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New Sonic Games Delayed to 2022


Wraith

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Ehhh I too was fine with the 2016 Sonic Forces trailer. Was a bit miffed when Classic Sonic appeared, but I still wanted to give the game a chance especially if they were aiming to go back to the fun gameplay mechanics of the last good Sonic game, Generations. Of course, that changed when I saw the SXSW clip the following year. Actually no, the Classic Sonic stage is what made me do a double take (and not in a good way!). 
 

 @Ryannumber1gamer Yeah I remember that, when they had Arin and the Completionist travel to Japan and stuff. I think it would’ve made MUCH more sense if they sent SomecallmeJohnny over instead of Arin, but yah I get it. Clout and a bigger audience! Still a strange choice though.

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I'm not a fan of CGI teasers, although my issue with those is that usually they don't really say anything about the game they're promoting.

In the case of Forces' reveal trailer, it was able to make it very clear that it was another boost game, and it showed the aesthetics of one stage and Classic Sonic returning. I think that was "okay", although I still would've preferred some bits of gameplay to go along with it.

That said, I think Nintendo has been acing the reveal to release timeframe for the past couple years. They reveal a game, slated for release 2-4 months after the trailer, they show lots of gameplay cause it's almost ready to go and the hype train doesn't crash and burn in the meantime cause it doesn't really have time to.

So, yeah, if the game is meant to be released in 2022, I'd prefer it to be revealed in 2022 IF they have nothing of substance to show yet.

That brings me to another point though. True, we're still in the middle of a pandemic, true, game development takes time, and true, they were *working* on Team Sonic Racing although that was mostly Sumo and yeah they worked on Sakura Wars I don't know to what extent.

But... Forces was done in 2017. There wasn't any substantial update for that game. What exactly have they been doing with Sonic if they don't have anything substantial to say or show about the game?

If the pandemic hit them so hard that they had to delay the game one whole year, it probably means that they started pre-production extremely late, not right after Forces.

Nintendo was able to release some pretty good games last year, which were close to being done and completed during the lockdown timeframe. Let's not forget that 2020 was supposed to be the year of Sonic initially, so, common sense would lead me to think that they were taking their time from 2017 to 2020, that's 3 years, to come up with a polished and well designed product to sell for money.

But the facts lead me to think that they started development in late 2019, had to stop for most of 2020 and so they have literally nothing to show. The cycle begins again, we waited 4 years for Forces but they only worked on it for maybe 2 years if we're lucky. I'm pretty positive it's the same thing again.

This is why I don't like going for so many years without a mainline Sonic game, it never means they've been working on it for the whole time, it's just corporate trying not to oversaturate the market like in the late 2000s, while still giving Sonic Team very tight budgets and dev time, so we just get the same lifeless games just less often. At that point I'd prefer it being a yearly release so at least I can blame the games being mediocre on that (also if you throw a lot of stuff at the wall, something oughta stick at one point, pretty sure there's more than a couple game that each one of us can enjoy from the 2000s, meanwhile if Lost World or Forces weren't your thing, this decade has been kind of worthless for you).

EDIT for tl;dr: if they spent 5 years on actually developing the game and coming up with a new framework and ideas, I would very much appreciate it and wait patiently and eagerly, but that's never the case so I'd prefer yearly releases in the hope that something sticks for me.

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I absolutely think that with the radio silence being as bad as it has been, it's better to go big or go home. People are going to expect a lot after waiting so long. A CGI teaser would be the worst possible way to officially announce these games- especially after how people felt lied to after Forces' CGI teaser, which gave a very distinct impression of what to expect, touting things that weren't even very accurate ("Brought to you by the team that brought you Sonic Colors and Sonic Generations" in order to bolster hype and set expectations).

And honestly? The people who WANT an early showing of this game when it's obviously not ready to be publicly shown off have learned nothing from the history of this franchise and its poor choices when it came to early announcements or expectations for timely releases. I would rather have complete radio silence until we can see something significant that represents what we're going to be getting more accurately- than be lied to by marketing.

