Recall that the original Sonic the Hedgehog, with which the series of games about the high-speed blue hedgehog began, turns 30 in 2021. Apparently, Sega is going to celebrate the anniversary in a big way.

According to the data on the Licensing Source Book Europe spread (90 and 91 pages), 2021 will be the “year of celebration” for the Japanese publishing house of the 30th anniversary of the famous franchise.

As part of honoring Sonic the Hedgehog throughout 2021, “new games, digital content, major announcements” are expected. What kind of projects are being discussed is not specified.

At the SXSW 2019 Festival in March 2019, Sega officially confirmed the development of the next full game in the Sonic the Hedgehog universe, but nothing has been heard from the project since then.

In January 2020, the Japanese publishing house promised to share news about Sonic every month until the end of the year, but the COVID-19 pandemic thwarted the plans and caused the postponement of Sega’s April presentation as part of SXSW 2020.

Sega also spoke about the success of the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise: 920 million games sold, $ 6 billion in revenue, and $ 300 million earned by the movie “Sonic the Movie”. The premiere of the sequel to the film is expected on April 8, 2022.