More than a year passed and now it was the middle of 2005. 'Shadow the hedgehog(2005)' was close to its release. Sonic was in his Tokyo penthouse, relaxing in his hot tub while watching TV. It was late at night and just about time for the Rick Ravette show. Tonight’s guest was Shadow the hedgehog to promote his upcoming game of the same name. Sonic was watching the interview and after every statement Shadow would make, Sonic would curse the TV. Amy was walking around the room in silence and Sonic would turn to her to ask her for approval.

“I should be there and not this charlatan, you agree don’t you?” Sonic pointed at the TV screen looking at Amy for a response.

Amy rolled her eyes, took a deep breath and said, “Yes baby you should be there and not him”. She said it unconvincingly but in Sonic’s head, he believed that she was being sincere.

“That’s what I’ve been saying this whole time!”

Amy left the room Sonic was in and he continued to swear and yell at the TV. His ego just couldn’t let him watch and listen to the interview, he was very upset by Shadow’s media presence. Amy couldn’t stand to listen to him anymore and she left the room.

“His game is going to be so much worse than anything I ever made then SEGA is going to be begging for the return of the king!”

Halfway through the interview Sonic took his remote and changed the channel. He started flipping through the program trying to find something to watch not being able to take a second more of Shadow. He stumbled upon a business channel that covered documentaries on successful businessmen. The topic was Marchiano Polanzo, his boss and president of SEGA.

Sonic didn’t know much about his boss and most information about him was mysterious and missing. The only thing Sonic knew was that he became president in 2001. And that’s it. He wasn’t concerned much with company politics but with nothing better to do he decided to watch the documentary.

The documentary, though, didn’t exactly illuminate anything new. Polanzo’s background before his presidency is shrouded in mystery. His date of birth and even ethnic origin remain unanswered. Polanzo was a captain of a now-defunct subsidiary of a branch of SEGA somewhere in Europe during the 90s. Captains are called those who manage regional subsidiaries, like for example SEGA of America. The documentary didn’t even mention what was the name or location of his branch. The main focus wasn't to discuss his past but his rise to power.

At the turn of the 21st century, SEGA was in a dire situation, the Dreamcast got slashed by the PS2 launch and things were going in the red. At an emergency meeting of the SEGA media group and all of its subsidiaries, Polanzo stepped in and took over the presidency in what the press described as a violent coup. The leadership change was very unstable but eventually, he managed to secure his position.

Even though the SEGA corporation was only a part of the wider SEGA media group and a subsidiary, the one who was president of the SEGA corporation de facto held the most power within the group. He quickly bent most to his will. He showed his capabilities as a businessman by canceling the Dreamcast and moving the company to only making software instead of hardware. A bold move and one that ultimately saved the company and turned it into a profitable business once again.

Many refused to swear loyalty to him because they believed his seizure of power was illegal. In order to legitimize his presidency he amended the statute of the company, what the constitution is for countries the company statute is for a company. His amendment made it so that a leadership change in any high-ranking office of the SEGA corporation and the wider media group could be done so if the official in question is challenged to a duel. If the challenger beats the official in a fist fight he assumes the position.

In that sense, he retroactively legalized his seizure of power and made violence a part of company politics. He consolidated power by making his subordinates depose captains of SEGA’s subsidiaries and other presidents of other companies in the media group through this new duel mechanism. The year 2001. was a very unstable year but it ended with the pro-Polanzo camp winning most executive positions.

Even so, Marchiano Polanzo did not wield absolute power. He still faced fierce opposition in many sessions of the board of directors and his captains had a hard time getting the staff to respect them. The board successfully blocked many authoritarian and purely corporatist proposals. The opposition to Polanzo didn’t believe SEGA should become an aggressive corporatist company but one that provides good games and quality products. While the amendment for the transition of power was accepted, the opposition wasn’t going to let him change the soul of the company with other new amendments.

