SEGA has announced that Sonic Frontiers will be receiving a whole smorgasbord of new free DLC and story-based content throughout 2023, with a roadmap covering a laundry list of material from small features like photo mode to full-blown playable character arcs.
Via Sonic Twitter
The content will be broken up into three distinct updates, with the first two focusing on additional quality-of-life upgrades to the core Sonic Frontiers experience. Update 1 will consist of a Juke Box and Photo Mode features, with additional Challenge modes for seasoned players. Update 2 will celebrate Sonic’s birthday somehow, introduce new Koco creatures and add an intriguing ‘Open Zone Challenge’ feature.
It’s Content Update 3 that we’re very excited about though – this will apparently feature new playable characters as well as a new story to build upon the events of the core Sonic Frontiers game. We’re assuming this means that Tails, Knuckles and Amy will get their own playable experiences and challenges, but additional story elements are more than welcome too given the ending was one of the weaker elements of the game (per our Sonic Stadium review here).
Best of all, as already mentioned, all of this upcoming content will be free for existing players. To kick things off for the holiday season, SEGA will also be releasing a special free DLC costume pack on December 21st, with the blue blur donning a Christmas suit to rock while busting heads in Cyberspace.
Via Sonic Twitter
Seeing this level of post-release support for a Sonic the Hedgehog game is unheard of; SEGA has previously only dabbled with tiny morsels of DLC in the past, with the most significant being additional ‘Hard mode’ stage variants for Sonic 2006 and challenges for Sonic Unleashed. Sonic Forces offered Super Sonic and Episode Shadow DLC, but this roadmap for Frontiers seems to take things much further than any game before it.
We’re very excited to see what the future holds for the Starfall Islands – if you’ve not already played Sonic Frontiers and want to know what the deal is all about, check out our definitive review right here.