Sega is teasing a new Sonic something reveal for SXSW 2018

[Quacksonja]

i have a strong feeling for SA 3.

[A sonic fan]

there is the sonic racing game reveal 

[MainJP]

"It's not a sequel".

[Red Hot Jack]

Aw I wanted an actual teaser for that game. Guess I'll have to wait until June.

[A sonic fan]

pretty obvious the title will be sonic racing judging from that clip.

[Eurisko]

Sonic Racer!!!!! I knew it!!! Yes!!! 

So so so exited , a great panel. Well done Sonic Team.

[Quacksonja]

rip we aint getting sa3

[Meta77]

5 minutes ago, UpCDownCLeftCRightC said:

I wonder why it seems like SEGA doesn't pay as much attention to their adventure fans. 

Cause if figure most involved left/ they don't care for a project that big

[Razule]

11 minutes ago, MainJP said:

It's not a sequel.

Sonic Racers. Why withhold the title now, it's not like it's that hard figure out. Heck, the image could be brightened

[Scar]

Just now, Quacksonja said:

rip we aint getting sa3

Why would you expect this?

[Shadowlax]

2 minutes ago, Scar said:

Why would you expect this?

Whenever sega is annoucing sonic stuff, even if its a toyline folks ready for that sa3 annoucment 

[UpCDownCLeftCRightC]

1 minute ago, Meta77 said:

Cause if figure most involved left/ they don't care for a project that big

Ok, I'll admit that this was a bit of a sarcastic post. To me its pretty obvious why Sonic Adventure has not been in the spotlight for more than 10 years and why SEGA is in no hurry to rush back to that style.

"Classic" fans went through a somewhat similar phase when 3D games became the in-demand format in the late 90's, and 2D became niche almost overnight. But then Sonic didn't have a graceful transition to 3D and now we're back here. Full circle, almost.

[Razule]

7 minutes ago, Shadowlax said:

Whenever sega is annoucing sonic stuff, even if its a toyline folks ready for that sa3 annoucment 

It's annoying, but I guess it is necessary for Aaron to stress it won't be happening every. single. time.

[Razule]

1 minute ago, SaberX said:

It looks like "Racing" too me though

Well.. yeah, I do see a G there now, but still, obvious, not many things it could be.

[SonicLegends]

Same here @SaberX

[Kellan]

2 minutes ago, SaberX said:

It looks like "Racing" too me though

I agree. I’m thinking “Super Sonic Racing” myself.

[Harkofthewaa]

How about Super Sonic Racing? 

[Your Vest Friend]

Right, so let me put thoughts down on the "big" stuff in that panel.

-Hmm, very mixed on Plus (lack of fondness for Mania aside). People have been wanting a physical release for a while, I'm not sure if its too late for that to drum up interest now though. As much as I've not wanted Mighty and Ray to come back, that's because I didn't want them messing with the Chaotix dynamic for the sake of appeasing a few. In a different branch where they're separate? Cool, I'm down with obscure stuff, I certainly research it more. That said, I don't know how much of a draw they are to Joe Average. Remix mode and the 4P thing are more likely to appeal to them. Still, not that big a DLC thing when you actually break it down.

-The shorts seem to be animated versions of Mania's story events (which makes sense when it's called Sonic Mania Adventures). I kinda suspected Mania would get webisodes before the stream started, but still only 5 isn't much. That's basically the equivalent of the Forces prequel comics. 

What I get out of this is that it brings Mania up to Forces in terms of the extras it got, with Forces getting it close to its release while Mania gets it more spread out so it only appears to be getting more attention. In reality, it's equal. And even then it's not like that much was put forth. 

-Sonic Racing title tease, nothing else to really go on. Still, nice having a modern game to look forward to. 

Speaking of, aside from the demographic skew I mentioned earlier, there's a good reason we didn't see much modern; they just don't have anything they can show right now. Technically, classic doesn't in terms of new stuff, all the stuff in the panel was Mania.

So Tl;DR, mixed bag, cool to see a new game, modern and classic are getting about the same amount, it was a pretty small showing that was padded out. 

Edit: Oh, top of the page is never good for me. 

Edit: Oh yeah, while I'm riling up fires anyway, might be a good time to mention that this still doesn't make Vector, Espio and Charmy viable for the classic line. If anything, the divide is being made further by making certain the reference is tied to SegaSonic the Hedgehog. 

[Silvereyes]

I'm afraid I missed the livestream. Sonic Mania Plus sounds pretty neat, although to be honest I think more Zones would of been far more interesting to myself. I like the idea of new characters, even very obscure ones from the franchise's past, but I must admit, I find it difficult to really care about 2 characters I have never had any interest in. (Although saying that, it's not like Amy is my favourite character either so I doubt I'd feel much better if she was announced.) Still, it's good stuff. As long as the DLC price isn't too high I will probably buy Plus when it comes out.

Not really sure why they decided to tease the title to a Sonic racing game. I'm not sure how many are going to get hyped over a racing game, but maybe that is me.

One question I wanted to ask is what they said about Mania's success. Did they say anything about the Mania team sticking around in future or anything like that? I mean hopefully a physical release and these animated webisodes will be evidence of Sega's faith in the Mania team personally, but just curious.

[DaddlerTheDalek]

Looking forward to the new Racing game, Mania Plus & Mania Adventures.

[Razule]

1 hour ago, silvereye27 said:

One question I wanted to ask is what they said about Mania's success. Did they say anything about the Mania team sticking around in future or anything like that? I mean hopefully a physical release and these animated webisodes will be evidence of Sega's faith in the Mania team personally, but just curious.

I mean... at this point it probably goes without saying.

[Silvereyes]

Yeah but it's Sega.

