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Sega Announces New Sonic Team Game, A Sonic Origins Compilation, And More Anniversary News

It's Sonic's 30th birthday, and the blue bur is celebrating by popping up just about everywhere.

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Sega hosted a Sonic Central presentation to outline plans for the blue hedgehog's 30th anniversary, and revealed a ton of games, crossovers, and merch. We received word of a new Sonic game, a remastered favorite from 2010, and a compilation of the games that started it all. Read on for all the details.

New Sonic Team Game

A brief video teased a new Sonic game in development from Sonic Team, the studio behind Sonic Generations and Sonic Forces. The teaser was short on details (and also just short) so we don't know much about it, but it showed Sonic dashing his way through some very realistically rendered trees before drawing a symbol with his speed-trail. The teaser ends with a 2022 release window, and a list of release platforms: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch.

Sonic Goes Old-School in Origins

For old-school Sonic fans, Sega is working on a compilation for next year that brings together Sonic the Hedgehog 1, 2, 3, Sonic & Knuckles, and Sonic CD. Sega promises more information is coming soon.

Sonic Colors is Back, in Ultimate Form

Sonic Colors: Ultimate, a remastered version of the 2010 Wii game, is coming later this year. It will include remastered visuals and some bonus goodies for preorders. A digital deluxe version even includes a few days of early access for those Sonic fans who can't wait to get their speed on.

Sonic Cameos

Earlier this week Sega debuted Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, an Olympics-themed game without the apparent involvement of its Mario & Sonic crossover. But you'll still be able to play homage by dressing your avatar up in a Sonic costume. Sega also promises Sonic or Sonic-themed items will be appearing in multiple other games, including some you might not expect like Two Point Hospital. The tease also appeared to show other crossovers to be announced like Minecraft.

More Places to Play Sonic Games

Existing Sonic games are expanding to new platforms this year as well. Sonic Mania and Team Sonic Racing are now available on Amazon Luna. Sonic Forces, Team Sonic Racing, and Sonic Mania will join PlayStation Now on June 1. And on June 24, Sonic Mania will hit the Epic Games Store.

Mobile Special Events

The mobile game Sonic Forces: Speed Battle is getting a limited-time anniversary event which will introduce private races, and a special character is coming that will let you play as Super Sonic with the power of the Chaos Emeralds. In another mobile game, Sonic Dash, a pirate event will introduce Pirate Sonic and Captain Shadow. Sonic Racing will be introducing classic characters, cars, and three new tracks along with remixes. And later this year Sonic Forces and Sonic Dash will bring back the Warehog from Sonic Unleashed.

Merch Merch Merch

Finally, if you want to show your love of Sonic outside of video games, Sega has a bunch of merchandise coming this year. That includes a Giant Eggman playset from Jakks Pacific, a hardcover Sonic encyclopedia from Dark Horse, apparel from H&M, an IDW 80-page comic book, and commemorative gold and silver coins from APMEX.

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Dark_sageX

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Sonic generations was great, Sonic Forces was utter garbage. Can't really say I'm excited about this in any capacity.

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Atzenkiller

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So why mention that it's a "Sonic Team Game" if it's just another crappy Sonic game after all? Saying it like this implies that they're working on something else. Which they did a long time ago, back when Sega still cared about innovation and creativity. If I remember correctly PSO was made by Sonic Team as well. Maybe the last not Sonic title they ever got to work on.

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TECHASPiKE

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@Atzenkiller: yeah they did a lot of great non-Sonic stuff: Ristar, Nights into Dreams, Burning Rangers, Chu Chu Rocket, Samba de Amigo, and PSO as you said. Unfortunately, relative to actual Sonic games, none of those got much support from consumers. In fact, the main reason most people cite as to why the Saturn failed in the US is because Sonic Team didn't make a Sonic game. So you can kinda see why Sega would be hesitant to let them do anything else nowadays :(

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Atzenkiller

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@techaspike: Sega is hesitant to try anything new nowadays and they've been that way for a very long time. I'd say ever since the PS3 era. That's when they started pushing out Yakuza sequels year after year and barely released anything else anymore.

But I wonder: how well do all these garbage Sonic games actually sell? I mean the 2 Sonic games they released for the DC were actually pretty good, especially the second one. But everything I've seen come out afterwards has been completely generic and not worth looking at. Nothing but low budget trash for kids. And how well does that stuff really sell? How many kids really care about Sonic anyway?

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TECHASPiKE

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@Atzenkiller: It's funny, back in the PS3 era, I'd say Yakuza actually WAS the riskiest thing Sega was releasing, since those games sold pretty poorly in the west, prior to Yakuza 0 on PS4. Now that the series has exploded in popularity, what was once a risky prospect seems repetitive. You'd like to think Sega would see that and be more open to taking some more risks that could potentially lead to high pay-off.

I really enjoy the Dreamcast Sonic entries as well. I actually prefer the first, since I feel like all the grinding in the second is what started the on-rails gameplay we get today. But yeah, most of the games since the Dreamcast have been pretty trash kiddy nonsense. Unfortunately, it sells. Even with no major Sonic releases this year, the hedgehog outsold every other Sega franchise so they have little incentive to stop shoveling out garbage :(

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Atzenkiller

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@techaspike: They've always been decently successful in Japan. That's why Sega has been making them. Otherwise they had a very low production value, at least for anything but the main story cutscenes and were pushing them out every year. And bringing them to the west just required translating the text. They've stopped doing English voice overs since the second game and I'm glad they did as the first one's was not that great and just didn't fit. But I had already played the Japanese version beforehand, so that made it only weirder to me.

But the original Yakuza was something new and innovative at the time. And it was released for PS3, back when Sega was still making decent games. Times sure have changed. But not only for them. The whole Japanese game industry in general was left behind when the era of huge open world games arrived. Most Japanese developers seemed to have smaller teams and don't seem to have been able to handle the massive scale that these modern open world games required. Not to mention the huge budget you need for that. You're less likely to take risks if even one big failure could ruin you, as it's already happened to Sega before.

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TECHASPiKE

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@Atzenkiller: That's true. Honestly, as the years go by, I kinda want to be left behind with them. Open world game design has started to feel like more of a chore to me. I prefer a concise focused experience, but unfortunately, that doesn't seem to be what makes the big bucks anymore :(

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ClaudeLv250

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Blue go burrrr

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