I have a bad feeling the 30th Anniversary 2021 game will be delayed till 2022

[Donnie Jay]

4 hours ago, Roger_van_der_weide said:

Forces was delayed a year past it's 25th anniversary deadline tough, so not sure if that's such a good example.
If anything, it boggles the mind why the big anniversary game only had an empty engine and vague concept outlines on the big day.

Forces issue, i think, is the lack of employee retention. I remember the most senior staff that wasn't Lizuka being one of the musicians, who ironically did SEGA Genesis music. Everyone else was like, bottom credits from Generations or Lost World, including the lead level designer iirc, because Nintendo poached the more senior staff for Mario. Hopefully now that they've had time to get it right, the game will be better, but at the same time i hope they hired the Mania team to do a new game...

[Red Hot Jack]

I think people kinda forgot about this: 

https://tailschannel.com/sonic-the-hedgehog/2020/sega-will-celebrate-sonics-30th-anniversary-with-new-games-and-events-in-2021/

SEGA has things planned for 2021, whether they will be pushed back because of the global situation, that we shall see. Physical events are definitely NOT happening, they better be aware of this.

[Coz483]

I'm gonna be honest, at this point I would rather have mediocre Sonic games releasing every other year, rather than having to wait 4 years for something that's mediocre.

[Madalass]

I feel like it depends on whatever's gonna be happening. If we don't have multiple releases in the works, it'll likely come next year. If we do, which apparently was confirmed [though i missed it clearly] then you'll be right about it releasing a year later. Mania and Forces were in a relatively similar situation, after all. 

The new big release lining up with the Sonic movie would be a very interesting tactic if the movie turns out as well as the first one did. It'd be a good way to get the game sold. Though i'm wondering if it'll be a wholly original game, or an Adventure remake... I'll admit, i'm not much for Sega pandering to people's nostalgia, but it'd be incredibly smart if they used the movie to get older/previous fans talking- again- and then release a remake of one of the more beloved games in the series. That alone has me thinking it might be a remake of some kind- i can only hope it's Adventure, but i suppose an official remake of one of the first three games would be interesting. All they've had so far are re-releases.

Guess we'll find out later though

[OtakuHedgehog]

On 11/30/2020 at 3:37 AM, Roger_van_der_weide said:

Forces was delayed a year past it's 25th anniversary deadline tough, so not sure if that's such a good example.
If anything, it boggles the mind why the big anniversary game only had an empty engine and vague concept outlines on the big day.
Practically every Sonic game from Fire and Ice on has been delayed. Didn't do fire and ice any favors (Altough I vastly prefer it over Shattered Crystals, but the rest of the world keeps forgetting it exists) Didn't do Forces or Team Racing any favors. It did the Sonic movie some favors tough, so there's the one big victory for Team Delay.

Well Sonic Mania was delayed, and that game was highly praised.

[Scar]

So be it.

A history of half-baked games tells me that if Sonic Team/SEGA need more time, they should do it.

[Gotta Go Rational]

On 11/30/2020 at 11:37 AM, Roger_van_der_weide said:

Forces was delayed a year past it's 25th anniversary deadline tough, so not sure if that's such a good example.

Is it actually confirmed that Forces was at one point planned to be released in 2016? Just curious.

[LeviTheGreat]

It's the world of gaming.

If we look at how many times Nintendo has done it with Metriod and Final Fantasy VII remake. 

I wouldn't be surprised if Sega needed more time.

The important thing is that they take their time to make the game the best it can be.

[ByrdBlaze778899]

I think they should release  a sonic mania 2 and/or a sonic adventure remake(they should be released in June) and release a spin-off in November. Then delay mainline game to 2022 so they can have event and release it alongside the sonic movie 2 and sonic Netflix show. Also give us ports in 2021(I wan't to play unleashed on switch) or....... they could give us an unoriginal wallpaper

[sassytassie]

On the topic of Covid -- let's be honest, I don't see much changing by next year, sadly.

Regardless, I think the general consensus is that we just want SEGA to take their time. We've had enough of these half-assed rushed games (06, Boom) just to say they put something out. So if we have to wait, we have to wait. Just sucks that it wouldn't be happening in a major anniversary year. 30 years is a big deal.

[Scritch the Cat]

On 3/10/2021 at 9:49 AM, sassytassie said:

On the topic of Covid -- let's be honest, I don't see much changing by next year, sadly.

Regardless, I think the general consensus is that we just want SEGA to take their time. We've had enough of these half-assed rushed games (06, Boom) just to say they put something out. So if we have to wait, we have to wait. Just sucks that it wouldn't be happening in a major anniversary year. 30 years is a big deal.

I've said this before and I'll say it again: Games should definitely not be released and sold for money if they're not finished, so yeah; don't rush to meet important events, but that has nothing to do with whether or not they show off what they've been working on, for free.  On the contrary, giving people a good pre-release look at their games, including hopefully demos, will let them spot errors and make it harder for SEGA to release and profit from unfinished games anymore.   And for the record, I don't know how much the pandemic would delay a game, but they said they started working on it a year before the pandemic hit.  That's more than enough time to create something they can show.

Quite possibly not something they could complete by their original deadline due to the pandemic, but if SEGA is planning to delay it past this year, I say the honorable thing would be to admit that sooner rather than later.  Also, to give us a look at what's coming, even if it's only conceptual.  I'll tolerate delays if I'm convinced that SEGA's still doing everything it safely can to create a quality product.  But if I have no insight into what they're making up until, say, the same quarter it comes out, then I'm going to assume the reason is just because what they have in the works isn't all that exciting.  If they don't rush a game out, it probably won't be broken, but if they're half-assing it the way they did TSR, which people knew would have an unforgivably paltry amount of content well before it released,  then it's in their interest to conceal that fact as long as possible. (Their interest, yes, but not ours.) If SEGA is making the sort of game Sonic deserves for its 30th anniversary, then it'll be good enough to start hyping up at the start of a year and will keep people hyped by the holiday season, and that is, in fact, still true if the pandemic necessitates them delaying it.  So at this point, I see no good reason not to give some preview.  If it's not done it's not done, but nobody demands a game previewed before release to be done.  They just want a show of good faith.

Also, while we may never know if they planned to reveal any game news at last year's SXSW, I still feel a bit miffed that SEGA just cancelled its news drop there instead of shifting it online, something most software companies managed to do fairly well.  For a pandemic to delay a 30th anniversary game release is tragic but understandable, but I feel there's still fanfare SEGA could have risen about the anniversary in other ways.  I'm sad this hasn't been done much.  Sonic debuted in June 1991; if by June 2021 there still isn't even much teasing I'm going to assume SEGA has little to boast.

[User18091994]

They are going to release the major game next year. Would be a better timing because the brand will have much exposure due to the Sonic Movie sequel and Sonic Prime. But, I think we'll have some kind of trailer or teaser still this year. Or even a smaller scale game (such as Sonic Mania 2 or other 2D game), or spin-off.

[Piko]

I don’t think it would be a good idea to release the 30th anniversary game(s?) alongside Prime and the movie sequel. Releasing 3 things around the same time would lead to an overwhelming amount of Sonic news and content, much like how we were bombarded with Mania/Forces news for a good year and a half. While it would be great for hardcore fans, it might overwhelm casual fans and put them off something they would have otherwise checked out.

My money’s on a holiday 2021 release, maybe 2022 if (and only if) it absolutely has to be delayed. It’s not uncommon for Sonic games to be announced in spring, then released the holiday season of that year.