I, as a fan of Sonic, am completely disheartened with the way Sega's been treating Sonic lately, in terms of continuity management and direction just now.
Here's the lowdown...
For almost long, Sonic's games before Generations & Mania had a singular canon since Sonic Adventure united it upon leaving the attempted canon in US non-canon, yet not one game until Mania carried out the structure from Sonic 3's both halves.
Mania came by and brought that back, which delighted so many fans of having such a good Sonic game that continued on from that structure Sonic 3 left, by the hands of one person, Taxman, whom many know now by that surname, that led the game's development.
Sonic Mania's success led to many people doing mods or fangames that tried to carry on the structure Mania continued from Sonic 3, which are all neat projects to see.
Of course, there have been other Sonic TV shows that followed on the hedgehog's speedy adventures, but those shows have their own continuity, one of which adapted the stories of Adventure 1 & 2 during its run.
Even Sonic's comics had their own canon, though Archie's series has been one big chaotic mess until its cancellation. IDW sorted that out and made its own canon that cuts the former's out, characters & all, which is far for the better, anyway.
Then, of course, this is where the questionably mismanaging ways came in... More to come...
The latest compilation, Sonic Origins, claims it to be a so-called "re-defining" of Sonic the hedgehog, claiming to be Classic Sonic's. But this led me to a little disheartening question; why would that game try to "re-define" Sonic's past adventures as if those were just the be-all, end-all, "definitive" and "only" versions people have to play Sega enforced that notion to be, rather than have official emulations of Sonic's games on the original consoles they're made from and remastered versions on later platforms to smooth them with lesser problems? Even delisting the emluated versions are a big cut-off from loads of fans that have been playing them for many YEARS. Those versions gave profit, yet Sega threw that all away to have that as the only versions available. Could've been called a "re-discovering" rather than a "re-defining" of Sonic's past adventures. Would've made more sense.
Hardly, any patches came by that were meant to address key problems in games included to provide familiar experiences the updated re-releases have given people. Very disappointing. Give a patch or very few, and, suddenly, they're "done" with that game.
Then, Sonic Frontiers went in, and the game's lead writer, Ian Flynn, had to bring in his statement that brought so much disheartening disappointment and discouragement to many Sonic fans, which I quote, "Inevitably, in comes Sega, and boom, your fan timeline is complete eradicated. I understand the impulse to want to make an order of things, but there is no order in Sonic - only chaos.", meaning that he claims the "Classic Sonic" timeline and canon weren't canon at all, only to be pushed aside to have the "Modern Sonic" canon the ONLY canon in the whole franchise and trying to meld the IDW canon as a whole altogether, too! It should still stay as its own!
In short, Ian Flynn called the Classic Sonic canon a "fan timeline", and wants to treat that as unofficial material! That TRULY makes no sense! It was the labor of love to the Sonic franchise people wanted! Hurts a fan's heart to hear that love go to waste! What's the point of all this if it means tossing out all the work done that regained trust to fans?
It seems that just when the hard work of Sonic Mania gets appreciated, as well as Classic Sonic about to have its own continuity and proper concurrent, co-existing canon, which is supposed to be so, all of it just gets tossed away into the trash and treat that like it all never happened! The Taxman himself worked that hard to bring it up, and trying to make it all non-canon is what dignifies as taking all that talent for granted and cutting it out just to rake in only profit, & get fans hopes up at the behest of fans by the higher management!
Sure, the story of Sonic Forces has been less favorable, given the extremely short development time it got once the YEARS of engine testing were done. It could've been better and more well-baked to have it deemed acceptable, even if Classic Sonic was thrown in to give him a more active purpose.
I really don't like the way Flynn was thinking about the Sonic franchise canon as a whole when he said that! Modern Sonic and Classic Sonic should still have their own concurrent canons, with events unique to their own!
Moreover, Takashi Iizuka thinks, keyword, "THINK", of Sonic Frontiers as the start of the so-called "Third Generation" of Sonic games. Why divide the Sonic games into "generations"? That doesn't make any sense. Sonic games are meant to be enjoyable for people of all ages, regardless of generation, and are not meant to be treated as "generations"! That kind of thinking about the Sonic games churns out unwanted division, as if treating past games as "past generations" are the series' singular way of doing adventures in a flat-lined, flat-minded perspective. No video game should ever go through that kind of single-minded thinking and treatment of a flat, close-minded mindset like Iizuka's.
In truth, there really is no order in the way of thinking in Sega's upper management, only complete disorganization and absolute chaos. What a way to get peoples hopes up and keep the disappointment cycle going... AGAIN, AS ALWAYS!! It's like living the kind of Sonic's dark days all over again! Vanity at its finest to Sega's management!
If such single-minded, closed-minded mismanagement at Sega and Sonic Team continues on like that, with very little, and very shoddy, I should add, games made and improper planning constantly done, there may not be any new fans to rake in and such profit would lessen to the point of being unprofitable.
A management change should be done to correct all this. Someone needs to have a courageous mind and heart to establish better management changes at those places with people that actually care about Sonic and the games' concurrent canons more. Who else will if no one does?