This month, IGN has released many new images of Sega’s upcoming open world speed, Sonic Frontiers. Fan reaction has been mixed, to say the least, with some even suggesting online that developers delay the game to improve or change things they don’t like about Frontiers after seeing it in action. But Sega has no plans to do so, and instead only thinks that people who complain about the game “don’t understand it yet.”
In an interview with VGC, Sonic Team studio head Takashi Iizuka spoke about the mixed reactions from fans who have appeared online. Specifically, he commented on the negative opinions shared by fans who believe that the movement of the game towards a more open world experience has sucked part of Sonic’s heart and soul, or that they think everything seems strange and boring. demonstration made to Unreal with existing unrelated assets.
According to Iizuka, online fans simply do not understand what the game is or what the team has done, which suggests that people compare it to other games they know, which says that it is leading to incorrect assumptions about Frontiers.
“It’s not really that amazing,” Iizuka told VGC. “We realize that everyone just reacts to the videos they’ve seen, and because they don’t understand what this new game is, they compare it to other games they already know.
“So we see a lot of people saying, ‘Oh, that’s right, that’s right, but it’s not like that, it’s not like that.’
According to Iizuka, Sonic Frontiers is not an open world game at all, but something new that the team internally calls an “open zone.”
“And this new game system itself is something that doesn’t really exist in any other comparable title,” Iizuka explained. “So we really hope that from now until the launch we can really explain what open zone gaming is all about.”
But the fact is that I (and you) know the Internet. We know that angry and disappointed fans on social media, fueled by fake content creators on YouTube and Twitch, will not stop asking for the game to be changed or even delayed. We saw it when the hashtag #DelaySonicFrontiers started to be an online trend for a while.
For those fans who are already convinced that the next game is a train accident that needs to be saved, Iizuka threw cold water in the hope that his team would delay the game to implement fan feedback, and told VGC that based on the game tests “they feel very confident” that the game is being set up as an experience that people will enjoy. He added that when people really play the game “from start to finish” they have a great time and, when asked, “give it as a score of 80 or 90 points out of 100”.
At this point, Iizuka says that unless the team covets and is hospitalized suddenly or something similar bad and sudden happens, Sonic Frontiers will be finished and released this year.
“But we are working right now with our team in Japan who are working very hard to make sure that this holiday, people can buy the game, pick it up, take it home and have a fun experience with it.” .