[Milo]

Mania physical release was really the major thing I wanted (aside from individual sales, which they didn't cover) so I'm satisfied with the on principle alone. The deluxe-style physical release (reversible cover, hologram cover, artbook, $30 budget price), Mania Adventures and Mania Plus are just so much gravy I'm also pleased with. Overall the announced Mania content gives me a much brighter perception on what happens to the classic half from Sonic from here on out.

The IDW information, Sonic + Puma shoe, RPO footage, and Speed Battle Mystic Jungle content are stuff I can do with or without.

The racing game teaser I'm not really impressed with due to how vague it is and having hardly any information revealed for it. Apparently Sega Europe (or some other party, apparently) said we will get more information about it later this month on March 22nd; so as long as we don't have to wait too long about it, I'm not too bothered.

[Whatever the WhoCares]

Yeah, that racing trailer kinda made the assumption that people would go nuts just from the tease. The only game that would be worthy of that kind of coy reveal at this point would be SA3. 

[TheOcelot]

One of the members on Retro detailed some of the questions asked to the panel at the Q&A, and the answers.

Quote

Having watched the stream in real time, some answers from the Q&A (NOT IN THE ORDER THEY WERE ASKED):

 

Re Sonic 3&K mobile port: Aaron goes "Uuhh, we've kind of stolen Taxman and Stealth for a little while longer, but we'll pass that on to the mobile team."

Re Dunkey mode: Everyone is bewildered by the question. Iizuka in English: "Dunkey mode..?" Aaron says "not sure about that, sorry."

Re Sonic 3nK Collection for PC changing the music (Michael Jackson was mentioned in the question by name): Everyone on the panel goes DEAD SILENT for like 20 seconds. Glances exchanged. Iizuka starts speaking in Japanese; this is translated as "I wasn't part of that specific project but there were various demands from across the company that needed to be met to allow the port to ship." Aaron goes "That is a GOOD QUESTION, by the way."

Re "I am a YouTube lore master who makes theory videos... Is Classic Sonic in Generations the same one that later shows up in Mania and Forces?": Iizuka: "Yes!" Aaron: "Nice simple answer! Closes up theories, opens up hundreds of new ones!"

Re "Tyson! If you had to boil down Sonic to one 2D animated appearance, what one would it be?": Tyson: "You know? I couldn't. I've watched basically everything - the 90's cartoons, CD, OVA, the anime... I don't think I could. Sorry! I hope I didn't ramble."

Re "I love Sticks... Do you think she'll appear in the games one day, or is she relegated to the spinoff dimension?": Aaron: "OH NO, THE DREADED SPINOFF DIMENSION!" Iizuka answers in Japanese, translated as something along the lines of "It's not planned but definitely possible."

Re "I love Silver, do you think he'll ever get his own game?": Iizuka says something which translates to "Silver is a character who is much beloved both in America and Europe, but also in Japan. We like him a lot but can't promise anything specific."

Re "Sonic was my childhood, I got the DS Classic Collection when I was 6, will you ever bring back Hyper Sonic?": Aaron: "Iizuka's answered this before so in the interest of time I'll repeat his previous answer - we don't want to be like a certain anime series and constantly be giving Sonic new powers and forms-" kid interrupts, laughing: "I see what you did there!!" Aaron asks how old the kid is now, he's 11. "That is a great question, and from an 11 year old - those games came out before you were born!" Everyone's having a great time, enthusiastic smiles on their faces.

Re "WHERE ARE YOU KEEPING BIG THE CAT??" - Iizuka grins, says "2058 new Big the Cat game" in English, an extension of a joke made earlier in the panel of "Sonic Schoolhouse 2 coming 2050". (An aside - that showed up on the slides with a logo made by Rafa Knight!)

Re "Do you think there'll be a franchise split of Mania games made by Whitehead's team, Adventure games made by some other team, Boost games made by Sonic Team?" - The question asker stutters a lot, and as a result nobody on the panel realises he's talking about a THREE way split of the franchise, rather than the two-way split that this panel has already confirmed. Iizuka says some stuff I can't remember about collaboration and Sonic Mania and that the modern game series isn't ending, and Aaron says "Sounds like it's already happening." Perhaps the only disappointing answer to an interesting question during the entire QnA.

One of the QnA slots is taken up by a pair of Sonic fan artists advertising a meetup in Dallas. Aaron: "We obviously can't officially endorse anything like that, but of course on the side we're going 'Go! Go! Have fun!'" The artists have fliers they'd like to give the panelists. "Not now but yes please, after this we'll have a meet and greet, we'll stick around to see everyone."

Re Taxman mobile remasters on Switch: Aaron: "What does the crowd think?" They scream excitedly. "We'll pass that on!"

Re "I know, not Sonic related, but... I miss Billy Hatcher!": Iizuka smiles a genuine smile, says some stuff that's translated as "It's been a long time since I've heard anything like that. There will be quite a few people from Sonic Team who will be very happy when I tell them he was asked about." This question/answer combo almost makes me feel kind of sad.

Re the possibility of a Crush 40 concert at SXSW, given it's known as 'music week': Aaron: "I can't speak for SXSW, but that sounds fun! What does the crowd think?" Some big screams. "Awesome! Can't promise anything, of course, but..."

Re Jon Burton (the GameHut Traveller's Tales guy) finding a 3D Blast demo track with unused music by Jun Senoue, and wanting to release it: Aaron: "Can't give permission, but he can reach out and we'll run it up the flag pole."

I'll update this post if I remember any more details! 

You can watched the entire Q&A on twitch:

Aaron answered the question about Sonic 3 mobile (48:00 in the video) masterfully.

The rather cheeky question about the S&K collection (59:30) was actually handled quite well by Iizuka-san.

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/239466892