Sonic the Hedgehog Trademark Suggests New Game In the Works

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A recent trademark filled out by Sega suggests there is another Sonic the Hedgehog game in the works, titled "Sonic and Friends." The Sonic the Hedgehog franchise is looking to have a strong 2023, with this year having plenty of media and games for fans to look forward to. There's the intermittent DLC updates for Sonic Frontiers, a 2D platformer that looks to returns to the series' roots in Sonic Superstars, and even the second season of Sonic Prime that will release in July. On top of all that, there is some evidence that there is more in the works regarding the franchise.

One of the last times Sega filed a trademark, it ended up revealing a game's title. Back in 2021 when Sega was keeping fans in the dark about its upcoming game, a trademark had emerged that revealed Sonic Frontiers' title, de-confirming the game's "Sonic Rangers" prototype name. Another trademark from Sega has emerged on that follows the same criteria.

This was first discovered by fansite Sonic Stadium, where it noted that this Sonic the Hedgehog trademark was published to Japanese trademark website Chizai Watch sometime in late June. Titled "Sonic and Friends," the categories that it was filed under are the same ones that Frontiers was filed under in 2021. This includes the usual marketing and promotional materials, but it was also filed under "Education and Entertainment" while also mentioning that it would be using gaming media storage devices like magnetic tapes, disks, ROM cartridges, and optical disks.

BREAKING: SEGA has trademarked “Sonic and Friends.”

It was filed on June 23, and lists a variety of categories, most importantly many game related ones. #sonicnews

Link to trademark in next tweet. pic.twitter.com/lKIdgYkfPt
— Sonic Stadium ✪ Sonic the Hedgehog Community (@sonicstadium) July 2, 2023

The trademark also mentioned games for mobile devices, making the likelihood of this trademark being tied to a new game extremely high. That said, the contents are still unclear at this time. The Sonic franchise is supporting two mobile games, those being Sonic Forces: Speed Battle and Sonic Prime Dash, with a rumor that Sega Hardlight would be dropping support of the former in the next few years. Not only that, an old leak stated that Sega Hardlight could possibly be working on a Sonic game that could be best described as a narrative-driven platformer inspired by the likes of Genshin Impact. The "Sonic and Friends" title could fit that description, where a player can control Sonic or one of his many friends to complete an objective.

That being said, there is no evidence that suggests this will be the case. This trademark could be for a different Sonic the Hedgehog spin-off in the future, but this is mostly speculation for now. Hopefully this trademark means that something will be revealed soon and it can give fans another thing to celebrate about the blue blur's 32nd anniversary.