Sonic Frontiers is dodging the dreaded ‘Sonic Cycle’

digitaltrends.com:

The last time we saw a proper trailer for Sonic Frontiers was at The Game Awards in December 2021. By then, it had been over six months since Sega released a cryptic teaser trailer at the end of its Sonic Central livestream. The game would’ve launched in time for Sonic the Hedgehog’s 30th anniversary, but Sega explained that it delayed its release to the 2022 holiday season to give the Sonic team more time to brush up on its quality during the development phase. Aside from that (and confirmation that Roger Craig Smith and Mike Pollock are reprising their voice roles), we’ve gotten no major updates since.

In a recent livestream on the Sonic YouTube channel, Sonic’s social media manager Katie Chrzanowski said that Sonic Frontiers is still slated to come out during the 2022 holiday season and that Sega will be giving more news updates about it soon. However, she didn’t give a sense of how soon is “soon.”

The lack of updates about any Sonic game can make fans impatient, leaving them tapping their feet and saying, “I’m waiting!” But whether they like it or not, Sega’s silence on Sonic Frontiers‘ development updates may actually be a good thing. Sure, we only received two trailers in a seven-month span last year, but it’s better than the company hyping it up with multiple trailers and updates prior to the game’s release in accordance with the legendary meme known as the Sonic Cycle. It’s a pattern that always seems to reoccur no matter how exciting the game may be.

The Sonic Cycle is a meme that satirizes the hype and eventual disappointment Sonic fans — and journalists, to an extent — deal with during a Sonic game’s marketing phase, from the announcement trailer to its release date. The cycle plays out in three phases. First,