SEGA explains low-scoring Sonic delistings
Alan Pritchard says too many Sonic games were released too quickly
SEGA's US vice president of sales and marketing, Alan Pritchard, has claimed that comments about the de-listing of low-scoring Sonic games were taken out of context.
Speaking to Joystiq, Pritchard responded to comments made by SEGA's senior vice president of EMEA, Jurgen Post, who told MCV earlier this month that the company would be de-listing any Sonic titles with an average or lower Metacritic rating.
"We want consumers and retailers to defocus from the back catalogue, the older titles, and focus more on the new-release titles," the executive clarified.
Pritchard also stated that he felt that SEGA had historically tried to put out too many Sonic titles in a short space of time, and that taking an approach similar to that which Nintendo used with Mario would have been a better idea.
"We've probably been guilty of bringing too many Sonic games to market too quickly. Certainly if you look at Nintendo as a comparison, they have been a little bit more strategic with the way they bring their Mario titles to market.
"If you look at 2006 to 2008, there were a number of Sonic titles coming to market on various platforms with very little time in-between.
"If you look at all of the Sonic releases over the last four or five years, there's a real mixed bag out there. There are some 70s; there are some 60s; there are some 50s. We are upping the bar in terms of internal focus, investment, resource; and we plan to target 80 per cent plus."
Pritchard was coy on how the 'defocusing' would take place, but made clear that it would be done on a territory-by-territory basis, with individual retailers having a bespoke strategy.
"It'll be tailored to each individual country, and it'll be tailored by retailer. And we'll just approach it on a case-by-case example. Rather than flooding the market with $15 or $20 products at the time when you're bringing out a $50 dollar game, it's just reducing the quantity, making sure those older titles are in a different part of the store."
Pritchard was keen to point out that this was primarily a focus on increasing the quality of the Sonic brand as a whole, rather than sweeping mistakes under the carpet.
"A Sonic game can sell if it's a 60-percent Metacritic game, that's not an issue," he said. "But is that really what the consumer wants? Is that what we should be doing as a publisher and a developer? We should be bringing much higher quality products to market to deliver a better experience for the consumer."