SEGA president Shuji Utsumi has called Sonic Superstars a "disappointment" in comparison to the company's most recent Sonic outing, Sonic X Shadow Generations, which he says is "awesome". Utsumi admits that Superstars' shortcomings are ultimately the result of the quality of work the studio delivered.
In a wide-ranging interview with Eurogamer (thanks, VGC), the conversation inevitably turns to Sonic. Utsumi said: "We were trying to do something creative with Sonic Frontiers; with Sonic Superstars, it turned out to be a disappointment in terms of the outcome and compared to what we delivered." The SEGA president says the secret to success, as he sees it, is in taking the transmedia approach:
"This time, we have Sonic X Shadow Generations and the next Sonic movie, so we’re pushing things in the transmedia direction – movies and games working in harmony to make things bigger. But the core [experience] is the game. The game needs to be very good, or else there will be no transmedia effect."
Memorably, SEGA blamed the proximity and quality of Super Mario Wonder for hurting Superstar's launch sales.