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My thoughts on SEGA finallly revealing their E3 presence and this latest news about new games in 2022: I'm not gonna be that original. I think that we're going to be getting a lot of ports this year instead to fill the gaps and hype up the general public on Sonic.

Technically the 30th anniversary doesn't end until June of next year, so SEGA can get away with keeping the 30th anniversary branding for any 2022 titles until June. And normally I don't think that'd be a good idea since game releases in the first half of the year are not usually best for maximizing sales and attention, but Sonic is in a pretty special situation, what with his movie releasing in April, so there's a good excuse to premiere a new game around the same time.

In fact it's probably beneficial to the new game that they have such a luxurious excuse to push back the thing to 2022. I already was in the belief that a delay would probably happen because of COVID, but the movie just gives SEGA an excuse to push it back to a  profitable timeframe.

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On 5/4/2021 at 8:52 PM, Rabbitearsblog said:

I agree that the whole "SEGA doesn't care about Sonic" is a bit of an exaggeration because if SEGA seriously didn't care about Sonic anymore, then they would have announced by now that they are going to cut off all ties with the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise and focus on other games they are making.  

Well, Ubisoft never stated they’d officially abandon Rayman, but yet they did after a few educational games ran their course. The same thing happened with Crash for some time until the successful revival. 

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The thing about that is that developers don't typically close doors, they intentionally leave them open. It's just good PR and common sense. You never say "We're done making this thing", because demand for it can come back in full force later and then you end up with a different problem: sticking to your word or riding the coattails of the resurgence in popularity at the risk to the faith and trust the customers have in you- and SEGA has enough problems with that already, so yeah...

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Only the Sonic fanbase would have fans who desperately want literally any information about a game even though it's clear that something is going on at SEGA for them to be hesitant to reveal anything (COVID? Development issues? Literally no one knows), and in the same breath complain that the game will suck anywaySonic is DEAD, SEGA is EMBARASSED over Sonic even though the comics are doing well and the movie did better than expected and they have no problems announcing yet another cartoon or dozens of shorts in the works!! 

Like guys, just move on, you obviously do not like this series anymore.  If you think so negatively about literally nothing happening, it's just, move on, yeah? 

Still, yeah, divulging literally no information about a new game for four straight years is inherently harmful to SEGA, so this is not something they're doing liberally. I'm not so optimistic to think that all this time is spent making the perfect Sonic game (I have absolutely no idea what the new game will be like), but I also don't think they're having significant problems either. Sonic is not SEGA's only moneymaker anymore, so at worst they don't feel like they need to pimp out the blue hedgehog. COVID certainly impacted them in some way, there may have been a change in management, etc.

I won't be concerned until something happens, which I know it will.

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On 5/11/2021 at 8:00 AM, NoKaine said:

Only the Sonic fanbase would have fans who desperately want literally any information about a game even though it's clear that something is going on at SEGA for them to be hesitant to reveal anything (COVID? Development issues? Literally no one knows), and in the same breath complain that the game will suck anywaySonic is DEAD, SEGA is EMBARASSED over Sonic even though the comics are doing well and the movie did better than expected and they have no problems announcing yet another cartoon or dozens of shorts in the works!! 

Like guys, just move on, you obviously do not like this series anymore.  If you think so negatively about literally nothing happening, it's just, move on, yeah? 

Still, yeah, divulging literally no information about a new game for four straight years is inherently harmful to SEGA, so this is not something they're doing liberally. I'm not so optimistic to think that all this time is spent making the perfect Sonic game (I have absolutely no idea what the new game will be like), but I also don't think they're having significant problems either. Sonic is not SEGA's only moneymaker anymore, so at worst they don't feel like they need to pimp out the blue hedgehog. COVID certainly impacted them in some way, there may have been a change in management, etc.

I won't be concerned until something happens, which I know it will.

