Sega has said that it was somewhat “premature” to have revealed its next Sonic The Hedgehog game.
The new untitled game was briefly teased at the end of a Sonic Central livestream back in May, with other announcements such as Sonic Colors: Ultimate, a remaster of the 2010 Wii game.
Lasting barely 30 seconds, the CG-animated clip only showed the blue hedgehog running in a speedy blur through a forest, the camera angle obscuring the top half of his face.
The teaser gave a minimal indication of what kind of game fans could expect from the next mainline Sonic game, other than a cryptic symbol and a 2022 release date confirmed for PC, PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch platforms.
In a new interview from the Japanese website 4Gamer (translated by Nintendo Enthusiast), Sonic Team head Takashi Iizuka admitted that the team might have jumped the gun on revealing the new game too soon.
“We haven’t announced a brand new action game for the Sonic series since Sonic Forces, and that caused fans to worry,” said Iizuka. “While it was a bit premature, I wanted to at least take the occasion of the 30th anniversary to announce that a brand new title was in development.”
However, following the teaser, some fans and insiders also believed the game might be called Sonic Rangers, based on a leak originating from a post on 4Chan earlier this year, as well as a press release from Sega itself.
SEGA accidentally mentions 'Sonic Rangers' name in a press release but claims said press release is an older version https://t.co/YIKiqhgY1U pic.twitter.com/P1uMCxqXfA
— Nibel (@Nibellion) May 28, 2021
When prompted to provide more details regarding the symbol featured in the teaser, he replied, “It is something symbolic that appears in the game, but the meaning is still a secret. However, I will say that it’s not something one would figure out through deduction. We’ll eventually share more details, so please wait a little longer.”
It would seem that Sega is keen to keep details on this Sonic game under wraps for a while longer, similar to the official title to the sequel for The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild being kept a secret to avoid spoilers.
Elsewhere, Fable co-creator Dene Carter criticised the “smooth and homogenous” state of modern AAA game design via a Twitter thread.
The post Sega admits it announced next ‘Sonic’ game too early appeared first on NME.
