Back in May, I wrote about howSonic Frontiersmiraculouslyavoided the controversial Sonic Cycleby keeping updates dry between its first teaser trailer and its official announcement trailer at The Game Awards last year. Now the game is less than two months away from release, and with the reveal of four more trailers, two alternative rock songs taking us back to 2007 (Vandalizeby One OK Rock andI’m Hereby To Octavia’s Merry Kirk-Holmes), andSuper Sonic making his triumphant returnat the Tokyo Game Show, Sega seems confident that it will be a big deal for the franchise. Hell, I’m feeling more confident about this game than I ever felt for some of its predecessors. And that’s saying something.
In fact, Sega is so sure aboutSonic Frontiersthat it’s pricing the game at $60 — or in the case of the Digital Deluxe Edition, $70 — and putting it in direct competition withGod of War: RagnarokandPokemon ScarletandVioletin November. It’s a big gamble to go all in on, but also a sore point for some Sonic fans.Most current-gen AAA games are priced between $60 and $70 due to enhanced graphics, controls, and the engines they run on, but some have balked atFrontiers’ price tag not only because it’s “too expensive,” but because they can’t remember the last time a Sonic game cost that much.
The price tag deviates from the cost of past Sonic games, and that’s another sign that Sega believesFrontiershas the scope of a full-sized Sonic game — especially since it’s the first open-world game in Sonic’s history. That’s consistent with the rest of the game’s marketing cycle, which shows that Sega is more confident about the series than it has been in years.
Sonic’s way past cool marketing
In some ways,Sonic Frontiers‘ aggressive marketing push is a return to the early 2000s. Take the hype cycle aroundSonic Adventure 2,the 10th-anniversary title for the series, for instance. The game was featured on the cover of several magazines, contests were run for a chance to win the game along with some Sonic 10th Anniversary merchandise, and a giant poster of Shadow the Hedgehog with the caption “Unleashed” draped the Los Angeles Convention Center like the American flag at E3 2001.
The amount of gameplay content Sega packed intoSonic Adventure 2— story campaigns from the Hero and Dark perspectives, side missions, and the beloved Chao Garden — was enough to give fans enough bang for their buck. It was so popular that when the Dreamcast was put to pasture, Sega ported it over to the Nintendo GameCube underSonic Adventure 2: Battle, which introduced a multiplayer battle mode (hence the title).
In 2003, Sega went similarly hard with the marketing forSonic Heroes. It was the first Sonic game to go multi-platform, releasing not only on the GameCube, but on PS2, Xbox, and PC as well in an attempt to introduce younger audiences to the Blue Blur. Sega went so far as to dub it the Year of Sonic, releasingSonic Xonto the American airwaves andMcDonald’s Happy Meal toys to tie into the game(even though those toys came out several months after its release, oddly enough), as well as airingwacky commercials. With team-based gameplay, four storylines, level designs tailored to each team (not to mention the return of Team Chaotix), and graphics that were a huge improvement from theSonic Adventuregames,Sonic Heroesproved to be commercially successful.
It seems clear that Sega might be anticipating a repeat of that success withFrontiers …or at least that it hopes for one.
Finding the right advertising balance
That’s not to say that big marketing pushes have always paid off for Sega.Sonic ’06is an infamous example. It was developed exclusively as a launch title for the PS3 and Xbox 360, but the final product didn’t live up to the heavy marketing resulting from the series’ 15th anniversary. That was due to various factors, includingcrunch issuesand the development team being split in half.
Fast forward to 2017, and Sega’s marketing strategy forSonicForcesinvolved releasing a heavy stream of trailers on YouTube every week andcollaborating with Hooters in Japan. Yes, you read that correctly — Hooters. In the end, the game was a commercial failure due to a lackluster avatar creator system, sloppy writing (save for Episode Shadow), stiff animation, dull lighting, andsome antagonists being falsely advertised as boss fights. It was the only mainline console Sonic game to cost $40 at launch — a price tag that perhaps foreshadowed a lack of confidence in the final product. I still have theSonic ForcesPS4 controller skin that came with my GameStop pre-order to prove it, and I’ve come to regret it.
Frontiersis a completely different story, though. There was radio silence from Sega about the game between the teaser trailer on the May 2021 Sonic Central stream and its announcement trailer at The Game Awards seven months later. With a more cautious approach, Sega would wait for a more coordinated content blowout withpreviews on IGN Firstand a public demo at Gamescom 2022. That was followed up by the announcement of a full-priced release and a very competitive holiday launch date. UnlikeSonic Forces, Sega seems confident it has a hit on its hands here.
While the game has gotten some mixed buzz (we weren’t sure what to make of it when we played it atSummer Game Fest),Sega’s marketing campaign is sending a strong message to fans. This isn’t a throwaway installment of the series; it’s a big, important one you won’t want to miss.
It’s not clear if that gamble will pay off. At one point, Sega was successful in releasing mainline Sonic titles during the busy holiday months, but that gamble has not paid off in 20 years. While it did see some level of success withHeroes,Unleashed, and evenColors,’06andForcesfell extremely short of the promises their respective marketing cycles gave.
This year, Sega is going big time in betting onSonic FrontiersagainstSkull and Bones,God of War: Ragnarok, andPokemon Scarlet and Violet. The last two games will be sales behemoths, soFrontiersis going up against titans. While Director Morio Kishimoto said in arecent interviewthatFrontiersunderwent internal playtesting once every three to four months throughout its development until July, and the game justwon an award for Best Upcoming Gameat the Tokyo Game Show — a first for the series — the game’s ultimate fate remains up in the air.Still, don’t count Sega out of the fight. Its marketing decisions may be bold, but that could signal thatSonic Frontiersis in very good shape.
