Sega has some plans for the Sonic The Hedgehog franchise and they’re going to be revealed this year at a panel at SWSX 2018.
Hosted by some of the big names at Sega of America and others affiliated with the Sonic brand, the panel, called the “Gotta Go Fast: The Official Sonic the Hedgehog Panel,” will provide a “world-exclusive first look at what comes next” for the franchise.
Here is the complete description of the panel:
Speakers
— Jason Hernandez, Sega of America
— Tyson Heese
— Aaron Webber, Sega of America
— Austin Keys, Sega
— Takashi Iizuka, Sega of of America
Description
Sonic is back, and ready to take 2018 by storm. Join the official team from Sega who are building Sonic’s future as they give you an update on last year’s strong performance of Sonic Mania and Sonic Forces, as well as the world-exclusive first look at what comes next for the fastest blue hedgehog.
Before you get ahead of yourselves, it’s important to note here that this announcement doesn’t necessarily mean that a new game will be announced. That said, it would certainly be nice if that turned out to be the case, especially due to the way 2017 turned out for Sonic.
To recap, Sega released two Sonic games last year: Sonic Mania and Sonic Forces.
Sonic Mania was a welcome surprise, with the game managing to capture all the elements that made the franchise so popular back in the early 90s. In our review we noted that though it didn’t necessarily mark a true return to form for the franchise, it could serve as a template for future Sonic games should Sega choose to go in that direction. In fact, the only real criticism we had was that the game didn’t feature enough new levels — something that was completely out of the developers’ control.
Sonic Forces, on the other hand, turned out to be the type of game we’ve come to expect in recent years: a mess. In fact, that’s exactly how it was characterized in our preview and while we didn’t write a review for it, those from other publications wound up sharing that sentiment and gave it a collective 57 on Metacritic.
With the franchise in the odd state that it’s in, it’s good to see Sega ready to provide an update so soon. Here’s to hoping we hear something good.
The panel will be held on March 16 at 3:30 p.m. CST.
