Sonic Team studio head Takashi Izuka has told VGC that the developers have no plans to delay Sonic Frontiers despite the negative feedback from fans regarding its recent gameplay reveal.

When asked what he thought of the mixed reaction to the Sonic Frontier’s gameplay footage, Izuka had this to say:

“It’s not really that surprising. We do realize everyone is just kind of reacting to the videos that they saw and because they don’t understand what this new gameplay is, they’re kind of comparing it to other games that they already know.”

“If people come to Gamescom or Tokyo Game Show, [they can] get that hands-on experience to play the game and understand what the game is. Because right now we’re just kind of watching videos of people reacting to what they believe the game to be.”

Last week, IGN revealed a ‘World Premiere’ video of Sonic Frontiers, showcasing its gameplay for the first time, and the fan reaction was not so positive. Criticism includes the game feeling unfinished with a large open world that feels barren and lifeless with many saying it looked like a tech demo.

This led to the hashtag #DelaySonicFrontiers trending on Twitter with fans asking that Sega push the game back to give it some extra polish, much like how they did with the Sonic Movie.

Izuka was asked what he thought of the Twitter tag and the idea of Sonic Frontiers getting a delay. He responded by saying that the team was happy with the state the game is currently in.

“Frontiers is in development now, and actually we’ve been doing a lot of playtesting with our target audience, who would be in that demographic of someone who’d play a Sonic game and enjoy it,” he replied.

“From our playtesting results we have been iterating, we have been listening to the comments that come back, but we’ve also been getting a lot of great feedback from people who rate the game and are like, ‘I had a lot of fun playing this game, I’d give it like an 80 or 90 point score out of 100’.

“So we do feel that we’re getting to the point where this game is done, and people will like it, and we do want to get that game into our fans’ hands as soon as possible.”

For what it’s worth, IGN uploaded a more recent hands-on preview of the game with commentary giving an overview of the gameplay. The game was been more warmly received in this video with comments saying that it still needs work but looks better than many initially thought.

Sonic Frontiers will arrive for Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC sometime in the 4th quarter of 2022.

Source: VGC