Sega’s longstanding mascot Sonic still has a place on consoles, one key developer of the franchise has said, following previous statements from the publisher which suggest it will be redirecting its focus to PC and mobile.
Takashi Iizuka, the head of the Tokyo based studio Sonic Team, made the assurance in an interview with 4Gamer amid suggestions that Sega was ready to abandon consoles altogether.
“Please rest assured, I personally have no plans to stop making Sonic games for home consoles,” Iizuka told 4Gamer.
Iizuka was, however, speaking personally about his own ambitions. It is still not certain whether Sega would green-light new Sonic projects for consoles.
In January, Sega revealed that it is reducing headcount, relocating its San Francisco office, and focusing on mobile and PC games in a bid to “drastically improve profitability.”
It was implied here, but not explicitly confirmed, that Sega was more-or-less finished with the console games business. In February, financial documents revealed that Sega’s major push on console games had fallen short of expectations.
The struggling publisher, which formed in the 1940s and shifted its business into video games by the late ’80s, told investors that it would reposition its business around “smartphone and PC online gaming.”
Sega’s statement came amid the release of Sonic Runners, the first smartphone game in the series developed by Sonic Team. For now, the iOS and Android autorunner is only available in Canada as part of a test launch.
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