As one might know, Sega has been taking some heat recently thanks to frankly baffling decisions surrounding its upcoming Sonic Origins collection. It should have been an exciting release for Sonic fans, but now many are likely rethinking the purchase after this strange move. Sega has since seemingly doubled-down on their decision, making fans even more upset. So far, the reaction among the gaming populace has been one of confusion, but Sega taking these sorts of actions shouldn’t come as a surprise.
The company actually has a long history of strange decisions that ultimately hurt both its products and its fans. One could almost say it’s part of the Sega brand. The thing is though, the company should reconsider its strategy as continuing on this path may eventually lead to its end. After all, it was exactly these sorts of moves that knocked the house of Sonic out of the console hardware market at the end of the 90’s. First, a recap of the most recent offense: rather than simply releasing the four-game collection and enjoying the sales,Sega chose instead to create a Ubisoft-esque chart of pre-order options.These options didn’t even feature meaningful extra content, with the maker instead opting to tie features like “menu animations” and “letterbox presentation” to certain packs. With Sonic Origins' price already feeling questionable, the further monetizing of perceived core functionality courted the ire of many fans.
At this point, most companies would try to either placate the fans or delay further actions until the situation cooled-off a bit. Sega isn’t most companies, though. Its reaction to the controversy was toannounce the delisting of Sonic Origins' component games from most digital storefrontsas of May 20. In the case of Sonic 3 & Knuckles and Sonic CD, the $39.99 Sonic Origins will be the only convenient option. That’s one way to make that price tag feel worth it, eh?
This sort of thing isn’t new for Sega, though. Over the years, the company has released many collections of their classic games, but has always been careful to never allow them to become too available. Indeed, until relatively recently, Sonic CD was a rather difficult game to enjoy. It took twelve years for it to see a non-PC re-release after its initial launch for the Sega CD, and it was conspicuously absent from 2002’sSonic Mega Collection. Seriously, it was theonlynotable Sonic game that wasn’t included. The reason why this was became apparent three years later with the release of theSonic Gemscollections, with Sonic CD arguably being the only actual “gem” in the collection.
This would be the ONLY reasonable way to enjoy the game until it finally released digitally on Steam in 2012 since it was once again strangely absent from another Sonic collection (the 2009Sonic’s Ultimate Genesis Collection). So yeah, Sega is no stranger to limiting access to its games only to then demand a premium price for the privilege. It got the company some cash each time, but it also helped to alienate the fanbase. It doesn’t exactly seem like a winning strategy, does it? These sorts of strange choices are also responsible for some of the most infamous entries in the Sonic series itself. These includeSonic ‘06,Sonic Boom,Sonic Forcesand the unreleasedSonic X-treme.
With all of this put together, it becomes easy to think that Sega is much more interested in whatever Sega thinks will make it the most money than it is in what will actually make its customers happy. Why keep beloved Sega games scarce? So fans have to keep buying them. Why release multiple, incomplete collections when one would be more than enough? So fans have to buy several in order to get everything they want.
Why obsessively rush to release buggy, incomplete games on anniversaries rather than waiting to publish a quality product? Because fans might be more motivated to buy on those days. Why delist the cheaper versions of the games in Sonic Origins and make a confusing web of pre-order bonuses? So that fans either rush to buy them or feel forced to spend extra money on the “complete” version of the new compilation.
On it goes too, all the way back to the baffling hardware decisions that knocked Sega out of the console market. It’s always about what Sega thinks will net it some easy, extra cash and never about what its customers actually want. If this keeps up, Sega likely isn’t long for the gaming world. It’s already fallen from a major platform holder to a mid-tier publisher, and nearly all of its game series have been forgotten save for Sonic. Sonic isn’t invincible tough; it too can fail if Sega keeps pushing fans away. If that happens, then gaming may just lose another one of its founding giants. Here’s hoping it doesn’t come to that.
