It seems as though the days of retail adhering to a release date are done and dusted. Firstly, we had the reports that God Of War: Ragnarok‘s retail street date had been broken, and the sad response that followed from Cory Barlog and others on the team who expressed their disappointment over what had transpired. Now, Sega is facing the same issue themselves with the blue blur, Sonic The Hedgehog, and his new game Sonic Frontiers now facing the same trouble, as the game has hit store shelves at various locations around the world allowing for spoilers, and the potential of extensive gameplay primed to seep out all over the internet. If you want to avoid spoilers for the game over the next couple of weeks, consider this a massive warning now.
After what has been close to five full years, the next Sonic game, in the form of Sonic Frontiers is almost here, and it’s that context that makes the news of the game hitting store shelves early all the more disappointing. The leaky Sonic Frontiers ship has existed since well before the game’s launch, with even playable demos allowing players to share speed-runs and more, that should have never found their way online, finding their way online. Today it’s the Australian electronics retailer JB Hi-Fi who seems to have let the game slip out onto store shelves early, consequently breaking the game’s street date, as evidenced by the Australian ratings board classification in the bottom left corner of the game’s box. The timestamp written by the person who laid hands on the game, @Kerl_WG on Twitter, also reveals that the game has been getting sold for a few days now, dating back to Friday, October 28, 2022.
Reporting of Sonic Frontiers street date breaks has thankfully been slim so far, and so hopefully it is only Kerl_WG who has gotten their hands on the game so far before the retailer locked down their sales in rapid fashion. Personally, having purchased from the retailer over many years, this sort of error is incredibly rare, and so you cannot imagine that the issue is prevalent, not only within the Australian retailer, but worldwide as well. Regardless though, one copy of the game out there creates the possibility of leaks, so please, Sonic fans, if you’re conscious of not getting Sonic Frontiers ruined for you prior to the game coming out, then you may want to consider going radio silent when it comes to the internet for a while… except Gameranx.com of course!
Sonic Frontiers launches on the Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC, on November 8, 2022. Hopefully you will be able to avoid all of those experience-souring spoilers until then.