Behind the scenes of Sonic Rumble's delay, development and the Rovio x Sega partnership

Over the span of more than three decades, Sega’s Sonic the Hedgehog has evolved from a fast-paced platformer to a games industry icon and multimedia franchise, spawning spin-offs of all kinds from racing games to animations and, more recently, a hit movie franchise.

Next on the series’ IP-broadening agenda is Sonic Rumble, a 32-player party battle royale launching on mobile and PC this spring. The cross-platform title originally entered development under Sega before its acquisition of Angry Birds maker Rovio.

Since the deal, the developer has looked to Rovio’s mobile expertise and Western market experience to help make Sonic Rumble a potential hit. And now, Rovio effectively serves as the "go-to market strategist" for the game, working with creators and involving itself in product support and technology. The developer is also responsible for community engagement.

Speaking with Rovio head of beacon growth Veli Kiviaho, who leads growth projects between Sega and Rovio, it fast becomes apparent just how much focus has been placed on Sonic Rumble’s accessibility and snappy, convenient gameplay during its development time.

In fact, part of the reason for its delay from a winter launch to a spring one is because of this.

Kiviaho explains that the standard game mode spans three rounds with a minimum session length of roughly seven to 10 minutes. But with mobile able to reach audiences with less available playtime on their hands, the decision was made to add a bite-sized mode built around shorter sessions that are more convenient for busy players.

"An improvement we wanted to make before going global was adding a game mode, Quick Rumble, which supports shorter sessions," says Kiviaho. "We want to allow busier players to do a Quick Rumble, which is like, a one-round match." 

Kiviaho adds that the delay isn’t due to "big issues" but is more about responding to early access feedback, resulting in the implementation of new features like Quick Rumble and a new competitive mode called Rival Rank.

"There’s also some optimisation to do," he adds. "High-end devices play well and the game looks beautiful, but there is still some work to do to get the mid-tier devices running it smoothly."

The power of IP

Following the explosive triumphs of games like Stumble Guys, Sonic Rumble aims to leverage the success and popularity of party royales while standing apart from the crowd.

It’s a "completely new kind of Sonic game", says Kiviaho, with gameplay built around racing and outplaying rivals using toy-sized versions of characters.

Sonic Rumble is also set to tap into the advantages of a legacy brand with plenty of "iconic" returning characters from across the franchise, including the titular Sonic, his sidekick Tails, Silver, Knuckles, Blaze and many others.

Kiviaho confirms that each character will have their own specific skills, adding an extra layer of variety to the gameplay.

"I'm really looking forward to playing Amy Rose, with what she can do with a hammer," he notes.

Kiviaho expects more legacy characters will be added to Sonic Rumble post-launch.

"The Sonic IP is super hot right now. The new movie came out in December and broke all previous records, so I think this is an excellent time to work with the IP," he says. "We’re very, very excited about this.”

However, Kiviaho goes on to share that there are more "processes and coordinations" required in Rovio working on the Sonic IP than on something like Angry Birds. Sega is ultimately in charge of development, and as a global organisation, Rovio must consider "what’s going on in Tokyo, what’s going on in California, and with us here in Europe".

Kiviaho assures that Rovio is already well versed with building on big IPs like its flagship Angry Birds, which has its own "movies and all kinds of transmedia projects", but that ultimately, Angry Birds is 15 and Sonic is over 30.

Sonic’s legacy comes with certain advantages for Rovio, being "a bigger IP in many ways than Angry Birds" with "more stuff going on", providing an opportunity for the developer to learn "how to nurture an IP in the same way".

On the subject of characters and intellectual property, Kiviaho also teases that Sonic Rumble will work with other IPs and bring them to the game. He can’t reveal specifics just yet, but does offer a hint at what the first collab may be:

"The first IP we’re going to work with is something that hasn’t been seen lately in other games. We’re excited about that. It's possible we might get a taste of some IP crossovers even before the global launch."

Gotta go fast

Whilst taking inspiration from the genre's past hits, Sonic Rumble will aim to stand apart from the fierce competition in the genre with its various modes and inspiration from arcade games. Kiviaho adds that there’s already a roadmap of new content planned for after launch.

With the game available in early access in select locations like Finland and Belgium, players are said to be responding well to the game and have given Sonic Rumble an initial 4.8-star rating on the App Store.

Kiviaho notes that early players are engaging with one another in-game and on Discord, something Rovio wants to further reinforce.

This has sparked another reason to delay the game - so that the team can develop a Crews feature. Expected to debut upon the global launch and Version 1.2, Crews will be a way for players to join together, take on the competition and earn extra rewards.

"We have a very active community already, and the player feedback keeps us on our toes, but that’s a good thing because without the players this game wouldn't exist," says Kiviaho. "I think a really cool thing about this game is the community.

"We’ve built Sonic Rumble to have its own Discord and social media channels on purpose because we want the community to grow and thrive in its own space. Serving the Sonic Rumble community is an absolute honour.

"We want to make the game top-notch, and we already see that it’s very social. We really enjoy seeing players using emotes and stickers in the lobbies, so we’re going to add the Crews feature to kind of reinforce the social aspects of the game."

Behind the scenes

As for the working relationship between Sega and Rovio, Kiviaho confirms that the Angry Birds maker is encouraged to pitch ideas that utilise Sega’s existing catalogue of IP.

However, if Rovio wants to start a new project in an existing franchise, it’s essential to the Angry Birds maker that it understands the IP and its lore.

In the case of Sonic Rumble, where Sega’s studio is still in charge of development, Rovio is supporting with product development, tools and data analysis. The party royale genre is a new twist for both studios.

Rovio’s role is in part as “the ears" of Sonic Rumble, invested in building the game's community and listening to player feedback and ideas.

While he can’t share any hard KPI goals for the game’s global launch, Kiviaho says that he hopes Sonic Rumble will "expand the Sonic IP", serving as the entry point for newcomers to the series and a point of return for old fans who’ve since moved away.

With over 600,000 pre-registrations already reached, eager players have secured three out of five community-based rewards ahead of the spring release window. The top pre-registration rewards are an alternate skin for Knuckles and the movie version of Sonic, further leaning into the films’ success.

Whether these are reached in time for global launch remains to be seen, but either way Sega and Rovio are busy behind the scenes adding Crews, Quick Rumble and more for Version 1.2 and the game's full release.