News 'Sonic Frontiers' Trademarked by SEGA

[phobs]

Do you guys remember about how we all laughed at "Sonic Frontiers" leaks? Well, SEGA officially registered trademark for "Sonic Frontiers" in Japan

 

[CertifiedNobody]

9 minutes ago, phobs said:

Do you guys remember about how we all laughed at "Sonic Frontiers" leaks? Well, SEGA officially registered trademark for "Sonic Frontiers" in Japan

 

We laughed at them? I just kept them in mind as plausible but unconfirmed.

So is this openly available online or is it coming from a specific source?

[Red Hot Jack]

Shush, I like the name Frontiers more than Rangers, because Ranger...s, Sonic is the only playable character; Frontiers makes sense for the focus on the open world.

[phobs]

EDIT: Link to the official trademark

1 hour ago, CertifiedNobody said:

We laughed at them? I just kept them in mind as plausible but unconfirmed.

By that I meant, that it wasn't taken seriously. I'm sorry for the confusion

Unfortunately, I don't know how trademarks work in Japan but Japanese trademark miners say that this is legal filling for the title that officially comes from SEGA themselves.

 

Edited November 8, 2021 by phobs
Added the official trademark

[CertifiedNobody]

40 minutes ago, Jack-al said:

Shush, I like the name Frontiers more than Rangers, because Ranger...s, Sonic is the only playable character; Frontiers makes sense for the focus on the open world.

We have no evidence that Sonic's the only playable character, just that he was the only one in the very rough demo.

[Zaysho]

Mainline Sonic games for the last decade have pretty much shunted off the rest of the cast to the background, there's little reason to believe they'll break the streak. Even Shadow in Forces is just a reskin that they didn't bother to fully animate or implement into Forces because of some QTE segments in Sonic's levels.

At most I'll probably just forget this is the title up until Sega decides to actually talk about it. "Sonic Rangers" just rolls off much easier for me at the moment, but if the open world rumors are true, "Frontiers" makes more sense and it's far less misleading sounding than "Forces" (and all of that game's marketing) or "Rangers" which does make it sound like it'd include others.

[Kuzu]

Quote

We have no evidence that Sonic's the only playable character, just that he was the only one in the very rough demo.

If Sega wanted the other characters to be playable, they would have been playable already. They simply don't want to do so and just focus on Sonic as the primary playable character. 

[Sega DogTagz]

Sonic Rangers homages the Eco-Freedom Fighter roots of the franchise.

 

You'll have to pry it out of my cold dead hands. lol

[Rabbitearsblog]

22 minutes ago, CertifiedNobody said:

We have no evidence that Sonic's the only playable character, just that he was the only one in the very rough demo.

I honestly hope that if the demo was rough as the rumors stated, that SEGA would at least try to fix the bugs, so that we won't have another Sonic Colors Ultimate on our hands where they practically put the game out with bugs and all.

10 minutes ago, Kuzu said:

If Sega wanted the other characters to be playable, they would have been playable already. They simply don't want to do so and just focus on Sonic as the primary playable character. 

Which makes me wonder that if the sequel to the movie becomes successful and everyone starts asking more for Tails and Knuckles to appear in the games, do you think that SEGA would change the style of Sonic Rangers (or Sonic Frontier) if it comes to that?

[KingMario05]

 

30 minutes ago, CertifiedNobody said:

Shush, I like the name Frontiers more than Rangers, because Ranger...s, Sonic is the only playable character; Frontiers makes sense for the focus on the open world.

Same here. With this, the hope of playable Tails/Amy/Knux/Shadow/anyone not named fucking Sonic grows ever dimmer...

1 minute ago, Rabbitearsblog said:

Which makes me wonder that if the sequel to the movie becomes successful and everyone starts asking more for Tails and Knuckles to appear in the games, do you think that SEGA would change the style of Sonic Rangers (or Sonic Frontier) if it comes to that?

A normal publisher would. But, as we all know, Sega is very much NOT a "normal publisher."

[Red Hot Jack]

I mean, I'm pretty sure I already discussed this but...

Frontiers/Rangers/whatever already has an entire freakin' open world to take care of, and do it right, let's get that done properly first, then if they have a bigger budget we can discuss other playable characters, it's fine to wish to have Tails or Knuckles or Shadow as playable but it doesn't look like the premise of this game and it's already big enough for me. 

This time, I won't complain if there is Sonic only again, with Forces it made no sense because it was already a safe and tame gameplay, but here? No way. It looks already more ambitious.

Forces was sadly ambitious as well in other areas and a lot of the stuff got cut or done... extremely badly, the story which tried but was a mess, more playables but with controversial picks and decisions, the villains/bosses, music with vocal tracks again, and it was still a 40 dollars game. (Obviously the main issue was the basic and simplistic game design, level design-wise and graphical)

I am more than happy with a good game that takes more than 2 hours to beat. I have set my expectations, which I should not in general with Sonic but here we are.

