Stephen Frost talks about Sonic Boom (franchise & game)

[Diamond Sonic]

I dunno, InFAMOUS Second Son doesn't look like it'd work on Wii U, despite the Wii U being my favorite console.

I'd love to see a SUPER AWESOME GRAPHICS Sonic game on the PS4 or Xbox One. I personally think the Wii U, 360 and PS3 should have a separate Sonic game that's not related to whatever 25th anniversary game we may get.

 

Again, graphics. Infamous: Second Son is a fun game and looks incredible but there's nothing in the game design that the Wii U can't handle.

 

It's not like with Unleashed and UnWiished where the actual gameplay is so different.

[Radiant Hero Ike]

Again, graphics. Infamous: Second Son is a fun game and looks incredible but there's nothing in the game design that the Wii U can't handle.

 

It's not like with Unleashed and UnWiished where the actual gameplay is so different.

Ohhhh, my bad then, I assumed you just meant graphics. ^^;

[Diamond Sonic]

Ohhhh, my bad then, I assumed you just meant graphics. ^^;

 

I looked back and it was a bit confusingly worded, so apologies there 

[Gabz Girl]

We can only hope Sonic Boom the show continues to be a success when it finally airs in other countries besides the US and France. Don't forget the merch either.

[TearForFear]

Stephen Frost's interview dissected:

 

https://www.facebook.com/notes/798235366892505/

 

Plus, an overall analysis of Sonic Boom:

 

http://dracold.deviantart.com/journal/Lame-is-the-New-Cool-521948872

 

I think they deserve attention.

[Willsy]

You know, I actually think that from a gameplay perspective a Wii U version would be possible to develop if they aren't going too big with the gameplay (which will probably be the case). However, it would probably look like a hot turd under the sun in comparison to the other versions as sacrifices would most probably need to be made in order to get the game running decently. Another thing is whether SEGA would consider a Wii U port financially viable or not, which seems to be the real million dollar question here. I wouldn't be surprised if the game skipped Wii U due to sales alone, which, as much as I hate to say it, would probably be a sensible decision given SEGA's financial state.

For the time being, it's all up in the air. One one hand, Tembo is skipping out on Wii U. On the other hand, Sonic Advance is already on the Wii U VC and is likely to appear in other regions too. I wouldn't count a Wii U version out for the time being, but I would not be surprised if they did skip out on it. What would surprise me however is if a Sonic Team actually utilised the power of the PS4 and Xbox One for the gameplay (in which case a Wii U version would be out of the question).

[Gabz Girl]

Stephen Frost's interview dissected:

 

https://www.facebook.com/notes/798235366892505/

 

Plus, an overall analysis of Sonic Boom:

 

http://dracold.deviantart.com/journal/Lame-is-the-New-Cool-521948872

 

I think they deserve attention.

 

That picture at the top pretty much sums it all up.

 

 

Interesting articles though, just goes to show how much of a mess Sonic Boom really is at least games-wise.

[Komodin]

That picture at the top pretty much sums it all up.

 

 

 

To be frank, all this picture does is make it difficult for me to take these "articles" seriously. Mean-spirited things like this are just really rather awful.

[Autosaver]

Let's just take words out of context and act like a childish brat by using may-mays to make fun of people.

 

Sigh.

[Blue Blood]

That picture at the top pretty much sums it all up.

 

That picture does sorely miss the point. Frost has to maintain a level of professionalism even if he's no longer connected to SEGA and Sonic Boom. The TV show and toy line have seen moderate success as well. It's only his comments about the games that are really the cause of any controversy, and it would be foolish to expect him to come out and say "yeah those games sucked and everyone hated them and it's not my fault". Partially because of the aforementioned professionalism, partially because he worked on them for years and probably has more positive things to say. It's really in his best interest not to slag off Boom and instead highlight the positives.

[Badnik Mechanic]

Stephen Frost's interview dissected:

 

https://www.facebook.com/notes/798235366892505/

 

Oh Christ not the Sonic Adventure 3 facebook page... 

 

Check out this extract....

 

 

 

In what way can he claim Sonic has become more popular because of the cartoon? Sonic games have never exploded in sales due to cartoons.

 

....Because that's how branding works? You have something which is successful, and the cartoon is successful, we've got all the viewer data to back that one up. The fact networks worldwide are showing it next year in multiple reasons including regions which are not normally targeted by Sonic are clues that people who buy and sell shows for a living have a lot of faith into it being successful.

 

Every time you have something which is successful, the popularity of it increases... . .. why am I writing that as if it's an unknown thing? It's obvious. If something is popular, it generates more interest and usually nets further interest in other areas of it. 

 

The comic book industry realised this a long time ago, the game industry is slowly starting to wake up to it, Smash Bros, PSASBR, Mortal Kombat guest characters etc, hell even Call of Duty have started to bring in popular characters from other media and fiction.

 

The same is true for Boom, yeah the game is shit, and it showed, totally bombed in sales, nobody is touching it. But the show? Totally different story. People are watching it and the dropoff so far has been very small compared to shows which are deemed a failure. Odds are it's a bit too early to say 'yes it's had a positive effect overall.'

 

But turn it the other way around. Has the game had a negative impact? Yes.

 

Has the show had a negative impact? Nope.

 

I think I might just leave it there, the more I scroll down the more tragic that article becomes. The lost your job line, fucking hell, yeah, this thing called downsizing due to restructuring and SOA's lack of a development studio had nothing to do with it.

[ChikaBoing]

Sonic X was important to Sonic's resurgence in popularity.

 

A regular Sonic CGI series would have done it fine as well.

[Diamond Sonic]

I don't think Stephen Frost is a bad guy. He's obviously going to say the game's good, he's not going to kill his professional career  .

