It's been a good couple months for Sonic.  The reveal of Sonic Frontiers generated a strong amount of interest in a new direction for the series, and the game launch went smoothly and to great reception.  The open-world islands covered with more directed platforming challenges put Sonic's abilities to good use, and the surprisingly well voice-acted story carried the action along with plenty of references for long-time fans.  There's still some work to be done but Sonic Frontiers is a fantastic platform to build the series up from going forward.  As it turns out, that work isn't all going to wait for the inevitable sequels but also come to Sonic Frontiers in the form of free updates over the coming months.

Sega announced today a series of three updates scheduled for 2023, although no specific months were given.  The first update contains Jukebox and Photo Modes, plus new Challenge Modes.  The Challenge Modes are specified as modes rather than new levels, so most likely that means new goals to chase after in the existing areas.  Update Number Two is a bit less clearly defined but also has three major parts in form of a Sonic birthday celebration (which heavily implies mid-June, seeing as his birthday is June 23), an Open Zone Challenge, and new Koco, which are the adorable little stone people inhabiting the islands.  Finally, the biggest update comes with new playable characters and a new story.  Judging from the image it seems likely that Amy, Tails, and Knuckles are the playable characters while the new story goes to the red AI Sage.  That's pure speculation based on a single marketing image, so take it with a grain of salt, but it feels about right.  Whatever everything in the updates may be, and ignoring irrelevant questions of whether or not it should have been in the game at release, there's a lot more Sonic on the way for Sonic Frontiers.