Summary
Due to their severe unpopularity in the West, the upcomingSonic Rumblewon’t feature any pay-to-win or “gacha” mechanics. Sega and mobile developer Rovio Entertainment announcedSonic Rumblethis May as aSonic the Hedgehog-themed take on online multiplayer party games likeFall Guys, with a closed beta test being held in June. A few months later,Sonic Rumblewould enter a pre-launch beta in territories like the Philippines, Peru, and Colombia, giving players who live there a preview of what’s to come when the game is released in full in Winter 2024.
Sonic Rumble’s similarities toFall Guysare apparent from the start, as the game tasks players with racing through colorful obstacle courses as toy-like versions of theirfavoriteSonic the Hedgehogcharacters. There are a fewSonictwists to the formula, like springs and loop-de-loops scattered throughout levels, and up to 32 players can compete in standard races or scrambles to collect the most Rings in a set amount of time.
Sonic Rumbleis free-to-play, and Sega has confirmed that there will be a Battle Pass that will give players access to new character skins and emotes. However,Sonic Rumbledirector Makoto Tase and Sonic Team head Takashi Iizuka recently assured gamers that the upcoming mobile title won’t feature an increasingly controversial element of typical free-to-play titles: gacha mechanics. In an interview withAutomaton, Tase stated thatSonic Rumbleis “aiming for a casual system that allows you to just buy what you want quickly for a small, fixed amount, rather than a gacha system that gives you a certain probability of obtaining items.”
Sonic Rumble Won’t Be a Gacha Game
Makoto Tase says thatSonic Rumblewill feature a daily free draw system that lets players unlock new content, but there won’t be any pay-to-win elements. Instead,anything players buy will be purely cosmetic, and there will be multiple ways to obtain character skins and emotes that don’t necessarily involve the player spending real-world currency. For example,Sonic Rumblewill feature a Ring Shop, where players can spend the Rings they collect in-game on an assortment of cosmetics that will be updated daily.
Takashi Iizuka then explained thatSonic Rumble’s lack of pay-to-win elements was due to how divisive these aspects have proven to be in Western territories like the United States. As Iizuka puts it,gacha mechanics are quite commonin Japanese and Asian markets, and players in those territories have little issue with spending real money on randomly selected items. However, gacha games have been met with considerable backlash in other countries, and Sega is looking to avoid this kind of controversy with the release ofSonic Rumblelater this year.
Sonic the Hedgehog
Sonic the Hedgehog is a prolific game franchise that started life on the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive. Covering both 2D and 3D iterations through the generations, Sonic is known for speedy movements and interesting platforming mechanics.
