Interesting info on why Sonic Xtreme was cancelled

[epmode]

taken directly from this thread (i just thought it was interesting, though i don't know how accurate it is):

"The earliest threads of the legend date back to 1994, almost immediately following the completion of Sonic & Knuckles. At that time, Sega of Japan and Sega of America were essentially two separate companies. Sega of America wanted to do its own thing, but Sega of Japan always had the final say, so there was alot of friction between the two. The bigwigs over in the land of the rising sun were busy putting together the destined-to-be underdog of the 32-bit war, Saturn; but Sega's US division had plans of its own...

Sega Technical Institute, SoA's software division, was already throwing around ideas for the next major Sonic game. The title was originally intended for the ill-fated 32X, but was quickly shifted to a cartridge-based platform in development at SoA. This new console was intended to rival Nintendo's N64, and the new Sonic game was supposed to make it for launch. Sensing the inevitable conflict between this cartridge system and their own CD-based Saturn, Sega of Japan killed the cart muncher leaving the Sonic-to-be with only one option.

We're now into early 1996. Bernie Stolar, to whom the PlayStation's success is often attributed, had just moved his digs from Sony to Sega of America. With Nintendo's 64 launch looming on the horizon, the Saturn was going to need a big gun for the holiday season and Bernie was aware of this fact. Love him or hate him, but Stolar is a man who knows his business, and he immediately began shaking things up at Sega Technical Institute. Roger Hector, head of STI, was ordered to compile a core team for Sonic X-Treme. The chosen few were to be subjected to a high-pressure development crunch; the game designer's equivalent of finals week except that there would be no freedom until the game itself was complete. The "lucky" winners:

Mike Wallis - Producer
Chris Senn - Art director, co-lead designer, team coordinator, and conceptual music
Ofer Alon - Technical director/engineer, lead programmer, and co-lead designer
Fei Cheng - Computer graphics artist/designer and conceptual design
Chris Coffin - Lead boss stage/boss FX programming and conceptual gameplay design
Howard Drossin - Music and sound effects director
Ross Harris - Lead computer graphics artist/animator and conceptual design
Jason Kuo - Boss layout lead
Andrew Probert - Computer graphics artist/designer and conceptual design
Richard Wheeler - Designer, world layout lead and conceptual gameplay design

The team was practically locked-up in STI headquarters. Meals were brought in and the group essentially lived in the office, working 15-16 hour days in their mad rush to get Sonic X-Treme off the drawing board and onto store shelves in time for Christmas. Despite the pressure, things started off well... the team was enthusiastic and Bernie Stolar was generous in making sure they had all the resources they needed. So where did this plan begin going awry? You'd never guess who the man responsible was. Then again, maybe you would...



Over in Japan, Sonic Team were busy working on their own Saturn masterpiece, NiGHTS. The engine utilized in the game would've made the ideal building block for a 3D Sonic title... such as Sonic X-Treme. STI requested the NiGHTS engine, as creating their own from scratch would've been too time-consuming for their nigh unreasonable deadline. Bernie Stolar happily obliged. STI began familiarizing themselves with the engine, but their luck ran out just two weeks later. Yuji Naka, it seems, got wind of STI's acquisition of the NiGHTS technology. This was during an era of intense rivalry between SoJ and SoA, and Naka hated SoA. So, being the good sport that he is, Naka went to the head of SoJ and demanded that the NiGHTS engine be taken away from STI, threatening to quit if his "request" wasn't carried out. What Yuji wants, Yuji gets, so the NiGHTS engine was retracted leaving STI to start from scratch. Things only went downhill from there.

Ofer Alon managed to get his own set of development tools up and running on PC. The intent was to port the finished product to the Saturn, but technical problems hindered the transition. Alon's primary game engine featured 2D sprites running around 3D polygonal stages. A fish-eye camera system designed to give players a full view to the left and right as well as in and out was implemented. Much like the Special Stages in Chaotix, all of X-Treme's worlds were built inside giant "tubes" with no center of gravity, allowing the player to run up walls. Four of the planned Zones were: Jade Gully, Crystal Frost, Red Sands, and Galaxy Fortress.