The pessimism is mostly extrapolated from trends.  The last few Sonic games have either been mediocre or good but small.  I think what fans really want is for SEGA to say or do something that restores hope.  As overdramatic as that sounds, it's fair to say that SEGA isn't cultivating a positive image of itself by not saying much about Sonic at a time when many feel it needs something to swing its reputation back to positive.  Granted, the movie was well-received but it feels like some golden opportunity was missed to capitalize on that, much as the pandemic makes that understandable.  I'd love to believe that the reason SEGA isn't showing something isn't actually that what they have planned isn't very impressive, but they haven't given me much else to work with.

And with regards to the "move on" bit, bare in mind that for over a year a lot of people could reply, "To what?"  Not a lot of people desire to live a life shut up indoors, but a lot of them had to do it and so some good video games really could have brightened people's lives.  Even now, there isn't much positive to look forward to in the world, even if the pandemic is getting nipped most places.

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18 hours ago, NoKaine said:

Only the Sonic fanbase would have fans who desperately want literally any information about a game even though it's clear that something is going on at SEGA for them to be hesitant to reveal anything (COVID? Development issues? Literally no one knows), and in the same breath complain that the game will suck anywaySonic is DEAD, SEGA is EMBARASSED over Sonic even though the comics are doing well and the movie did better than expected and they have no problems announcing yet another cartoon or dozens of shorts in the works!! 

Like guys, just move on, you obviously do not like this series anymore.  If you think so negatively about literally nothing happening, it's just, move on, yeah? 

Easier said than done.  When you grow up with a series, it's hard to let it go, even if the series is going in a direction that you don't like.  Like for example, I still love the X-Men franchise despite the fact that the comics are going in a direction that I don't like, so I just don't read the current comics, but I still support the franchise.  I imagine that a lot of Sonic fans don't like the direction that the series is going in right now, but they still hold on to the series because it's what they grew up with and letting that go can be very difficult.

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On 5/11/2021 at 10:00 AM, NoKaine said:

Only the Sonic fanbase would have fans who desperately want literally any information about a game even though it's clear that something is going on at SEGA for them to be hesitant to reveal anything (COVID? Development issues? Literally no one knows), and in the same breath complain that the game will suck anywaySonic is DEAD, SEGA is EMBARASSED over Sonic even though the comics are doing well and the movie did better than expected and they have no problems announcing yet another cartoon or dozens of shorts in the works!! 

Like guys, just move on, you obviously do not like this series anymore.  If you think so negatively about literally nothing happening, it's just, move on, yeah? 

Fucking thank you! I saw someone on Twitter say it wouldn't even matter if they've been working on the game all this time because it'll suck anyway. 

I just don't know why people are demanding news since they're going to be mad about it anyway. It doesn't matter what the next game is like if there's any flaws at all it'll be declared the worst game in the series...until the next one comes out. 

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On 5/12/2021 at 1:06 PM, Salamander said:

A bad game can make an interesting conversation.  Simple as that.

Absolutely not worth the cost it'll have on this brand, though.  We've seen it repeatedly demonstrated that a bad game won't kill Sonic, but it does tend to dissuade SEGA from doing more games in the style, no matter how much the style has potential.  A lot of the problems this brand faces are a result of SEGA's tendency to amputate flawed things rather than fix them, even if those things have a record of being done without such flaws.

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9 hours ago, Scritch the Cat said:

Absolutely not worth the cost it'll have on this brand, though.  We've seen it repeatedly demonstrated that a bad game won't kill Sonic, but it does tend to dissuade SEGA from doing more games in the style, no matter how much the style has potential.  A lot of the problems this brand faces are a result of SEGA's tendency to amputate flawed things rather than fix them, even if those things have a record of being done without such flaws.

Of course that's the case.  But the question wasn't, "why do people want a bad game?", because nobody wants a bad game (probably, maybe).  The question was, "why are people still hoping for news if they expect the next game to be bad?"  And the answer, setting aside the unacknowledged but ever-present sliver of hope that it won't be bad, is that there's still some worth a community can extract even from a bad experience.  A fuller answer would have included the fact that people don't want to leave a community in which they find companionship and understanding, but I had hoped that how communities work and why we're all here was tacitly understood.

