Summary
Sonic Racing: CrossWorldsgot a new trailer atSummer Game Fest,giving us a release date (September 25), and confirming some guest characters. However, if the leaks are to be believed, thenSegais holding back on revealing that SpongeBob will also be in the game.
The leaks already predicted theMinecraftcollaboration, so many are getting their hopes up. And yet, Sonic Team would really, really like it if these crossovers stopped leaking before they can be announced - and even threatens that some could be cancelled if they keep getting shared early.
Sonic Team Really Wants Everyone To Stop Leaking Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds Characters
Speaking withVGC, Sonic Team head Takashi Iizuka says that partnerships with third parties could fall apart due to leaks.
“This is just a general response, not anything specific to this game, but from a publishing perspective the publisher is always trying to control, plan, organise and present information and surprises to people to have the most fun, and get the most attention, [and] get people as excited as best as possible,” Iizuka says.
He then goes on to address the collaborations with other companies specifically. “In the event that you’re dealing with licensed content, sometimes that leak will destroy a deal, and now you’re able to’t do some stuff because someone leaked something.”
Admittedly, I can’t think of a time when this has happened - or at least an instance of this happening which was made public. If the leak were to come from an internal source, like a dev, then sure, that could put the partnership in jeopardy. If not that, it would certainly make a company less likely to partner with a studio in the future if it could not guarantee that its employees will keep quiet about any announcements.
We’ll just have to wait and see what this means for Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds. We now know that Minecraft characters are coming to the game, and given that this is an Xbox property, that opens up the door for a ton of other guest characters. In this respect, it seems that Sega is aiming for what Nintendo has pulled off with the Super Smash Bros. series, albeit in a different genre. And given that Nintendo hasn’t strayed from its own games when it comes to new Mario Kart characters, this helps to differentiate the racers now that Mario Kart World is out.
Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds launches on September 25. It will be available on Switch, Switch 2, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.
