Adds Episode 1 “Did very well for Sega commercially”
While most knew a second installment of Sonic 4 was coming, and this is pretty far from an official reveal, but we now have for the first time someone within Sega on the record about it.
The remarks are buried in a Sega forum thread concerning speculation on what’s to come with Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode II. Speculation turned into some tasty tidbits when Sega Brand Manager Ken Balough stepped in earlier this month without much fanfare, and many of those remarks were in turn picked up by the Brazilian website Sonic Zone.
“Episode II is in early development now,” said Balough on February 8th, kicking things off. “We already had some ideas fleshed out on development for Episode I in fact.”
From there, Balough spent the balance of this month diving into whatever details he could, including a remark made yesterday on whether fans can expect something new, or the same rehashed elements Episode I held:
[....] I can tell you you are going to see new zones that look really cool.
Re-hash kind of depends on how you look at the topography. I mean; we’ve gone to a lot of areas – Underground mines in Sonic 2, Deserts, Lush green hills, Jungle, Cities, etc.
But yeah – the idea is to introduce new zones with things you haven’t seen.
Also noteworthy are Balough’s remarks from February 14th, in which he said both Sega’s American and European divisions have input on Episode 2.
Episode I did very well for SEGA commercially, and thanks to everyone’s support, we definitely have a lot of traction going into Epsiode II. This usually means better budgets, etc.
And if you have reservations about the next installment of Sonic 4–as many within the community do–you may want to read this remark Balough made on February 15th, which indicates the promotional campaign will be somewhat similar, including the ability to try before buying:
[....] You will definitely have some trailers to see the game in action first, we will probably take it on the road like Episode I, and you’ll have a demo prior to buying – so you should have opportunities to see it first hand.
Balough did not afford a specific timeline on when we would see more. One would hope this will drop later this year for Sonic’s 20th, though the way it’s looking now it could be far later this year. Still, a proper reveal shouldn’t be far off, and we’ll stay on top of that and future developments.
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Damn, i was hoping for an actual reveal soon, oh well, at least the improvments sound nice.
I’m happy to hear the zone settings will be all new. Hopefully this means boss fights won’t be rehashed either.
Releasing the demo before the product, eh? They sure have a lot of balls, don’t they?
I’m very skeptical on Ben’s remark about re-hashed content. It seems more like he’s avoiding the question than actually giving a straight answer, which doesn’t raise any hopes for new levels.
Plus, am I the only one getting a little fed up with the announcements of announcements. Seriously, if you’re going to say something, don’t freaking tease us like this!
Btw, I know this is completely off-topic, but I walked into my local Wal-Mart and saw a prize redemption game called “SEGA UFO Catcher”.
Neat.
@Krazeekidd102: It’s not an announcement of an announcement. The comments came from a thread on the Sega forum, as Tristan himself noted at the very beginning of the piece. It’s not like they put out a press release or anything; and it’s sounding like it might not have even been noticed had somebody else not brought it to the attention of others.
Well, I hope we get a Wiiware demo this time…
HOORAY!!!
@Blippa
Amen.
Wii owners are already screwed by the fact that you have to buy $20 worth of Wii points in order to buy a $15 game.
oh yeah!
I’m on it!!! Lets go episode 2!!!
Episodic gaming is a scam!
Giving how most of Sonic games have done in the past years ending up to have almost half of what’ve been said about it before anything being showed off i’m not very much exited and still skeptical about Ep.2 introducing anything new to the brand. I don’t now.
Prove me wrong this time Sega…
Really?
This warrants a news article?
Early dev? I hope we don’t end up having top wait until like October of this year for this.
@Blippa
All WiiWare games get demos now. Even older ones (like Cave Story) are getting them.
Haru – I admit to being 50/50 on the prospect. It is a Sega official speaking about it for the first time, though, which is significant.
-T
Breaking news: Sonic the Hedgheog 4 Episode 2 is a video game
In early development? It’s been half a year or so since the last… I was expecting them to be half done by now.
I can’t wait for this game to come out. New zones and hopefully the old physics engine.
So, chances are we won’t get an announcement until after the windows phone version comes out. Still, does anyone think this will affect the timing of the announcements of the other 2 titles?
“Releasing the demo before the product, eh? They sure have a lot of balls, don’t they?”
LOL!
–
Well, episode I was like a intro game. Rehashed zones a lot. Well… It’s ok for me, only to episode I.
Episode II needs to bring new things! Would be a mistake continue with episode 1 thought about the rehash zones.
“So, chances are we won’t get an announcement until after the windows phone version comes out. Still, does anyone think this will affect the timing of the announcements of the other 2 titles?”
Well, if they put two trainees to make the port. No timing problem for Ep 2 =p
@Haru: This definitely warrents a news article — it’s minor, but it’s new information on Episode II. I’m glad this was posted, and I’m glad to know the stage of development or Ep2, as well as its probable “bigger budget.”
I have to agree with krazeekid, he seemed to dodge the question about re-hased zones rather than a straight up ‘yes’ or ‘no’. He may not have authority at the moment to give a definitive answer, but from the answer he did give, it doesn’t sound like it. Let me put it this way: if the first trailer they unveil contains something that even remotely looks like Green or Emerald Hill, somebody’s dying. Also, they better USE that bigger budget of their’s. We wasted our money on Episode I, so they better repay us this time.
Good to know that Episode 2 is in development. I’m looking forward to this game, but I also hope to get it and play it by the time it comes out.