 

The fact the game ended up so ridiculously dreadful isn't just on him, although he's obviously somewhat responsible as he was producer.

 

Also, he has a Sonic Youtube Channel despite no longer being a SEGA employee anymore:

 

 

He has a genuine passion for Sonic, so it's sad to see this happen to him.

[Detective Shadzter]

Didn't really know where to post this.

 

Found this in the past week's Google search results.

http://game-bridge.com/portfolio_category/sega/

 

Looks like SEGA's hired a company called Game Bridge in relation to Sonic Boom. 

[Salamander]

Didn't really know where to post this.

 

Found this in the past week's Google search results.

http://game-bridge.com/portfolio_category/sega/

 

Looks like SEGA's hired a company called Game Bridge in relation to Sonic Boom. 

[Char]

Our mission: To give our clients a powerful way to reach their customers employing superstar video game characters, fresh creative thinking and a 360 degree approach utilizing television, print and digital mediums.

 

[Autosaver]

Sonic Boom x Street Fighter confirmed

[Gabz Girl]

Maybe I was being a bit harsh about Stephen Frost, mind you I still feel sorry for the guy, but I can't stand liars. I know he still can't say much because of SEGA mandates or whatever but he could at least admit that while the show and toys are successful (only in the US and France dude) but the game had problems and sold below expectations. None of this oh lol it sucks but just a "Yeah we admit, it's a highly flawed game."

[Blue Blood]

I only wish that he hadn't come here to try to bring us around about issues that we all had with RoL and tell us that things would be improved over time, only for this to turn out to be totally incorrect. That's what I have against him, cause that's where it feels like he was being dishonest.

[Kittea]

Here's the thing about co-op in a Sonic game.

 

You ever tried it in Sonic 2? You know, being able to play as Tails with the second controller? Shit barely works. Over half the time, player two won't even be on the screen not just because of the difficulties keeping up, but because coordinating two people on a single screen is borderline fucking impossible. Even if you compromised and made it splitscreen, it would still defeat the point of two players being in the same game because they would almost never, ever see each other, much less actually cooperate with one another.

 

The only other compromise that exists is forcibly tethering the second player to the first. And this has never been fun. In Chaotix you are liable to screw up even simple, basic jumps if both players don't do it at almost the exact same time, and the tugging mechanics make both players a burden on each other even if they're performing relatively well. Colours had some stupid mechanic in which the trailing player could snap back the leading player, not only screeching the flow to an obnoxious halt but potentially killing either of the players involved in the process. Don't even fucking get me started with Sonic 4 Ep2. And while I haven't played Boom personally, don't the other players occasionally get warped around for no discernible reason? I swear I remember seeing that at some point.

 

Honestly, even competitive multiplayer is more viable than a co-op focus, and I think that's saying a lot.

What about Sonic Advance 3?

[Blue Blood]

What about Sonic Advance 3?

 

It's beyond pointless. You both go and do your own thing, entirely separate from each other until one of forcibly summons the other player to your location to pass a single obstacle. For all that the co-op accomplishes, you might as well be playing single player.

[TearForFear]

Another analysis of the interview:

 

http://dracold.deviantart.com/journal/Interview-Part-1-I-am-Putting-You-on-Frost-522959019

 

http://dracold.deviantart.com/journal/Interview-Part-2-Let-s-Kick-Some-Frost-523608066

 

http://dracold.deviantart.com/journal/Interview-Part-3-Sending-Us-to-the-Freezer-524060476

 

He may uses "harsh and apocaliptic tones", but his points are valid. Give it a read.

[Autosaver]

I only wish that he hadn't come here to try to bring us around about issues that we all had with RoL and tell us that things would be improved over time, only for this to turn out to be totally incorrect. That's what I have against him, cause that's where it feels like he was being dishonest.

[Milo]

To be fair, they did improve over time. The graphics/character models, the framerate, some new gameplay additions, tweaks to controls, bug fixes, cutting of voice lines, etc. One noticeable improvement I remember is a lot of people complained about the automated section in that one water level. They added an extra section at the end that had more player control.

 

I mean yeah, I totally agree you could argue that these changes probably didn't impact much but it's not like they were sitting there doing nothing. Frost can't magically turn a pile of shit into a masterpiece by snapping his fingers. Game development doesn't work like that and I don't think it's reasonable to expect him to make a project do a 180. They HAD to get the game out by November, which was months away. He's also not going to go "this game sux guys". I believe he did the best he could with what he had.

 

I think the point of Blue Blood's post was more about him giving Frost stick for the incorrect things concerning the Boom games he said; rather than giving Frost stick for the related dumb decisions concerning said games Frost didn't make.

 

e: ...then again, he was a producer for Rise of Lyric, so maybe he does deserve some stick on how said game turned out...

Edited April 4, 2015 by Gabe

[Autosaver]

I think the point of Blue Blood's post was more about him giving Frost stick for the incorrect things concerning the Boom games he said; rather than giving Frost stick for the related dumb decisions concerning said games Frost didn't make.

 

e: ...then again, he was a producer for Rise of Lyric, so maybe he does deserve some stick on how said game turned out...

Like what incorrect things? Blue Blood clearly stated he didn't like how Frost was saying how the issues people were complaining about were going to get improved. For the most part, they did. It just wasn't enough.

And yes Frost was the producer but he's not responsible for SEGA's bigger decisions. The decision to lay off a majority of the development team, including some of the main heads in charge of Sonic Boom, the rushed schedule to get the game released, the choice of the engine & incompatibility with Wii U, the Wii U itself, the outsourcing to work on the multiplayer, the abundance of voice clips (probably mandated to feel closer to the show), the story rewrite, etc. Frost had his hands tied. How is he supposed to soup up a game stuck in development hell with no work-force in a couple months? That's just impossible to me.