Why is Sonic Rift getting big???

[Madalass]

I watched a few of the recent Rift-related videos and now i'm practically getting recommended all of them so i feel an obligation to discuss this.

 

Why in gods' name are these leaks getting as big as they are?

 

The only validity these leaks hold is based on the fanbase's cynicism that the franchise won't improve and Sonic Team will be just as deaf to nuance as they've always been and will continue to try, and fail, to please every part of the Sonic crowd with these leaks. That's not an unfair judgement to make though, mind you- in fact, part of me feels the same but part of me also realises Sonic will be in grave danger if they really don't learn from this, and since Forces, the opinion that 'they need to stop listening and just do what works for an experience' has grown exponentially in popularity- where the hell could they ever get the opinion that we need X from Adventure or Y from boost, or some specific story formula changes? All we want is a decent, cohesive experience. It feels like there's no reason for a game like this to even be able to exist, it'd basically be Sonic Team unloading an entire mag into their hideously deformed foot, though in hindsight that isn't exactly a new move for them.

 

However, these leaks on their own have no validity. The fact it's allegedly told by a 'playtester' is the biggest load i've ever seen. It's literally the equivalent of 'my dad works for Nintendo' and that stopped functioning as an excuse the moment the internet evolved to be anything more than a digital fetus. Who's believing this stuff????

 

Well, anticlimactic as this segue is; no one, or at least not many. What is happening however is that clickbait-ass Sonictubers are milking this shit for all it's worth and it's even stupider than the time where the Half-life 3 conspiracies were unironic. Almost unarguably the worst example is GamerGuyd7Aces, who has basically taken leaks with zero connection- some holding more validity than the others- and tied them up in ways that would make Valve fans in 2014 blush. 

There's no connection between the recent Rift leaks [with the playtester] and the leak regarding how Sonic Team had been spread too thin between the Adventure remakes and 'project 2021' and there was no evidence 2021 was going to be a boost game, especially in response to how 'sonic team felt like they were finally making something original' when Sonic Rift looks literally no different to Sonic Colors but with a maybe decent story premise, not even explicitly execution.

The "Sonic Team Cycle" should only prove that this ISN'T happening, as Forces was the failure that should have set a revamp of the gameplay concepts in motion, NOT whatever game they're making now.

And NOTHING about the 'development hell' Project 2021 and Adventure 1/2 are allegedly going through should point towards this being a Boost-style game. For one it doesn't matter what Sonic Team makes, Sega, if they feel like it, will put their grubby hands over it and twist it into something they see as being corporately viable even at the expense of the team's budget, team size, anything. It doesn't have to be a boost game to go through development hell just because Sonic Forces did.

However, because of this drought, SonicTubers are forcing this drivel down people's throats and probably making the less aware people believe this stuff because they need their sweet, sweet ad revenue, hence why they haven't moved onto variety content given the drought, because they think they'll never recover from 'abandoning' Sonic and having their fanbase leave, which a ton of popular Youtubers/streamers like Jerma, Ster, RTGame, and all those kinds of people would disagree with. In fact by being a SonicTuber in this era, you're shooting yourself in the foot because there's nothing to report on, and therefore, nothing to watch, and nothing for people to care about or find substance in. But because they already have a viewerbase consisting of kids who believe stuff like this, they don't want to move on because they're afraid they'll lose money. That's all it is to them, money, and they've decided it's more worthy to sell their souls and report on these ridiculous-ass leaks and create paper-thin connections just to give their viewerbase consisting of people likely between the age of 10 and 15 some kind of hope of a new game just to keep them watching. It's gross as fuck.

 

And the fact i even have to say this despite the fact the leak was POSTED by an ALLEGED PLAYTESTER is honestly just beyond me. I had a friend in 9th grade who told me she was playtesting Kingdom Hearts 3, that's how childish, ridiculous and unfounded these leaks are. These leaks don't even DESERVE a grain of salt, you shouldn't be listening to them in the FIRST place.