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Nobody wants the game to be bad. The comments saying "it'll suck anyway" are a defeatest attitude. It's more sad then malicious. Faith has been lost and the desire and excitement to see something they want is being overriden by the knowledge that, as far as the 3D games are concerned, things are at their most banal.

Technically, things have been worse, sure, but the worst thing Sonic can be to me is boring so I at least understand the sentiment.

That said, I've been enjoying all the supplimentary material that isn't the 3D games. The IDW comics especially are my jam. There's only so much they can do to satisfy my lust for a good story though. At the end of the day, I want that experience to be interactive and the games are where I'm supposed to get that.

When all is said and done and the reveal finally happens, hopefully the 4-5 year wait will have borne fruit that's full of delicious substance again. If it doesn't it stands a chance at being one of the heaviest blows they've ever dealt. After the 3 years after Lost World for something like Sonic Forces (with Rise of Lyric in between), another 4 year wait for another Forces would be demonstrably unacceptable. I almost can't put it into words.

I hope it doesn't end up being that but because we have no information at present I've no reason to give them the benefit of the doubt. I did with Lost World because that was coming out after Generations. I can only go by what they've done before to try and gauge where they are and where they might be going after all.

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I'm not too upset with the game being delayed, honestly. Yeah, the wait isn't fun but hopefully they come out with something good. I understand why people are getting impatient, with a lot of mediocre games, but hey, we can only expect so much, and just keep our expectations in check in general. I'm just curious for the path the franchise takes in general. I kind of like the multimedia approach and don't see it as much of a problem, I don't think it takes away from the games and it expands the brand. Heck, I was introduced to the franchise through the cartoons. Game fans are probably upset over having to wait but at least we have fan content to hold us over. So yes, despite the game being delayed, I am still generally optimistic for the franchise as a whole, including the game(s) seeing as there's been a lot of time to work on it and polish it up.

If the next game is bad however...I think the games will probably go dormant, take a break. Not disappear forever, and Sega will probably throw their hat in the ring after a few years and everyone forgets, but the other Sonic media will keep going, and I'm sure many of the fans will be very upset (the forums would be very chaotic if that ever happened)

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2 hours ago, Mr. Ion said:

I'm not too upset with the game being delayed, honestly. Yeah, the wait isn't fun but hopefully they come out with something good. I understand why people are getting impatient, with a lot of mediocre games, but hey, we can only expect so much, and just keep our expectations in check in general. I'm just curious for the path the franchise takes in general. I kind of like the multimedia approach and don't see it as much of a problem, I don't think it takes away from the games and it expands the brand. Heck, I was introduced to the franchise through the cartoons. Game fans are probably upset over having to wait but at least we have fan content to hold us over. So yes, despite the game being delayed, I am still generally optimistic for the franchise as a whole, including the game(s) seeing as there's been a lot of time to work on it and polish it up.

If the next game is bad however...I think the games will probably go dormant, take a break. Not disappear forever, and Sega will probably throw their hat in the ring after a few years and everyone forgets, but the other Sonic media will keep going, and I'm sure many of the fans will be very upset (the forums would be very chaotic if that ever happened)

If the next Sonic game is as bland as Forces or as bad as 06 I'm leaving the series. 

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23 minutes ago, The Famous Sonic said:

If the next Sonic game is as bland as Forces or as bad as 06 I'm leaving the series. 

Dude 

No one leaves. We're all gluttons for punishment. 

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I honestly don't mind if the game comes out 2022 just as long as it's a good game. The Hedgehog Engine 2 is finished, Pontaff is off the team, and the franchise in general seems to be shifting in direction, so I'm holding out hope. I'm not going to have any expectations, though, but yeah.

I'm really wondering how things will go, too, with Sonic Team not being a thing anymore. Like, will they get some new team members from SEGA, or will it be basically the same team under a different name?

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I'll be real I really don't see what was so bad about Forces. I mean it's not the greatest game but honestly I thought it was fun enough and honestly I'll never understand complaints about the visuals. I honestly think it looks really good like that stage where Sonic escapes the Death Egg looks legit impressive to me and I played it on a Switch Lite.

