maybe... it isn't possible to make a 3D Sonic game.

Now, of course, I would be surprised if it could be done and would welcome it. Who knows, maybe someday. Until then, Maniac 2 would be great.

YYEYEYEYEYEYYEYSSSSSS

@RupeeClock what are we gonna call this hypothetical new era of Sonic, the postmodern era?

Sonic has a story?

Sonic stories have usually been pretty bad, as least recently, so this could be a good thing.

Get the Sonic Boom writers I’d say.

@RupeeClock All the events in recent times such as Sega's prolonged development cycles and new talent do arugably point to Sonic regenerating into his Fourth incarnation.

About time. These two hacks were one of the reasons the franchise has become such a pathetic joke. Seriously, the only Ken worse than Pontac is Penders.

People talk about Sonic not having a good story, sure that’s a thing. But the fact Sonic games have barely mediocre gameplay at best should be more concerning.

@Lukandon I think you misunderstood my comment completely. When I said Colours had the best writing, I was speaking strictly in terms of the games Pontaff wrote. I was telling you that the stuff they wrote after that only got worse from there, so if you thought Colours was the worst, you don’t know the half of it. Their writing is all bad, but the fact that Colours was their "best" says a lot.

If modern Sonic games have plots, I think I'm quite happy to not have gone past the 1990's 2D entries.

@Orpheus79V you can’t be serious.

Well MeltingMan234 is going to be happy about that.

@Lukandon I am totally serious. Lost World and Forces make Colours look like Citizen Kane.

Totally prepared for Microsoft Hedgehog 2023.

Seriously it does seem like Sega is doing a lot to restructure, trim baggage and generally fracture itself in a few ways. In the other hand, when it comes to Team Sonic, nothing is value is getting lost.

I'd say we need Yuji Naka back, but looking at Balan, I'm not sure he could help, either.

@Lukandon @Orpheus79V #StillBetterThanBoom

Ayyy glad to see RebelTaxi get a shoutout

Seeing as in the recent, months Sega of America youtube channel has had one (if there's more correct me) remixed version of Adventure's Station Square, there is a REALLY slightly posibility that they finally listen, if only a few things. It's better to hope for the best, regardless of the current state of 3D Sonic.

One thing is for certain. Moving at super speed should not be the first priority in 3D Sonic games and they should tone down the frequency of the jokes. I am not against jokes but there should be more balance so that we can have something that's in-between Sonic Heroes and Adventure storywise because, I don't see a harm in having story. Having more 3D platforming and some overworlds would be nice.

@Lukandon I don't think you can really say that Colors had the worst writing when you haven't played any of the games that came after it lol. Trust me, Sonic Colors writing was super cringe and yet still somehow nowhere near as bad as Lost World or Forces. It shouldn't have been possible and yet here we are lol

I don't think that it is Ken Pontac's and Warren Graff's fault, that the stories that they wrote for the last Sonic games weren't good. They did most likely just follow Sega's orders. Also, the Sonic-series always had questionable stories since the franchise went 3D. Do you remember that one time where Sonic was killed by the devil himself and had to be resurrected with a kiss by a necrophiliac human princess? I wouldn't call this master-writing.

It's so funny seeing people praising Sonic Adventures plot today while at the time they were hated for those hyper serious stuff so detached from the Megadrive games. The wind turns so strong with nostalgia googled

Sonic games were always nothing short of mediocrity nothing good, except for the megadrive era. Sega has Yakuza now so let Sonic die.

@NEStalgia To be honest Boom handled the humorous tone that Pontaff were aiming for far better. It was actually capable of being funny.

@Mana_Knight Sonic stories were never good to begin with.

@JayJ Please stop! The adventure games were not even that good.