Fans rejoice as Sega confirms Sonic Frontiers follow-up will have a bigger budget

Despite average reviews, Sonic Frontiers, with its new open-zone approach, has proved very popular with fans, so much so that Sega is willing to pump more money into games starring the blue blur. 

In a Q&A with investors, Sega revealed that sales of the latest game in the long-running series have "greatly exceeded" the company's original estimates and is committed to giving Sonic Team a bigger budget for future titles. 

"We expect development costs for new titles to grow even larger in the future," Sega says. "We will strive to ensure solid quality in the development of major titles from our existing franchises. However, development labour costs will rise due to the impact of the global external environment, and we expect this trend to continue for the foreseeable future."

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It added, "Since it is necessary to take on these challenges for major titles, we are proceeding with a bigger budget, even from the basic research stage. Therefore, we assume that development costs for future new titles will increase accordingly."

Naturally, Sonic's solid band of supporters took to Twitter to celebrate. One wrote, "The small team that worked on Frontiers is amazing enough!! I can't wait to see what they accomplish with a bigger team and budget." Another said, "This is actually really amazing and I'm excited to see what Sonic team will cook," while a third added, "It's what he deserves".

Given that Sonic Frontiers has been hugely successful - it's now sold close to 3 million worldwide - a full-blown sequel is a strong possibility. That being said, the game's director Morio Kishimoto also recently teased that we should "look forward" to more side-scrolling Sonic games. Whatever comes next, it's certainly looking like a great time to be a Sonic fan.

Can't get enough of the blue blur? Check out our pick of the best Sonic games.