The Sonic the Hedgehog series is celebrating its 35th anniversary this year, and despite being around for multiple generations and decades, the current head of Sonic team believes the franchise is only getting started. In the latest issue of Continue Magazine (transcribed by VGC), Takashi Iizuka stated, “To be honest, we believe that Sonic is still only halfway to reaching its full potential.” That’s quite the comment from him, especially since he was just discussing how Sega wanted to axe the series entirely.
Reminiscing about the origins of Sonic for its 35th anniversary, Iizuka explained, “When we created the first Sonic the Hedgehog, the development team at the time used to say, ‘Let’s aim for Disney.’ When I first joined Sega, I was also told to dream big … things like, ‘Use Sonic to surpass Disney’ and ‘One day, we’ll build a theme park.” He admits Sega hasn’t quite gotten there, but with the grand success of the live-action film series, Sonic has begun to appeal to an entirely new audience. That, specifically, is what Iizuka believes has made Sonic endure for so long.
As part of the same article, Creative Director Kazuyuki Hoshino noted that popularity of the character within Asia had grown considerably over the years. Sonic had much broader appeal to western fans in the ’90s, but the tides are changing where Asian fans are starting to jump into the fandom. “Until now, we hadn’t really had a concrete understanding of how well-known and established Sonic was in places such as Thailand, Indonesia, and Malaysia,” Hoshino said. “In Thailand and South Korea, for example, there are noticeably many younger fans who discovered Sonic after the Sonic the Hedgehog movies. In Taiwan, on the other hand, what struck me was how many fans had been there since the Mega Drive era.”
Elsewhere, it’s mentioned that the franchise now generations roughly $1 billion annually thanks to merchandise licensing alone, which is a pretty outstanding figure. I’ve been alive since the beginning of Sonic, and I’ve never felt that it was ever dying down. I suppose being in America skewed my perspective some, but Sonic has managed to carve out a niche separate of Mario that maintains similar crossover appeal. Sega created a genuine icon with the character and it seems that creation is finally paying off big.
Check out more Sonic content
LEGO is retiring 34 video game sets this year including Sonic, Mario, and Animal Crossing
New Sonic cartoon and Crazy Taxi movie in the works for Netflix
Leave a Comment
Written by Peter Glagowski
Peter has been a freelance gaming and film critic for over seven years. His passion for Nintendo is only matched by the size of his collection.
