Sonic Racing CrossWorlds Coming Sep. 25, 2025

When was the last time you used TwitterX?

 

yeah pretty much this. A lot of social media nowadays functions as a conveyor belt that shows you a smorgasbord of wildly differing opinions and takes, with the most inflammatory getting the attention. I think it is actually changing how people talk online for the worse, people are subconsciously encouraged to get needlessly combative over things which aren't even that important because that's what attracts attention.

Not to mention that information gets buried very quickly on twitter so the same topics of conversation tend to repeat quite frequently and you end up with a lot of deja vu. At least on a traditional forum things are a bit more organised and it's easier to call back to what's already been said.

 

I want to be hyped for CrossWorlds but the impressions I'm hearing so far just aren't inpsiring me with confidence. I'll probably still buy it at or near launch because I'm Sonic Team's most submissive little slut and I genuinely want to support the game in the hopes that it doesn't die on the vine like TSR did, but I'm definitely going to be waiting on hearing impressions a few months from now because I'm really hoping the devs have gone back to the drawing board on some things followed the network test. I think just revealing this for "2025" does give SEGA a lot of room to delay this without us really knowing, so they should absolutely take advantage of that. Hell, even if they push it back to early 2026, that wouldn't necessarily seem like that much more of a wait in this instance, when in reality it could've been due out today for all we know.

Anyway, time for real tinfoil hat hours:
When I went to Sonic Symphony in London back in September, they debuted an arrangement of All Hail Shadow that ended up being very much based on the version of the track that played during the Neo Devil Doom boss fight of Shadow Generations, making Sonic Symphony a stealth sneak peek. Now, at that same performance, we also saw the debut of a Sonic R medley featuring Richard Jacques and TJ Davis (TJ Davis! *clap clap, clap clap clap*). The last few days, I've been left wondering if that's also indicative of upcoming arrangements for CrossWorlds, which could mean reimaginings of Sonic R race courses, which would fit with CrossWorlds kind of shaping up to be Sonic Racing Generations. I could totally see Radiant Emerald being Sonic's answer to Rainbow Road. Honestly, I really hope I'm onto something here because it would be such a cool surprise to hit us with and also the Radical City portion of the medal had a really kickass electric guitar going on.
For those who haven't heard it, I've uploaded the medley to YouTube unlisted (please excuse me losing my shit when Richard and TJ come on and then again at the end of the track):

 

I've generally found that people on twitter or blusky tend to be more critical of everything - there's a good deal of FFXIV discussion I've stopped poking my head into because it's clear that a lot of people just simply don't pay attention to the game itself lol (like, blindingly obvious things).

Personally, my hype is pretty tempered. I didn't play the beta but I heard the music isn't great, which is the thing I really look forward to with any major Sonic release. The concept has promise though and it sounds like fun, so I'm not a Sonic Is Doomed person either.

 

I wouldn't think much of that though, nothing beats Mario Kart. Not even Mario Kart beats Mario Kart (Wii <- 8 but 8D <- Every other game) - (Sales Wise)

It's like saying they should stop making Digimon games because Pokemon will always sell more, regardless of quality.

 

Yea, this is a bad year to be the least desirable cart racer on the market, between MK and Kirby Air Riders. The difficulty to obtain a Switch 2 may work in its favor, but no way in hell does it touch Mario Kart’s sales.

 

Most people will buy MK9 out of habit, men of culture will buy Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds, though.

 

I say this as someone who will be buying that game at launch (...or as cheap as possible, I refuse to pay $80 for video games). I feel like we're overplaying the interest of Kirby Air Riders.
Like if you asked me which of those three will have the worst uphill battle, Kirby.

Mario Kart is Mario Kart, it ain't going anywhere. Sonic Racing CrossWorlds, despite everything you may think...is a Sonic racing game after the Movies-Mania. It has a vastly stronger tie to the current audience / youth than Kirby.

1. Kirby is a racing game exclusive to the same system as an 80$ Mario Kart, if someone buys that game - why would they want to buy another racing game when they just put down nearly one hundred for THE Kart Racer. If people aren't double dipping for Mario and Sonic, why would they for Kirby?

