Sega Confirms Sonic Frontiers Won’t Be Delayed, Says Fans “Don’t Understand” It

Since IGN started its month-long coverage for Sonic Frontiers, feedback from the fans has been, well… mixed, at best. The gameplay videos shown so far have a few fans concerned about the new format, particularly the rather bizarre similarities to games like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

In chatting with VGC, it seems Team Sonic boss Takashi Iizuka is well aware of some of the feedback being shared online at the moment, but doesn’t seem overly concerned at this stage. Here’s what he had to say:

“It’s not really that surprising. We do realise everyone is just kind of reacting to the videos that they saw, and because they don’t understand what this new gameplay is they’re kind of comparing it to other games that they already know. So we do see a lot of people saying, ‘oh, it’s kind of like this, it’s kind of like that, but it’s not like this, it’s not like that’.

“And really, the team is going out and creating this new game format for Sonic, and we’re calling it an ‘open zone’ format.And this new game system itself is something that doesn’t really exist in any other comparable titles, so we really hope that from here until launch we can really explain what open zone gameplay is.”

When asked whether Team Sonic would consider delaying the game off the back of fan feedback, Iizuka stated that he and the team were happy with their progress and are pushing to get the game in fans’ hands sooner rather than later:

“Frontiers is in development now, and actually we’ve been doing a lot of playtesting with our target audience, who would be in that demographic of someone who’d play a Sonic game and enjoy it. From our playtesting results we have been iterating, we have been listening to the comments that come back, but we’ve also been getting a lot of great feedback from people who rate the game and are like, ‘I had a lot of fun playing this game, I’d give it like an 80 or 90 point score out of 100’. So we do feel that we’re getting to the point where this game is done, and people will like it, and we do want to get that game into our fans’ hands as soon as possible.”

Some initial impressions of the game are already starting to trickle in off the back of Summer Game Fest, with Eurogamer stating that the game “plays a lot better than it looks”:

“Indeed, for all its issues it looks like it could be Sonic Team’s most interesting take on the series since Sonic Adventure – something to be wary of, perhaps, but having got to try it out for myself it’s now something I’m also cautiously optimistic about too.”

Nintendo Everything also had similar sentiments with their own experience:

“I left my demo of Sonic Frontiers overall very impressed with what I played, and I’m very much looking forward to playing more – I get the sense that the surface has only barely been scratched as to the scope of this game.”

Despite our initial concerns, Iizuka’s comments do nevertheless sound pretty promising. It’s clear that Sonic Frontiers is a huge departure from past 3D Sonic titles, so hopefully the gamble will pay off for Team Sonic.

What do you think of Iizuka’s comments on Sonic Frontiers? Do you think the game should be delayed, or are fans getting worried over nothing? Let us know with a comment!