It’s been almost three years since the Sonic the Hedgehog series received a major new title, and in all that time, fans have heard next to nothing about what’s coming next. Sega has confirmed that a new Sonic game is in development, and it was assumed that it was going to be announced earlier this year. While that didn’t happen, Sega has stated that it still has big news to share, it’s just a matter of figuring out how to share it.
Before COVID-19 became a full-on pandemic, Sega was planning to host a Sonic-centric panel at this year’s SXSW to discuss what the series had in store for 2020 and beyond. The event’s Sonic announcements ended up being delayed when SXSW was canceled due to the outbreak, and since then Sega hasn’t been able to provide fans with a solid ETA for when it would be safe for it to make those announcements.
The company has since offered a quick update on the situation. In an episode of the franchise’s official YouTube show from June, associate social media manager Katie Chrzanowski touched upon the questions that have been asked about the planned SXSW announcements.
She explained that the team at Sega had been trying to find ways to stick with the “new format” that it had in mind for SXSW, stating that, unfortunately, it just wasn’t viable during a pandemic. Chrzanowski didn’t say when Sega might be able to share its latest updates on the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise, but did say that fans should expect the announcements to come in installments.
“Fear not, fear not, there will be announcements in the future,” she added in closing, “we're just making sure that we're doing it the right way, getting all the right people involved and making it the best we can.”
At any rate, fans likely shouldn’t have to wait too much longer for news on Sonic’s future. The franchise is turning 30 next year, and it’s widely believed that the new game Sega’s working on is being developed for Sonic the Hedgehog’s 30th anniversary. With that in mind, it’s safe to guess that Sega is planning to have its big announcements tie into that in some form. Hopefully, though, fans won’t have to wait until 2021 to find out.
In recent times, Sega has acknowledged that the spotty track record Sonic games have had throughout the last several years, especially its 3D titles. In doing so, it made it clear that it wants to make better 2D and 3D Sonic games from now on. So with any luck, whatever ends up being revealed during Sega's big announcements will have a better chance than usual of becoming a game fans actually enjoy.