WHERE IS THE ANNOUNCEMENT?
Next month. July, not June.
There is no anniversary game. Sonic never existed.
>>342545315
>grabs you by the throat
Back the fuck off?!
>>342545315
July Party numbnuts.
Game is out in October.
Honestly?
All this fucking cock teasing about the game better means it's good.
I feel like all of the god damn trailers have been made by the same 2 people since Sonic 4 Episode 1 and onward, because they have the same "WHOA! TEXT! 2 SECONDS OF GAMEPLAY! HYPE!" kind of presentation.
It's hard to describe exactly what I mean but that's what I always see it as.
Seriously, after all the meme-ing shit Aaron Webber did on Twitter this better lead up to something ball bustingly shocking.
From a recent interview
"What was your initial vision for the Twitter account when you first started working on it? Did you see it like it is today?"
AW: I actually left Sega in 2014. Then, when Sega decided to downsize and move to Los Angeles and Sega of America kind of restarted and made a new Sonic team, they asked me if I would come back to manage the social media side of things. So I had a look at it, and to be honest, it was kind of boring. A lot of the posts were very comfortable, very corporate, very bland marketing. Buy this, support this, check this out. I felt like Sonic’s attitude wasn’t there. Sonic and Sega, especially in the ‘90s, had such a signature attitude, and that’s what made them stand out so much. They were the antithesis of the safe Mario brand.
I decided to test the waters a bit by posting some funny stuff, as opposed to just trying to promote products or trying push marketing things — just have some fun with it and engage with fans in ways that maybe they weren’t expecting. I didn’t know what the response would be, I was a little bit nervous at first about it. But the reaction that we ended up getting was very good, and so that ended up growing the direction that we went in, and the signature attitude that Sonic has had came back a little bit."
>>342547962
Sorry, forgot to say that this is Aaron Webber replying to the interviewer.
continued>
"Did you have to change much? Did you find that the sort of very ‘90s, edgy mentality worked now?"
AW: Sonic was kind of like the sarcastic character, but still the hero, and it was pretty easy to adapt that to today’s stuff. But whereas they might’ve used really interesting ads back then, today we might reference memes or things in internet culture that you wouldn’t expect a company or a corporate brand to use.
For me, it was really about letting [fans] know that we’re not some faceless, big-name company out here. We’re people, and on the other end here are more people that get you and appreciate your concerns and your comments, and who are really striving to improve this and make it as good as we can. I wanted to make that come across. Hopefully it has a little bit since then.
do you think they'll release a game with momentum based mechanics and stellar level design on par with the original sonic games or more gimmick faggot shit
>July
>showing shit from a game 3 months before getting released
Sega, really?
>>342548091
"What’s the process like? I know at big companies there are usually layers of approval even for a tweet, but this seems much looser."
AW: That’s true. Thankfully at Sega it has been relatively loose as far as the approvals have gone. But we do have different people that also check in on things. It’s a case where, for the most part, they trust our team to keep it within bounds and to not go too far, and then we try to find that fine line where we can give people something that’s really funny and really entertaining, but also doesn’t push it too far at the same time.
"Have you ever done that in retrospect? Do you think any of the stuff you’ve done has gone too far?"
AW: I think [Tuesday’s Mighty No. 9 tweet] was a case where we’re trying to be funny and entertain a bit, but we certainly aren’t meaning to offend anyone or to try to belittle any of the work that the developers, in this case for Mighty No. 9, have done. That for me was a really good case; a lot of people didn’t understand that the line that was used was actually a quote, that it was said by that team. So we don’t want to bully anybody, we don’t want to come off as bullies. I feel like that tweet in particular was one where some people got it, but there were some people that didn’t get it, and in particular some of the developers. And so that was an area where we don’t want to hurt any feelings, we just want to focus on doing stuff that’s fun and entertains people.
>>342548365
"Does the fact that the account is positioned as being from a character as opposed to a company give you more freedom to try weird or different things?"
AW: I think so. It kind of fits naturally with Sonic. Sonic really embodies that idea of a character that surprises you and delights you in ways that you’re like, “Oh that’s kind of refreshing. I didn’t expect that kind of response.” It really does fit perfectly for Sonic to be the character that does that kind of stuff. It’s interesting actually because I’ve noticed even Nintendo’s started posting memes over the last six months or so. I don’t know at all whether that’s because of any of the success that Sonic has seen, but it’s fun to see the industry changing a little bit, and becoming a little more lighthearted and getting away from “Buy this product, promote, promote, promote” marketing, and a little more into the fun, entertaining stuff that celebrates their fans and celebrates internet culture at the same time.
>>342548583
Fan interaction is key, though, and Aaron does say that they pass on feedback from fans:
"Why do you think that’s a good thing for companies to do?"