Chris Coffin, working independently of Ofer Alon, created his own boss engine based on the NiGHTS technology. Boss battles were to be fought in large circular arenas. While Coffin only managed to get two full-fledged bosses up and running (series villains Fang the Sniper and Metal Sonic), they were completely developed right down to the AI.



Despite the circumstances, development continued and Sonic X-Treme was beginning to take shape. Unbeknownst to the team, the final blow was yet to come. During the summer of '96, right in the thick of X-Treme's development, the head of SoJ caught a glimpse of an early build. He favored Chris Coffin's boss engine over Ofer Alon's game engine, and instructed the team to scrap the latter entirely and build the whole game on the boss technology. Alon quit the team and left Sega in frustration, leaving the remaining crew with even more to do in even less time. At this point, the entire project was hinging on director Chris Senn, who was putting in 200%, doing his best to pick up the slack. But after 7-8 weeks of sleepless nights, even the energetic Senn reached his limit. Producer Mike Wallis had no choice but to put the hedgehog out of his misery. He broke the news to Stolar, who officially ended the Sonic X-Treme project in favor of their backup plan, Sonic 3D: Flickies' Island. Sonic X-Treme was officially canned.

Even after the death of the Saturn version, Chris Senn and Ofer Alon continued work on a PC version of X-Treme. The PC build came much farther along, with several complete levels playable. The duo pitched the game to Sega's PC division, but the suits there were content to simply do ports, and refused to fund the project. This was the last of a series of dead-ends for the X-Treme."

[NeoZeedeater]

Very interesting stuff. I'm glad it was cancelled. It didn't look like a Sonic game to me and it wasn't made by the true creators.

And before someone says "STI made Sonic 2 - Knuckles", I will advise to look at the game credits. Japanese names dominate all the key positions in the credits. The games were made at STI but mostly by SoJ staff brought overseas.

[Dyne]

i remember reading the first half of that in a magazine somewhere.....

[SonofdonCD]

I would have loved to play Sonic X-treme. I remember reading all about it while it was in development, and I've heard other stories like this one (but not as to the point). It just goes to show that Had SOJ not been so arrogant and actually made decisions that were sensible, things might look different for Sega right now.

[skelly]

taken directly from this thread

Anyone else unable to access Gaming-Age forums the last couple days?

[epmode]

are you just getting the "forum busy" error? other than that, i haven't had much trouble.

[Kidnemo]

Looks like you have to register to even view them now.

No more lurking for you.

[Johnny Undaunted]

Very interesting stuff. I'm glad it was cancelled. It didn't look like a Sonic game to me and it wasn't made by the true creators.

And before someone says "STI made Sonic 2 - Knuckles", I will advise to look at the game credits. Japanese names dominate all the key positions in the credits. The games were made at STI but mostly by SoJ staff brought overseas.

Yeah, I heard Naka merely went to STI just to piss SoJ off and when Sonic 3 was being made, he requested that he didn't want any American members working on it.

http://www.emulationzone.org/fanfare/ghz/

[Mzo]

I've also had trouble getting to Gaming Age. Not that I really want to all that much.

About X-treme, I would've liked the chance to play it. Oh well.

[Sub]

Sega Technical Institute, SoA's software division, was already throwing around ideas for the next major Sonic game. The title was originally intended for the ill-fated 32X, but was quickly shifted to a cartridge-based platform in development at SoA. This new console was intended to rival Nintendo's N64, and the new Sonic game was supposed to make it for launch. Sensing the inevitable conflict between this cartridge system and their own CD-based Saturn, Sega of Japan killed the cart muncher leaving the Sonic-to-be with only one option.

It amazed me enough (in the FUCK, WHY ARE YOU SO STUPID way) that SOA went and made the 32X without any support from anybody up at SOJ.

That they wanted to do it AGAIN with a stand-alone console just blows my mind.