Movie Shadow is coming to Sonic X Shadow Generations – PlayStation.Blog

The year 2024 has been a long time coming for Shadow the Hedgehog fans. The Year of the Shadow was a true joy and with the third film in the Sonic the Hedgehog film series, fans can finally see the enigmatic anti-hero on the big screen! But don't worry, you don't have to wait much longer because you can jump straight into the Shadow's Air Shoes movie on PS4 and PS5 on December 12th! Immerse yourself in gameplay and cinematics with the just-announced Sonic the Hedgehog 3 Movie Pack, narrated by the legendary Keanu Reeves!

We caught up with series producer Shun Nakamura to get a deeper behind-the-scenes look at this groundbreaking content and what to expect when it launches later this year.

At what point in development was it decided to include DLC in the title?

Nakamura-san: This title is designed to satisfy not only fans of the Sonic game, but also those who watch the Sonic movie and become fans of Sonic and Shadow for the first time.

But of course we didn't expect Shadow from the movie to be included in this game, as the world for the movie and the game are different – we thought it would be a challenge to do so.

However, we saw an almost festival-like opportunity where the film and the game were released almost at the same time. We decided to move forward and work on film-related content, with development starting last fall.

What was the thought process like when recording the film version of Shadow?

Nakamura-san: Since the game and the contents of the movie pack are releasing before the movie, we thought it would be ideal if people play the game and give their opinion on Shadow and then go out and watch the movie. After watching the movie, hopefully they'll want to come back and play the game again as Shadow.

We imagined that with so many new Sonic fans loving the films, perhaps this would be the perfect motivation to jump in and play Sonic X Shadow Generations when Shadow from the film was released.

Hopefully this makes this holiday season and the Year of Shadow even more exciting for all kinds of Sonic (and Shadow) fans out there.

How does this content package relate to the film? (Without spoilers of course!)

Nakamura-san: This content does not contain any story that is directly related to the film per se. Rather, as you can see in the trailer, it will be set in Tokyo, where Shadow visits in the film.

Since the development team also lives in Tokyo, we tried to design this setting so that it was fun as a Sonic game, but also clearly showed the Tokyo similarity. We even researched the actual area used in the game for inspiration.

We find it very exciting to play as Shadow in a real city, so please look forward to it.

And how does this DLC fit into the larger Sonic X Shadow Generations game? How is this experience different?

Nakamura-san: Basically, it should be positioned as bonus content.

In the base game, Shadow has his own story, including gaining his new Doom powers and reliving the memories of his creation, which is unique to this game.

There are things that are a little different in the film – so I think it would be appropriate to mention this as bonus content. But you can play and control Shadow just like you do in the base game.

We can't reveal too much, but please stay tuned to see how it relates to the film world!

Do you have any fun stories from working with the Sonic Movie team?

Nakamura-san: Information about the film was made available to very few members, even within Sega. Therefore, when developing this content, we worked with a very limited number of materials provided by Paramount. We discussed and worked mainly with Mr. Iizuka, who obviously also knew about the film.

We actually haven't seen the final scenes of the film yet, so we're excited to see how close our game will end up being to the film!

What was it like working with the Hollywood Confidential spokesperson for this DLC?

It was an incredibly secretive process. So when we started putting the voice into the game, we weren't actually told who that voice was. The voice recording was done by Mr. Iizuka in the USA. When we received the recorded voice files, we listened to them and thought, “Is that that actor?” and were surprised too after the official announcement from Paramount!

The Sonic the Hedgehog Movie 3 pack is in the Sonic short (he's a busy guy!), but after talking we know he's cooking up something really special. Shadow fans, dinner is almost served.