Bad news for Sega faithful this morning. On the SonicOfficial Twitch stream, Sonic community manager Aaron Webber made an announcement that would see the PC version of Sonic Mania delayed an additional two weeks to August 29th in order to implement further optimization across all versions of the game. This delay will not affect the Xbox One, PlayStation 4 or Nintendo Switch versions of the game, which will still come out on the originally planned release date of this coming Tuesday, August 15th.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zA9zwpMj_8A
As a thank you to pre-order customers of Sonic Mania on Steam, everyone who buys the game before August 15th will be getting a free copy of the 1991 Genesis Sonic the Hedgehog as emulated in Steam's Genesis Classics collection. Customers who purchased the PC collector's edition will also not be delayed, as their statue will arrive on time and they'll be able to crack into Sonic 1 in the week before their version's release.
Sonic Mania is the 2D platforming revival that has been highly anticipated by Sonic fans everywhere. Developed by Christian Whitehead and a team of Sonic fangame creators at Headcannon and PagodaWest Games, Sonic Mania is a combination of remixed classic stages with new content inspired by the Genesis originals. Players can choose between Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles in each stage and collect the Chaos Emeralds all over again. For more impressions, check out our hands on preview of the game from E3 2017.
Quick Take
I would imagine that most PC customers who pre-ordered Sonic Mania already own the original Sonic on Steam, but I sympathize with a bad situation. One hopes that it is truly technical issues holding the game back and not some other reason.All I know is that I'll be all over Sonic Mania as soon as I'm able, and I'm counting down the hours till then.
