Sega is celebrating 30 years of Sonic the Hedgehog and doing it in a big way. Will 2020 be a good year for the blue blur, or will the “cycle” repeat itself once again?
So it makes sense that Sega is taking that, combining it with the 30th anniversary, and launching a new marketing campaign. 2020 will be the Year of the Hedgehog.
A big part of 2020, will be the Sonic the Hedgehog movie. It was supposed to come out towards the end of 2019, but instead became a huge source of drama and internet memes. But the movie is back on track now, and people seem much less upset about its existence.
It helps that the redesigned character actually looks cute, instead of a horrifying space monkey from another dimension.
Beyond the movie stuff, Sega itself will also be promoting the Sonic brand through its own channels. The whole 2020 gimmick has led to a plan in which Sega will be posting fan creations and other goodies on the 20th day of each month included in those content drops will be official Sonic news. It’s about time for the next actual Sonic video game announcements, and since we’ll be seeing a new console generation this year, the news could be pretty significant.
Sonic is almost in the best place he’s been in years. Despite years and years of mediocre or divisive games, Sonic Mania came out and killed it. Sega has capitalized, with tons of merchandise, transmedia projects, a new racing game.
Despite Sonic Forces being what it is, there’s a good chance things could be looking pretty good for whatever is next. As far as Japan is concerned, Sega did a lot of recent restructuring after the Yakuza series blew up, and “Sonic Team” as we knew it was sort of absorbed into one of a few larger development structures.
Potentially, assuming the Sonic series gets more time and money, there could be a lot of new and talented development hands touching the next one. It could even make a big splash as an early next/new gen title.
Between the movie, the next game(s), and this new promotional drive, 2020 could very well end up being the year of the old Favorite hedgehog.
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