This Week in Mobile Games

SSSS.Sonic, Summer, Sandrone, and Superheroes

Greetings, and welcome once again to the column! I've spent much of my mobile game-playing time catching up with Fate/Grand Order's Cosmos in the Lostbelt storyline, specifically clearing the Lostbelt No. 7, Nahui Mictlan chapter, as beating it and the subsequent opening stage of the Ordeal Call campaign is a requirement for participating in next month's scheduled summertime event. FGO is old-school in the way it still requires some "homework" to be done as part of a new player's onboarding process, and as a Final Fantasy XIV veteran, that's an attitude I can respect.

But enough about what I'm doing, let's get to the latest throes of the industry, for this is...

Sonic the Hedgehog Sped onto Smartphones Early and Often

This month, Sega icon Sonic the Hedgehog celebrates his 35th birthday. While on Friday, Jean-Karlo ran down the blue blur's history, Sega itself opted for a somewhat muted commemorative announcement slate, with little in the way of brand-new games coming to PC and consoles. The celebration was similarly muted when it came to mobile-specific announcements, which, considering Sonic's long history as a mobile game pioneer, is somewhat disappointing.

In keeping with Sega's reputation as "doing what Nintendon't," at the turn of the century, Sega dove headfirst into the emerging mobile gaming market, with Sonic at the tip of its spear. Arguably, the first stirrings of a mobile Sonic the Hedgehog presence date back to 2001, when Sega and Motorola announced a partnership to develop Java-based games for an upcoming line of Motorola-produced feature phones. By all accounts, those games were never actually released, but the announcement functioned as a statement of intent by Sega as a whole to put Sonic on people's phones. This, and other more forward-thinking, internet-friendly moves like Sega embracing online play in the Dreamcast, contrasted rather sharply with longtime rival Nintendo, which to this day tends to take criticism for keeping the mobile market at a relative distance. 

Before long, Sega launched its Japan-exclusive Sonic Cafe mobile game service on various Japanese Java-enabled feature phones. The service hosted dozens of tiny, Java-based Sonic the Hedgehog games. Of course, this being the pre-smartphone era, the games were tiny and simple, mostly puzzle-based affairs designed to be consumed in bite-sized chunks, but they did run a wide spectrum of genres, ranging from sport- and fishing-themed minigames with Sonic characters to gameplay templates that would see revisiting in smartphone app form, like Sonic Jump. With the retirement of Sonic Cafe in 2007, most of the games on the service were re-hosted on Sega's Puyo Puyo! Sega service, which carried the torch for those old games, a few updated versions, and even the beginnings of Sonic's smartphone outings, until it was shuttered in 2022.

It wasn't all Japan-exclusive, though. Between 2003 and 2008, Sega Mobile, the English-language version of Sonic Cafe, launched in 2003 and hosted games like Sonic Jump and Sonic at the Olympic Games alongside ports of Sega Game Gear titles like Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine, making them playable on Java-running early 4G phones like the Motorola V3X and Nokia N95, as well as Palm OS Personal Digital Assistants (the proto-smartphones that were the face of portable computing before Apple and Google basically reshaped the whole industry in their image).

By the smartphone era, Sonic the Hedgehog mobile games had mostly left behind the "minigame" era, with Sega and partner studios like Dimps taking advantage of more capable hardware to achieve a level of parity with dedicated handheld and even home consoles. Ports of "true" Sonic the Hedgehog games like Sonic Advance and Sonic CD made it over, and Sega even brought over Sonic the Hedgehog 4 in 2012, possibly to test the waters for mobile players' willingness to buy into the then-trendy episodic model.

But while it's not hard to imagine a contemporary smart device able to play the same Sonic series games fans get to enjoy on their consoles (Sonic Mania is available to Netflix subscribers and on Apple Arcade, after all), the franchise has a pretty strong, continually supported mobile-exclusive presence. Sonic Racing (and its console counterpart Sonic Team Racing) helped serve as the template for the franchise's return to the kart scene with last year's Sonic Racing: Crossworlds. Sonic Dash is almost thirteen years old at this point, but underscores the brand's sheer compatibility with the endless runner genre (it's also the most heavily "milked" of the mobile Sonic games, spawning themed spin-offs based on animated series like Sonic Prime and Sonic Boom).  And the Apple-exclusive Sonic Rumble even adapts the increasingly popular multiplayer party-game format, pulling in just about everyone in the Sonic-verse to compete in chaotic obstacle courses. There's even an upcoming team action-RPG, Sonic Blitz, that's in soft launch in Southeast Asia and South America. The latter two come courtesy of Sega's purchase of Angry Birds developer Rovio.

