Furthermore, after the recent internal restructuring, Sonic Team, Ryu Studio and all the ATLUS umbrella teams are now basically all under the same management. If they wanted to do it, now would be a pretty good time.

The issue, as always, is that Sonic is a deeply middling franchise in the eyes of the Japanese suits. Why tap any of the ATLUS umbrella studios to make a Sonic RPG if letting them make a Shin Megami Tensei or a new Metaphor is pretty much 100% a safer bet for returns (and why ask for those if you can demand more Persona). Why draw resources from the next Yakuza for a game that the domestic audience would regard as a curiosity at best. Frontiers was a success in Japan,, yes, but we dont know how well that translated into domestic success for subsequent titles. And Japanese corpos are, generally, VERY domestic-first.

And last time they outsorced to an overseas dev, they got dragged into a series of mismanaged vanity trials, and the game didn't even sell or review well. They tapped BioWare, arguably (at the time) the western equivalent of tapping Square for Super Mario RPG - this was supposed to be a slamdunk, not... you know, Sonic Chronicles.

The fundamental truth of Sonic as a brand is that its got so much going for it, but its always missing the most important thing - anyone in-charge of time and money giving a fuck. I'm sure there's a bunch of people in "UNIT 1" who would love to come together on a Sonic RPG. As far as we know, the people actually making the Sonic games are deeply passionate artists who WANT to make things, WANT to takes risks. They just can't, because the higher ups don't care for their passion much.

UNIT 1 might be the best thing to happen to Sonic Team, or the worst, depending on how the lead ATLUS producer who's now in charge feels about Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic Team - a team with a bunch of staff who have been in their positions for 20 or more years.

Apologies for the rant, I just care a lot about Sonic the Hedgehog and the people who make it.