I really shouldn't be defending Sonic Boom, because as I've said it is NOT a great game, but...

The video's about an exploit. Not about a game breaking bug. The difference? With an exploit you go out of your way to deliberately break the game. Heck, Occarina of Time has exploits that break the game, and that one is considered to be the best game ever made (by a large group of people). A game breaking bug is something which prohibts you from furthering the game while playing it as intended, or when doing something in the game within the confounds of normal conduct.

While I played Sonic Boom I didn't pause the game every time I jumped with Knuckles to get higher. I just leaned back played the game, and got into a very nostalgic vibe. With the death of Midway, THQ, Majesco (well they still live, I guess, but don't produce much besides Zumba games), etc., we have also witnessed the death of the tie-in mediocre platformer. Now, this is something which maybe would have made me happy back in the day, but instead we got mobile tie-in games, which are even WORSE most of the time.

I'm happy some publishers are (were) still making B-games (tie-ins), because I think that they a health sign for the industry. AAA is a hit or miss businness, and when a B-game can be somewhat succesful and take the fall for a AAA miss, that shouldn't be regarded as a bad thing. A business in which there's only room for a few sucesful AAA games, has led to the few annualized franchises we get today.

We NEED B-games, and for that I'm happy Sonic Boom sold moderately well.

Btw. You cannot argue that someone who bought Sonic BOOM instead of Bayonetta II would have bought Bayonetta II if Sonic BOOM did not exist, anyhow. They do not necessarily cater to the same audience (although I did buy both). 

P.S. Sorry noname2200, I know not all of this is a reaction to your comment, and it certainly isn't meant as an attack on you. I just starterd writing my reaction and it became more than that, it became a reaction to the whole thread.

So... I tried to put my whole opinion about the Sonic Boom sales on paper and it became a bit more text than I'm willing to post here in a single post. Since most of it can already be read in this thread, I'm not going to start a new one, and just leave a link here to my blog:

https://makeaccountlater.wordpress.com/2015/05/12/long-read-the-death-of-the-mediocre-media-tie-in-or-how-i-learned-to-stop-hating-and-love-the-sonic-boomb/

As I've said, most of my opinion can already be read through this thread's pages, but for those who'd like an elongated synopsis, feel free...

It's all good! Lord knows we've all had a reply start to creep towards the larger point of the thread.

For what it's worth, I recall hearing there were a few game breaking bugs out there, with the one that sticks out most in my mind being one where you can fall through the floor and then just keep falling forever. Still, I agree with your broader point: the mid-range game is necessary for the survival of gaming, but it's been an endangered species for at least the past two generations. That trend worries me, especially since I'm not sure it's going to be reversed anytime soon. The few mid-range games coming out nowadays seem to be largely kickstarter driven, which is a model I find repugnant, so it IS nice to see a mid-ranger do alright on its own.

That said, Sega's already said the sales of Sonic Boom were disappointing. -_-

As much as I loathe Boom on prinicipal for selling an unfinished product, I concur that the demise of the mid-level game sucks.

The industry is homogenous enough already without reducing its divetsity further, and everything being either AAA or indie seems an unhealthy condition.

Yeah, someone else mentioned that they had poured more than 30 milion into the project, so in this case I can understand their disappointment. When it's not your intention to make a mediocre games, my whole point becomes invalid. You shouldn't be taking a hit with these kinds of games. A game like Sonic BOOM should make you enough money to warrant a go at, something like I don't know euhm, Shenmue 3 (still hoping...)

On the other hand, as you and Curl have said as well, it really is a shame that there's so little (intentional, as in "on a limited budget") "mediocre" games these days from the big companies. I'm happy that Ubisoft still does their "indie-like-games", and that also Nintendo still releases smaller games, but I kind of miss the days in which you couldn't imagine a big name company NOT trying to start their own 3D platformer (games like Whiplash and Haven come to mind), or them trying to make a game succesful which is not a shooter, sports game or action adventure. I guess that we've indeed got indies and kickstarters to fill that void these days, but it just feels different for some reason. Ah well, here's hoping that A Hat in Time and Yooka-Laylee become decent games.