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54 minutes ago, FloweringFox said:

I honestly don't mind if the game comes out 2022 just as long as it's a good game. The Hedgehog Engine 2 is finished, Pontaff is off the team, and the franchise in general seems to be shifting in direction, so I'm holding out hope. I'm not going to have any expectations, though, but yeah.

I'm really wondering how things will go, too, with Sonic Team not being a thing anymore. Like, will they get some new team members from SEGA, or will it be basically the same team under a different name?

I agree. Did Sonic Team ever say it dissolved? Was this one of Zippo's leaks? I mean, hypothetically, it would be the same team working on games, just with new people, or at least that's how I'd like to do it (but then again, what do I know about business or game development)

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9 minutes ago, SBR2 said:

I'll be real I really don't see what was so bad about Forces. I mean it's not the greatest game but honestly I thought it was fun enough and honestly I'll never understand complaints about the visuals. I honestly think it looks really good like that stage where Sonic escapes the Death Egg looks legit impressive to me and I played it on a Switch Lite.

I think the lighting and graphics were pretty good in Forces, though they could've just been utilized a bit better, but that's more the art design of the stages more than anything. Like that mystic jungle stage, it could've had a more interesting landscape, colors that pop more, and emphasize the casino looking aspects to integrate in the level. But anyways, you're right in that Forces had good lighting. I think the stages' art design could've complemented it more.
Also yeah, Forces gets too much hate for what's a pretty boilerplate game. But that's exactly the problem. A lot of fans were tired of the mediocrity, especially after the boom games and lost world. A lot of people see it as a game that had potential but failed, and has a lot of elements. Though, remember that everyone is entitled to their opinion and it's completely fine if you like forces. I don't hate forces either. I don't think it's amazing, but it's passable enough. 

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3 minutes ago, Mr. Ion said:

I think the lighting and graphics were pretty good in Forces, though they could've just been utilized a bit better, but that's more the art design of the stages more than anything. Like that mystic jungle stage, it could've had a more interesting landscape, colors that pop more, and emphasize the casino looking aspects to integrate in the level. But anyways, you're right in that Forces had good lighting. I think the stages' art design could've complemented it more.
Also yeah, Forces gets too much hate for what's a pretty boilerplate game. But that's exactly the problem. A lot of fans were tired of the mediocrity, especially after the boom games and lost world. A lot of people see it as a game that had potential but failed, and has a lot of elements. Though, remember that everyone is entitled to their opinion and it's completely fine if you like forces. I don't hate forces either. I don't think it's amazing, but it's passable enough. 

Fair enough. I haven't actually played Lost World or the Boom games so I can't really comment on their quality. 

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1 minute ago, SBR2 said:

Fair enough. I haven't actually played Lost World or the Boom games so I can't really comment on their quality. 

Same, though I might pick up Lost World sometime in the future if I'm bored, it's on PC anyhow.
Speaking of that, hopefully we get more ports this year or in 2022.

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1 hour ago, Mr. Ion said:

I agree. Did Sonic Team ever say it dissolved? Was this one of Zippo's leaks? I mean, hypothetically, it would be the same team working on games, just with new people, or at least that's how I'd like to do it (but then again, what do I know about business or game development)

That's what I'd heard alot recently. There are leaks about Sonic Studio being the new name of the team behind Sonic now, but I'm not 100% sure, honestly. I do hope that they get some new team members who had worked professionally on games, though. I think Sonic Team was already a fairly small team, with Sonic Forces having level design made by newbies to the platforming design.

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On 5/15/2021 at 9:34 PM, FloweringFox said:

That's what I'd heard alot recently. There are leaks about Sonic Studio being the new name of the team behind Sonic now, but I'm not 100% sure, honestly. I do hope that they get some new team members who had worked professionally on games, though. I think Sonic Team was already a fairly small team, with Sonic Forces having level design made by newbies to the platforming design.

Yeah.  I think the Sonic franchise would be in better hands if they had some new blood to the team or just people who know how to develop games properly.

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