 

-Sigh-

That's my rant for now, though. I hope i'm not the only one holding this opinion and i hope i'm not the only one grossed out by how these people have basically sold their soul for clicks from kids who don't know any better. They're one step away from Fortnite youtubers, and all that step is, is the choice of game/franchise featured on the channel. Not the content they make, not why they make it, not how they feel about it, not the clickbait, none of it, they're essentially the same people outside of the game choice, alone. And Sonic was the LAST franchise i'd wanted to see this happen for, but with a drought like this and people like this, it was inevitable, really.

[Badnik Mechanic]

The first line in the first leak was...

 

"I'm a playtester for Sega of America".

 

QA/Playtesting isn't done at SOA.

That right there is the end of it.

[Wraith]

Someone linked me to a Sonic Drift video the other day. One of the first details in the rumor was that sega signed an NDA that let playtesters talk about the game as long as they don't share photos or video. If any NDA worked this way then I'm pretty sure NDAs would be entirely redundant. 

Anyway, you've kind of answered your own question with the OP. There's a content drought and youtubers who are centralized entirely on a lot of rapid fire, reactionary content are going to have to try to keep the carny show running with nothing to run it on. Sonic Rift is the latest in a long series of rumors that have plagued Sonic tube for about 5 years now, and just about every time it comes down to drying to squeeze blood out of a stone. 10 minutes of mumbled padding, sensationalizing and baseless speculation and for what? Just to hold your attention for a couple of minutes before you move onto something else? Youtube is already basically the fast food of entertainment  and this is as cheap as it gets.

In terms of activity, Sonic is a series of peaks and valleys. Sudden bursts of activity followed by some lengthy silence. It's not something you can run this type of channel on sustainably so they cling to the deluge of fan content. drama and rumors instead. Widening their net of coverage can help a lot with this too but just from what I've heard some of these guys say they don't seem to have much of a frame of reference outside of Sonic anyway. Assuming they have to cling to Sonic, what can they do?

. Video essays and retrospectives can be equally obnoxious and vapid, but at least they're usually a bit more well thought out by default. Covering older media instead of headlines means you have no real need to be current and timely either and can post whenever you want as long as you have something worth saying. If you don't want to do that, fangames could always use more attention. Draw some fanart. Do an animation. Audio dramas. Hell, the comics come out monthly and they're barely a blip on these people's radar. Anything is better than this. This low-effort content doesn't feel necessary in any way.  There's some risk associated on spending more time per video but I feel like Sonic fans are a more consistent audience than most as long as you capture their attention. 




 

 

 

[Tracker_TD]

SonicTubers being hacks is nothing new, sadly. As Wraith put pretty much perfectly, the reason the likes of Premydaremy get so hilariously pissed off over the lack of Sonic news despite claiming to be over Sonic or whatever, is because regurgitating Sonic news is all they have. People aren't watching their shlock for them, it's just more Sonic content (if you can really call it that) for people to stuff their faces with. God forbid they learn how to make actually interesting videos, that's effort! 

(On that note, props to Cybershell for coming back and showing them how it's done. I didn't get the hype at first, but now I've watched his stuff I can tell he's a good dude). 

[Badnik Mechanic]

3 minutes ago, Tracker_TD said:

(On that note, props to Cybershell for coming back and showing them how it's done. I didn't get the hype at first, but now I've watched his stuff I can tell he's a good dude). 

What about that Badnik Mechanic guy?

My mum thinks he's cool.

[SBR2]

I'm glad I don't follow any SonicTubers (Unless you count Clement and SomeCallMeJohnny) because until yesterday when someone mentioned it getting big to me I had no idea it was even still a rumor going around.

I saw the 4Chan "Leak" last year but honestly just thought it came and went.

[Eurisko]

6 hours ago, Badnik Mechanic said:

The first line in the first leak was...

 

"I'm a playtester for Sega of America".

 

QA/Playtesting isn't done at SOA.

That right there is the end of it.

This. Case closed. 

"Leaker" didn't do his homework.

[Guest]

Never been so glad for a rumor to be proven false.

[Rabid-Coot]

Did someone see the next Ratchet and Clank and fanfic a Sonic game from it?

