Sega says it’s targeting high review scores for Sonic Frontiers
The company has set internal targets and expects sales to tally with the game’s critical reception
Sega has said it’s targeting high review scores for its next flagship Sonic the Hedgehog game, Sonic Frontiers.
Set for release in holiday 2022 for Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PS5, PS4, Switch and PC, the open-world Frontiers is Sega’s most ambitious Sonic title for some years.
Asked during a recent analyst and investor Q&A session about its quality targets for the game, and if it had target scores for review aggregation sites such as Metacritic, Sega Sammy’s CEO Haruki Satomi and CFO Koichi Fukazawa confirmed that this is the case.
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“We have set internal targets, as the correlation between the scores of external evaluation organizations and sales is high in Europe and North America,” they said.
“If the game gets a high score, it can become a must-buy game, and possibly generate synergy with sales, so we are currently working hard to improve the quality of the game toward its sales for the holiday season.”
Sonic Team head Takashi Iizuka has said he’d like Frontiers to have the same lasting impact as Sonic Adventure.
In a Sonic Stadium interview published in June 2021, the franchise’s creative officer said he hoped the upcoming game would provide the building blocks for future Sonic titles for many years to come.
“Sonic Adventure laid the foundation for 20 years of Sonic titles after its release, so in the same way I really hope that this new title releasing in 2022 lays the foundation for the following future Sonic titles – that is the idea behind the challenge for the team”, Iizuka said.
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Sonic Frontiers has been officially announced for holiday 2022
During its recent financial results briefing, Sega also said the Sonic IP is currently riding high, thanks in part to the success of the Sonic the Hedgehog movie sequel, which it called “a major hit”.
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 recently became the highest-grossing video game film of all time in the US.
Sega will release Sonic Origins on June 23 for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Switch, PC, PS4 and Xbox One.
Digital versions of the standalone games included in the collection—Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Sonic the Hedgehog 3, Sonic & Knuckles, and Sonic CD—are being removed from sale today.