As of now things in the company have become stable, and Polanzo gave up on his ambitious authoritarian and corporatist reforms. The company is making money and everything is sailing smoothly. While under Polanzo’s tenure, the company is noticeably less artsy and experimental, more business and profit-oriented, it's at its core the same company. Currently, the opposition is less aggressive, their strategy seems to be just to wait for Polanzo’s terms to expire, according to the company statute the presidency has term limits.

Sonic watched this documentary to the end, he remembered many of the events mentioned in the documentary and when they were happening he chose not to involve in any of that mess. A belief he still holds, don’t get involved in politics. It doesn’t matter who is the president as long as he keeps the company running.

He pondered for a moment about the part that talked about corporatism and artistic expression. He still believed that games were an art form and not just a product to be bought and sold. However, no longer would he take an art for art's sake approach. He did that with all of his previous games but with 'Sonic Heroes(2003)' he didn’t get praised. He concluded that art was only good if it's reviewed well and he was going to chase those good reviews from now on and what would come next would only reaffirm this belief.

* * *

Finally, 'Shadow the hedgehog(2005)' would release in late 2005. And it was a disaster. While it managed to be commercially successful it received a nearly universal negative reception. Most people found the concept of Shadow carrying guns ridiculous and the game just wasn’t taken seriously. While some of its core was similar to the previous games, the guns, the awful story and the bad design were panned and also made fun of on the internet.

Sonic was ecstatic over Shadow’s failure. The day reviews came out he was giddy and made several interviews denouncing the game and pledging to ‘save the franchise’. Shadow on the other hand locked himself in his house and refused to go out. He couldn’t take the media ridicule and criticism he was receiving and decided to just stay in his home.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

Soon a board of directors meeting was called and a vote was held on the next project for the franchise and what direction to take. After the meeting, Sonic was called to the president’s office to be informed of the decisions that were taken and to be given assignments.

Sonic’s smugness and overconfidence were back with even more intensity than before the launch of 'Sonic Heroes(2003)'. He sat across Polanzo and said

“Tell me Mr. President, how do you want me to save the franchise?”

“Right to the point, we haven’t yet decided on the name but I’m going to lay out the concept. You are co-directing with Shadow and a newcomer Silver the hedgehog. The game will be broken up into three parts each of you directing your own part and you will have two assistant directors with separate gameplay segments. We are paring you up with your usual lineup, Tails and Knuckles. Even though the two hedgehogs and the assistants will be designing their gameplay you will be writing the general story alone this time”

This was not the good news Sonic was hoping for, he thought that Shadow would be out of the picture and that he would get the chance to have his uncompromising vision. He also didn’t want to share another game with Tails and Knuckles, let alone a newcomer.

“Why? Why are you bringing back Shadow to direct, have you read the reviews? ‘Awful game 1/10’ and so on. Why are you bringing in a newcomer to direct as well?” Sonic said, frustrated and in disbelief.

“You see, even though his game was terrible critically, commercially it did very well. We are not throwing out anything that has market value. Frankly, it’s outstanding how the game was profitable even with the bad press. Maybe it was premature for him to direct alone so it’s best he shares with others. The newcomer is pulling great with our test audiences, the kid’s got potential. Besides, he is there to give the whole thing a fresh look”

“What could be fresher than me, don’t you understand, you need me to do my magic as I did in the 90s”

“Sonic, my guy, it’s not the 90s anymore and you failed to save the Dreamcast. You are still getting your own whole part of the game to direct, design and write. That should be enough for you to do your magic. If you are as good as you say you don’t need anything more”

Logically everything Polanzo said made sense to Sonic and the flattery made him accept everything on an emotional level. He was fired up and ready to prove to the world his ‘creative genius’, 10/10s here I come. “So you said I will be writing the story?” Sonic asked to double check

“Correct you write the general story and the dialog will be handled by each of the characters individually like it was before”

They continued to talk about the game, Sonic brainstormed story ideas, already by tomorrow he would start to work. When they finished discussing everything there was to discuss about this new game, Polanzo moved on to more casual chit-chat.

“I’ve been meaning to ask you Sonic, who did you vote for in the general election this year?”

“What?” Sonic was caught off guard by this question, he wasn’t even sure he heard it correctly.

