Summary
- Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds is set for a 2025 release, developed by an elite team of racing game devs.
- Speculation suggests Sega AM2 members with racing game experience are behind the new Sonic kart racer.
- Theories point to multi-vehicle gameplay including land, sea, air, and space.
Sega has announced that Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds is being developed by an “elite” team of racing game experts. While the game’s developer remains unconfirmed, it was recently unveiled at The Game Awards 2024 in December. Many fans speculate that the game is being developed in Japan by members of Sega AM2, a team with extensive experience in the racing genre.
Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds is set for release in 2025, according to a statement from Geoff Keighley at The Game Awards. The game will feature kart racing gameplay, similar to Mario Kart, as shown in the teaser trailer revealed during the event. In the trailer, Shadow the Hedgehog is seen racing through a realistic city and traveling through a dimensional portal created by a Warp Ring. Although no gameplay footage was shown, fans have been eager to speculate on what the game might include, with recent Sega comments further fueling their theories about the developer behind the title.
As detailed in a post by Jasonvsfreddyvs on the r/GamingLeaksAndRumors subreddit, they went over various tweets that have been posted by the official Japanese Sega and Sonic the Hedgehog accounts since the reveal of Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds, with one mentioning how the game was being created by “the elite team of Sega’s racing games.” At first, they believed that Sega HARDlight, developer of Sonic Dream Team, was developing the game, but that appears less likely now. Sumo Digital, the developer of Sonic and Sega All-Stars Racing, doesn’t appear to be the developer either, based on a celebratory tweet from the studio about the movie that didn’t mention Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds.
As such, the running theory is that Sega is developing the game in Japan, created by an elite team of developers with experience in racing games. Many of Sega’s classic racing games such as OutRun, Daytona USA, Sega Rally, and Crazy Taxi were originally developed by Sega AM2 and AM3. As such, former members of both subsidiary studios could potentially be working on Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds.
There’s also speculation about Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds‘ potential multi-vehicle gameplay. Data from Sega itself indicates how the game will have players racing across “land, sea, air, space and time,” similar to the transforming vehicles of Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed. Jasonvsfreddyvs’ post also discusses the theory about Extreme Gear from the Sonic Riders spin-offs being in the game, pointing out how a reflection of Sonic’s sunglasses from the series can supposedly be seen in the teaser trailer. Time will tell if Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds, its development team, and its features align with these theories.