Sega has tried everything to fix Sonic the Hedgehog, from making him a werewolf to handing him a massive claymore. But the publisher admits that quality remains an ongoing issue for games starring their mascot.
"The quality is something that will be fixed over time. It's not something where you wake up one morning and say, 'You know what, we're going to improve our quality on this franchise,' and it magically happens. A lot of hard work goes into striving for quality," Sega of America vice president of marketing Sean Ratcliffe told IndustryGamers.

"Interestingly, I think Sonic Unleashed was very well received by the kids. There was some talk about the werehog aspect, the slower pacing and more combat-oriented gameplay, but when we go out and test this stuff and sit down with the consumers, kids actually like that."

He added, "I think older, die-hard Sega fans who grew up with the franchise and the first Sonic the Hedgehog associate Sonic more with 2-D side-scrolling super fast, and they liked the daytime gameplay, but when it came to the slower paced gameplay they were fairly critical of that, and that's fine ? they have their opinions."

Ratcliffe said that Sega is "constantly trying to improve the quality," noting that there was talk about "several Sega properties and how we can best make sure we're constantly pushing that quality bar on Sonic."

"Yes, it's always a challenge to raise that quality bar, but our competitors are trying to put the best product out there and we're no different. Given that it takes a couple of years to make some of these games, it's not surprising that we're not going to see the effort that's being put in over the past 12 months until another 6-12 months.?

Asked whether Sega had considered returning to a more traditional side-scrolling perspective for Sonic -- especially with Nintendo working on New Super Mario Bros. Wii -- Ratcliffe said that Sega is "always looking at [their] classic IP, be it Sonic or anything else."

"On iPhone, for example, we launched the original Sonic and consumers loved that. ... So we no longer have to think in terms of consoles and packaged goods and we can look at digital downloads. From a mobile and iPhone point of view, we've been very successful with Sonic," he said.

"So we can look at XBLA and so on, and it means we can give those core fans experiences in different ways now. So that's a big part of our strategy, in terms of taking classic IP and making it available digitally, rather than spending a huge amount of money trying to re-imagine that IP on 360 and PS3; there's a lot more financial risk attached to that."

An all-new Sonic platformer on Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network or WiiWare? If that's indeed part of Sega's broader strategy, then count us as very interested.