2024 has been a good year for the Sonic IP, not only because of the success enjoyed by Sonic X Shadow Generations, but also because we’ll soon be getting the Sonic the Hedgehog 3 movie, starring Keanu Reeves as Shadow the Hedgehog. 2023, however, was a different story, and Sega president president and COO Shuji Utsumi has spoken more about that.
Specifically, in an interview with Eurogamer, when asked about the Sonic franchise’s inconsistency, Utsumi touched on the success of releases such as Sonic Frontiers and Sonic X Shadow Generations, while also bringing up the comparative failure of the 2023 sidescrolling title Sonic Superstars, which he labelled a “disappointment”.
“We were trying to do something creative with Sonic Frontiers,” he said. “With Sonic Superstars it turned out to be a disappointment, in terms of the outcome compared to what we delivered. This time we have Sonic X Shadow Generations and the next Sonic movie, so we’re pushing things in the transmedia direction – movies and games working in harmony to make things bigger. But the core [of the experience] is the game. The game needs to be very good or else there is no transmedia effect.”
Not long after the sidescrolling platformer’s launch last year, Sega confirmed that the game had got off to slower-than-expected start where its sales were concerned, something the company would later go on to partially attribute to the game releasing in close proximity to fellow sidescrolling platformer Super Mario Bros. Wonder.
As for what’s next for the Sonic IP, at The Game Awards last week, Sega unveiled Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds, the next instalment in the Sonic kart racing series.