The Sonic Frontiers Preview Footage Is From An "Early Build"

I can’t believe Twitter had a war on the people saying “it’s probably an old build”, because they were gosh darned right!

Yeah okay. History tells me all I need to know.

I really hope this gets delayed because I want it to be as good as it can be, and this holiday season seems very close already.

Old build huh? 2042 would beg to differ.

Everyone say it with me "Damage control".

That’s what I was thinking, it looks like a tech demo, because that’s what it is. And it makes me feel better, After today, I’m beyond hyped!

And even if everyone doesn’t end up liking it, I know I will!

seems very contrived gameplay for an open world

@RubyCarbuncle I totally understand and respect your view on this. I just really want this to be a good, polished game, and my absurd backlog allows me more patience. 🙂

I was not impress nor disappointed, just a bit confused why they choose to go this route with Sonic.

I feel like we go through this every time underwhelming footage of a Pokemon game leaks, lol.

I'm sure there will be some surface level improvements in the launch build. Maybe pop-in will be less jarring. But if you're like me and having issues with the art-style, awful-looking combat, and seeming lack of compelling overworld design for a 3D platform action game, the assurance that this represents an early build doesn't do much to ease concerns for me.

I've heard the "an early build" excuse and typically it doesn't give me confidence in the game especially given how Sega has treated Sonic over the last decade or so. I really hope they do the right thing and delay it, the game looks promising but it just looks so bare right now. I don't want another one of my favorite video game franchises getting dragged in the mud any longer than it has (i.e. Halo Infinite followed this same path and ended up being a mess).

There is absolutely no way it is from an "early build" and the game is coming out soon and THAT is what they decided to show as the first impression.

Or maybe the Sonic Team is just that poor at even finding something good in their design to show off.

@Serpenterror Because everyone wants to go open world these days.

The internet is really getting into a fuss over Sonic's new game without giving it a fair shot. Like Breath of the Wild, this seems to be an experience that needs to be played first before fair assessment. This is where E3 (and physical showcases) really help companies out. However, from what I recall the few people who did play test the game back in early 2021 did not have a good experience so who knows? I'm in the minority here but I think it looks pretty good.

It’s a huge marketing blunder

This both makes me happy but also makes me question what the heck they were thinking. The fact there was so much discussion over how rough it looked just proves that showing off the game with this early build stuff without making it extra clear was just… a big oof. Let’s hope they got something better to show in the current build trailer soon.

@Axecon What doesn't help is that Sega has a habit of saying they'll do better with Sonic, only for their latest game to be mediocre at best, and busted at worst.

Generations was arguably the last true win for the guy, and Forces -while not a broken mess like Boom or '06- spread itself too thin to be something more amazing, had they just honed in on one or two of the 3 play styles.

Sega's ironically in the best position with expectations being so low, as they have nowhere to go but up for a lot of us. And I'll even say I'm cautiously optimistic about Frontiers. Just give me a decent playground with good controls to mess around in, and anything else about the game would be a bonus, personally.

If the pop-in and glitches are fixed when it launches I'll be shocked.

The game isn’t out for another 5 months at minimum so of course it’s a early build and unless they wanna give a time frame on its build date this isn’t gonna inspire any confidence in me as to improvements. The fanbase can do all the wagon circling and narrative crafting they want but I have over two decades of Sonic Team’s history to look at and that includes previews that made these same early build claims hoping the final game will be fixed.

Nobody should get their hopes up because of this. It's an "early build" in the sense that the game doesn't release for a few more months and this build isn't final... Which everyone already knew. This build is the best Sega has to show at the moment, it's not a months old build full of issues that they've already fixed, it wouldn't make any sense for them to premiere their game with an outdated build like that.

I am truly scared to see this running on switch.

I think they are trying to do Damage control here, not that i dislike it, on the contrary, if for example, this game is set In an apocalyptic future on an alternate timeline (more zelda rip off) where Robotnik won over Sonic, it is only natural that the world is empty, i dont know i guess what im trying to say is, we know nothing about the plot, it could be reasonable the way things are if only given the right context

lol sounds like the classic PR deflection. once this is in the rear mirror, they'll hopefully postpone it for 2 years and make something that doesn't feel awkward

Why show it at all, then? In an age where releasing "AAA" flagship games (Halo Infinite, for starters) in an unfinished, buggy, glitchy state has become the norm, this answer comes off more than a little hollow. Just straight-up damage control, and right now I imagine there are a lot of people at Sega (whose futures there may well be on the line) are asking themselves, "What do we do NOW"?

