SEGA and Sonic Team will continue supporting PS4 to ensure higher sales potential

Sonic games will continue releasing on Sony's last-gen PlayStation 4 for some time, at least until more gamers stop using the system.

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Gen 9 has been one of the most transformation times in console gaming. The shift from Gen 8 to the current generation saw widespread backwards compatibility support, effectively merging the two generations together through software. As such, gamers didn't feel the need to immediately move on to the PS5, and Sony's internal data shows that half of active PlayStation users are still on PS4.

Publishers are wise to this trend, and those who want to maximize full sales potential of their games will frequently release their games across both PS4 and PS5. SEGA is one such company that prioritizes software sales, so we'll see future Sonic games cross over to both PS4 and PS5 in the foreseeable future.

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This sentiment was made clear by Sonic Team producer Takashi Iizuka, who told IGN that SEGA ultimately desires to have as many people play Sonic as possible. This means supporting older systems like the PS4. Sonic Frontiers, SEGA's most recent big AAA Sonic game, was released on both Gen 8 and Gen 9 consoles alongside the Switch.

"As a market we have the high-end machines, high-end consoles, [and on those consoles] we feel that we can make newer Sonic games that can express the speed of Sonic and with much better gaming UI as well.

"However, we want to support the lower spec consoles as well. So even though the PS5 Pro is coming out, or new innovations or technology are coming out, we feel that it is important to support with the lower spec consoles and let many of the users keep playing Sonic."

It'll be interesting to see if SEGA's new Super Games initiative will also support the PlayStation 4 as well for maximized reach and sales potential. The first of these Super Games may be the new Crazy Taxi game, which will have online multiplayer and live service mechanics.