As an outsider looking in, it can be easy to see the Sonic the Hedgehog fandom as a sort of insular crowd constantly pining for past glories like the Dreamcast-era games or some childhood classic cartoon rendition of the characters, but to subscribe to that characterization ultimately ignores how active the brand has been across a multitude of platforms since those halcyon days. Sega's days as a platform holder may be long over, but Sonic the Hedgehog is going many places fast.

CounterSide Ends Service on August 26, After 6 Years, Reboot Planned

On June 17, via a developer blog, Korea-based StudioBside announced that its mobile/PC gacha RPG CounterSide will shut down operations on August 26, 2026. The game cut off microtransactions and issued refunds shortly after the announcement went live. CEO Ryu Geumtae didn't get into details about why the game was being shut down, but did note that "this is not the end" for the game, as a "reboot project" is in the works. What that means, exactly, isn't clear, but given recent releases like Octopath Traveler 0 (reworked from Octopath Traveler: Champions of the Continent) and the upcoming Final Fantasy Resonance (born from the ashes of Final Fantasy Brave Exvius), I wouldn't be surprised if CounterSide eventually sees a second life reworked into a single-player title in a few years.

In this time of contraction among gacha titles and mobile and live-service games in general, a shutdown isn't uncommon news, but I do admit that I have a bit of a soft spot for CounterSide, as in the then-sea of fantasy-themed anime-style gacha games, it was refreshing to see CounterSide's sci-fi urban setting, where scrappy teams of greedy mercenaries competed to drive back extradimensional invasions, while also using space battleships to "dive" into an alternate dimension to slay monsters and mine their remains for precious resources. 

Its narrative had the same slightly weary, streetwise vibe and a kind of rough-edged character writing and open criticism of its own setting and society - the same sort of tone that would draw me to other Korean gacha games like NIKKE and Blue Archive later on. It was also a funny sort of gacha that let you roll not just for hot characters with bouncy Live2D animations, but for groups of soldiers, tanks, mecha, and even a 2-and-a-half-ton cargo truck to put in your party.

CounterSide is still playable through August 26 on mobile and PC, and for its part, StudioBSide continues to operate its more recently released gacha game, StarSavior.

NIKKE Launches Summer Event on July 2, Teases Persona Crossover

Now that I've mentioned NIKKE, the time for summer events is nigh, and NIKKE's was just revealed through a hilariously heavily censored promo trailer (despite the heavy use of light bloom and carefully placed stickers, I don't encourage watching the trailer in polite company).

As with previous summertime events, players will visit a special themed map. This summer event, titled Wave To You, features the adventures of Marciana, Naga, and Tia, all part of a corporate-run school for Nikkes that hides several dark secrets. Longtime NIKKE veterans will know that the game's summer stories occasionally hide war crime confessionals amid the swimsuit antics. Also joining the vacation are Pilgrim characters Cinderella and her girlfriend Grave, as well as Little Mermaid and her girlfriend Mori.

The event will debut the expected complement of new swimsuit costumes (for Little Mermaid, Tia, and Naga), as well as two new SSR character variants: Cinderella: Crystal Wave and Marciana: Marine Study.

News that might be interesting to players not currently deep in NIKKE's rotation, though, is the confirmation of a crossover with the Persona series. Now, Persona 5's Phantom Thieves are among the most prolific crossover characters in modern gacha gaming (heck, Persona 5 itself has a gacha game, Persona 5 The Phantom X), but this latest trailer notably features telltale iconography from all three of the most recent Persona entries. Alongside the familiar logo of the Phantom Thieves, the teaser cycles through the color test bars of Persona 4's Midnight Channel and the phosphorescent green clock symbolizing Persona 3's Dark Hour. 

Now, while the safe money is on seeing yet more of the Phantom Thieves in playable form come NIKKE crossover time (as a shooting-themed RPG, it makes some sense to go with the characters who have guns as a natural part of their combat mechanics), there's an off chance the upcoming launch of Persona 4 Revival might usher Naoto or Chie behind some cover in NIKKE's future. Personally, I wouldn't mind seeing a playable Aigis from Persona 3 or its Reload remake. Nikkes are already cyborgs, so having an android with gun arms hanging out in the roster seems like a good fit, if you ask me.