[Dr. Detective]

What the hell is Sonic Rift? I stay away from SonicTubers and leaks of any kind so I've no clue what all of this is about.

Actually, now that I think about it, I think someone at work tried asking me about this. I assumed they were talking about a fan-game and blew it off but apparently its not?

[Polkadi~☆]

This actually isn't the first time a "Sonic Rift" rumour keeps popping up. A year back, such a "leak" happened, and the year before that too.

It's actually rather strange that it pops up with the same name every so often, with different incorrect details every time.

[Madalass]

15 hours ago, Wraith said:

One of the first details in the rumor was that sega signed an NDA that let playtesters talk about the game as long as they don't share photos or video. If any NDA worked this way then I'm pretty sure NDAs would be entirely redundant.

...jesus christ, and this got reported on? It's worse than i thought, apparently.

2 hours ago, Polkadi~☆ said:

This actually isn't the first time a "Sonic Rift" rumour keeps popping up. A year back, such a "leak" happened, and the year before that too.

It's actually rather strange that it pops up with the same name every so often, with different incorrect details every time.

No, i know. That's part of my confusion, it was already admitted as being a hoax but now some hack looking for attention has brought it back and Sonictubers are eating that shit up like they totally forgot it was ADMITTED as being a fake.

3 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

What the hell is Sonic Rift? I stay away from SonicTubers and leaks of any kind so I've no clue what all of this is about.

Actually, now that I think about it, I think someone at work tried asking me about this. I assumed they were talking about a fan-game and blew it off but apparently its not?

Read above. TL;DR fake leak gets brought back by a bunch of people probably looking for the exact response they got; eg, a shit ton of videos on it.

6 hours ago, Rabid-Coot said:

Did someone see the next Ratchet and Clank and fanfic a Sonic game from it?

Oh my fucking god you're right

12 hours ago, Tracker_TD said:

SonicTubers being hacks is nothing new, sadly. As Wraith put pretty much perfectly, the reason the likes of Premydaremy get so hilariously pissed off over the lack of Sonic news despite claiming to be over Sonic or whatever, is because regurgitating Sonic news is all they have. People aren't watching their shlock for them, it's just more Sonic content (if you can really call it that) for people to stuff their faces with. God forbid they learn how to make actually interesting videos, that's effort! 

(On that note, props to Cybershell for coming back and showing them how it's done. I didn't get the hype at first, but now I've watched his stuff I can tell he's a good dude). 

I'm glad i'm not the only person awakened to this bullshit then, at least. I used to adore Premy's content for... some reason. Stupidity, probably. But then they just started saying the same thing across 15 different Sonic 30th anniversary videos and i realised "Jesus christ this guy is a tool".

Cybershell slaps though

[Natie]

People will believe leak rumors if they want it to be true, and with people complaining about a "drought" it's no surprise.

[Guest]

4 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

Actually, now that I think about it, I think someone at work tried asking me about this. I assumed they were talking about a fan-game and blew it off but apparently its not?

I wish people at my job cared about Sonic. ;-;

[Iko]

I'm a bit skeptical, but I was also skeptical of Sonic Wars and then it turned out to be a bit unaccurate but true, so it wouldn't surprise me much if Rift was ture as well.

Considering the NDA thing it might just be fake, or maybe Sega let those informations leak on purpose to test the water and see the people's reaction (especially after what happend with the old Sonic model in the movie, and the reception of Forces).

I have read some informations about the leak, and it really depends on how it will turn out. I'm sad that apparently other characters will be useless or not exist at all once again, but some things I've read don't sound that bad, depending on the execution. Ring management and ring-based skills is somethng I was asking for since a while, because I realized how useless is in this series to have more than one ring, and I wished they were more meaningful.

Apparently levels let you travel through different sections of completely different environments (the person talked about a tutorial level where you go through a beach, a jungle, a carnival area and an icy mountain), if well executed it might actually be good, and give a nice sense of travel. Too bad for 2D sections though.

The "Dimensions" structure is obviously Mario Odyssey's kingdoms, it wouldn't surprise me at all considering Lost World's Galaxy planetoids and Unleashed's Wolf Link inspiration, it wouldn't be the first time at all.