2. Sonic has other Platforms and Crossplay. Kirby is locked to Switch 2. Kirby has less means of revenue in comparison.

3. When it comes down to it, if a parent is going to buy their kid a kart racer (likely a boy, given video games). Are they going to buy their son. (A. Mario, B. Sonic, C. The Pink Cute Blob - the polar opposite of typical boy interests and masculinity?). If it's not A, it'll be B. Sonic has vastly more popularity and attention than Kirby as an overall series and brand in the West.

Kirby is the king of Japan though compared to Sonic, I do yield there trust me. I say this as a fan of both series.

 

I feel like the more time passes, the more arbitrary Sonic sales discussions become. Crossworlds is gonna do fine, it has more to offer than the last Sonic racing game that also did fine (as far as I can tell), so why are we wasting time comparing it to Nintendo's new launch titles that get top billing? Superstars underperformed because the bar for "good sales" in their eyes was Sonic Frontiers, which was both more-understandable because that's another mainline Sonic game...and also stupid, because that game was way bigger and more important. The last Sonic games to do poorly in any respect before that were trapped on the sales vortex that was the Wii U, and one of them still got a PC port while the other was considered one of the worst in Sonic's history, and probably deserved to do poorly. What do we actually think will happen if Crossworlds doesn't blow the world up? Is there any use to this sort of discussion beyond doomer shit? Who actually cares if Mario Kart or Kirby sells more?

 

I think there's a distinction to be made here between CrossWorlds beating Mario Kart and holding its own against it. TSR did fine, but it could've been so much more. Now, a lot of this is to do with the game's intrinsic issues - it wasn't really offering a wealth of content and a lot of what it did have was reused from previous games. I think that's certainly an element of the struggles it experienced, compounded by a lack of postlaunch support. However, I think a big logistical factor was being crowded out by MK8D and Crash Team Racing: Nitro Fueled, two games which offer a lot more bang for your buck, even if they're also lot of stuff we've seen before.

This is what I'm worried about with CrossWorlds. Unless there are delays for it or Kirby Air Riders it's going to release in proximity to Mario Kart World and Kirby Air Riders. The former of these is of course the Switch 2's premier launch title, but is also the first truly new Mario Kart we've had in over a decade. I think it's going to be massive. The latter, meanwhile, is a Masahiro Sakurai-led production. Nintendo will be throwing a lot of marketing behind this because Sakurai is pretty much Nintendo's auter director. I think both of these games will do immensely well. Meanwhile, CrossWorlds has had its closed network test and my understanding of it from what's been said here and in other places is that reception is mixed. Even diehards here aren't sure they're going to buy the game at launch. Inevitably, CrossWorlds' performance on Switch (2) is going to be affected by the presence of other, presumably highly polished, prestige Nintendo racers. I don't think it's unreasonable to surmise that CrossWorlds would sell more in the absence of these two titles, so by necessity the opposite will be true. Granted, you can argue its status as a multiplatform release will help it out, and I think that's true and really the main difference between this and 2019 (since CTR was also mutliplat), but then you also need to account for people who do have multiple platforms and will still choose Mario Kart. Another thing going from CrossWorlds is that already the commitment to some kind of postlaunch DLC exists, but we don't have much of a roadmap.

Ultimately, CrossWorlds doesn't need to beat Mario Kart or Kirby, but it does need to find itself a solid, viable and sustainable audience, and I think it'd be disingenuous to posit that those games will have zero impact on its ability to do that, especially following feedback to the CNT. I really do wish this game every success and I've already said I'm very likely going to get it at launch, but it's because I want this game to succeed that I'm very much cognizent of how it could fail, and I'm hoping SEGA recognises that too. I think there is work that needs to be done to turn things around and instil confidence in the sceptics, and I think taking seriously the potential impact of the game's proximity to two competing mascot racers should be part of the motivation for that.

It's not doomer shit, it's just realism.

 

I have no doubt Mario will do better, and it's possible Kirby might too. My concern is with what that would...do. Like what do we think is the actual effect of those games doing better? Sonic is still a huge series, I don't think the game is going to "fail" either way. There's no prizes for us in this competition, Sonic isn't going to lose so bad they stop making more games, so what difference does it make?

