>"Ten years ago, I moved from Tokyo to Burbank. At that time, the Sonic brand was not in a very positive space. A lot of people were bashing on the brand. They really weren't happy with the things coming out."
>"When I think about, like, ten years ago, what was happening ten years ago and what's happening now? I can't really believe some of the things that have changed...As a game creator, I was previously inside of Sega, working on games and managing teams, then everything started changing. Now we have Netflix content that's being created, we have movies that are coming out… Instead of just looking at games, it's like there's 150% more stuff coming in."
>"What I do at work has changed, the people I meet have changed… Even with things like working inside the entertainment industry… y'know, we're all from the game industry, but now we're working with movie industry people.
>"They're a completely different industry in the way that they think, that they act. How they create content is completely different. And then I got to walk on the red carpet for a movie premiere…!"
>"There's so many things that are new. Ten years ago, I don't think any of us could've believed this could become the normal reality. Thinking of it now, and us being successful… compared to ten years ago, it is like… 180 degrees. We were fighting to survive. It's totally different now."
>https://www.sonicstadium.org/news/sonic/iizuka-on-sonics-lost-decade-we-were-fighting-to-survive-its-totally-different-now-r2963/
It's finally nice to see Sonic Team admit that the 2010s era of Sonic was fucking awful and they're happy to finally be out of it.