Though this version of the leak does not seem much compatible with the other one saying that there are no 2D sections and other characters are playable with alternated playstyles... honestly either this is a huge bandwagon fake leak with different unrelated versions made up by different people, or there's something real and something not.

Worst case scenario, Sega has a gameplay ready and they still did not plan the game's gimmicks and story, so they are secretly collecting people's feedback to make the game the way it meets the people's tastes the most... though this would mean that the game is still at an early stage of development and it has to come out this year, basically Forces 2 (wouldn't surprise me either though, less than 1 year of development, they already did it once).

Anyway, the dimensions version of the leak seems more interesting to me (at least it seems there is some thought put in the gameplay from the little informations we have), the future one not so much.

I wish of being able to play as other characters some day, and not just the badass ones (Shadow Silver etc), also the more funny ones as well; enough with this "OMG it's a war it's serious! *this* would be unfitting!" feel this series went for from since Forces was released, I miss the more lighthearted settings, and by lighthearted I don't mean Lost World levels, the Classics-Adventure/Heroes-Advance-Rush-Boost up to Generations were fine even if there were some "dark" moments, they should just go back to that mood.

[Roger_van_der_weide]

Barely heard about this Sonic Rift rumor.
Would be funny IF it's true, it'd be the second time in a row Sonic's directly competing with Crash Bandicoot.

But I just love how the believability of the rumor depends entirely on how bad it makes Sonic Team look.
"Sonic Team's really learned their lesson and is making this awesome game!
Nah, BS.
Sonic Team's even more desperate and flailing around like an idiot.
Aha, I knew it!"
I mean, I'm guilty of it. Everyone's just so darkly cynical, it feels like all Sonic fans are Waldorf and Statler just waiting for SonicTeam Fonzy to get on stage so we can pelt tomatoes on them.

Funny that this didn't happen after Sonic 06 and the dark ages, but in the decade with several critical darlings and Sonic Team obeying every demand reviewers stipulated to escape from "the dark age". No more crappy friends, no more annual releases, more polish, 2d gameplay, green hill zone, everything you wanted! The series is saved! Oh wait, everyone is more pissed off then ever, never mind. 

I guess having bad or misguided games creates passion and a desire for redeption and improvement, while this decade of passionless "kinda giving you what you want" bare minimalism just inspires bitter apathy.
Would almost make me want the next game to be properly bad, if only so everyone's in a better headspace.
Not bad as in Forces just being lazy, boring and directionless, I mean a passion project madly flying off the rails bad.
Hooray, there's passion again! Let's cheer them on for improvements.

[Madalass]

36 minutes ago, Roger_van_der_weide said:

But I just love how the believability of the rumor depends entirely on how bad it makes Sonic Team look.
"Sonic Team's really learned their lesson and is making this awesome game!
Nah, BS.
Sonic Team's even more desperate and flailing around like an idiot.
Aha, I knew it!"

THIS, this exactly. It's like, the leaks say that it's what we would think is bad, so people believe it and somehow come up with flimsy connections with older leaks to somehow justify it so we can temper our expectations in time, or something? It's like at this point people WANT it to be bad because it's expected, and that way at least they're reasonably disappointed instead of being on edge that it'll be like, the worst game ever, because they have no idea what to expect.

Edit:
I rushed to make that statement because that's exactly what i was saying, and after getting around to the rest of your comment- well said. It's like, even Boom had so much potential, it just got shafted royally in development. But Forces doesn't have an excuse, and 90% of the last decade's releases haven't. So yeah, it's definitely draining. Like "And FORCES... is so soullessly mediocre i can't possibly have an opinion on it, it- it actually sucks the life out of me", repeated since like, 2011.

[blueblur98]

The second they said that they signed a Non-Disclosure Agreement that let them disclose things under certain circumstances was the second I knew this was just a load of crap that shouldn't be given the time of day.

Any leak with the name Sonic Rift is very likely fake.

