When a team of developers launch their game, it can be a happy moment, one of excitement and anticipation as all that effort and hard work have resulted in a completed product that fans can enjoy. That's true to a degree when it comes to the recently launched Sonic Origins, but there's been some problems as well. Stealth, who is renowned and beloved for his projects and work within the Sonic community, and who is part of the team that helped get Sonic 3 & Knuckles finally released on modern platforms, is not pleased with the end result. Those intricately familiar with Sonic 3 were quick to point out issues and flaws with dev Headcannon's port of the game into the Retro Engine, critisizing them for not having fixed physics and hitbox problems before the game's release.

I'm extremely proud of my team for their performance under such pressure, but every one of us is very unhappy about the state of Origins and even the Sonic 3 component. We weren't too thrilled about its pre-submission state either but a lot was beyond our control.

— Stealth (@HCStealth) June 24, 2022

However, Stealth took to Twitter to let out a long string of Tweets that better explain the situation in its entirety: according to him, Sonic Origins isn't "what [they] turned in" to SEGA, and a lot of bugs and problems that players are having were instead introduced on SEGA's end of things. Stealth mentions how he and Headcannon did all they could so that Origins could be as good as they could make it be, suffering development crunch and stress over getting everything done in time. Some things, he notes as being bugs that Headcannon had to overlook due to the high pressure development, but not all of them are his team's fault. Just ahead of Sonic Origins' launch, the team tried to push some fixes out, but those reportedly weren't allowed due to submission and approval rules, and delaying the game at all just wasn't an option for SEGA. Headcannon has also apparently offered to iron out the bugs and keep working on making Origins better post-release, but the team isn't sure if SEGA will allow that to happen.

Why am I talking about it now, then? Well, there's just too much scrutiny over things that both are and are not related to us, and I don't want to sit in back in silence while people are asking why and how things happened to a product they put so much hope and money into

— Stealth (@HCStealth) June 24, 2022

Not all is negative, though--Stealth wanted to make sure to mention he's still on good terms with SEGA, and appreciated the opportunity and said that most of SEGA's staff was kind and respectful, just that he wanted to clear the air so fans better knew what went on behind closed doors.

 

[Jonna]

Just go on Twitter, there's plenty of examples.

I can go on Twitter to find out. I want to find out from the individuals replying, just in case they're bandwagoning and haven't actually played the game yet.

 

[Osha]

I can go on Twitter to find out. I want to find out from the individuals replying, just in case they're bandwagoning and haven't actually played the game yet.

Why would that matter ? Bugs are bugs, even if they don't happen to you or to me specifically, they're very much in the game in its current state.

 

[Jonna]

Why would that matter ? Bugs are bugs, even if they don't happen to you or to me specifically, they're very much in the game in its current state.

Because there are many in this topic jumping on board the "oh god this game sucks horribly" without actually judging for themselves. For all they know, they could have an experience like mine where they don't come across these glitches, and they've just been posting negativity unnecessarily. Could also be this is just a loud minority of the internet nit-picking and making a developer feel even worse.

 

[CMDreamer]

Sonic franchise hasn't much to be "exploited" in therms of innovative playing and /or economically that would satisfy most players, its formula has very limited improvement possibilities.

Add to this, that when porting "old glories" they care not about fixing issues and you might guess the overcome.

 

[Sonic Angel Knight]

This must be how the the team felt back in 1994 when they was making sonic 3 and they had to release it for that mcdonalds promotion. So they split the game into two with lock-on technology.

 

[Coto]

That’s nice. In the real world most companies have social media policies precisely for this reason, and it would be grounds for immediate termination if Stealth was a SEGA employee rather than an independent contractor. There’s such a thing as being “too honest” - you don’t throw people under the bus for the online mob to feast on, you wait until the situation develops further. He’s made it more difficult for the PR team to mop up the issue, and that costs money. The whole thing could’ve been nipped in the bud in a week’s time via patches without the drama, now the drama stays online forever. It will be reflected in Headcannon’s future contracts going forward, it’s an important factor. He’s doing himself damage by not being able to keep his cool, it’s bad for business, not just for SEGA but more so for himself.

