User blog:NOS Sterling/Opinion:The future of the Sonic Franchise on the PS4 and Xbox One

With the PlayStation 4 dominating all of the 8th Generation Consoles (including the Wii U and Xbox One), and with SEGA under Nintendo's Exclusivity Deal coming to an end with Sonic Boom, it leads us to a big yet major question. What's next with the Wii U's competitors? PS4 has since been dominating the Console market with up to 6 Million sold, the Wii U is not as a great seller that it's predecessor had, and the Xbox One, despite it's insane controversies that has thankfully been removed started their days with poor sales although both the PS4 and Xbox One has sold up to a million consoles in under a day. In this perspective, we can tell that some things may return, some old games may (not) have improvements and some may end up with the same thing or get better innovation. So for the next-gen consoles, here's what to expect.

PS2/PS3 Sonic games on PS4
In a recent thread post from NOS_77 (which I will reveal, that is me) from the Sonic Stadium Message Boards, I told them about if any Sonic games should return to the PS4 and/or PlayStation Now. Many said yes, but there is some important things that many should know about it...

First, it's unknown if any of those games will return, either by PSNow, Emulation on (by disc or download) which is now under development, or ported with refinements and improvements. However, this remains a mystery for now until PSNow gets released in North America in the Summer 2014 and all others by around 2015. The fact is that it's unknown if SEGA or even Sony to get involved in bringing those games back. However, there is a few things that could be possible to be playable on the PS4.

PS2
For the PS2 Games, all Sonic games were not as perfected than others, with glitch, and others that spark criticism. Since Emulation on the PS4 is now underway, it's unknown if those games could be done by popping up a disc or just downloading it. If this emulation process is complete, the games will get better high definition enhancements which makes the graphics a lot more better. In other cases, even Wide-Screen support could be added along with controller improvements and/or glitch fixes. This could be good but this process is not done thru PlayStation Now. Many are even saying that PS1 and/or PS2 games may not come to the PSNow service, but we'll have to wait to find out more.

PS3
PS3 games will need a few enhancements except for Sonic 06 where it needs a gigantic amount of bug fixes. If it was ported on the PS4 with better improvements, some will still criticize on the story but many will still praise for the major amount of improvements that Sonic Team has done. Sonic Unleashed may need some graphic improvements and in some cases, will have to go to a similar process towards a Sonic Generations Mod called the "Unleashed Project". In addition to that, the Racing games (S&SASR and SASRT) will still be work on Mutliplayer as PSNow gets launched. It's unknown with all of the Sonic Games and PlayStation now but the toughest question to talk about is Sonic Unleashed on the PS2 since many would ask if there should be a Cross-Buy/Rent or/and a bundle. For the rest, it's Sony's and/or SEGA's decision if those games may return. However, Sony hopes to bring the complete PS3 Game library but it's unknown if all of portions of it will come by the time PS Now get's released for the first time in the Summer in North America.

Wisps to be used PS4 and Xbox One controllers?


Ah, Wisps... Aren't they're just fun to use? We'll you'll be soon be able to use them. Sonic Team now hopes to bring them in Future Main-Line Sonic games (like Lost World). However, it's unknown if these great amazing alien creatures will ever hit its way to make a Sonic game more enjoyable for others to play... We'll, those possibilities are getting even closer.

Meet PlayStation's Dualshock 4. Since the PS Vita, it now has a touchpad which is not used a lot in some points (although it's used in some games like Killzone: Shadow Fall), it made many to praise the controller for it's extensive features that would make it the Best Controller ever made. Many games are now having the TouchPad controllers, and others to play games in many other ways others never imagined. However, this could be something that Sonic Team would be impressed, and how the Wisps will be controlled will be Similar to how it's controlled on the Wii U. This could be great but not to Xbox One users. It's unknown if the Xbox One Controller will offer some key component to use them or if that doesn't happen, it's not going to be in Xbox's hands anymore until it changes on their next console.

Hedgehog Engine
Although the 7th Gen Consoles are not like your average PCs, the 8th Gen Consoles are now becoming closer to becoming a more PC like Console, like the PS4 which has a upgradable and removable Hard Drive. This gaming Engine has no possibility yet if such key component will be used on the PS4 along with the Havok Engine which has no official word if that engine will be supported on the PS4 and the Xbox One. However, that has since be workable on the Wii U and 3DS. It's possible as Sonic Boon is being developed, Sonic Team may however do some development on the PS4 and Xbox One on the Hedgehog Engine and if any case where the Havok engine is not on the PS4 and/ore Xbox One, they may have to opt on another engine such as PhysX engine of an example.

Footnote
For the expectations, it's possibly that by late 2014 or even 2015, a Sonic game could be revealed and be released to the PS4 and/or Xbox One along with the Wii U. Although this might be tough to explain if Sonic Team is doing a game, it's possible some developments on the next Sonic game on the PS4, Xbox One and Wii U is under way as Sonic Boom is coming as the last exclusive game on the Wii U before going Multi-Platform. So.. Do you think some of this could be possible? Leave your response in the comments.