Sonic Mania May Not Be Getting a Sequel Anytime Soon

Last year's Sonic Mania turned out to be a huge success for Sega, bringing back its mascot for a great 16-bit-style adventure that sold quite a few copies.

That success is sure to continue with the release of Sonic Mania Plus this July, which expands the original game with a new Encore mode, along with a number of other options. But what can we expect from the series outside of that release?

Sadly, not much. Siliconera recently conducted an interview with series producer Takashi Iizuka and asked what we could expect from the series after the arrival of Sonic Mania Plus.

He didn't let us down easy, noting, "With the release of the physical version in Sonic Mania Plus, it feels like we did everything we could for the Sonic Mania project."

This came after he explained the excitement that came from the reception of the original Mania, in which he noted, "After its release in August 2017, its reception has been better than we could imagine. We've even had some people say "It's the best game!" and we are most grateful about that. Moreover, physical games tend to sell a lot on its release day but then we often see it take a big drop afterwards, I'm not sure if it's because Sonic Mania was a digital title, but its sales didn't drop even after its release day. Again, up until the end of last year people had trouble acquiring Nintendo Switches around the world, so there seems to be some cases where folks finally got a hold of the hardware and are downloading the game."

That's not to say it's the end of the series for sure -- but for now, at least. He did express his gratitude towards the players, though. "I'm truly grateful to all of you who purchased the original Sonic Mania to make it possible to continue with Sonic Mania Plus. Since it's a traditional 2D game, you might get the impression that it was made for those who are familiar with the Mega Drive version from back in the day, but actually, the game is being enjoyed by a very wide age group. Especially overseas, where most of the downloads come from players that are about elementary school age. Now that the game will be easier to obtain in availability and pricing with Plus, I hope to see those who have yet to play it give it a shot. It's also a title that I can proudly recommend to the elementary school children of Japan."

We certainly hope there's more Sonic Mania to come -- we love the original game.

Sonic Mania is available now for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch and PC. You can pick up the Plus expansion starting July 17.