[Perkilator]

On 10/26/2021 at 10:58 PM, PublicEnemy1 said:

I'll do ya one better: slapspin

I'll do you one better: slap Chaos into a trailer and then only give him a minute of screen time.

[Kazhnuz]

The "frontiers" name is nice, and suit well to an openworld game. Now let's hope the game is nice too, and that we get more info in the coming times.

46 minutes ago, KingMario05 said:

A normal publisher would. But, as we all know, Sega is very much NOT a "normal publisher."

Err, a normal publisher wouldn't change Sonic 2022 if the second movie is successfull. At most a "normal publisher" might do it in a sequel (and that's not sure, for instance if there is already a lot of work in one character - for instance if the "skill tree rumor" is true, they might not really want to add more characters) if both works well, but I don't think a normal publisher would change a project that is supposed to be in 2022, if a movie released in april 2022 is successful.

Maybe in a paid DLC if they want to suck up the money, but SEGA isn't really about big DLC (sadly, because some games like Generations would have benefited from it).

[Red Hot Jack]

2 minutes ago, Kazhnuz said:

The "frontiers" name is nice, and suit well to an openworld game. Now let's hope the game is nice too.

Err, a normal publisher wouldn't change Sonic 2022 if the second movie is successfull. At most a "normal publisher" might do it in a sequel (and that's not sure, for instance if there is already a lot of work in ONE character - for instance if the "skill tree rumor" is true, they might not really want to add more characters) if both works well, but I don't think a normal publisher would change a project that is supposed to be in 2022, if a movie released in april 2022 is successful.

Maybe in a paid DLC if they want to suck up the money, but SEGA isn't really about big DLC (sadly, because some games like Generations would have benefited from it).

There was that 15 minutes "leak" video, that said "the budget is astronomical" "there might be proper DLC in the form of a season pass, with bonus stages etc." so maybe there? If we were to believe the video and what it says.

[Kazhnuz]

Good point, personnally I just don't really believe that video for now (maybe if we get some info that corroborate it), as the "leaker" give too much info that would allow SEGA to know who they are (they says stuff that they have said to the Sonic Team), and was supposed to be a playtester yet knew stuff that would be more known by people working on it.

TBH the budget being astronomical doesn't warrent a late change like it would be. But it might be possible that for once they do proper DLC.

[phobs]

Since the name is already trademarked, when do you all think we might get proper reveal? Could it be during December's Game Awards?

[CertifiedNobody]

1 hour ago, Zaysho said:

Mainline Sonic games for the last decade have pretty much shunted off the rest of the cast to the background, there's little reason to believe they'll break the streak. Even Shadow in Forces is just a reskin that they didn't bother to fully animate or implement into Forces because of some QTE segments in Sonic's levels..

1 hour ago, Kuzu said:

If Sega wanted the other characters to be playable, they would have been playable already. They simply don't want to do so and just focus on Sonic as the primary playable character. 

You mean like how Sonic Mania had Tails and Knuckles, and then added the Mania Plus DLC with Mighty and Ray? Or how Forces had the Avatar and Shadow? Or how Team Sonic Racing's entire gimmick was the characters and teams? Or how Colors Ultimate was going to have playable Metal Sonic that got cut due to time? If they wanted other characters, it'd be like that, right?

1 hour ago, Rabbitearsblog said:

I honestly hope that if the demo was rough as the rumors stated, that SEGA would at least try to fix the bugs, so that we won't have another Sonic Colors Ultimate on our hands where they practically put the game out with bugs and all.

Which makes me wonder that if the sequel to the movie becomes successful and everyone starts asking more for Tails and Knuckles to appear in the games, do you think that SEGA would change the style of Sonic Rangers (or Sonic Frontier) if it comes to that?

The demo was from about two years from the planned 2022 release date. I think we're alright even if it was rough.

1 hour ago, KingMario05 said:

Same here. With this, the hope of playable Tails/Amy/Knux/Shadow/anyone not named fucking Sonic grows ever dimmer...

Not really. The fact that Rangers even exists as a working title implies other playable characters. Sonic Forces not being called Sonic Wars doesn't change the fact that the game is about war.

1 hour ago, Jack-al said:

Frontiers/Rangers/whatever already has an entire freakin' open world to take care of, and do it right, let's get that done properly first, then if they have a bigger budget we can discuss other playable characters, it's fine to wish to have Tails or Knuckles or Shadow as playable but it doesn't look like the premise of this game and it's already big enough for me. 

Shadow and Metal Sonic could easily just be reskins of Sonic. Knuckles and Tails are easy to adapt by just giving them a few unique abilities and exclusive areas to find. Sonic Adventure was arguable more difficult to add playable characters to since they were translating Sonic to 3D, and they still did six.

It's hard to rule out multiple playable characters with the Rangers name and the fact that Iizuka has been very open about talking with the Sonic movie 2 crew this time. Other characters probably wouldn't be added to the game until this year anyways since by then the plans for the movie are finalized and they know how significant Tails and Knuckles will be.

11 minutes ago, phobs said:

Since the name is already trademarked, when do you all think we might get proper reveal? Could it be during December's Game Awards?

