Well sort of. It's hard to blame developer ambition level when publishers set deadlines and budgets. One problem with Sonic games is that Sonic moves so fast it's hard to create enough assets so the game is long enough. That retro gamer interview by Izuka confirmed this has been a problem since Sonic Adventure 1. Notice pretty much all the games in 3d are filled with filler content which drags down the game. Only solution would be to just bite the bullet on the money and time sink making levels would be. Boost made it worse as Sonic moves faster and uses less of the levels. Interesting thing about sonic forces is that they actually went and wasted their time making excellent backgrounds to a lot of stages. Like if you boundary break the city level it's actually really detailed and well made and the objects are actually solid. The levels themselves are terrible though. Worst in the series bad.
Anyways, ever since 06 they have been reluctant to make a full priced game. Most of the games are budget games. Which is detrimental because the games by nature need a budget for quality.
But I truly believe the path they are on now is limited. When I say I want Sonic Adventure 3, I dont mean making an "adventure" game with a bunch of nonsense characters and multiple storylines tied together by a a poorly written plot, I mean making a full 3D sonic with the type of ambition Adventure 1 and 2 and 06 had. The argument if whether 06 is adventure 3 is irrelevant to me, just because they failed on their last attempt to go big doesnt mean they should quit. The goal should be redemption. Unleashed was a great idea of pivoting away from it and they tried their best but ultimately had to include the werehog so the game wasnt an hour long. It will be expensive and difficult, but Sonic will never be able to wash away it's reputation until that 3D game is finally made. Adventure 3 just gives them an goal an idea in mind. And Adventure 1 and 2 already showed that Sonic can be made in 3D. Also Im convinced it's would be an automatic selling point. If the game is decent that is.
Of course AAA publishers are very reluctant to make games that have one time cost and no micro-transactions. Honestly if it meant Sega would up the funding I wouldnt like it but they could monetize the game more. Alternate costumes could cost money, but that's as far as I would go. Im thinking more they could bring back the chao garden and make it full of monetary bullshit and see how they can bleed out of those cute chao. Gives them a bit more freedom in the fact that they could make special chao, costumes, objects, upgrades etc all cost money. And throw that shit on mobile as well for maximum profits. I dont know, money got to come from somewhere.