SEGA is having trouble highlighting the game's strength?

Slightly reassuring I suppose, early builds of Legends Arceus didn't look or run as well as the final build. However, this is still Sonic Team, still have zero hype for this.

As as been said...same thing was said (early build) about battlefield 2042 which came out a few months later I believe, with all the same bugs and glitches present...

Sure it is, like an early build at this stage matters. Sure didn't help when Battlefield 2042 and Halo Infinite said the same thing just months before their own launches. Sega has a far worse track record either of them do when it comes to releasing half baked, buggy games.

@Specters
Well it is an early build

So...Has ever any game ended up surpassing expectations after people had to defend it by saying it was an early build?

@Pandy-the-Panda this isn't an alpha or a beta. This is the game. Unless they delay it for a couple years and basically scrap it this is how the game is going to look and play.

@Axecon How many fair shots do you have to give Sega tho? Have you not seen the track record? Why in the world would you show footage of an early build as a first impression? Wouldn’t you want to show your best footage and gameplay to get people excited?

@SalvorHardin Exactly! How do ppl just forget and blindly defend them, when they’ve done nothing but lie and fail time after time. People forget too easily.

Bullocks! Yeah you going to allow a big news site to show gameplay of your game that is supposed to release soon and what you going to do? Sent them an old build of the game? Right!

It's an outright lie and pure Damage Control!

I'm looking forward to seeing the improvements of the new build when they finally show it. There are a lot of Sonic fans and I'm rooting for them that they get a 3D game Sonic deserves.

Needless to say something fishy is going behind the scenes when Sega and ST decides to use an early build for a game that is supposed to release soon.
Hopefully they show the newer build very soon.

Companies always send people old builds so I wasnt really expecting otherwise.

So essentially any commentary or opinion from IGN is redundant. A senior editorial producer thought it a good idea to share a video of game being developed that they knew did not resemble what it currently looked or played like. In short “I have not seen or played the current build of the game so really cannot comment on how things are looking”.

The PR is kicking into gear

It still doesn't make any sense... You send your best work to be promoted and generate buzz/pre-orders. Why would you provide IGN with a buggy mess of a build?

Why does Sonic Frontiers even need an IGN preview in June?! I'd have preferred to have been shown none of the buggy mess and wait patiently for a "decent build" in October.

The whole thing makes no sense. Think about it like this... if this was your game, how would you personally market it?!

@Ardisan Bullocks and absolutely not true!

This has been debunked so many times now!

When a game is about to be released and you going to show gameplay footage to generate hype and sales, you going to show the best you can of the current state of the game. You not going to sent some old pre-Alpha build with hardly anything in it and to show for it. Like they did now.

Makes absolutely no sense and the overall public reaction is your answer to that!

yeah, an early build...it is interesting that Sega wanted to create an interest in Sonic Frontiers by showing the worst version they have ....

They should take some cues from The Pathless and Solar Ash for this game. Those games are underrated and showed how to create the right flow in a fast paced open world platformer/puzzler.

I also wish they’d simplify and stylise the environment a bit more. Cartoony Sonic in a hyperrealistic setting is as jarring as teeth Sonic was.

I'll just wait for a review and see from there

I'm not sure if this is good marketing for the game. Why did they show off an early build first? Wouldn't it make more sense to show off a final build? This game will come out in a few months.

Yes, of course, an "old build".
The best material to show when starting up your PR campaign.
This is in no way damage control in light of the overall reaction to the shown footage.
Next, some "unforeseen circumstances" force them to delay the release...a couple of times...
Been there, seen that.

IGN has an exclusive coverage deal, of course it won't heavily criticise the game. Old build can be 1 month old, or 3 months old or 6 months old, it doesn't mean much. Even if it was 6 months old though, it still feels like a game that is early in development, so I have really low hopes for the devs managing to iron things out in time (let alone fix what looks like fundamental issues with the game's design).

I think there are some good ideas there, like the large bosses, the rest so far though looks really bland. Worryingly though the large bosses were basically the main thing that the IGN preview mentioned as needing a lot of work.

