Sonic Origins released on Xbox earlier this week, and we've got a review of it landing here on Pure Xbox very soon, but one of the developers behind the game has sadly taken to Twitter to reveal that he's "very unhappy" with it.
The person in question is Headcannon Software Developer, Simon Thomley (aka "Stealth"). Headcannon worked on the "Retro Engine version" of Sonic 3 and Knuckles for Sonic Origins, but it didn't turn out the way he'd hoped.
Thomley explained the reasons behind this in a very lengthy thread - here are some highlights:
"This is frustrating. I won't lie and say that there weren't issues in what we gave to Sega, but what is in Origins is also not what we turned in. Integration introduced some wild bugs that conventional logic would have one believe were our responsibility- a lot of them aren't. Regarding Origins, we were outsiders creating a separate project that was then wrangled into something entirely different."
"I can take responsibility for my and my team's mistakes, and there were some. Some actual mistakes, some overlooking, some rushjobs, some stuff we noticed but weren't allowed to correct near the end. It's absolutely not perfect and some of it is from us. It's complicated."
"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."
"We want these problems to be addressed. We provided a ton of feedback during and after development for both Origins and its Sonic 3 integration. We've done a good chunk of work after our work term was over to fix things, support Sega, and to prepare for future updates."
Thomley went on to explain that the reason he's talking about this publicly is because of the level of "scrutiny" being shown towards the game at the moment, even though it could damage the studio's relationship with SEGA.
It should be pointed out that Headcannon was only responsible for the pre-submission part of Sonic 3 and Knuckles in Sonic Origins, with the Software Developer explaining that SEGA "made major modifications to the build we did submit, Some Origins-related, some not", and therefore it reportedly "affected some of [the team's] work".
Thomley later went on to clarify that he is "not fighting with SEGA", also praising "most of the SOA staff".
"No, I am not fighting with Sega, and no, I have not cut off Sega. It's a lot more complicated than that. I'm willing to do more work under the right conditions; whether they want to work with me again is an entirely separate matter."
What are your thoughts on this? Let us know down in the comments below.
[source twitter.com]
Comments 17
Man, Origins has been a real mess. What was supposed to be a glorious return of Sonic 3 has been filled with controversy and disappointment.
@JayJ the sonic community is toxic cesspool. Ignore it. The game’s great, having lots of fun
Whether or not his claims are true, to publicly call out the company that contracted you this work is a surefire way to ensure they won't be contracting you again.
Surely there was a better way to make their grievances known before going public. I'd literally never heard of this company until now, and I don't associate them with the work on Sonic Origins but with playing the blame game first chance possible.
Shouldnt go public unless Sega were stone walling them. This is not professional and they simply wont get any further contracts from publishers who dont want their dirty laundry aired in public - which will be all of them.
Unless you're an indie developer, you have no say in the product, and you don't get to be a perfectionist.
The only thing a publisher cares about is money, and making the game just good enough that people don't ask for refunds.
Sure, it's a horrible practice that will only lead to the downfall of the industry. But people don't seem to mind for the most part.
It will get worse, and people will take it, then get even worse, and so on, till publishers are using AI to pump out games that just increase our dopamine levels at a subconscious level.
And at that point, people will disagree with developers trying to make perfect real games. Those will be old hat.
@Fishticon that’s what going mainstream is. All other industries work like that, and exactly why some professional prefer to stay indie/freelance. But when your dream is to work on Sonic specifically, that’s not really an option.
I absolutely support him coming forward like this and he will have no trouble finding work. Being honest, admitting mistakes and pointing out why things could work better are all commendable. Add to that he clearly tried to discuss it with Sega and got nowhere.
Hats off to him. This is the sort of guy you want to work with and have work for you.
Sega are a company that have issues like this over and over. They ignore common logic and do what they like.
EDIT - I see we have some very old fashioned members here. “Accept whatever the overlords say no matter how bad their behaviour towards you or the customers are” those days should be behind us.
@Stocksy I mean, Sega's Japanese. "Old fashioned" is how Japan does business. Usually that's a good thing and means short term profit chasing and investor placation isn't the only goal, though. But it's Sega. Have we forgotten Saturn already?
@NEStalgia true that mate. I’m always shocked how others respond to stories like this though. I’ve given up trying to working out other people logic I just sometimes forget how crazily people can interpret things.
In other words, Sega didn't fully trust in any staff that are not Sonic Team once again. Very disappointing. Chris Whitehead's team deserve 100% trust to make great games.
@Carck Sorry but the soundtrack situation and performance issues are things that I can't ignore. Standards exist for a reason, it should have been better than this, especially for the asking price.
@JayJ they changed 3 tracks out of hundreds for licensing reasons. As for performance, i have no idea what you mean, I’ve been playing it for hours without issues.
But you seem to have made up your mind already. Hope you get to enjoy it eventually
I think that they should talk to Sega and release a patch instead of raving on Twitter and damage potential sales.
"We offered to come back for post-release fixes and updates- we do not yet know if this is happening."
Seriously? 🤔 100% probability of Sega agreeing with that but he questions it on Twitter without knowing...
This Simon Thomley is unprofessional and immature.
Not surprising.
So far this gen "has microtransactions" and "Plagued with issues" go hand in hand.
The moment they announced microtransactions it was obvious what kind of joke it was gonna be. And here we are.
@InterceptorAlpha Origins doesn't have MTX though.
The headline really does this story a disservice; the actual Twitter thread doesn't in any way say that this dev was unhappy with Sega.
Rather, it reads as frustration over the realities of software development ("We knew going in that there would be a major time crunch...", "We asked to do major fixes near submission but weren't allowed due to submission and approval rules."), especially unforeseen bugs that can arise during the integration of individual components. It's an affadaivit to fans that they acknowledge the problems, they're capable of fixing them if given enough time, and are ready and willing to do so if given the chance.
It's human nature to try to put scandalous human narratives on things, but this isn't a human problem, it's a computer one.
@WallyWest ah. For some reason I was mixing this up with one that had a coins system very obviously aimed to add microtransactions. My bad.
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