“You seem like the type of person who would vote for Jun-chan am I right?”

“Polanzo-“

“Mr. Polanzo.”

“Right sorry, Mr. Polanzo I don’t vote”

“What do you mean you don’t vote, how can a hero not be involved in politics?”

“I don’t care about politics, I don’t follow politics and I don’t want to ever get involved in politics”

Polanzo was surprised by Sonic’s firm answer. “A Hero that changed the world doesn’t participate in the only process where everyone can change the world”

“Nothing good comes out of politics” sonic wanted to end the discussion there. “If that’s all you wanted us to discuss I want to make preparations for the project”

With that, he was off to work. Although development started tomorrow Sonic did several things in advance. He knew the development was going to be very stressful, like always they were probably going to be short on time.

Knuckles when he had heard about the new game was soul crushed. Not only was he the side character in Sonic’s story, but the other two main characters were also actors. Shadow was given another shot, something he would never get. He would be very demotivated and depressed during the development process. He would put in minimal effort and felt passionless about the project knowing he was never going to swim out of Sonic’s and Shadow’s shadow. With this new hedgehog Silver, it would make that shadow even larger.

Shadow at first had trouble leaving the house and coming to work, due to the harsh reaction to his new game and he would often be made fun of on the street. His image of cool 2000s edge was shattered and was now seen as a joke. Sonic would also ridicule Shadow at every and any opportunity, although that had the effect of motivating Shadow to upstage Sonic and make him eat his words.

Even with the rare boost of motivation Shadow would get, he still often missed working days. He would clamp up in his house lying in bed and would even sometimes leave during hours and go home saying that he is feeling ill and needed to go home.

Silver the hedgehog as the new guy was way out of his depth. This was his first time in any game, he had the herculean responsibility of directing, and designing the game, none of which he was prepared for. He would get no help from his co-directors, Sonic who was trying to downright sabotage Silver, he wasn’t going to allow a new hedgehog to eclipse his popularity like Shadow did in 'Sonic Adventure 2(2001)'. Shadow wasn’t a skilled director to begin with so he couldn’t give much of any good advice and often wasn’t even at work.

Amy had gameplay she had to design for Silver’s segment of the story but she would mostly sleepwalk through the project. Coming in late, not listening to instructions and falling asleep at meetings. There were allegations by some journalists that she was on drugs and/or was drunk most of the time during development.

Tails would give his 110%, overworking himself, doing assignments that others were delegated but failed to do, encouraging Shadow and was the only one willing to help Silver. He openly clashed with Sonic for the first time because of Sonic’s treatment of Shadow and Silver. They had a big argument on the SEGA terrace.

“Are you out of your mind? Are you trying to ruin this game?” Tails shouted at Sonic.

“It’s SEGA’s fault for trying to steal my spotlight again, I’m not letting them create another Shadow” sonic responded shrugging

“Will you get your head out of your ass for once in your life? You’ve lost it, how do you expect us to get that 10/10 you insist on if you sabotage your co-director?”

“Us? I am getting a 10/10, they will rate my part as a 10/10, Silver and Shadow will be finally removed, and I won’t have to share with anyone my projects.”

“I’ve always been by your side and have always been your friend but this is crossing the line.”

“If you don’t like it just quit I don’t need you taking away my screen time”

Tails was hurt. For a moment he paused, he had to take in what he just heard. Although he had been aware of how much Sonic had changed, hearing something like that directly from Sonic was a big emotional blow. “You know what? I would quit this second if I could but my contract forces me to work on this game” Tails left the terrace full of anger. He cried for hours once he got home.

They were no longer on speaking terms after that fight. Sonic soured the few relationships he had left during this time.

Amy was the only person he had left. For Sonic’s part that he had to do with Knuckles and Tails, he would communicate through emails via Amy and their cutscenes the three of them recorded on separate days using CGI for shots they shared.

A year had gone by, development process could be described as chaos with no control. In the end, it was released in an unfinished state. It would first release in North America on the 14th of November 20006. a date which will live in infamy. It was one of the worst games of 2006.

The game is known as ‘Sonic 06’.