@RubyCarbuncle
There are hundreds of games on every system that you can play instead of rushing Sonic Team to poop out another awful game

Sorry but in 9.9 out of 10 cases, Sonic games turn out to be even worse than people would worry before its happening. We have this discussion every time and every time the game gets a 3/10 and is full of glitches. Why people still think they can trust Sega is beyond me.

Also people should really start questioning themselves and their ethics. You who still defend multi billion dollar compoanies and cry out for help because some bad person on the internet told you their game is awful are honestly the real problem here.

If this really is an old build, this has to be one of the worst marketing pushes for a game I’ve ever seen.

Almost 5 years after Forces and 6 months before launch, and we're seeing an "early build"? Doesn't seem right.

That said, my issues with the game are more than skin-deep anyway. I couldn't care less about the animations and the draw distance or w/e. I'm just not sold on the concept.

This did catch my eye though: "use portal gears to unlock linear Sonic levels > complete linear Sonic levels to unlock chaos emeralds". Why aren't they showing off the "linear" Sonic levels? Are these more like what we've seen in other 3D Sonic games? By the sounds of it these are making up the minority of the experience.

Could this be another 3D Sonic game where the core Sonic gameplay is diluted by some mediocre gimmick?

Well... in the end, does it really matter if the game is good or bad? Sonic fans will buy it regardless the quality. The only Sonic games that truly bombed were the three Sonic Boom games. But all the other ones sold very well, even Sonic 06 and Forces. If the Sonic community even were willing to buy these games, then SEGA will not have to fear low sales for Sonic Frontiers.

They shouldn't show footage of something like this till it's nearly finished or people will think they know how great the game is from just this footage. Much better to wait till a game is almost complete before revealing it.

Tbh, I really didn't think it was bad at all, certainly not deserving of the hate. It seems exactly like what you should expect from a BOTW style Sonic game.

Although I did feel it should have been a bit quicker to accelerate and the legs not spinning round in circles when running fast did irk me XD

@RubyCarbuncle
Please give me an example of a finished product Sonic Team has released in the past decade that was "good" or worth getting excited for? Sonic Mania was made by an independent mod team, but Sonic Forces was made by Sonic Team. One was fun the other an exercise in pain.

Now take Sonic Teams lack of heart and skill (brains) and make the game open world. There is no way this game won't be a dumpster fire.

@RupeeClock
Exactly, or how about they release their current build to IGN to show it not in a garbage state. My question is why thinks Sonic fighting shapes (or shaply) robots looks fun?

What if Sonic Frontiers had adaptive music, this video will show.

@RubyCarbuncle
If a free demo is released I will give it a try but I will by no means buy it for $60

@steventonysmith I hope there's a playable demo as well.

I'm just hoping for the best. We haven't played the game so we can't give it a fair chance just yet.

@Sakura_Fox
No but based on the past history of the Sonic Teams games we can have rock bottom expectations wait for a demo or wait for it in the bargain bin

Lol, looks like this game is Sonic Teams latest disaster.

Can't wait for the full release so I can watch all the videos on this games jankiness. I'm expecting some funny stuff

You know what they say: "Early bird gets the bad reviews"

@Specters
I’m sorry dude, the IGN presenter who has actually played the game and actually spoken to the developers, literally confirmed that we’ve been seeing an early build. I also never claimed to know anything about if it was in Alpha or Beta stages, all I said was that it’s an early build.

@steventonysmith
I would say Sonic Forces is a “good” and finished Sonic Team game. The thing may be short and not as good as Sonic Generations, but it’s still a solid looking & playing Sonic game, with fun ideas & mechanics, while having little to no glitches. I play the game every few months and never hate my experience.

@Pandy-the-Panda yes all builds are early builds before release I'm glad you took what he said absolutely literally and not what he meant by saying he hoped they could fix issues in the early build before launch. For the Sonic Team to show this off as their first impressions doesn't give the greatest confidence to potential buyers and it is also true that this is the game if it is releasing soon.
They might polish it up, but their previous games would say that polish ain't their best attribute. They might get the draw distance better so playable platforms don't disappear 50 feet away from the player, I mean how would Sonic go fast if you can't even see the platforms. They might get the frame rate better through optimizations. But this is the game. The art is this, the combat is this, the puzzles are this. You cannot change the core fundamentals of the game within 6 months.

