Yeah, but that's the thing: Those bad games weren't recent. I can understand people saying a franchise is dying if its releasing bad games, but its daft to say something is dying because it released bad games at some point in its past. It feels like that no matter what Sonic does, even if his new games are genuinely enjoyable, people just go lol nope sonic 06 franchise dying forever.
I was listing reasons why people could dislike Sonic, not that "the franchise is dying because it had bad games." That's something entirely different.
You've heard of "The Sonic Cycle" right? If not here's a breakdown:
"This is the typical sonic cycle these days
1. New info release of new Sonic game, people say it’s gonna be Sonic’s comeback.
2. More or less, hype is generated as info, screens, vids, etc. releases.
3. Game comes out, it ends up like mediocre-****. People say nothing can save Sonic.
4. Go back to #1"
This text was posted right near the tail-end of the stream of notoriously crappy Sonic games, in 2009 when The Black Knight was announced. It made its way around the internet, became popular, became a meme, blah blah blah. The reason why of course was because it was the truth. People got themselves hyped and disappointed. This is not so much the fault of the games (besides being mediocre themselves) but the fans got way too excited. They hoped that Sonic games could become just as good as they were in the "good ol' days" back on the Genesis. After the constant disappointments,
that's what gave the franchise the reputation it has now. The constant attempts at trying to become cool and popular and edgy and hip and relevant again were working against it and were actually kind of funny.
Of course, I'm of the opinion that Sonic was only okay/average to begin with. So the screaming fans wanting back their glory days seem kind of silly to me. The
constant need these people see to keep their relic alive is laughable.
And as for being dated or milked, a hell of a lot of franchises are like that and people don't give them anywhere near the flak sonic gets.
Like?
(And lastly you and I can hope as much as we want but a lack of new sonic games won't kill the worst bits of the sonic fandom by any stretch of the imagination.)
It wouldn't hurt would it? But hey, I'm a wishful thinker. I still know there's next to no chance of that happening in the first place.
Having said that, I don't think a character needs a new game every year to remain relevant. Sonic is relevant because he was a major part of video game history. It's like Atari. What have they done recently? Nothing significant, but they're still a relevant part of gaming because they helped shape the history of gaming.
