Blame the Snow Miser, the Heat Miser, or just plain Covid, but 2021 may very well be the year without a Sonic.
License Global Magazine’s April 2021 issue features a new licensing and partnership flier highlighting Sonic’s 30th anniversary accomplishments, including his game and movie success. But the whole thing seems to end on a somewhat concerning note:
Games, Movies, Animation, Mobile, Partnerships and More in 2022!
With Sonic Forces three in a half years behind us, many fans were pinning Sonic’s 30th to finally bring news of a fresh new platformer. Rumo(u)rs persist of a Sonic Colo(u)rs remake, but without an official announcement, we couldn’t comfortably say if it’s intended for 2021 or 2022.
This licensing flier is by no means a strict confirmation that we will not have some form of game or announcement in 2021, but the implications of a game next year does raise the question, what, if anything, is happening this year.
“[…] the implications of a game next year does raise the question, what, if anything, is happening this year.” – We’ll probably find out next month.
At this point it’s just sad.
The only thing I can think of releasing this year is a Anniversary collection, digitally or physical release wise.
Other than that I bloody hope on June 23rd that a special digital online presentation is happening, like SONY did with PlayStation 5, go all out on announcements and tell us what games are coming, comics, merch, etc
2021 predictions:
Adventure 1&2 ports
Heroes, Shadow, 06 ports
Unleashed, Colors, Generations and lost world ports.
2022 predictions:
New Sonic Games: A new Sonic Adventure style game (similar to Sonic 06), Sonic Mania 2 and a new Chao garden mobile game.
It will still happen this year.
If Sonic has no big game release planned for 2021 and Sonic Team needs to delay their new project(s) to 2022 and beyond then just let them! Jeez it’s not a big deal. Does nobody remember the catastrophe of 2006 when Sega was working on 5 Sonic games at once? If Sonic’s 30th anniversary year has no big release I’m fine with that. It just means his 31st anniversary will be even better. It’s just a number. I don’t care what year Sonic games come out in, I just want them to get enough development time by release. And let’s not forget, we’re just barely getting out of Covid-19, cut Sonic Team and Sega some slack.
DON’T.
It just says “More in 2022”, since there is the movie sequel as well as Sonic Prime then, that doesn’t necessarily mean we won’t get any games this year.
Big agree.
I think people are getting a little too antsy / concerned over this flier in general. Although I wouldn’t put it past SEGA to do something incredibly out-of-touch like skipping Sonic’s anniversary, I feel pretty confident they’re going to give us SOME kind of announcement this summer. Even if they announce something next month that doesn’t come out until 2022, that’s not unheard of. Sonic Mania was announced in Summer 2016 and didn’t release until a full year later. Sonic Forces was teased on the same day, and also released a year later.
If they’re smart they’ll release everything around the same time as the movie and use the film as an opportunity to market the game.
As long as they announce a new game even if it doesn’t come out until next year it will be fine. Even better for 2022 release since it can coincide with the movie hype like the other poster said. But if they don’t announce any new game on the horizon at any event this year it would be a pretty bad business move.
A lot more concerning to me would be them rushing another game yet again to meet some artificial deadline. Putting out something bad or even just decent isn’t a way to celebrate an anniversary. Also, rushed mediocrity is the last thing Sonic needs right now, unless we want the games to officially take a backseat to movies, tv shows and merch going forward. Look at Crash. He took a lot of time off. The developers got the time they needed to craft a quality game, and people where ready for it since it had been a long wait. Sega needs to stop treating Sonic like he’s just a product that needs to be pumpt on a conveyor belt once a year no matter what. We have seen what incredible and lasting damage bad games can do to this franchise. It’s been 15 years since Sonic ’06. That was a shitty anniversary. I would have rather them waited until 2007 or 2008 so we could have played a finished game, the game that they originally intended to make.
Like, I know I previously commented about announcing something, but like, if it’s because of the pandemic… just say so. It’s brought so many lives to a screeching halt. The fandom may be a bit of a fuster cluck, but decent human beings should have the ability to empathise with the situation.