Earlier this year, Sonic Team head Takashi Iizuka revealed that a new Sonic The Hedgehog game was in development, and during last week’s E3 event, Iizuka was asked to expand upon what’s in store for the future of the franchise.
When asked to provide details regarding the next Sonic The Hedgehog game by Game Informer, Iizuka promised that 2021 will be the next big year for the Sonic franchise.
“2017 was a big year for Sonic,” said Iizuka while speaking with Brian Shea of Game Informer. “The next big year for Sonic is 2021. That’s the 30-year anniversary for Sonic. We are now preparing.”
During the game’s previous big anniversary years, Sega has released milestone versions of the game like Sonic Generations back in 2011 for its 20th anniversary. When asked if that will end up being the case for the franchise’s 30th anniversary in 2021, Iizuka simply chuckled and said “maybe.”
The head of Sega’s Sonic Team also talked about the drop dash move, which was introduced back in 2017’s Sonic Mania. Since it was introduced two years ago, the drop dash move has been included in Sonic Forces, and in the Sega Ages version of the first Sonic The Hedgehog on the Nintendo Switch.
Due to the drop dash move being such a big hit with longtime Sonic fans, Iizuka says that it’ll be featured in every Sonic title going forward. In fact, he requested that it be added to the aforementioned Sega Ages version of the very first game in the series.
In July of last year, Sega released yet another Sonic title called Sonic Mania Plus, which was, of course, the follow-up tot he very successful Sonic Mania that was released back in 2017. In the Plus version of the game, Mighty the Armadillo and Ray the Flying Squirrel got added as playable characters because, according to Iizuka, they were the two most “famous” and “fan requested” characters.
As for whether or not the next Sonic the Hedgehog title will be similar to Sonic Forces remains to be seen, but due to the fact that it wasn’t very well received, it’d probably be a better idea for Sega to develop a Sonic Mania 2.
2019 has also been a big year for Sonic so far, as Team Sonic Racing was released last month. So, expect developer Sumo Digital and publisher Sega to be adding new content to their latest title throughout the rest of the year.
But, as previously noted, the next main game in the Sonic series won’t be released until 2021.
