Six years after the series was violated, Sega's "Sonic Racing: Cross World" was officially released on September 25 and received widespread praise, and its player reviews on Steam are particularly outstanding.This game realizes the cross-platform online function of the entire platform, but the process of achieving this goal is far beyond the imagination.Series producer Takashi Iizuka and producer Ryuichi Taki explained in a recent interview why they insist on cross-platform online at all costs.
"The Sonic series has always been committed to promoting multi-platform support," said Takashi Iizuka. "Even in regular action games, we always provide players with a gaming environment covering multiple platforms such as PC and Switch. But the difficulty of achieving cross-platform online is no match for the same." Although the team has landed on all mainstream platforms in 2019's "Team Sonic Racing" and other works, the cross-platform online function has never been implemented.Takashi Iizuka explained that this time, cooperating with Sega arcade department and integrating its network technology knowledge into the game is the key to achieving cross-platform online "Cross World".
Ryuichi Taki pointed out that another key factor in promoting cross-platform online is to ensure fairness of matching.If there are insufficient players in online multiplayer games, matching problems are prone to occur, resulting in novices being forced to fight against experts, affecting fairness and fun.Cross-platform online can greatly expand the available player pool, thereby achieving fairer competition.“It will undoubtedly be helpful to break the barriers between platforms if you want to make sure you can find enough (similar levels) players. This is also one of the advantages of cross-platform online, so we made the decisions to achieve very early.”
Ryuichi Taki acknowledged that dealing with performance differences between different hardware after cross-platform online may be the most challenging part of the development process.The Sonic team must ensure that the same experience and a fair environment are provided to all players, while also doing their best to maintain the picture.According to him, each platform version is individually fine-tuned according to its specifications, “It’s an extremely time-consuming and down-to-earth process.”
He added: "But if you play "Sonic Racing: Cross World" with Xbox and PlayStation at the same time, you may not notice the difference. This level of optimization is the culmination of our technical accumulation and sincere dedication to various platforms." Because of this, "Sonic Racing: Cross World" has become the longest development cycle in the racing game series.
"Sonic Racing: Cross World" is now available on Steam, PS5/PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch/ Switch 2 platforms.
