SEGA is taking Sonic Frontiers open-world for the next big 3D Sonic game, but it’s not quite the Sonic Adventure 3 that fans may have been expecting. However, fans seem to believe that the new game was inspired by a Sonic Unreal Engine 4 fan demo called the “Kite Demo” which certainly features some strong similarities — but was the creator actually hired by SEGA to create Sonic Frontiers in the style of their Unreal demo?
Was the Sonic Frontiers open-world inspired by a fan demo?
The new 3D Sonic game now officially called Sonic Frontiers was properly revealed at the Game Awards 2021 yesterday, giving a short slice of in-game footage to show that SEGA and Sonic Team are taking the series in a more open-world direction — or as the press release refers to it, “open-Zone,” suggesting that the levels will be open but the whole world won’t be accessible immediately.
It all looks very impressive, if still early in development as Sonic Frontiers won’t be out until Holiday 2022 at the earliest, but fans are already calling out similarities between the Sonic Unreal Engine 4 demo by creator CryZENx from a few years back and the open-world of Frontiers. However, despite the many comments on that video and other suggestions on social media, CryZENx does not seem to have actually been hired by SEGA to work on Sonic Frontiers to bring their vision to life. They’re still posting regular videos on their remake of Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time in Unreal 4, for starters.
https://twitter.com/rigidPillow/status/1469128715649040384
"This is what Sonic looks like in Unreal Engine"
Gente: SEGA, HIRE THIS MAN!!!
Sega: Ok.Sonic Frontiers – Announce Trailer https://t.co/w2FaHUVaqL
— Topofarmer (@Topofarmer) December 10, 2021
Regardless, there is at least one fan hire within Sonic Frontiers — IDW and Archie Sonic comics writer Ian Flynn has been hired to pen the game’s narrative, so it should be a set-up in quality over previous Sonic games. The other big reveal trailer of the Game Awards was the second Sonic the Hedgehog movie, including the first appearance of Idris Elba as Knuckles.
