Home News Iizuka Confirms Sonic Boom Only for the West

Iizuka Confirms Sonic Boom Only for the West

Tristan Oliver
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There are even more late breaking details coming out of today’s Year of Sonic press event in New York City.  In an interview with Polygon, Sonic Team head Takashi Iizuka confirms that, for the moment, Sonic Boom will only be made available to gamers in the West. That means gamers in North America and Europe will enjoy this new effort, shutting out players in Japan.

The article also notes that Iizuka and Sonic Team will continue to make Sonic titles that, in the article’s words, are “parallel” to the Sonic Boom effort.  Mr. Iizuka also confirmed he is overseeing the project.

This development opens up plenty of additional questions, including the real prospect of two separate but concurrently running canons should Boom become a long term effort for Sega West. There’s also an uglier prospect: If Sega of Japan doesn’t want the current Sonic brand to be muddled with Boom, would the Sega-Sammy mothership also try and leave both canons separate to each territory outright, and stop bringing Sonic Team produced titles over to the West?  That is a matter worthy of clarification and certainly of concern given Sega’s lacking effort to bring other flagship Japanese titles over of late, and we will dig for answers on that front.

Stay with us for the latest developments on Sonic Boom.

This post was originally written by the author for TSSZ News.

Tags SEGASonic BoomSonic The Hedgehog (Series)TSSZ News
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Tristan Oliver

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21 Comments

  1. That’s pretty killer

    At least now we can all rest easy knowing Sonic Team and BigRed are going to be releasing games together .

    Hell this might even mean we could get two main series Sonic games every two+ years as opposed to one.

    2. This also means Sonic Team can keep going with a lighter story, avoiding alternate playstyles and SA design tropes because Boom seems to cater towards the audience that keeps demanding that stuff.

  3. No, I don’t think so. The Japanese developed Sonic games sell better in the west than they do in Japan. Why would they ever stop localising them?

    I see where you are coming from, though. Maybe we’ll see more classic themed Sonic titles from Sonic Team while SEGA West continues in this new direction. Also, with Sonic Team still working on the series, SEGA have a good safety net for the west if this new franchise bombs.

    1. It’s because Japanese people tend not to react kindly to stuff from their franchises made by foreigners and sold back to them. It’s a national pride thing and is why, for instance, that American-made Naruto game, while well-acclaimed, is obscure and hated in Japan.

    1. It probably is very far-fetched, but the way Sega is treating fare like Yakuza or literally every other franchise out of Japan in the West, it’s worth at least thinking about.

      -T

      1. Sonic games are the only thing they make that even remotely sells in the west. Plus, Sonic has always sold horribly in Japan. What would be the point of making Japanese exclusive Sonic games for the 6 people over there that buy them?

  5. To be fair, this isn’t the first time a spin-off hasn’t come to Japan. The Sonic Rivals and SEGA All-Stars series, for example. They’re just trying to cash-in on a younger crowd. If the previous game continuity stays as a separate “branch”, I’ll be happy, at least.

  7. Will that’s a relief, but i was wondering what if Sonic boom get more popular than the original Sonic, can it cancels the original?

  8. Instead of rebooting the current series, they’re created a parallel canon? That’s a marvelous idea.

  9. I live in America, and am American, but I hope this game does get released in Japan. Chances are if this game makes Japan too jealous, they’ll likely make a game bigger and better than Sonic Boom, but they won’t want to release it world wide.

    1. That’s a big bit of BS right there. Sonic games have never sold well in Japan and the whole series has always been aimed at a Western market anyway. Its a ridiculous notion that Sega would restrict mainstream Sonic titles only to Japan. Some minor spinoffs like the Sonic Cafe games way back in the day, yeah, but no one really cared about those. They have often shut out several side games part of the main canon in Japan already.

  10. Why do the Japanese think Americans like Muscular animals? They made Knuckles muscular, exclusive to the west. nintendo considered buffing up pikachu for western audiences. Seriously, we’re cool with animal characters how they are. Looking like animals!

  13. This is just like in the classic era (AoStH+SatAM VS Japan). Until now we had not so good storyline, but at least it wasn´t different per region. So much work to merge all regions just to split them now. Genius.

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