Sonic Frontiers has been the subject of surprising controversy lately, with fans of the franchise and onlookers criticizing the recent presentations of Sega's upcoming open-world 3D platformer. In wake of this criticism, many have called for Sega to delay the upcoming 3D platformer, claiming that the footage of the game showcased by IGN bears a lack of polish and requires more development time. After weeks of criticism leveraged at Sonic Frontiers' gameplay, Sonic Team head Takashi Iizuka has now responded and says that Sonic Team has no desire to delay Sonic Frontiers, and that fans just "don't understand" the game.
Sonic Frontiers was first announced during the Sonic Central presentation in June 2021, but was first formally showcased under the title at The Game Awards 2021, where it was revealed to be an open-world take on the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise inspired by games such as The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. After this reveal, Sega went quiet regarding the title until June 2022, where it revealed the first look at gameplay as part of IGN First. This gameplay presentation was immediately met with criticism due to the game's strange and unpolished looking art direction, and a lack of context regarding the gameplay that was being shown.
Until now Sega and Sonic Team have remained quiet regarding the game's criticism, however, Sonic Frontiers recently appeared at the in-person Summer Game Fest Play Days event where members of the press got to go hands-on with a curated demo that revealed new story elements and featured full, open-world gameplay. Reception towards this demo has been surprisingly positive, with outlets such as Easy Allies and Eurogamer praising it despite the technical issues still present from the build used in the gameplay videos.
While there, Sonic Team boss Takashi Iizuka did a number of interviews, including one with VGC where he responded to criticism, stating "It’s not really that surprising. We do realize everyone is just kind of reacting to the videos that they saw, and because they don’t understand what this new gameplay is they’re kind of comparing it to other games that they already know."
He continues, "Frontiers is in development now, and actually we’ve been doing a lot of playtesting with our target audience, who would be in that demographic of someone who’d play a Sonic game and enjoy it." Iizuka also claims that the game is doing well with internal reviews, achieving scores of 80-90 out of 100, which the team hopes reflect the actual scores the game will receive.
From the sounds of it, Sonic Team and Iizuka are happy enough with Sonic Froniters' internal playtesting and reviews that it has no fears concerning delaying the game to 2023. This is somewhat relieving to hear, however fans can't be sure that what they're hearing now will reflect the full game, and Sega's recent lackluster showcases of it have not done it any justice. Given Sonic Frontiers' long development cycle and Sega's confidence in the game, perhaps there still is a chance this will be the game to reinvent the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise.
Sonic Frontiers will release in 2022 for PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
Source: VGC