Sonic Rumble X Sonic Runners: Lessons, Questions and Wishes

Hello and welcome to your annual visit to this page, it's been a while since the last proper post I have done, hopefully things start to change soon, but what today brings you here is this recent reveal and announcement of this mobile game you may have heard of or not, called Sonic Rumble, clearly straightforward to talk about it, isn't it?... Well…

Shall we start?

The Lessons from the Past: Sonic Runners

I believe that while Sonic Runners itself needs little to no instruction, but maybe a bit of a rundown of what got us there could be appropriate.

While Sonic is no stranger to both primitive and modern era mobile gaming, it's considered that he didn't truly make the jump to phones until the release of Sonic Dash in 2013, developed by SEGA studio HARDlight, as SEGA wanted to start focusing on the west mobile game market and its opportunities.

After that release, HARDlight kept working as SEGA’s main western mobile game developer, not only for Sonic, but for the company as a whole, releasing other titles (Sonic Jump Fever, Crazy Taxi: City Rush), and already busy at work on other projects, including the sequel Sonic Dash 2: Sonic Boom, which was about to be released in July 2015.

However while HARDlight was working on those mobile titles on the west, the Japan side of SEGA also wanted to trying to create their own phone-centered Sonic title, and it seemed like Sonic Team wanted to take a bit of a detour of their main console game development, and so, after a lot of teasing from the team (and quite some external leaks), Runners… was off and running!!! (Yes I know it's bad “”comedy”” but I had to say it)

Sonic Runners was a 2D Automatic Sidescroller aimed for mobile devices and it's market, it started development around late 2013, launched in June of 2015 (or February of the same year if we count the soft-launch).

It was developed primarily by Sonic Team although they seem to have received help of SEGA Networks in some sort of way.

The game released to mostly fanfare from the fanbase, although apparently receiving mixed reviews from critics in some regards, but the game itself was said to be fun and engaging to play with.

It not only was entertaining enough but also showcased a surprising amount of care, from a very attractive Artstyle (that was noticeably inspired by Sonic Lost World, which works for it's favor as a simpler mobile game), to delightful UI Design, and a very sweet but energetic Soundtrack almost everyone has already sang its praises to.

The game also was receiving a lot of support from the team, constant events and updates, it's also already been said time and time again how this game was able to pull off fanservice at it's finest, with the nature of it being sort of disconnected to a main console game, Sonic Team had basically all the freedom to put whoever they wanted in, as we received characters like Tikal, the Werehog, Sticks, and even Mephiles (while we have recently started getting more Sonic 2006 recognition besides Sonic's Twitter memes, this was before the game even crossed its 10 years anniversary).

But we all know what happened next, the game while being still played by the community, or at least valued by it, was announced to close it's doors a mere year after official release (or a year and 4 months if we take onto account the soft-launch).

While it's debated exactly how we got there, there's the facts, as according to SEGA Networks, the game was simply not making enough revenue, and in fact, the game was deemed a “failure”, we all have seen the image of the earnings report, and I don't believe anyone was, is, or will be happy when seeing it.

We don't know how it was actually performing, all we know is that it was over 30million Yen/month, an amount that is generous but still not enough and more importantly, we don't really know how far it was of the minimum measure of success at this moment, being over 50million Yen/month.

Although there's certain ideas of what caused the game to underperform, but we'll leave this right here and come back to this later.

And thus, the game's fate, was sealed

Dates were promised, and promises were fulfilled, at the end of July 2016, Sonic Runners was officially a finished project.

While this was understandably a bummer, seems like time made Sonic move away from this situation, and the fanbase followed, as HARDlight once again was the main developer in charge of the mobile games, releasing later in 2017 Sonic Forces: Speed Battle, then continuing to support both Dash and Forces for years to come, from their own skins to the chance of adding tie-in content to media such as the Sonic Cinematic Universe and the IDW Comics, and fast forwarding to 2023, releasing their first proper 3D Sonic platformer Sonic Dream Team.

