Mike Hayes, president and chief operating officer of Sega Europe, has brushed off concerns for Sonic's future brought on by the run of disappointing review scores for the iconic mascot in recent years.
Despite the Sonic 'Adventure' series and the more recent Sonic the Hedgehog game on 360 and PS3 being met with negative reviews, Hayes told CVG that Sega is "not at all" worried about the future of the blue blur. "Sonic is as popular now as he ever was", he ensured us.
Interestingly Hayes described Sega as a relatively young developer in respect to how long it has been developing for non-Sega platforms. "One thing to bear in mind is that Sega made software for its own hardware. We've only been making software for other companies' platforms for four years so, unlike THQ, EA or Activision, we've got to play catch-up in learning how to work with first-party platforms."
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He went on to say: "We also produce Sonic in varying studios. We're aware that some titles haven't performed quite so well but then you've had titles like Sonic Heroes, Sonic Rush on DS, Sonic on PSP and Secret Rings on Wii, which all did great."
You can read the first of our two-part interview with Mike Hayes and Nintendo Europe marketing director, Laurent Fischer, right now, in which we discuss the epic union of Mario and Sonic, and the inspiration behind Mario and Sonic in the Olympic Games.
