Sega developing multiplayer Sonic game on UE4 (could be Olympics related)?

[Dooble]

Gatherered from a job opening.

https://hrmos.co/pages/sega/jobs/217

・Practical experience with Unreal Engine 4
・Action game development experience
・Network game production experience (P2P online battles, etc.)

[Assumed title] "Sonic" series

CAUTION: Its assumed that it is "Sonic", and it also links to the Tokyo 2020 Olympics game. So it might be just another Olympics title. Still, it's interesting that they are moving away from their own Hedgehog Engine.

 

[alexi52]

Maybe a new Sonic Fighters? I don't know why they would go with UE4 for a Olympic party game

 

[ILikeFeet]

Maybe a new Sonic Fighters? I don't know why they would go with UE4 for a Olympic party game

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maybe because it's made in conjunction with another studio who can't use Hedgehog 2

 

[BlueStarEXSF]

I really hope they don't drop HE2 for the main games. Unique engines are too rare nowadays. Plus, modders are pretty familiar with what Sonic Team is using already so I wouldn't want a switch to UE to mess with mods. As for what this multiplayer game actually is, it kind of sounds like a fighter?

 

[VinylCassette64]

IIRC, who owns the rights to develop officially-licensed Olympics video games for certain years is usually announced well before the event takes place. Sega was announced to have acquired the rights to Tokyo 2020 back in 2016—and only for 2020 (compared to the long term contract for the previous M&S games). Beijing Winter 2022 came and went with only this non-Sega related NFT smartphone game to show for it. Licensing rights for Paris 2024 have been available since 2021; if Sega was privy for having a Mario & Sonic Olympics game for 2024, I think we would had known about them acquiring the license by now.

Personally I imagine this is going to be the next stopgap Sonic spin-off between Frontiers and whatever the next mainline game by Sonic Team is; in the same way Team Sonic Racing was between Forces and Frontiers.

 

[Dooble]

IIRC, who owns the rights to develop officially-licensed Olympics video games for certain years is usually announced well before the event takes place. Sega was announced to have acquired the rights to Tokyo 2020 back in 2016—and only for 2020 (compared to the long term contract for the previous M&S games). Beijing Winter 2022 came and went with only this non-Sega related NFT smartphone game to show for it. Licensing rights for Paris 2024 have been available since 2021; if Sega was privy for having a Mario & Sonic Olympics game for 2024, I think we would had known about them acquiring the license by now.

Personally I imagine this is going to be the next stopgap Sonic spin-off between Frontiers and whatever the next mainline game by Sonic Team is; in the same was Team Sonic Racing was between Forces and Frontiers.

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Don't follow Olympic games stuff at all, this makes sense. Makes me actually excited to see what type of spin-off they would create. It's been a while since they have done a spin-off in-house, last one was Free Riders.

 

[Camjo-Z]

I would love to see something along the lines of Sonic R, maybe not specifically a racing game but just something with a big cast of Sonic characters that you can run around with and use all their unique abilities. It's been ages since we got something like that, Sonic Forces Speed Battle is the only thing that comes close but that's still a very basic runner at its core.

Also, it might not be related, but back when Frontiers first got leaked on 4chan 3 years ago there was a second concept posted about an online multiplayer Sonic game:

 

[N75]

Pretty sure there was a fair amount of staff crossover between Sonic Origins and the 2020 Sega Olympic titles (regular and Mario/Sonic). Might be what they're working on next.

 

[VinylCassette64]

Camjo-Z Adding to your point of highlighting the "Concept K" pitch for Frontiers and online multiplayer, Iizuka had this exchange during an interview he did last year about various Sonic projects (Colors Ultimate, Origins, the franchise's 30th anniversary, etc.):

Q: Nowadays more and more games have adopted open-world gameplay. Has the Sonic series ever considered making an open world entry?

A: The development team has been thinking about and discussing various directions to take the series including open world, battle royale, online play, etc. Gameplay modes which can attract more players to play Sonic are in discussion. We are still discussing ideas like open-world and other things like including matchmaking and online gameplay.

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[The Deleter]

Camjo-Z Adding to your point of highlighting the "Concept K" pitch for Frontiers and online multiplayer, Iizuka had this exchange during an interview he did last year about various Sonic projects (Colors Ultimate, Origins, the franchise's 30th anniversary, etc.):

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Oh that's wild; honestly if Iizuka himself is talking about it, it might be the next large-scale game? Testing multiple playable characters in Frontiers would definitely track with a multiplayer aspect, and they already had the idea of what their next game would be halfway into 2022, so 🤔

 

[PeakPointMatrix]

I would do horrible, unspeakable things for a Sonic multiplayer action-platformer racing title. SA2:Battle's multiplayer on steroids would be an absolute dream game. I'll be very disappointed if it's just an Olympics title.

 

[ted90909]

CAUTION: Its assumed that it is "Sonic", and it also links to the Tokyo 2020 Olympics game. So it might be just another Olympics title. Still, it's interesting that they are moving away from their own Hedgehog Engine.

Click to shrink...

I notice Nintendo news sites have now taken this idea and ran with it, despite the doubt being cast on the job listing's relation to Olympics.

 

[LinksAwakening]

More Sonic games is good Sonic games