SONIC the Hedgehog is one of the most recognisable video game series in history, with the blue blur having enjoyed pop culture status for close to three decades.
Two new games in the Sonic the Hedgehog series are set to be released in 2024, and they’re both very different kinds of games.
Sonic Rumble is a new free-to-play game coming to mobile and PC later this year[/caption]
The first one, Sonic X Shadow Generations, is set to be released on PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, and PC later this month, on October 25, 2024.
The game is a remaster of Sonic Generations, one of the best games in the series, with an additional expansion focused on Shadow the Hedgehog, Sonic’s rival.
The other Sonic game set to launch this year is a little bit different, as it’s a mobile-first multiplayer party game that’s a little bit like Fall Guys.
Sonic Rumble is a 32-player battle royale party game coming to iOS, Android, and PC in Winter 2024, though an exact release date has not been announced yet.
Many players were concerned, though, that the free-to-play nature of the game would mean that it has gacha or pay-to-win mechanics.
Thankfully, the game’s director Makoto Tase has confirmed to Automaton that the game won’t feature either gacha mechanics and it won’t be pay-to-win.
Tase said: “We’re aiming for a casual system that allows you to just buy what you want quickly for a small, fixed amount, rather than a gacha system that gives you a certain probability of obtaining items.”
The reasoning behind this is that Tase believes that gacha mechanics – like loot boxes where players pay for random rewards – aren’t popular outside of Japan, and that it’s not appropriate for games targeted at all ages.
Many popular mobile games, like Genshin Impact, rely on gacha mechanics for monetisation, and are very lucrative because of it.
Tase also said that players won’t be able to spend money to get an advantage in Sonic Rumble, saying that all players should be able to enjoy the game on equal footing.
Sonic fans recently spotted what they believe is a secret character coming to Sonic X Shadow Generations, with many speculating that there could be a new version of Shadow in the game.
For more on upcoming games, check out our list of all the big games coming out in October 2024.
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