Nintendo fan website Nintendo World Report recently spoke to SEGA producer Stephen Frost about the Wii U version of Sonic Boom. Stephen shared a few details about Sonic’s new upcoming title — which is also being developer for the Nintendo 3DS — and we’ve consolidated the details below. One highlight that fans may be disappointed with is that Sonic Boom will not feature online multiplayer.
Here’s the rest of the details:
more details coming during E3 2014 this June
CryEngine 3 technology used for development
The Enerbeam (bungee-like weapon) is related to the storyline
Characters can be selected on the fly during gameplay
Other characters likely to be playable
Frame rate is “very very solid”
No online multiplayer; living room experience focused
GamesIndustry.biz writes: "Relic is best known for the Company of Heroes and Dawn of War games, and recently developed the new Age of Empires for Microsoft. Relic will transition to an independent studio and will no-longer be part of the Sega group of studios.
The majority of the 240 job cuts are across Creative Assembly and Sega Europe, while there will be a ‘small number’ cut from Sega HARDLight. There was no mention of other Sega UK studios, including Two Point Studios and Sports Interactive."
Sega had such a turbulent existence from the mid-90s to when they dropped out of console manufacturing entirely in 2001, it’s understandable if you’ve never heard of the Genesis Nomad.
Sega claims Super Mario Bros. Wonder's launch overshadowed Sonic Superstars, affecting sales. Sega remains hopeful for a turnaround.
SEGA in victim mode for many years.. blaming others for doing good never questioning themselves.. no need to be marketing effort to know that releasing a bit of the same sonic at the same time as a very creative and perfectly executed 2D mario would hurt the sales.. well SEGA have one of the most amateur marketing people in the industry
Even when Sega were still in the console business Sonic couldn't compete in terms of sales with Mario. Sonic is hot ragain and Sega still managed to fuck up. Quite the accomplishment.
A lot of bad Sonic games over the years. After Sonic Adventure 2, although Sonic Adventure was better, Sonic died. Apart from the Sonic Racing, that's pretty much it. Sonic Frontiers, SEGA should've knocked out Sonic Adventure 3. These SEGA collections have been knocking around for too long. There's been too much dumbness at SEGA.
Sonic is great but he is nothing when compared to Mario. Nintendo just knows how to utilize Mario better like Mario Maker, Super Smash, Mario Kart, Mario RPG, Mario Paint. Sonic is not a utilizable enough like Mario. Mario can be adapted to different games. Sonic is pretty much run, run, run. Sure Sonic has his own other games but again he is nothing when compared to Mario.
And? I hate this modern trope in the gaming industry that makes it seem as though online multiplayer is an absolute must have.
I saw the same thing in another article, and really it's not too surprising. Sonic has never been real big on online so even though it's being made by Big Red Button instead of Sonic Team I wasn't expecting to see online Coop. Sonic games are similar to Mario games in the sense that they would rather focus on having amazing local Coop and have no online Coop instead of using some of their resources to have online gameplay.
EDIT: Went and gave a second look at the article. And I saw "Other Characters likely to be playable". I really hope Shadow is one of those. Shadow is my favorite character in the Sonic games!
EDIT2: The article is wrong. In the interview he says the playable characters are the ones they announced (Sonic, Knuckles, Tails, Amy). Other characters may be in the game but not playable
Well, how many other Sonic games had online co-op?
Hmm?
ALRIGHTY THEN.
It would have been nice to have, but for Sonic games, lack of online multi isn't really a deal-breaker, so I'll still be giving this game a shot to impress me.
It's the first Sonic game in a long time to really step outside of the franchise's comfort zone, and I'm all for supporting attempts at change in a franchise so long as it isn't too drastic.
Well, that sucks! It's a game based on co-op! If Trine 2 can do it, why can't this? Oh, well. I'm going to have to just play with my brother.
im happy to see a lot of games moving away from a "mandatory" multiplayer mode. if the game doesnt need it, don't waste resources on it.