[Piko]

11 hours ago, blueblur98 said:

The second they said that they signed a Non-Disclosure Agreement that let them disclose things under certain circumstances was the second I knew this was just a load of crap that shouldn't be given the time of day.

Exactly! I was skeptical about the "leak" at first, but it actually seemed somewhat believable until the NDA part. Just imagine someone saying "Yeah dude, dump the entire fucking ROM online if you want, but no photos or videos!" It's called a non-disclosure agreement for a reason.

[OtakuHedgehog]

I think Sonic Rift is getting big because we are still in a pandemic and a lot of people are stuck at home and bored so they find entertainment from discussing video game rumors whether if they’re believable or not.

[Piko]

12 hours ago, OtakuHedgehog said:

I think Sonic Rift is getting big because we are still in a pandemic and a lot of people are stuck at home and bored so they find entertainment from discussing video game rumors whether if they’re believable or not.

Off the wall rumours in the Sonic fandom are nothing new.

[Gotta Go Rational]

Yeah, it’s weird that this is the one that’s getting all the attention, I don’t think you can go one week on 4chan without someone “leaking” a future Sonic game, I’ve seen about 20 of them over the last few months, each new one contradicting the last. Will be interesting in the future to see if any one of them had any semblance of truth. I guess the difference is simply that this happens to be a claim that some Sonic youtubers’ve caught wind of, and have given it much more amplification. Anyone remember the "leak" of a game called Sonic Dimensions (not the Lego expansion) back in early 2012? Some of the most well-known Sonic fansites were reporting it as all-but-confirmed until Iizuka shot it down in an interview.  

[Piko]

7 hours ago, Gotta Go Rational said:

Will be interesting in the future to see if any one of them had any semblance of truth.

To be fair, some leaks have turned out to be true; I believe Forces was leaked (although with a few inaccuracies) back when we all called it Project 2017 because the name hadn’t been finalised yet. But this Sonic Rift thing? It’s utter BS, no doubt about it.

[Multikaris]

On 1/17/2021 at 3:40 AM, Roger_van_der_weide said:

Barely heard about this Sonic Rift rumor.
Would be funny IF it's true, it'd be the second time in a row Sonic's directly competing with Crash Bandicoot.

But I just love how the believability of the rumor depends entirely on how bad it makes Sonic Team look.
"Sonic Team's really learned their lesson and is making this awesome game!
Nah, BS.
Sonic Team's even more desperate and flailing around like an idiot.
Aha, I knew it!"
I mean, I'm guilty of it. Everyone's just so darkly cynical, it feels like all Sonic fans are Waldorf and Statler just waiting for SonicTeam Fonzy to get on stage so we can pelt tomatoes on them.

Funny that this didn't happen after Sonic 06 and the dark ages, but in the decade with several critical darlings and Sonic Team obeying every demand reviewers stipulated to escape from "the dark age". No more crappy friends, no more annual releases, more polish, 2d gameplay, green hill zone, everything you wanted! The series is saved! Oh wait, everyone is more pissed off then ever, never mind. 

I guess having bad or misguided games creates passion and a desire for redeption and improvement, while this decade of passionless "kinda giving you what you want" bare minimalism just inspires bitter apathy.
Would almost make me want the next game to be properly bad, if only so everyone's in a better headspace.
Not bad as in Forces just being lazy, boring and directionless, I mean a passion project madly flying off the rails bad.
Hooray, there's passion again! Let's cheer them on for improvements.

1. The crappy friends... they’re back! Forces WAS on the borderline of properly bad, though. 

[Gotta Go Rational]

14 hours ago, Piko said:

To be fair, some leaks have turned out to be true; I believe Forces was leaked (although with a few inaccuracies) back when we all called it Project 2017 because the name hadn’t been finalised yet. But this Sonic Rift thing? It’s utter BS, no doubt about it.

Indeed, I remember someone also correctly stating that Forces would have a create-a-character feature before that had been revealed as well.  That’s what I mean; I’ve read so many “leaks” about upcoming Sonic games for 2021/2022 that it’ll be interesting down the road to see retroactively if any of them end up holding water, as was the case with some of the Forces leaks.