During today’s Nintendo Direct, the latest Sonic title was announced: Sonic Lost World. Iwata stated that Nintendo and SEGA have entered into a “worldwide partnership in the Sonic franchise”, and as such, Sonic Lost World will be exclusive to Wii U and 3DS owners. No date was revealed, but November is a safe bet.
Update: It was also announced that another title in the Mario & Sonic Olympic Games series is in the works. Check out a video after the break.
Update 2: The Japanese SEGA site is up, and while it doesn’t offer much, it does confirm a Fall 2013 release date as well as the title being styled as Sonic Lost World.
Update 3: According to The Wall Street Journal SEGA and Nintendo have entered an exclusivity agreement, stating that the next three Sonic titles will be Nintendo exclusives:
SEGA(R) of America Inc. and SEGA(R) Europe Ltd. today announced details of an exclusive partnership with Nintendo of America Inc. and Nintendo of Europe GmbH for the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise. The new agreement will make Nintendo consoles the number one destination for Sonic gaming over the next three titles with more details of the individual games being revealed in the coming weeks.
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Its finally happened, Sonics become a Nintendo exclusive
For the next three titles, yes.
This is is terrible news. Sonic shouldn’t be an exclusive. A lot of us wanted to play every new sonic game, didn’t they learn anything from sonic generations?
Sonic Colours and Secret Rings were ‘Nintendo Exclusive’ I think this is seperate from the next gen Sonic’s. Still this is first potential must have for the Wii U that can’t be got on other consoles. The remake of Wind Waker and a new Mario should mean I pick up a Wii U after the next price cut
Looks like a map of Metriodvania style game?
Well. I guess that’s all there is for me then for a while. Sorry Sonic, but I’ll wait for the HD/rerelease on PC.
WII U is HD
Hm I may be getting a WiiU now.
this is just stupid.
Reminds me of how Sonic was exclusive to Nintendo systems (well, sort of….they were ports) during the Gamecube era.
I don’t see anything wrong with this. But then again, I have a Wii U. I’ve always thought Sonic was a good fit for the Nintendo demographic, who made SA2 the best-selling 3rd party GC game.
Weren’t the Gamecube versions also the better versions than the competition?
Not really surprising, considering SEGA’s strong relationship with Nintendo throughout the Wii era. There will still be plenty of Sonic games coming out for the PS4 and next Xbox over the years, I’m sure; the success of games like Generations and SA2 show that there are too many fans on those platforms to be ignored.
But hey, if the Wii U exclusive Sonic games turn out to be really good, I may actually have to get a Wii U…used, for less than $200, long after I’ve gotten the next Xbox.
Sonic and the Black Knight and Sonic and the Secret Rings were both Wii exclusives. I think the company line then was that Sonic games in that continuity were Wii exclusive. It’ll be interesting to see if SEGA tries to put out some parallel Sonic title on other systems.
While as a 3DS/Wii-U owner, this doesn’t really effect me, I still think this is a bad business move on their part. UNLESS Nintendo payed fat stacks of cash to bring Sonic in the Nintendo fold.
What sucks is that this means no next gen Sonic for awhile.
Ugh so to clarify, are these two announced games part of the three game exclusive? Meaning only one more that hasn’t been announced, or are they speaking of three more games following? I do not have a Wii or Wii U or ds of any sort so I have missed out on a but of games already 🙁
There is one game left to reveal.
Ok good. I hope it is not another full blown adventure style game, but something smaller like the Olympics, hell I’m calling it, Sonic Shuffle 2 with Mario characters.
I would buy that.
I don’t think mario and sonic counts beacause its always an exculsive so i’d say 2 more
Does Nintendo really have this much money?
Bravely Default is being published by them.
Monster Hunter seems to have some sort of exclusivity agreement with Capcom, though temporary
Three Sonic titles?
I don’t really object, but I am surprised
Actually, the more I think about it, it DOES make some business sense.
A.) Sonic titles did way better on Nintendo consoles than any others. Unleashed on Wii outsold the 306/PS3 versions combined and Mario and Sonic Olympics sells in the millions with every title made.
B.) Nintendo is publishing the Sonic games themselves in certain territories. This means Nintendo’s given Sega money up front and it takes any chance of loss off of them should the games bomb.
C.) Nintendo is desperate for exclusives and probably paid Sega big bucks for this exclusivity deal. (Okay, this is speculation, but it makes sense.)
If Nintendo publishes Mario Galaxy 3 and Smash Bros this fall is well, I’ll be in less need of buying a PS4 right away.
Sad that we won’t see a ‘true’ next generation Sonic title for a at least 3ish years (unless the next Mario & Sonic title count towards this).
I’ve read a lot of complaints that releasing a sonic game on a struggling console is a bad idea. How is the Wiiu supposed to find any success without games? It will forever be a struggling console if no one makes software for it. It’s cyclical bad reasoning.
Good point.
I get their thinking, but struggling, it has sold 3.5 million units. Is probably cheap to develop for and Sonic’s core fanbase has always owned a Nintendo consoles (sale figure wise).
The PS4 and Next Box aren’t out yet. So you can’t say going Microsoft/Sony only is a better gamble for the next console.
Ok I’ve got a little speculation, so we know 2 of 3 sonic games, 1: Sonic Lost World for 3ds and wii u 2: Sonic and mario winter sochi 2014 (as far as I know) so the 3rd must be a 3ds exclusive ala rush and rush adventure, it makes so much sense.