AW: It makes them more human. This is a key conceit of the industry, that fans feel unheard. And if anyone knows that, we here at Sega know that. We’ve been through some tough times, we’ve been through good times, we’ve seen it all. We really have. And speaking as someone who was a fan, who is now at Sega, I’ve seen it from both sides. It’s really important to let people know 1) that you’re listening, and then 2) with social media it’s important to respond. A lot of companies forget that social media is a two-way street. It’s not a place for you to go out there and just post an advertisement or a trailer. It’s a spot where you listen, and you take that feedback and you stuff with it, whether it’s changing your game or responding to consumers. All of that it extremely valuable, and it’s an area that’s slowly getting better on social media, but there are still a lot of companies in the industry that haven’t fully adapted and evolved.
"Are you able to actually do that? Take feedback and bring it back to the team?"
AW: I’m really honored that we’re able to do that and that people listen. There are probably a lot of companies out there where the social media manager maybe doesn’t have a lot of clout. Maybe they go to people internally and say “Fans feel this, they’re really concerned about this,” and it would never go anywhere. But it’s really nice that Sega people are listening. Especially with Sonic. It’s not only important for us to listen just in general, but with Sonic it’s crucial, because of the past that Sonic has had, and the ups and downs. So it’s really important for us to listen to that, and take what happens and what is said on social media seriously.
>>342548889
"Speaking of those ups and downs, one of the interesting things about Sonic’s Twitter is that it’s sort of self-aware, and recognizes those bad times. Was that important for you?"
AW: The answer is very much yes. I felt it was important because a lot of companies will have highs and lows, release good games and bad games, and what they’ll try to do with the bad games is brush it under the rug and say, “Ehh, it never happened” or “We don’t talk about that.”
They try to downplay it.
With Sonic, there have been those key moments like Sonic 2006, which is infamous out there. And everyone at Sega knows that. It’s not like people here don’t get it. I thought it would be really important to help the fans understand that we appreciate that, too. We understand the challenges of our past. I think if anyone is going to trust you to fix things, they have to know that you understand where things went wrong.
I was a little nervous about some pushback, because I can’t think of many companies that have done that historically, that would poke fun at their own missteps. But thankfully because we got such a great reaction from people and from fans and really everyone on the internet, a lot of that stuff ended up going over just fine and I didn’t get in too much trouble for it.
>>342548150
Both
WHERE IS THE ANNOUNCEMENT EGGMAN
>>342549081
thanks anon
>>342549081
"Does the sheer scale of the responses you get ever become overwhelming?"
AW: It’s pretty surreal to be honest. We found pretty early on that it’s impossible to respond to everyone. But we do try to read almost every reply that comes in, and it’s important for us that we give that respect to people who are taking time out of their day to tweet to us. Half the time we post a meme and we look at the responses and they just crack us up. People are in on the joke, and they’re joking back with us. It almost makes me wonder if I’m really doing a professional job. I get to sit here and laugh all day about memes.
But at the same time, it’s actually really good for Sonic, because the discussion around Sonic has really changed a lot from where Sonic was in 2014. Now it’s really focused on what’s coming next, what happens in the future.
"Once you started looking at those responses, were there any particular surprises about the Sonic audience that you found?"
At first it wasn’t too surprising for me. That’s just because when you grow up among that community, you see things that you can never unsee. Pretty early on, I was exposed to the dark side of the internet. You learn to appreciate that though there are many different parts to your community, there are many different people sometimes with many different opinions, that’s the pressure that comes with it.
But as far as responses go, I was more surprised with how quickly everyone adapted to the change in tone when we started posting memes and having fun with it. I’m really thankful for that. [Sonic] was in kind of a tough spot in 2014 and early 2015. There was a lot of negativity going on.
>>342545315
There's an event in July
There
>>342549608
Yeah, but I would've liked at least a teaser image or something for today.
YOU SAID THERE WOULD BE AN ANNOUNCEMENT
Last part.
"When you look at the stuff that’s coming up, how do you feel about the future of Sonic and what you guys are going to be able to do with this moving forward?"
I’m very optimistic. Part of that is that I get to see behind the curtain at what actually is coming up. At the same time it’s because Sega is a company that’s in a good position right now to listen to its fans. I think many years ago, let’s say when we released the trailer for Sonic 4, and people complained about the physics and things like that, that Sega was not in a position to take feedback and adapt to it and implement it in development. But the Sega of now is in a much better spot to take feedback and have that choice. There are some cases where your fans aren’t always right, and fans will have a million different opinions, but I’m very optimistic and hopeful for the future with what we can do with the Sonic account to bridge the gap between fans and our company.
>for the 20th we got a special demo for Generations
>for the 25th we get jack shit
This is fucking bullshit.
>>342549790
It was an announcement of an announcement.
>>342548338
>is ok when fallout does it !
>>342549813
This was a pretty good interview. Im glad ruby/aaron went back to sega. He was always my favorite GM in PSO and PSU and in past interviews, hes shown hes a real sega fan. Cool guy
