Sonic Frontiers has intrigued players for the last year as the game marks the first "Open-Zone" Sonic the Hedgehog game. Fans have been curious about how this new title plays ever since the first proper trailer at The Game Awards. However, it seems that many fans will need to wait until the game launches to try it out, as Sega has said there are no plans for a public demo.
Among many of the interviews that were conducted at Gamescom, Takashi Iizuka, the head of Sonic Team, was asked about the idea of Sega releasing a public demo for Sonic Frontiers. According to him, there are no plans for a more widespread demo, instead saying that fans can come and try the game in person at conventions such as Tokyo Game Show and EGX.
Back in June, the gameplay showcases for Sonic Frontiers left a lot to be desired due to a questionable build being used for the footage, which left a lot of future players confused and uncertain. This lead to a many fans to ask for both a demo and for Sonic Frontiers to be delayed.
When the fan feedback about the gameplay reached Sonic Team, Takashi Iizuka publicly stated that fans "didn't understand" how Sonic Frontiers worked just yet. With a statement like that from Sega's most famous development team, naturally it would make sense for a demo to follow soon after so players could be given a chance to learn what Sonic Team was aiming for.
Instead, it seems Sega's decided to skip releasing a demo, which leaves many fans who can't attend big gaming conventions without a chance to try the ambitious new release before launch. Sonic Frontiers has relied on some strange marketing strategies in the past few months, and this is yet another strange decision for a game that Sonic Team has publicly stated to have lofty internal sales goals for.
At the very least, players don't have much longer to wait until the ambitious title is finally on store shelves. As part of Gamescom, it was revealed that Sonic Frontiers is due to be released worldwide on November 8. Even though a fair number of potential players might want to try out the game before purchasing, it seems they may need to buy it in order to truly see what it has to offer.
Sonic Frontiers will launch on November 8 for PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
