While it still holds a tight grip over intellectual property, Nintendo has taken steps to soften this stance and allow for more companies to legally use its characters, including a tie-up with Ubisoft Entertainment SA for the upcoming strategy game “Mario + Rabbids.” In 2015, it released “Super Mario Maker,” which lets fans create custom made levels for the world’s famous plumber to run through, and then share them with others. Sega is much more relaxed when it comes to unlicensed fan games. Last year, Nintendo sent a cease-and-desist letter to Game Jolt, a website that hosts games made by independent developers, requesting that they disable access to hundreds of games that infringe on their copyright. Nintendo is known for seeking legal remedies to stop the development of any fan game that features its characters. “That special feeling you got when you first tried a classic Sonic game - we’ve recreated it this time.” “As the name implies, we developed this as a game for the maniacs by the biggest maniacs,” said Takashi Iizuka, a long-time producer of Sonic games and current head of Sonic Team. The community is notorious for heralding every Sonic game as its triumphant return only to be let down (in fact, the phenomenon has spawned its own meme known as the Sonic Cycle). A key question is whether “Sonic Mania” will be the boost Sega has been searching for. While Sega once went toe-to-toe with Nintendo in the video game market, the company now gets most of its sales from pachinko machines. So far, “Sonic Mania” has created enough buzz to garner nominations for several gaming-publication awards, and is receiving positive feedback from fans.įor Sega, it’s a chance to reconnect with its community and reinvigorate the franchise, which has suffered from numerous critical and commercial flops over the last few decades. Programmed by some of its biggest fans outside of Japan, the new Sonic game will send the blue blur back to its 16-bit blast processing roots ripped straight from the 1990s. “The fans end up being better at these sort of ‘old school revival projects’ than the original developers.” “It is drastically different from Nintendo’s strategy, and it’s a strategy that I think is much better,” said George Weidman, who analyzes and reviews games on his YouTube channel Super Bunnyhop. If “Sonic Mania” succeeds, it could push Sega - as well as rivals - to attract new fans and breathe life into classic franchises. It’s a risky move to put so much control into the hands of outsiders, but one that Sega is betting will pay off and set the company apart from Nintendo Co., which has taken legal action against fan games. Now, in a bid to revitalize the Sonic franchise, the Japanese game company enlisted its most devoted fans to create “Sonic Mania,” which will be released Aug.

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