He’s blue, he’s fast, he’s become a meme, and some of his games are questionable if not downright bad at times. However, that isn’t going to hold back Sonic Team sometime in 2021 according to a new interview that features the head of said company, Takashi Iizuka.
Whether Sonic 2021 will stay short and silent or if he’ll be tall and talkative remains to be seen, same goes with meme quality content and glitchy gameplay, but the announcement that Iizuka made at South by Southwest (SXSW) 2019 that the next mainline Sonic game is already in development is creating some buzz.
According to website Game Informer (archive.is), we learn that when the writer asked about the year 2017, which saw the release of Sonic Mania and Sonic Forces, Iizuka teased:
“2017 was a big year for Sonic. The next big year for Sonic is 2021. That’s the 30-year anniversary for Sonic. We are now preparing.”
The writer of the piece also asked the head of Sonic Team if the 30th anniversary will be like past anniversaries (much like 2011 where gamers got Sonic Generations) to which Iizuka replied with a soft, “Maybe.”
As we reported earlier this year, it’s unclear if the new Sonic game that was teased at SXSW 2019 and has a release window of 2021 is based on the upcoming movie or if it is going to be its own thing? Time will tell.
If the new game isn’t based on the film and Iizuka and crew aim to bring something new to the table, there’s no denying that Sega looks at Sonic Forces as a work of success and could base the 2021 game on said title. It’s a fact that Sega is pleased with Sonic Forces sales due to a 2018 report that publication site GameReactor published:
“Even though yesterday’s quarterly report from Sega was expected to show some poor performance for Sonic Forces due to the critical reception of the game (including us, as you can tell in our review), the game seems to have actually performed rather well, the same as other physical releases of the company, making the game division profitable again.
According to the report Sonic Forces, Yakuza Kiwami 2, and Football Manager 2018 all had powerful performances in the market, to such an extent in fact that the company sold more than 14.3 million copies in retail, translating to a 76% increase in the quarter year-on-year, even though they released fewer games. This is mainly in the West (as sales in Japan dropped 39%), with perhaps an additional push by Total War: Warhammer II.”
At this point and time, nobody knows what this new entry will be in the mainline series of the blue blur, but if the above holds any weight, we might see another Sonic Forces-like game hit the scene in a couple of years time due to its profitable success in the West.
(Header image courtesy of Darwin’s Media)
