Epic Game Store Metadata Suggests Sonic Colours Ultimate 2020 Announcement

Sonic Colours Ultimate’s announcement might be timely for Sonic’s 30th, but new information suggests that it was going to be even more timely – for the Wii game’s 10-year anniversary. Data pulled from the Epic Game Store listings reveals that the remaster was first submitted to the platform on June 30, 2020, which suggests an announcement was originally planned for this time.

According to the report by SoaHCity, the game was submitted to the PC game store under a codename ‘AlexandriteGeneralAudience’. The report also claims that the original Sonic Colours Ultimate website was originally planned for a Steam release, before that detail was scrubbed and became an Epic Game Store exclusive.

This is the apparent metadata that shows the game’s 2020 placement.

{
“id”: “92941990aa394e888b5ca17b46f5fdd7”,
“title”: “AlexandriteGeneralAudience”,
“description”: “AlexandriteGeneralAudience”,
“keyImages”: [
{
“type”: “ESRB”,
“url”: “https://cdn1.epicgames.com/salesEvent/salesEvent/EGS_SonicColorsUltimate_BlindSquirrelEntertainment_RA1_345x200-fb5ed93434eb73652501772ac1db607c”,
“md5”: “fb5ed93434eb73652501772ac1db607c”,
“width”: 345,
“height”: 200,
“size”: 10368,
“uploadedDate”: “2021-05-26T18:44:51.289Z”
}
],
“categories”: [
{
“path”: “audience”
},
{
“path”: “public”
}
],
“namespace”: “d118f9a27e514d98aa25534afd2f35c7”,
“status”: “ACTIVE”,
“creationDate”: “2020-06-30T02:31:24.203Z”,
“lastModifiedDate”: “2021-05-27T16:21:11.839Z”,
“customAttributes”: {
“SupportedPlatforms”: {
“type”: “STRING”,
“value”: “Windows”
}
},
“entitlementName”: “92941990aa394e888b5ca17b46f5fdd7”,
“entitlementType”: “AUDIENCE”,
“itemType”: “DURABLE”,
“releaseInfo”: [],
“developer”: “Sega of America”,
“developerId”: “o-5gbgsfvsrt9wlx9gu868mrxmhq6dlv”,
“eulaIds”: [
“egstore”
],
“installModes”: [],
“endOfSupport”: false,
“esrbGameRatingValue”: “EVERYONE”,
“ageGatings”: {},
“applicationId”: “”,
“unsearchable”: false
}

So, what does this mean? It means that the original announcement for Sonic Colours Ultimate was due to occur in 2020, rather than May 2021. The speculation for this delayed reveal has pointed towards the negative impact of COVID-19 on the development of this, and many other, games.

Sonic Colours Ultimate’s reveal has, ‘ultimately’, been quite messy. After it was originally leaked via a retailer listing back in April, a number of fans started speculation that the remaster could have been planned to be announced in 2020. The Sonic Stadium can confirm that, through our own independent research, the game was indeed planned for an unveiling in June/July 2020 before it was dropped from SEGA’s announcement schedule.

Still, what we lost in Sonic games for 2020, we gained in one more Sonic game for 2021! Sonic Colours Ultimate is releasing on PS4, Xbox One, Switch and PC on September 7, with a Deluxe Edition hitting stores on September 3.