 

They might stop making more racing games if this one does poorly enough. That’s a worst case scenario mind, but TSR was dead almost on arrival. I don’t want that for CrossWorlds. I want it to get extensive post launch support with lots of additional characters and tracks and getting crowded it like TSR did or otherwise just not performing for factors outside of competing titles (like the fucky item balancing killing interest in online play) may impinge upon that.

 

Yeah I hate to say it but the sales are important. If the game doesn't do well enough for Sega, they might just kill the game and retire Sonic racing games for the foreseeable future, just like with TSR. Maybe longer cause games take like twelve million years to make now.

 

...It's not "like with TSR", because TSR did not do poorly enough to stop future racing games from being made. We're talking about its successor right now. We discussed this before and I didn't see any obvious indication that it was a flop. That game's problems were already something else before it even shipped, namely that the online was dogshit and it had no crossplay with a really weak roster. This one is already confirmed to be getting post-release content to begin with, and already has the online issues squared away (as far as I can tell). It seems absolutely outlandish that, even at its worst this game would stop any and all future Sonic racing games from being made. Just because Sonic Rush Adventure selling weaker meant Rush 3 was Colors DS didn't mean they just stopped making portable games entirely. A theoretical lack of post-launch support is also not the same problem as future games simply not existing, and even Superstars got stuff post-launch, just not anything we actually wanted that actually would have helped the game. If the problem being outlined is a feedback loop of the game not being good enough at launch to secure the things that fix the game meaning that future games are left unfinished from the start, then that's a completely separate discussion from sales.

 

Meh. Unless they absolutely have to release Crossworlds this year, I still think they're better off delaying it until early next year.

Multiple Kart Racers can co exist for sure but with inflation and wages the way they are right now, I'm sure most people won't get all three. And I think most people will be choosing Mario Kart or the first Sakurai Kirby game in 20 years.

Also for anyone doubting Kirbys popularity, reminder the Switch generation saw a huge increase in software sales for the series with two games off the top of my head (Star Allies and Forgotten Land) both outselling even the best selling 3d Sonic game ever (Frontiers) with no type of movie bump or anything but being a good game with a character that people like (Forgotten Land being Kirbys FIRST 3D game ever at that). Air Riders will be fine.

 

I believe you mean best case scenario.

Seriously though, no sonic game has come close to comparing to Mario since SA2B. This game is no different. Movies don't have to be billion dollar blockbusters to be successful and video games don't have to dethrone the king to be successful.

 

Does the PS5 and PC just not exist for you people?

 

While Shadow Generations broke tradition and performed best on Sony consoles, most Sonic games sell best on Nintendo. And that implies there's a large amount of people on PC or PS5 who want a new Kart Racer extremely bad, maybe there are, but it has to be extremely good to get their attention. And maybe it might be. But I have a feeling it will be just how Mario Kart 8 Deluxe sold more copies in it's 3rd year on the market in 2019 than TSR sold in it's lifetime.

Also I agree it's not all about sales but when you look as Shadow Generations being a Game Key Card on Switch 2, and never forget Superstars being $60, SEGA like all corporations want as much success as possible. And I really think there's a place for a Sonic Kart Racer in the same 12 month span as a Kirby and Mario, just perhaps not the same exact year.

 

I actually think delaying the game could be a bad move too The Switch 2 and Mario Kart World are going to be expensive and it is entirely believable that some won't pick it up until next year when it has a stronger launch line up and they've saved more money. I mean I wont buy it probably for a year or so. Some may also ask to get it for Christmas. There will most likely be renewed sales for Mario Kart World in the next few years. One of my friends put it well when he said casual gamers buy Mario Kart when it's most convenient to simply play Mario Kart at parties.

I'm not saying the current predicament is good for SEGA. A lot of people are buying Switch 2 and Mario Kart World. Don't underestimate Nintendo fans. But I think a bigger install base of more casual gamers who are not giant Nintendo fans could also hurt Sonic Crossworlds if it's delayed down the line.

I think SEGA should just go with the initial plan and launch the game when it's ready. If they are going to delay then they should do so for balancing and polishing reasons.