Tuesday, July 26, 2022

Can The Next Sonic Game Have Not So Much Secretive Marketing Please?



Back in the mid 90's and early 2000s new video game reveals were always fun and exciting. They'd often come with a lot of press releases. Video Game Magazines would often talk about new games coming up & the interviews and features weren't as always exclusive as they are now these days. Sadly, thanks to the internet - it's certainly changed how most video games are revealed.
I used to enjoy buying the Video Game Magazines to learn about the new titles coming out. But the way SEGA decided to promote Sonic Frontiers, if at all is very confusing. To be frank, I didn't like the highly secretive marketing.

Open world & "Open-Zone" if that's what you want to call it, games are not new. Think of Spyro the Dragon for example. That's the kind of vibes i'm getting whenever they say it isn't open world but open zone. Or say for the first Sonic Adventure game. How you had worlds that could be accessed through other worlds.


While Frontiers itself does look amazing, and i'm really excited for it, I think the whole 'secretive marketing' strategy for this game is really silly. For example, at Game Fest 2022 this year, they actually had security preventing people from filming the game or taking down any details, staff hiding in the bushes or outside to make sure people weren't leaking anything. That's a bit over the top.
Most game creators use events such as E3 etc to share new game experiences, not prevent people from seeing what's new. 

It is a poor strategy to promote a game. Especially since it's Sonic The Hedgehog who's had a lot of unfortunate releases in the past that didn't do so well.


It's OK for developers to hold off a lot of information about a game while it's in development. Yes, that's fine. But now, Frontiers will soon be playable for the first time in public at EGX Expo in the UK.
Let's hope this event can put a lot of people's frustrations to rest. From what i've seen the game looks awesome, and while I wasn't on the same bandwagon as everybody else with the 'hurr durr delay Frontiers' movement, I credit Sonic Team for refusing to delay it. They seem to be pretty confident that Frontiers is going to do well, let's take their word for it. I just hope the next Sonic game after Frontiers won't be shrouded with such secrecy. 

Sonic Frontiers comes out on Xbox One/Series X, PS4/5, Nintendo Switch & PC in November 2022.  

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