Sonic Mania 2 Wasn't Made Because Sega Wants To Move Away From 2D

thegamer.com:

Sonic Mania is arguably one of the most beloved modern Sonic titles at the moment, bringing back the art style so many grew up with and loved. It was widely rumored that Sonic Team and Sonic Mania developers Christian Whitehead, Headcannon, and PagodaWest Games were in talks to potentially develop a sequel given the first's success, but it seems like those negotiations went south upon the announcement of Sonic Superstars and Whitehead's next project Penny's Big Breakaway.

However, Sonic Team head Takashi Iizuka and Christian Whitehead recently talked to Game Informer about why a Sonic Mania sequel never happened despite critical and commercial success. A lot of reasons were given, though one that will undoubtedly cause a bit of a stir among Sonic fans was Sonic Team's insistence that the next Classic game in the series needed to incoporate 3D elements.

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In the interview, Iizuka explained that Sonic Team wanted to move away from pixel-art graphics to try and appeal to a wider audience. He believes that pixel art games like Sonic Mania appeal only to a "very specific core audience" and that he wanted the next Classic Sonic game to reach "as many people as possible".

"We wanted to bring this game to as many people as possible and in order to really make it look and feel as appealing to a wider audience, we needed to use the 3D assets to really give it that current look," says Iizuka. "But we do know that core fans want that old Classic Sonic look, they want that old classic Sonic feel, so we focused on making sure the controls were solid and the look and the feel was really representative of a classic Sonic game."

Whitehead also backs up