But from the very beginning of 2024, we have started hearing about this so called “Project Toys”, that later we knew of as Sonic Toys Party, and little by little in Sonic fashion, more and more started to get out.

After all of this, SEGA decided to officially release the announcement in early May, and so, we now have Sonic Rumble.

The Questions from the Present: Sonic Rumble

Sonic Runners is a 3D Party Royale aimed for mobile devices and its market, it started development around late 2022, launching in Winter of 2024 (or May of the same year if we count the beta testing).

It was developed primarily by SEGA Networks although they seem to have received help of Rovio in some sort of way

The game was open for a beta test, released to mostly fanfare from the fanbase, the game was said to be fun and engaging to play with.

It not only was entertaining enough but also showcased a surprising amount of care, from a very attractive Artstyle (that was noticeably inspired by Sonic Lost World, which works for it's favor as a simpler mobile game), to delightful UI Design, and a very sweet but energetic Soundtrack almost everyone has already sang its praises to…

Sounds… Familiar, doesn't it?...

Well, I copy-pasted these 3 paragraphs from the Sonic Runners section, all I did is change a bit of the grammar, dates, and obviously the name of the game.

Why? Because I didn't have to do anything else, if you think about it, Sonic Rumble seems to share quite a bit with Sonic Runners.

While it in paper sounds good (I mean, there is no issues with a mobile game having a sort of similar feel to an earlier mobile game), considering the scope of both Runners and Rumble, there's a certain feeling of perhaps getting too close to history repeating itself.

To give more context, we will return once again to Sonic Runners to continue where I left off while talking about Runners underperforming…

It's not as straightforward as I would like it to be, we can't really pinpoint the moment or cause of said underwhelming monetary gain Runners was getting, but we can put the pieces together…

Remember how I brought up the game reviewing mixed reviews by the critic?

While critics agreed on the core gameplay being fun, the main and worst complaints were the Free-to-Play nature of the game, this quote displays the 2015’s players’ Point of View

Basically, any free-to-play monetization gimmick you can think of it, Sonic Runners has it.

Extracted from: ‘Sonic Runners’ Review – It’s Always Something, Isn’t It? by TouchArcade

This was a sentiment not only critics brought up, but also a big part of the fanbase, although looks like for most that didn't stop them from playing the game, or at least being aware of interested on it, however what we know is that not everyone was like this, as my assumption is that there was enough of a drop-off of players.

But that wouldn't really matter if the dedicated fan base was pumping out enough revenue attracted by the offering of the game, specially with the Gacha system the game had, right?

Well, as time has shown us, while it was probably still a generous amount of money, it was still not enough for the game to be successful…

This is where we head back to today with Sonic Rumble, as I have already stablished, it has received a lot of praise for the care it seems to have gotten by its developers, which is already a plus, however as Runners once was, it will also be a Free-to-Play title, and we can expect a certain degree some revenue systems, so I think we have to touch this topic not a lot of people will really like… Ads

While the Beta Test didn't showcase any Ad, neither just a blocked or shadowed chance for ads, it doesn't mean there won't be any in the official release, and I'd go as far as to basically assure there will be.

While I'm not an expert on Android app development, I have been at least a familiar with how APK files work, and while searching in a surface-level (to see if files such as the title screen assets or maybe even the opening cinematic were inside the APK in an accessible way) I came across what may point at the app having a minimum of an ability to feature ads, for example, the app has the permission to ask for your Ad ID that other apps and games rely on (for personalized ads, something that as far as I'm aware you have to opt-out on your Google account or Android System side)

A few examples of what's in surface-level related to Ads

WORTH NOTING that until we get official confirmation (probably on release), while I would assure it's the case, don't trust my word 100%, as It's NOT a fact until it happens.

Plans for stuff change a lot and very quick, more than one would ever imagine, and there's a lot of scenarios for this to not end up happening.

But in the case it does happen, what can we expect from it?

