In a very interesting statement made by the former SEGA CEO Tom Kalinske, he said the following regarding Sonic the Hedgehog and the issues the franchise faced over the years with some of it’s lesser received games.
“I think there is some natural up and down for any character. We’ve certainly seen it with the Marvel characters over the years. We’ve seen it with Barbie. We’ve seen it with Star Wars. We’ve seen it with G.I. Joe and Hot Wheels. All of these brands have had their cycles. I think Sonic has had a downward cycle for a while, and it’s time to have an upward cycle again for a while.”
Basically, franchises and IP have some issues with quality as they can’t keep it constant sometimes. Sonic is an interesting beast, as Tom compares Sonic to Barbie and Star Wars; major non-gaming IP. The idea of a downward and upward cycles for franchises makes sense and is a solid statement to make.
As someone who talked about Sonic quite often this year, I fully agree with Tom Kalinske’s comment. It is very hard to keep quality the same sometimes and it looks like Sonic’s quality will only be getting better starting with the decently received September release of Sonic Boom Fire & Ice and the very promising Sonic Mania releasing in Early 2017.
Source: Nintendo Everything via GameSpot