SEGA’s April Fools joke game surpasses 1 million players

Sonic the Hedgehog is known for many things. Perhaps even more popular than the franchise itself however are the memes that have spawned from it. SEGA took this in stride as they released ‘The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog’ on the 1st of April. Surprisingly – or perhaps unsurprisingly – the game is a big hit, surpassing 1 million players in just a few days.

As reported by the Social Media Manager for Sonic the Hedgehog on Twitter, ‘Katie MiniKitty’ (who pitched the concept for The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog) took to the platform to say “Over 1,000,000 of you have grabbed The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog and it's currently the #61 highest rated game on Steam of ALL TIME. Absolutely unreal. Thank you all so, so much.”

For the uninitiated, The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog is a free visual novel / platforming murder mystery in which “It's Amy Rose's birthday, and she's hosting a murder mystery party on the Mirage Express! When Sonic the Hedgehog becomes the game's victim, everyone is off to get to the bottom of things. However, something feels a bit off – is this really an innocent game or is something more sinister afoot?”

In recent years we have seen many game developers and publishers have fun with April Fool’s day, leading to the joke announcement of many fake and wacky games. It is exciting however to see that SEGA went all-in and not only created a trailer for the game – but that it is an actual game which anyone can play for free. Hopefully more publishers take this approach with April Fool’s in the future.

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KitGuru says: What was your favourite April Fool’s Day gag from this year? Have you played The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog? What did you think? Let us know down below.

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