As any self-respecting Sonic fan should know tomorrow Sonic is having a party in San Diego; now I would love to be going to this but my office for budgetary responsibility tells me I’m only allowed one trip to the states a year and I used that a few weeks ago, so instead I will stay home and play a bit of rumour control.

It has been announced that the future of Sonic the hedgehog will be unveiled at this event, so what does this mean? Let the speculation begin!

Well it’s got be a new game, right?
That’s pretty much a certainty we have been getting hints of a new game for a while now and with E3 behind us this seems like an ideal point to launch it, let’s not forget there has been a noticeable gap between the last major Sonic game and now.

So are we finally getting Sonic Adventure 3?
Ugh, are we STILL on about this? Sonic Adventure 3 was Sonic Heroes! Why? It was the first major game after SA2, it follows on chronologically from SA2, it takes the multiple playable characters aspect of SA1 and SA2 and puts a new spin on it, and has multiple stories woven into a larger story arc (see also SA1 and SA2), need I go on? Oh and for those that argue that Shadow the Hedgehog or Sonic 06 is technically SA3 I’d argue that neither of those have as much in common with SA1 and SA2 as Sonic Heroes did. Now can we finally take off our rose tinted glasses, put the nail in the coffin, and move on with our lives?

Sonic the Hedgehog 5?
I really hope not, for a start it wouldn’t constitute a major Sonic game in my book certainly when you look at what a major big budget game is nowadays, I also think people overestimate how well Sonic 4 actually did in the end, for an episodic game with only two parts, it barely qualifies as ‘episodic.’

Big’s Fishing Adventure?
Get out!

Sonic Generations 2?
Not really been enough time since the last one, and do you really want a game comerating Sonic Boom?

Something New?
I certainly hope so, it’s time for SEGA to take a bold step forwards with a fresh take on Sonic developed internally with love and care, which we have seen multiple times now from Sonic team, so if anyone can pull a rabbit out of the hat it’s them.

Okay now for a few quick dart board predictions:
– New game will feature Sonic
– Game will be for PS4/Xbone/next nintendo system or any combination of the three
– There will be a slight re-design of Sonic
– Tails will be along for the ride, who knows we might get Eggman as well
– Game will distance itself from Sonic Boom
– New game will hint at a series of games to come

That’s about all I can think of right now, leave comments below with your thoughts, and remember my thoughts and predictions are just that any relation to what is actually announced is purely coincidental.

For the lucky lot who are not going to the event there is a Livestream, starting 6pm PST 22nd July, or 2am BST 23rd July. Watch it here!