Jim Sterling from Destructoid got a chance to speak with Sonic the Hedgehog 4 brand manager Ken Laboughs about why SEGA chose to make the game episodic. The response was quite an interesting one to say the least.
“The thing is we need the consumer to be able to absorb it,” Ken stated. “If we went out with the grand story that is Sonic 4 it would be a very large and costly download experience. The consumer has gotten used to paying a certain amount of money for a certain packet of content so we need to make sure we abide by that because we definitely don’t want to turn off the consumer. We want them to pay the right price for the right content.”
“Not only does it allow the consumer to absorb it, it allows the consumer to give feedback every step of the way, and that’s something that a lot of games don’t do. With Episode One you’ll be able to give feedback that will apply to Episode Two and so on. Basically, we’re going to let the community be very involved with Sonic 4 and that’s the way it should be.”
As much as one would want to agree with Ken’s statement, it seems a little contrived. It is highly unlikely that a Sonic fan would not buy the game simply because it was too large and “costly”. That being said, SEGA’s episodic content does in fact allow the consumer how much they want to invest into a download.
Furthermore, episodic content doesn’t have the best rep in the gaming industry. Many gamers view it as merely a ploy for the publisher to keep nickel n’ diming you, and because of this, Ken’s statement will probably be disregarded by the average fan.
That of course is not to say that these are not the intentions of their decision. Just pointing out that this response won’t be widely accepted as a truth.