I agree. Usually subcontractors suck ass and are 95% of the time the real culprits.

----

unless you have first-hand experience working for Sega, i don't see what you gain from trying to discredit Stealth when it's shown time and time again that upper management at Sega of Japan is a shit-show and treat their western devs like garbage

saying that devs should stay quiet about matters like this and keeping the public in the dark about WHY their product wasn't up to snuff gives less incentive for the public to get companies to fix the problem, cause i SERIOSULY doubt it was Stealth's idea to cut the original music from Sonic 3 and add confusing and forced DLC packs

Maybe SEGA has management issues, but saying SEGA of Japan treat western devs like trash is poisoning the well. And if you really are a western developer, having worked for SEGA, as the post implies, maybe you failed the expectations and that's about it. It doesn't have to be for everybody else like that.

 

[SonicRings]

Because there are many in this topic jumping on board the "oh god this game sucks horribly" without actually judging for themselves. For all they know, they could have an experience like mine where they don't come across these glitches, and they've just been posting negativity unnecessarily. Could also be this is just a loud minority of the internet nit-picking and making a developer feel even worse.

Not sure why you're pretending that only a loud minority is complaining about the game when stealth himself is complaining about the game. Stop defending it dude. There's no reason for this. You don't benefit at all.

 

[zoogie]

Why on earth hasn't Nintendo bought Sega yet. This would solve a lot of issues.

 

[Bladexdsl]

deleted from wish list

 

[nolimits59]

A.k.a Nintendo.

What ? Is that a real answer or a troll ? Because you talk about a company that shove projects because "not our standards" more than any companies trashed projects combined, I can't even remember last time Nintendo rushed a major project, they almost postponed every game/consoles they ever announced since the 64 era.

 

[Deleted member 575334]

What ? Is that a real answer or a troll ? Because you talk about a company that shove projects because "not our standards" more than any companies trashed projects combined, I can't even remember last time Nintendo rushed a major project, they almost postponed every game/consoles they ever announced since the 64 era.

No its a real answer. If you dont know what happened resently with Mario strikers, Golf, Aces and Switch Sports. Please do your research before replying. Also. idk wth you are talking about mate. but its 2022 not 1998. so..

 

[MariArch]

So pick it up when it's on sale. Got it

 

[Bladexdsl]

So pick it up when it's on sale. Got it

preferably $10 or less

 

[subcon959]

Why on earth hasn't Nintendo bought Sega yet. This would solve a lot of issues.

It's a waste of money at this point.

 

[Deleted member 575334]

Why on earth hasn't Nintendo bought Sega yet. This would solve a lot of issues.

Would it really? After what Nintendo is doing resently and now SEGA. Idk if it would be better tbh. Also. For historycal reasons. I dont think thats is possible..

 

[Jonna]

Not sure why you're pretending that only a loud minority is complaining about the game when stealth himself is complaining about the game. Stop defending it dude. There's no reason for this. You don't benefit at all.

Have you played all the games in Sonic Origins?

 

[Bladexdsl]

Why on earth hasn't Nintendo bought Sega yet. This would solve a lot of issues.

fuck no than every sonic fan game in existence will get DMCA

 

[Deleted member 575334]

fuck no than every sonic fan game in existence will get DMCA

You know. that also something i was worrying about.

 

[BlueFox gui]

Honestly, this sounds like “dog ate my homework”. This is not how you resolve issues - there are obvious flaws with the product which manifested at some point between handing the game in and getting it released. The solution is to get in contact with SEGA and negotiate, look at what went wrong and patch the game. The guy is shooting himself in the foot by publicly venting like this.

they did, on his twitter thread he says that they requested delays and sega refused

 

[Foxi4]

they did, on his twitter thread he says that they requested delays and sega refused

Nobody said anything about delaying the release.