Despite being near-universally loved, it is hard to find a sonic game that has truly appealed to most gamers. This is especially hard to do now, so it seems like developers have missed a trick here. Gamers are becoming increasingly harder to satisfy and the standard of video games is going up. Historically, the Sonic game has not been developed by any studio that is instantly recognisable just from their name, and the results of this can be seen in the options that exist today. While all fine games, no developer has managed to take the IP and made it attractive to the masses. Bioware have made a Sonic game before, but this was only released on the Nintendo DS. It seems that what the series needs right now is a carefully developed, triple-A release of the game to bring it up to the modern era of gaming and reintroduce a new generation to the world of Sonic.
This can easily be done by acquiring a trusted studio to develop this game. Much like what Insomniac has done for Spider-Man, Sonic will need the same kind of treatment to become popular with the masses once again. This is something that may prove difficult though when the inherent concept of Sonic is taken into account. It is typically a level-based game where the worlds are quite linear. In an era of gaming where gamers expect massive, full worlds, this might hinder the game's ability to appeal to most people. Developers will therefore need to decide whether they remain faithful to the series, or if they take it in a new direction completely.
There is no doubt that the series is crying out for a new game that is developed by a top-end studio. It seems like this is the only way to revive the series and give it the love that it deserves.
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