Leaks Suggest the Existence of a Marvel Gacha Game, Project Comet

File this one under "sensible but unconfirmed": Marvel is allegedly at work on a large-scale gacha-supported action RPG, one set to compete with the likes of Genshin Impact and Wuthering Waves for players' attention and monies. Code-named Project Comet, the game was supposedly revealed through assets leaked by Twitter user MultiverSusie, who posted a large trove of "leaked assets" claimed to be from the game. The assets ranged from pieces of key and environmental art to video clips showing in-progress attack animations and a prototype mobile control user interface. 

The leaks showed popular Marvel characters like Spider-Man, Captain America, Doctor Octopus, Wolverine, and Doctor Strange, all featuring fairly stylized, somewhat anime-inflected character designs reminiscent of Tencent's Marvel Rivals, another Marvel-licensed breakout live service success story. 

It's worth taking these leaks with a grain of salt, considering that the advent of image and video generation can make it fairly easy for clout-chasers to gin up "evidence" for things they're leaking. That said, it does make sense that Marvel would want in on some of the cash that's been flowing through the expanding gacha scene. The seismic impact of Genshin's advent upgraded gacha games from a profitable niche into a new avenue for corporate publishers to pursue infinite growth, and trend-chasing efforts do tend to be several years delayed (see how long it took all kinds of developers and publishers to produce their own MOBA games and hero shooters after Dota, League of Legends, and Overwatch blew the doors off their respective subgenres).

Those years of delay might be another point against the case for Project Comet being really real. The market seems to be turning gradually against gacha titles, and the space is harder to break into than ever before, with so much development money now separating the likes of market leaders from the also-rans. While it's definitely got brand power on its side, it's anyone's guess whether that will be enough to draw players to take up yet another gambling-adjacent character collector alongside whatever their current main is.

Genshin Impact Pulls Off the Pivot to Space Through July 1's Luna VIII Update

Genshin Impact's next major update, Luna VIII, is titled Sunny Summer Fontinalia and will kick off on July 1st. 

The update will reunite players with Fatui Harbinger Sandrone, who was last seen performing a heroic sacrifice in Nod-Krai. Apparently, she got better and good enough to join the roster as a 5-Star Cryo Claymore-user capable of unleashing a brand-new elemental reaction called Stellar-Conduct. Players looking to score a previous character from the banner can look forward to the second half of the update timeline, where Columbina and Raiden Shogun will be back up for grabs.

Sandrone's return isn't all that surprising. Not only is this The Way Of Things for gacha games in general, but HoYoVerse has featured her in several teasers and mini-features over the last several weeks, including a terribly cute slumber party featuring her, Columbina, Arlecchino, and even the late Signora, who was unceremoniously dispatched in a cutscene way back in the version 2.0 update.

The update will also add the brand-new Frost Moon area to explore via a fancy orbital vehicle of sorts. The addition allows Genshin Impact to truly take its place among the ranks of fantasy anime by beginning the traditional "pivot to space" where, no matter how fantasy a setting, the plot somehow contrives to get its characters into a starship of some kind for a jaunt on the moon or another planet.

While all this is going on, HoYoVerse is also ramping up its teasing of the Snezhnaya update coming in August, launching a new teaser featuring a handful of the characters Travelers can expect to see as they draw closer to a meeting with the Tsarita.

Another trailer showed more of the environs of the new region as well, proving that it's not all going to be frost and snow, while also teasing what seems to be a virtual reality-style game mode that puts players in a straight-up third-person cover shooter.

Let's clear out this week's installment with a few more bits of news:

• CTW has unveiled more from its new licensed browser game, Shakugan no Shana: Blaze Edge. Just seeing Shana mentioned in the year 2026 feels like a blast from the past, but as my Q&A with CEO Ryuichi Sasaki revealed, latching onto recognizable anime brands without a ton of current competition is part of CTW's strategy.
• Wuthering Waves' version 3.5 update is set to launch on July 10th, and will also see the game debut on the Xbox Series X and S for the first time. The update adds a new area, Mengzhuo, and two new Resonators (Yangyang: Xuanling and Suisui) alongside a playable variant of the Rover, this time in Electro flavor.
• Neverness to Everness will receive its next update on July 8th, bringing it up to version 1.2, and centers on a new character, Shinku, and a session of a fantasy-themed tabletop game, 999 Nights. The tabletop game's an Anomaly that sucks players into its medieval fantasy world of the Warren Continent. The update also adds the ability to store caught fish in an aquarium and a Riichi Mahjong minigame mode.

And that's it from me for now. Keep yourselves safe from the heat if you happen to be in a heatwave-affected region, and curl up at home with a comfy phone game if things get too sweaty out there! I'll see you again next time.