The reception to Sonic Frontiers has been less than glowing, with fans wondering about or even advocating for a delay based on trailers and gameplay videos. Sonic Team head Takashi Iizuka is undeterred, though, saying that the game is still on-track to release this year, and that he isn’t surprised by the feedback.
“It’s not really that surprising,” Iizuka told VGC. “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. … And this new game system itself is something that doesn’t really exist in any other comparable titles, so we really hope that from here until launch we can really explain what open zone gameplay is.”