Well, at least this is something. SEGA have been really hushed up over the 2011 games, and quite frankly, I was getting impatient. Glad this will be ‘new’, not rehashed. Sonic 4: Episode I was a good game to me but I hated how I could easily pick out which levels belong to which classic level – I mean, most of the levels in Episode I had the same name, maybe with a word put in front, or a word replaced, to make it sound ‘new’.
I hope they have an ice level in Episode II, though. I don’t care if it will be an Ice Cap rehash, that’s the only thing I would allow in terms of ‘revisting Sonic’s routes’.
OK SEGA you need to listen this time:
-Rather than using Bad Quality Short looped instrument limited excuse for a retro music we need high quality that is memorable and catchy I mean Sonic 3 Music sounded ALOT better and that was in 1994!!.
-no more rehashes Sonic 4:Ep1 never felt like a sequel but a like an HD remake that was really dissapointing considering the 16 years between the sequels.
-you guys shouldnt be afraid to try new things, in Ep1 you even have taken stuff that was in introduced in Sonic3&K like the short cutscenes between the levels
Please make The Sonic 4 everybody was waiting for .
Ok, this is good enough news to appease me for a week or so. It’s something.
I’m still excited for this game. The first one wasn’t amazing, but if they just work on refining it and fixing problems, the second one should be a lot better. The magic of Sonic 4 is a little bit gone for me, but I won’t rule out that it could potentially be a good game.
also looks like only charather we will see could be possible like metal sonic tails amy rose maybe new robots.
Why are people surprised at hearing that this in development? Do you feel the same way when you find out a new Call of Duty is being made?
I don’t believe anything that lying mouthpiece says, him and Webber lied through their damn teeth about fixes and improvements when Episode 1 was delayed, they acted like they were going to make it play closer to the genesis when nothing of the sort happened in the final game.
@Sonical
I think it has more with the fact that SEGA was remained mute so far in terms of Sonic games this year, so these are more of relief reactions rather than genuine suprise. For all we knew, SEGA was going to pull a Half-Life 2 with Sonic 4 and release the next episode a decade later.
Early development? This late after Episode 1? Do they know how episodic releases are supposed to work?
Sonic 4 ep. 2 in development now!? It should’ve been in dev. time for MONTHS now!!!
@Solus: Uhhh, this is a GOOD thing. Take your TIME SEGA. They probably spent a lot of that budget on making a new engine.
@serpx
Hopefully. Because using a dumbed down Sonic Rush engine was very lazy on their part, and with very mixed results.
Y’know, it woulda been nice to have the game build started by now, but at least we know for sure that the game is finally in production.
Nice!
I bet they were talking about the teaser in Episode 1.
I really hope there are no re-hashes…even though I did enjoy Mad Gear Zone though it was Metropolis Zone, which I also enjoyed.
“Zones you never seen”
OMG… for some reason I’m getting a Sonic CD vibe…
I wouldn’t get my hopes up for a new engine. Sega has teased that the episodes would lock-on to each other like Sonic 3 and S&K. If that happens, the physics would have to be the same.
@serpx.
Generally you tell someone to take their time once they’ve actually STARTED a project. Procrastinating/delaying the start of one isn’t really “taking your time” in a good way.
Yeah, this doesn’t really surprise me considering we still haven’t heard or seen anything from Episode II. I mean look how long it took for them to develop the first episode. I’m not complaining per se, but I’m just saying I’m not necessarily surprised about this. Also, the Sonic series has been notorious for rehashing zones so I’m hopeful we will see new areas. Although as others have stated it definitely seemed as if Balough was just sidestepping the question about rehashed zones which worries me. Don’t get me wrong, I know Episode II will absolutely be better than the first, but I’m just hoping for some new content is all.
Will they get the basic gameplay right this time?
Tune in to find out! Because I don’t think they will and I don’t intend on buying.
Tails AND Knuckles mode/ Knuckles AND Tails mode please.
Mike they did got it right to you and others like you, it had Sonic playable only and i know thats what retro sonic fanboys such as yourself whined and wanted for years.
*sigh* Manic…
http://i51.tinypic.com/x2pgxy.png
@Manic the Hedgehog
Are you trolling or REALLY that stupid?
@Mike
Good one.
@Tristan:
But it’s not even anything NEW. It’s just “derp the game is being made” and not a whole lot more. You could learn to actually vary with your articles with things meaningful to read instead of becoming as bad as SEGA is and making articles of announcements of announcements of…..wait for it….ANNOUNCEMENTS.
Come on already.
@ChaoticFox: Because they obviously took some longass vacation and just now started to work on this game, without putting any thought into it. God we know so much about what they’re doing right now.
Haru: Like I said, I was 50/50. You make good points. I do stand by the idea that E1′s success in of itself remains newsworthy because to date there hasn’t been a lot of guidance to that end, and who knows–if the sales weren’t up to snuff I wouldn’t put it past Sega to quietly cancel subsequent installments.
-T
Those improvements look sooooo good
nice one Ken 
, I so want a new Sonic, hoppefully SEGA will reveal something soon 
SEGAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA…
And thus the waiting cycle starts again….hopefully this year the fan arguments and complaints will be…..lower than last year….because if there is another fan war like last year…I’m staying away from any and all forums sites….but anyways…..here’s to Episode II…may it be better than Episode I…
Ah, a new poll, eh?