Don't expect it this year. It'll come after Origins, which is releasing in the first few months of January-April 2022. After that we'll see Rangers get hyped up alongside the movie and Sonic Prime.

[Jango]

Ah shit. Here we go again.

[NoKaine]

Frontiers sells the open-world focus more than Rangers, so I doubt the name change has anything to do with a change in gameplay. It's just good marketing. Sonic... frontier... instantly imagery of an open world.

You can stretch and say Rangers evokes the image of a forest ranger, which I guess could entail exploration, but...

If the game is ambitious as the leaks say, I doubt other characters would be playable in a significant capacity unless 1) Sonic Team  instantly cracked the formula and are super confident in expanding the game or 2) they're really dumb. The latter is more likely, but it took until Forces for them to consider an additional character besides Sonic, despite Unleashed basically perfecting boost gameplay.

What I'm saying is, don't put too much stock in Tails.

Yeah, anyway, I expect news in December at the earliest. Otherwise, I think they won't say anything until around the sequel movie comes out, in which they'll probably go turbo mode on the marketing. It'll definitely come out in November.

[Kazhnuz]

It'll all depends of their marketing campain I think, all have their adventage and issue :

- Having first the movie's campain then the game would allow us to be always present in media, and having a more condensed marketing campain for the new game, and to benefits from the second movie success if it's one.

- Having the new game marketing campain starting around the same time of the movie marketing campain might be good to make an impression of "Sonic will be everywhere, with big new ambitious projects"

 

So honestly, about this one I'll only say "wait and see", as nearly everything can be useful for them if they handle it right xD

[Roger_van_der_weide]

RIP Power Rangers jokes.

Now we'll make Cowboy or Star Trek jokes instead, i guess.

[KingMario05]

Just now, Roger_van_der_weide said:

RIP Power Rangers jokes.

Now we'll make Cowboy or Star Trek jokes instead, i guess.

"Space... a Hedgehog's final frontier..."

[Zaysho]

40 minutes ago, CertifiedNobody said:

You mean like how Sonic Mania had Tails and Knuckles, and then added the Mania Plus DLC with Mighty and Ray? Or how Forces had the Avatar and Shadow? Or how Team Sonic Racing's entire gimmick was the characters and teams? Or how Colors Ultimate was going to have playable Metal Sonic that got cut due to time? If they wanted other characters, it'd be like that, right?

1) I said "mainline" so why TSR, a racing spin-off not developed by Sonic Team that better have multiple characters is brought up for your point is beyond me.

2) Yeah, sure, Mania did that. Mania was also outsourced to a team that has studied the Genesis games inside-out and created a love letter to that era, designing the characters directly off of their original source material with personal touches that includes Mighty and Ray DLC.

What did Sonic Team do with Forces? A stripped down version of boost Sonic with a grappling hook and a Shadow reskin they didn't bother to finish animating? Even if Metal was going to be in Colors HD, he would've been a reskin, something they did way back in SADX, especially because there's not a whole lot else you can do in a game Sega and BSG were already butchering. This is just seeing a pattern and setting expectations accordingly until Sega actually says something. No one, even me in the post you quoted, said they can't or won't, just that they don't see it happening. The last time I raised my hopes for this kind of thing, I got a character creator and a worse Classic Sonic in a game that put Knuckles and Tails on the fucking box.

[NoKaine]

10 minutes ago, Zaysho said:

What did Sonic Team do with Forces? A stripped down version of boost Sonic with a grappling hook and a Shadow reskin they didn't bother to finish animating?

Wait, so, the Avatar having basically a fundamentally different gameplay style is bad, but also Shadow being identical to Sonic is bad too? What do you actually want? What is even this "didn't finish animating" business anyway?

I know Mania is the Only Good Sonic Game, but Mighty and Ray aren't particularly inspired design either. Mighty has a highly situational and borderline useless ability (the ground pound) as evidently they couldn't actually think of anything new to bring and Ray is Bubsy and derivative of Tails. 

Mighty can jump on spikes. Shadow can Sonic Lost World homing attack enemies. They are the same level of "reskin."

10 minutes ago, Zaysho said:

1) I said "mainline" so why TSR, a racing spin-off not developed by Sonic Team that better have multiple characters is brought up for your point is beyond me.

Their point isn't that Team Sonic Racing has multiple characters, it's that Team Sonic Racing explicitly made having different characters a core part of its gameplay. Which is towards their argument that SEGA is slowly allowing multiple playable characters. Mind you that Team Sonic Racing cut out the other SEGA characters, likely because SEGA believed that Sonic and his cast can carry a game.

The quality of these characters don't actually matter. The point is that we are in an age where SEGA actually lets you play as a character that isn't Sonic or a variant of Sonic, and that bodes well for Frontiers (though obviously not a guarantee and even I'm skeptical myself).

[phobs]

8 minutes ago, Roger_van_der_weide said:

Now we'll make Cowboy or Star Trek jokes instead, i guess.