Sonic Team director Morio Kishimoto has announced that the anticipated Sonic Frontiers has received a complete hardware mastering, which means something akin to a game going gold, yet it is not exactly the same. He apologizes for not being able to implement all the feedback he has gotten from the fans, but he is happy he did the best he could until the assigned deadline.
Hardware Masterup (hado no masutaappu/ハードのマスターアップ) is a commonly used expression in the Japanese game industry. It is the stage where the software is completed (Including debugging, etc..), and what is left is the production of physical media such as game discs, accessories, manuals, packages, and other merchandise. It does not, however, refer to the game going gold, as a game that has received hardware mastering still needs to submitted to the manufacturing company and get approval for marketing and distribution.
In other words, this means Sonic Frontier has been completed as a piece of software, but it might also get rejected and sent back for some more patchwork. In our modern era, in which updated patches can be easily produced after the release, a Mastered Up version check won’t exactly hinder the release of any game unless it is something critical that affects game progression or the internal data. Hands-on impressions and feedback can also only be implemented up to this stage, and not the actual gold reveal stage.
On another note, Tomoyo Ohtani — the Sonic Series Sound Director has also announced on his Twitter the competition of the game’s soundtrack. This one was wrapped up in terms of both Master Up and distribution, so it can be regarded as release-ready. The CD will contain 150 tracks spanning a total time of 6 hours and 37 minutes; making it the biggest project Ohtani has worked on. He also expressed his happiness with doing the best he could for the sake of the game and the fans.
Sonic Frontier is slated for release on November 8 for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PC, and Nintendo Switch. The game is the first in franchise history to implement an open-ended design labeled as the Open Zone and will focus on adapting Sonic’s abilities in an open world environment.
