If possible, any giant company worth their salt would want to make a multiplayer battle royale-type game with multiple game modes and type aimed for casual players. It’s one way to get more people onto your game, but only if it’s done right.

Sega’s latest from one of its owned devs, Rovio, is making one such title using Sonic and Sega’s plethora of IPs and licenses: Sonic Rumble. It’s what one expects of these types of games: 32-player online round-based minigames, the winner is the last anthropomorphic animal standing, smooth online play, and easy controls for pick-up-and-play goodness & limitless replayability. According to Sonic series producers Takashi Iizuka and Sonic Rumble director of development Makoto Tase, that’s pretty much the only major thing that sets it apart from veterans like Fall Guys and other imitators -indie-made or otherwise.

Honestly, that’s more than enough to get a leg up on the rest of the competition: Sega isn’t exactly a small fry with little to no branding presence. Still, Sonic Rumble’s gameplay and controls are where it’s at in terms of setting itself apart further.

“ I think it’s the speed, the action, the gimmicks, and the way you attack people and take their rings,” said Tase. “One of the most interesting challenges we faced in making Sonic Rumble is bringing Sonic’s trademark speed into the game, as well as getting the feel correct. As a party game, some people might find it too fast. So, we wanted to bring Sonic’s unique character and multi-title design into the game. It was an interesting challenge when balancing that with the needs of a party game.“

(Top: Sonic Rumble director of development Makoto Tase)

I was also curious to hear if the team will add other Sega characters outside of the Sonic universe.  “One thing that we should highlight,” Iizuka said, “is there will be a lot of characters from all around the Sonic universe. We will try our best to incorporate as many of them as possible.”

“Though, we should  mention that we will be able to draw from some of Sega’s other IPs and we do have collaborations planned with third-party game companies as well.” The team plans to collaborate with not just game companies, Iizuka continued. “There are a number of third-party companies that we will be partnering up with famous characters outside of Sega. However, we can only announce this at a later date”.

I also wonder how this game will compete with other free-to-play games on the market, a rather competitive and volatile space to be in. Iizuka assured myself and the rest of the media that it’s taking major steps in making this title work in the already-crowded space.

“Compared to other party games, we wanted to create something that maintains Sonic’s iconic speed, as well as offers kind of hot-blooded competitions and battles between players,  but offered in a format that anybody can enjoy. Also, you can create a special room only for your friends.  You can invite your friends  to play with only your friends.

Skill-wise, we have a system for that. However, the number of players is important, so we’ll have to divide the group based on the player’s skill level. So, yeah, we’ve taken consideration into separating beginner players from veteran players, and we are actively working  towards creating other ways to filter and sort matchmaking.”

There’s also Sega’s other F2P titles and whether a title like Sonic Rumble might get lost in the shuffle and get cannibalized by mainstays & international money-makers like Hatsune Miku Colorful Stage.

(Top: Sonic series producers Takashi Iizuka)

“One thing I wanted to note,” Iizuka said, “is that Sonic Rumble ultimately exists in a very different genre than Hatsune Miku Colorful Stage! That is a title that is focused a little bit more towards a domestic Japanese audience and then made available outside of Japan after a year or so of release. And, admittedly, it is a quality of SEGA that we do want to keep improving on.

That is why Sonic Rumble is a title that is built from the ground up for a more global audience, as an action game meant for people around the world. It’s actually a really interesting strong point of what we do at SEGA, in that what we do is ultimately, even though we’re the same company, we manage to specialize and really differentiate what we do from each title from one another.”

Sonic Rumble will be out for PC, iOS, and Android mobile devices in Winter 2024.