Would this possibly "butterfly" away the highly praised Sonic Adventures cartoon created by Paul Dini? If anything, considering how many people remember the franchise based on the cartoon is actually quite astounding, especially with the 4 films by Dream Works that followed the series...
That would be the tip of the iceberg in ATL. Sonic '06 didn't exactly win Game of the Year but it was a rock solid title that laid the foundations of the modern sonic fandom.
Imagine if Sonic '06 was a flop. Would we see Sonic '09: Chaos Rising, Sonic '11: Eggman's Redemption, Sonic '14: Savior of Soleanna? Sonic Generations? Would Sonic occupy 5 of the top twenty games on the google play store and very respectable rankings on iOS?
Without Sonic '06 reestablishing Sonic as a brand after the final victory of Nintendo over Sega in the hardware realm in the 1990s, you wouldn't even see Sonic Olympiad. ATL Sega would probably be dominated by strange new ideas, vampire sonic, wherewolf sonic, maybe trying to market it exclusively to younger demographics.
And that's saying nothing for the Sonic fandom. I check r/sonic on reddit and I see 150k subs, SonicCon which is in Chicago next year, there's /son/ on 4chan with its usual...eccentricities.
Today, the Sonic Game fandoms and Sonic Adventures fandoms are big enough to be distinct. On my Sonic fanboard which I mod when tensions are raised it's usually because of the minor canon discontinuities between the show and the games, especially the "minor" games like Generations. Although it's hard to imagine, a truly bad (really bad, not just mildly disappointing) Sonic '06 would probably just kill everything off in an apocalypse of butterflies. My forum wouldn't exist, the Sonic thread over on Non-political chat here on AH.com wouldn't exist, no /son/ or large r/sonic community, I can't even think of anything that would be around.
I'm thinking there would be a "Sonic Fandom", but it would likely mostly be associated with less talented artists, mostly around DeviantArt, probably would be obscure if not reviled or mocked. I wouldn't be a part of it of course, me being one of those who came in with Sonic '09, and of course that changes
my life.
Typing this has really made me realize just how important that game was for internet and gaming culture, and how seemingly small decisions can serious effect a person's life down the road. I can only imagine what I would be doing. My old nickname was Bagelman or Bagel, I'd probably still use that, but other than that I have no clue.
I guess the most interesting aspects of this what if would be what would replace the Sonic Fandom ATL. Anyone have any ideas?