“The Sonic fans are the best I’ve experienced”
Within the past hour, Ken Balough, known best to Sonic fans for his efforts promoting the episodic Sonic the Hedgehog 4 series, announced on the Sega forums he is leaving the company at the end of the week.
“I am incredibly proud of how well the Sonic Franchise has grown; and it is poised to continue to grow into some amazing directions,” Balough said. “The Sonic fans are the best I’ve experienced – passionate, intelligent, with an unrivaled love of the franchise. I have been privileged to get to know you, and hear your thoughts, and talk to you personally when given the opportunity.”
Balough announced he will be joining Sony’s Playstation division, and hinted he’ll be working to expand the game console’s presence in Latin America. Balough is bilingual, and his resumé includes time spent at a school in Chile.
“While I am VERY sad to be leaving my dear friends at SEGA, am looking forward to be working with a 1st party in an emerging market,” Balough said.
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“The Sonic fans are the best I’ve experienced”
So he loves being told what he’s promoting sucks?(I Know not everybody disliked Sonic 4, but a large portion of the FANS hated it…)
I know there’s more to it, but I find that statement somewhat hard to believe…
Aww, I liked this guy.
I think I speak for everyone when I say NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
He’ll be missed
This guy is awesome.. weather you liked Sonic 4 or not.. He had a fucking Tails beard ya’all!
Wish him the best.
Aw dang it. Well, he was a great one to have around. I wonder if he’ll still stick around the forums or not…
I do not know why some people are blaming Sonic 4 on him. He was simply a brand manager, he did not develop the games. I think he was a pretty good brand manager as he did try to communicate fan concerns to developers. Furthermore, he did a lot of work to promote the games as well as keep the fan community involved, which means he did his duty very well as brand manager.
@Guy I agree. “Everybody” is not a word that can be used in opinions, as there always will be people who support certain things that most don’t like, not matter what reason they have.
The only partion of these I can’t tolerate are the ones who think Sega is a sentimental guy whose feelings could be easily broke with any discrepancy.
By the way, i’m curious to see who is reeplacing him. Good luck in Sony, Ken.
Sonic to Royale?
Sorry to be negative…but this is how mangement works. http://blog.michaelmichelini.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/management-levels.jpg
Yes brand managers are the usually the awesome ones…its to whom they probably have to answer to at the top that are the ones who wear ear plugs.
By the way where’s Ben Kalough? We need the doppleganger now lmao.
NO MISTER TAILS MUTTONCHOPS. DONT LEAVE US.
Noooo, his talents will be wasted at Sony.
Best of luck to him in his new job. We will all miss the Tails muttonchops!
@AM
The problem comes from how he and Webber sold themselves as having some impact on the games and outright lied about several things. If they were upfront about how little control they had over Episode 1 and didn’t say things like “Speed is something that is not given; but rather earned through dedication” people wouldn’t have been so quick to place blame on them. It also stems from them being the public faces of the games who actually communicated with the fans as opposed to people like Iizuka only talking to press.
Sad news. He’s just doing bigger and better things. Curious where the franchise is going, its been a drought of news.
>get told constantly you’re a liar and proven on it for when you sham up discussions constantly for more than 2 years
>”Best fans I’ve come across, ever!”
Yeah that’s real subtle. Don’t let the door hit your ass on the way out Ken. The Sonic franchise will be better without you sugar coating and dodging everything.
Say goodbye to Sega of Antarctica and say hello to Sony of Antarctica.
Ha, ha!
Joining Sony must feel like a promotion. I think he did a good job with Sonic 4. It’s not like SEGA/Sonic Team made it easy for him. Good luck to Ken.
So now I wonder who the new brand manager of Sonic 4 will be? That is if that series isn’t officially dead.
“The Sonic fans are the best I’ve experienced”
HA!
I wonder if it’ll be Sony just as he imagined it.
Well, he may have been the representative for what I, at least, consider two somewhat flawed, disappointing games, he was only doing his job, and man, did he love it.
I know not many people liked Sonic 4 (believe me, myself included), but Ken Balough was, without a doubt, a guy who loved interacting with the public and fans. Best of luck to him at Sony!
Ken was a cool guy. And so what if Sonic 4 didn’t turn out? It wasn’t his fault and we all know it. cool brand manager though, and very social with the fans.
I for one was one of those who voiced my disdain for how he and the rest of the Sonic 4 PR handled Sonic 4 at times, especially during the second episode. Then again it’s very likely that he was just doing his job to promote the game (and then some), despite the product being a rather controversial one. And it’s only because of how a lot of people felt about the game that some people out of cynicism started blaming him for the game’s issues. At least did try to sell it, which presumably only got harder when the second episode rolled around and he had to act as it’s spokesperson for it without Ruby.
So I say kudos to Ken and I wish him good luck at Sony. A shame he had to get involved in the marketing fiasco that was the Sonic 4 saga.
GOOD RIDDANCE TO BAD SEGA EMPLOYEES