In His Words, it’s “Exactly what Colours Will Do”
We first told you about Sega’s intent to deliberately market Sonic Colors to children in May, and once again our source is right on the money.
Proof positive comes in a new interview CVG held with Sega West head Mike Hayes. Hayes draws a clear division between the intended demographic targets for both Colors and Sonic the Hedgehog 4. The latter deliberately targets “core” gamers, while the Wii and DS exclusive is child’s play:
We’ve got to make games that appeal to the 7-to-12-year-old which is exactly what Colours will do – and then we need to appeal to the core gamer, which is what Sonic 4 is doing.
Our source first told TSSZ News about Sega’s intent to skew marketing toward young gamers on May 27th, explaining the push toward mainstream Wii gamers and not necessarily on dedicated Sonic fans. The source even compared the strategy to that of edutainment title Jambo Safari: Animal Rescue.
Interestingly enough, Hayes felt the upcoming Kinect exclusive Sonic Free Riders could appeal to gamers of all ages:
Riders, funnily enough, is actually where the boundary is grey, and we like to say it will appeal to both. The feedback we’re getting from retailers is that because it’s branded is very popular both in America and Europe, it’s an easier sale when they’re talking about Kinect to consumers – “look you’ve got Sonic”.
The full interview is available at the link cited above. There’s another noteworthy component of the Q&A, relevant to Sonic fandom, that we’ll talk about tomorrow on TSSZ News.
Loading ...
Like this will stop me from buying the game and breaking it. (By breaking it, I don’t mean physically, I mean glitches)
The entire Sonic franchise is about colorful talking animals that wear clothes, collect shiny rocks, and fight a guy who laughs like Santa Claus. OF COURSE this game is meant for kids. They ALL are. But I played all (or at least, most of) the rest, and I intend to play this too.
I do think Unleashed was geared slightly more towards kids than say the Adventure series, but I also think in terms of the character design they were trying to find their own look that meshed well with the “Mobians.” Also, they seemed to give the characters more personality and individuality than the bland, generic models from Sonic 06. I liked the way one guy put it that it was like playing “a Pixar film come to life.” I doubt most kids wouldve been able to finish the game due to the considerable increase in difficulty in later levels, but I still found it pretty enjoyable nontheless.
I’d almost hate to say this, but unless this game has the spin dash, it won’t be good. Think about it… the last good Sonic game was Sonic Adventure 2, which as we all know had the spin dash ability. After that, we get Heroes which lacks the spin dash ability… do you see where I’m going with this?
He might be talking about how fail it was as a game, Doctor, and not sales…. Also, inb4 hordes of people shun me for dissing anything Sonic related.