Well I wouldn't be totally worried, if the other mobile Sonic games are to be followed, as for examples…

Sonic Forces Speed Battle: you get an skipable ad of around 15 seconds after you finish a match, you can choose to watch unskippable ads for stuff like changing one of your daily missions, getting free rings, shortening (or just skipping) the wait for chests to open trying out some characters you don't have unlocked, or doubling certain chests rewards.

Sonic Dash: you get an skipable ad of around 15 seconds after you fail in the stage and get sent to the menu, you can choose to watch unskippable ads for stuff like getting a free extra life when you fail a run, changing one of your daily missions, doubling certain chests rewards, or getting a free spin in the rewards wheel.

In reality they're not really aggressive ads (as unaggressive as an ad can be, that is), as in common gameplay there's only an ad after you finish/fail, and others are optional with rewards.

If Sonic Rumble were to follow the same structure, we could see ads after your whole play ends (if you fail on round one, you get an ad and brought back to the lobby afterwards, if you win all the way up to round 3, you finish it and you get an ad, afterwards to the lobby), which doesn't really sound that bad, same of the other optional ads.

ALSO WORTH NOTING that in both examples, if you do a purchase in the stores, after that you will never be presented with that post-game/run ad (you finish your play, and then you go directly to the menu).

Besides this, the other way the game will make money is the In-Game purchases, as we have seen from the Beta Test, the game's main factor to get you spending money will be based around customization (Skins, Trails, Emotes, Companions and Stickers more exactly), and a seasonal Premium Pass.

All the skins available in the Beta Test Store

It is something pretty similar to what other games both in the mobile space and the Free-to-Play market are doing, and that is no surprise neither unintentional, as Sonic Rumble is said by SEGA to be Sonic's first Live-Service venture, and we have been told to expect quite the healthy support for the game, from other franchise characters and their skins, to even crossovers with IPs from SEGA itself and maybe even beyond…

The Wishes for the Future: Sonic, Live Service, and Beyond

All of this does sound good, a fun game that seems planned to be big enough for it to be considered THE Live-Service Sonic game for at least a while…

But will it be?

We have the precedent of Sonic Runners, so this is where it's up to everyone's way of seeing things.

Although let's take this on mind, you can't compare Sonic on 2024 to 10 years ago, I don't believe it's up to debate the fact that we are in 100% a significantly better and hopeful era for the franchise, from newfound public and the plethora of new fans (specially younger kids) by the Sonic Cinematic Universe's projects, to perhaps fan veterans being pulled back into the franchise or SCU fans who got attracted to games such as Sonic Frontiers, Sonic Superstars, and the upcoming Sonic X Shadow Generations.

On the obvious stuff we would hope to see, constant updates and new content are no brainers, as the game will depend on it.

On a quick list of wishes for content (besides obvious stuff like a “Squads” feature and all what comes with a Battle/Party Royale), hopefully we can expect the game to follow what Sonic Runners did with it's characters, giving us the chance of playing as some less referenced, such as Mephiles, Tikal, the Werehog, all those fan-service characters that we didn't expect to even appear in Runners.

The odds are definitely there for Rumble to be somewhat successful (or at least not a failure).

We are really not that far away of knowing how the game could realistically perform, as we are ramping up to the first step of an Phased Release

We can hope it will be smooth sailing from now on, as we will be hearing and seeing tons of gameplay and info about the game from the people who are playing on their mobile devices

Further, but also closer: Leaving Mobile?

This section needs no explanation, as it has been one of the main points of discussion not only around this specific game, but also a most other SEGA mobile titles being released, most notably also Sonic Dream Team.

Every single time Sonic Rumble is mentioned, you can bet there will be someone asking “Why is this not on Console or PC?”, “Will the game be released on other platforms?”, “SAVE THE GAME FROM MOBILE HELL, I HATE PHONE GAMING GRRRRAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH”, I think this is clearly a point of interest by the community

Recently, thanks to the opportunity of interviewing Iizuka at SGF Play Days, Sonic Stadium went in and asked the head of Sonic Team about this.

