SEGA feels it brought “too many Sonic games to market too quickly”

By Stephany Nunneley

SEGA reckons it has more than likely put too many Sonic titles out too quickly in the past.

Speaking with Joystiq, SEGA US’s head of sale and marketing, Alan Pritchard, has claimed the last few releases over the past five years or so have been a bit of a “mixed bag” and the company should have been more strategic.

Like Mario.

“We’ve probably been guilty of bringing too many Sonic games to market too quickly,” said Pritchard. “Certainly if you look at Nintendo as a comparison, they have been a little bit more strategic with the way they bring their Mario titles to market.

“If you look at 2006 to 2008, there were a number of Sonic titles coming to market on various platforms with very little time in-between. If you look at all of the Sonic releases over the last four or five years, there’s a real mixed bag out there.

“There are some 70s; there are some 60s; there are some 50s. We are upping the bar in terms of internal focus, investment, resource; and we plan to target 80-percent-plus. A Sonic game can sell if it’s a 60-percent Metacritic game, that’s not an issue. But is that really what the consumer wants? Is that what we should be doing as a publisher and a developer?

“We should be bringing much higher quality products to market to deliver a better experience for the consumer.”

SEGA is likely hoping its latest offering, Sonic 4 which released today, will do the trick. There’s also Sonic Free Riders for Kinect hitting launch day with the device. There’s also the rumored Sonic Anniversary game as well – which may or may not be the Sonic game slated for next year.

Loads of Sonic is in our future, kiddos, adding more titles to an already vast list of games and appearances.