At the moment, relatively little is known about Sonic Frontiers which, by SEGA’s admission, was announced too early. However, we know that the hedgehog will evolve in an open world, Starfall Islands, with various environments such as forests, aquatic areas with waterfalls or deserts.
However, the game is expected at the end of 2024 on PC, PS5, Xbox Series, Switch, PS4, and ONE, which leaves plenty of time for SEGA to explain to us how this new approach of Sonic will work. What if we told you that Sonic Frontiers, for which SEGA admitted to rushing, and which is only expected in 9 to 11 months, had to come out much earlier? Indeed, at the end of December, SEGA addressed its investors, and the very first response seems to go against the attitude of the publisher and previous statements. When asked about the nature of the game and sales targets, SEGA officials said:
Since this is a new game, which hasn’t happened in many years, and we’re aiming for a cross-platform global release, we’d like to go beyond the first year sales of Sonic Forces. For total sales, we will study this (…). But we ask you to be patient while waiting for further announcements about the details, and this is a title without compromise in terms of quality, and one which creates many new challenges.
We originally planned to release it this year (2024), for Sonic’s 30th anniversary, but we have postponed the release for a year to fine tune the quality. This is not only valid for this title, but during production, we regularly carried out analyzes to improve the quality of the game before its release, in particular by introducing external tests, and I have the feeling that it will become a good one. game, and we have high expectations for it.
In other words, SEGA has completely changed its mind, by giving the team much more time than expected in charge of development. For now, it’s hard to know if this is a global change in philosophy, or if the stakes of this Sonic are too high, but the facts are there. In addition, questions were asked about SEGA’s monetization strategy in relation to franchising. In response, SEGA announced that the title will be sold as a “premium” title, and that the games remain globally in the foreground. The publisher believes the film, as well as its upcoming sequel, have and will bridge a generational gap, and that they will allow attract many new players towards the franchise.