I will leave the extract of the Interview, (Please go give it a read after you finish this post)

The Sonic Stadium: The community has expressed a lot of interest in seeing mobile titles like Sonic Dream Team and Sonic Rumble on PC and consoles. Is there any chance of seeing these releases launch outside of mobile?

Iizuka (in English): Outside of mobile for Sonic Dream Team and Rumble…

Iizuka (via interpreter): Sonic Dream Team is an Apple Arcade exclusive title, so that’s going to be the only place it will be offered. But for Sonic Rumble, we do know it’s releasing on mobile, and we’ll kind of see as it releases, as people pick up on the fun, it may start going to other places outside of it.

Extracted from: Takashi Iizuka on Sonic Team's Expansion and Shadow's Evolving Motivations - TSS Interview

As expected on the matter of the other relevant Sonic mobile title so far, Sonic Dream Team, the game has already been said to have at least a bit of involvement from Apple, for this moment we can't expect the game to leave the Apple ecosystem.

However, Iizuka is very clear on the actual possibility of Sonic Rumble being available on other platforms in the future if the demand is there and the mobile release finds success in it's Winter 2024 release that is

This is already a huge advantage, as it seems like in theory, all we need is to support the release, and all they'll have to do is use the “Export to Xbox/PlayStation/Nintendo/PC” setting in Unity!!!... Right?

Well, while in the technical sense, there's more to porting games to different platforms than just a toggle (WOW, REALLY?) what can cause some “situations” in bringing the game elsewhere is more of a different aspect, and that might be the Game Design.

For this topic, I would like to bring up what got us here, the beginning

Remember Fall Guys?, You probably do, as Sonic Rumble has been said by the fanbase and other relevant people to be very inspired in this game, at the point that in one way or another, it could be considered a direct competitor to Fall Guys, right?

If you're not a Sonic fan, or at least you don't care a bit about the franchise, why would you install Sonic Rumble on your phone or tablet instead of Fall Guys?

I would hope you already know where I'm going… but in case you aren't, try installing Fall Guys in your mobile from your device’s app store (Play Store for Android or App Store for Apple devices)

Spoiler Alert: all you will be able to find is a bunch of clones, not the real Fall Guys, Despite it having been released recently, by the dispute between Epic and Google and Apple, the game is only available to download through their own Epic Games Store mobile app

That is a big deal, not because of availability, but because of how the game was designed

Fall Guys was designed as more of an “Desktop” game, with that, all the menus, designs, systems and gameplay don't feel any awkward on Console/PC, because it was made for those, but a mobile port isn't as straightforward (we can bet it wasn't, it took around 3 years to finally release), I don't think it's worth to expand a lot in this, but what it needs to be understood is that even things as UI had to be adapted to mobile to fit the platform, and the mobile UI shows it's designed for it, it would be weird if it was like that on Console/PC

Here's a video comparing both if you want to see it

Where I am going with this?

As Sonic Rumble is being a game designed for mobile, not only UI but how the gameplay works, as a lot of it is probably dependent on mobile design (probably, specially the speed of movement), also there's the thing of how the account system will be handled if the game does go multiplatform, but I think that would be getting way too ahead of ourselves with bringing up this.

Closing

I do personally believe it will eventually come to other platforms, but I do want that process to be smooth, and being well done, not a quick porting job that shows there was not really a lot of care into bringing it to more players.

Because while we could say “It's just a mobile game, like the ones we already have, it's nothing important”, this game could unironically bring a lot of both new players who discover Sonic via this game, or catch and transform new casual fans to being more engaged with the main games, to new fans who come from the movie and want to play a Sonic game or their phones, underestimating the mobile market for Sonic is a mistake Sega has been doing themselves for some time, and it looks like they want to finally change that.

After all, we are already so close to it being “properly” available, so at least I, hope that Sonic Rumble is a successful title alongside what else this year offers us.

If you told people 10 years ago we would be getting a THIRD movie, a new Shadow game (+ a remaster) and a mobile game, alongside the constant multimedia releases we have, probably only 3 people would've listened to you.

So we can be sure that we seem to be heading for a good future…