Sure it is an early build... I don't buy it. Why wasn't it presentd as an early build to begin with?

An early build? From a game that has been in development since 2017 and will release in less than 6 months? Sure Sega, sure...

@Bolt_Strike Damage Control like the Red Tape song right? If so DAMAGE CONTROL!!!

Lies I say. I don’t believe a single word. Similar things were said about Halo Infinite and that got delayed after a week or two. I can’t believe they decided to show Sonic in that state and let IGN cover it for a whole month. Car crash stuff

@Pandy-the-Panda
You are in the minority with your thoughts about Sonic Forces. As it was filled with bugs, had weird boring gameplay and limped to the finish line. I only paid $20 a month after release and still felt like I overpaid. It's sitting at a 57 on metacritic with a user score in the 60s

@steventonysmith
Sonic Forces is a “bad game” because it hyped people up before launch and ended up being nothing that special, it’s actually “just ok”. By a “good game” I meant it has mediocre but solid gameplay, neat ideas & mechanics, cool new locations, and an excellent sound track. Anyway, the main point of the original comment was just to say that Sonic Forces was a finished Sonic Team product, it’s just that what they envisioned didn’t resonate with most of the world; the game actually had more positive reception in Japan.

Sonic Forces is many things, but “filled with bugs” is not one of them, in fact it’s one of the most polished Sonic games in that department. I’ve played Forces for a long time and haven’t had any bugs at all, while today Sonic Generations gave me a missing floor glitch.

@Pandy-the-Panda
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCNqinIXHNo

@Pandy-the-Panda
You seem like a young kid who loves Sonic or sadly an adult who loves Sonic but either way you need to see the faults in recent Sonic games, you need to see the faults in what has been shown in Sonic Frontiers and demand that Sonic Team actually get their act together and produce a polished, fun title.

@steventonysmith
I’ll definitely watch the video, it’s just that from my long experience playing Sonic Forces that I never noticed any.

@Pandy-the-Panda
Then you were lucky but Sonic Team has struggled very much with making a modern Sonic game that isn't plauged with issues and trying to ignore their failures will not help them get better

@steventonysmith
I’m a young adult who loves Sonic, but I’m not blind to the faults. Just because I openly admit that I find some enjoyment in Sonic Forces doesn’t mean I think it’s perfect at all, far from it in fact. I admitted that as a whole it’s “just ok”, which is a fair judgment.

Firstly, Sonic Colours, Sonic Unleashed, & Generations are very solid modern Sonic games made by Sonic Team that aren’t “plagued with issue’s” really at all.

I definitely don’t ignore the many failures Sonic has had, just cause I like forces doesn’t I’m blind to issues. I know reusing wisps is lazy, and that most games post colours didn’t even use them well. I know that Sonic Lost World looks like a Mario Ripoff, has very generic environments, a bad story, etc (Btw, I hate the game). I know that Sonic Boom was planned to be a huge next gen game, but Sega wouldn’t allow big changes and then stuck it on the underpowered Wii U. I know that Sonic Forces was very overhyped and ended up being very simple and sometimes boring.

I can also very clearly see that Sonic Frontiers has some issues, however I also see personal complaints like “momentum is absolutely necessary”, and claims that “the world is empty” when we know it fills up as challenges are completed.
I personally really like how Sonic Frontiers is looking so far, it looks fun and has me intrigued. Animations & pop-in definitely need polish, however newer footage does show improvements in both areas, and they’ll keep being improved until they’re at least manageable.

I love Sonic so much, I really do hate it when i find issues while playing because I want to love every game. However it is also important to remember that sometimes an “issue” you have with a gane could be personal preference, just like things that people love about certain games.

I very much dislike that you assumed my age or that I’m a crazy fan who ignore’s every issue in the series that I love the most. Blind lovers really aren’t true fans. This long reply better be enough cause I don’t wanna come back and go in depth.

@Pandy-the-Panda
Sonic Colors when ported to the Switch (a generation newer machine) ran like hot trash. Generations was the closest to fun I've had with a Sonic game in over a decade. Mania is the only good game and it wasn't made by Sonic Team. Unleashed? Really?