The Sonic franchise has had a turbulent history.  It's remained in the hearts of many gamers, but many of its recent games have faced criticisms.  Sega is hoping this will all change though as its appointed a new Chief Brand Officer.

Ivo Gersovich has been appointed to the role.  He has previously been a Chief Brand Officer at Sega according to his LinkedIn profile, even working on the Sonic franchise, but it seems that this new role is explicitly focused on the speedy hedgehog.  The rest of his career has been focused on the film and game industries.

Developer Takashi Iizuka is also returning to the U.S. to oversee development of a new Sonic the Hedgehog game.  The longtime developer, who has worked on Sonic Adventure and many others, was sidelined during the development of Sonic Boom but that title failed to take off the way Sega would have liked so it seems he is back at the helm.

His new title is Vice President of Product Development so it seems he and Mr. Gersovich are in charge of revitalising the franchise.  Sega has promised new games, a TV series and even a feature-length film, which itself was announced a while ago but news has not been forthcoming.

No word yet on when we should expect to see the game, or even which console, but with E3 around the corner we might find out more then.