Sonic Frontiers' Switch 2 Edition Forces a Full Rebuy

"The Nintendo Switch version cannot be upgraded to the Nintendo Switch 2 version."

That single line, buried in the fine print on Sega's website, is doing a lot of heavy lifting. Sonic Frontiers: Definitive Edition shadow-dropped on Switch 2 during the Sonic the Hedgehog 35th anniversary livestream on June 23, and while the package itself is solid, the terms surrounding it are not. If you already own Sonic Frontiers on the original Switch, Sega is asking you to pay $49.99 again with no upgrade path and no discount.

The Definitive Edition bundles the 2022 base game with every post-launch addition: The Final Horizon story campaign, Sonic's Birthday Bash, the Sights, Sounds, and Speeds content update, playable Tails, Knuckles, and Amy, a photo mode, a digital art book, and a mini soundtrack. Sega promises improved graphics and performance over the original Switch release. All of that content was free when it launched on other platforms. Repackaging it as a premium product for returning customers, with zero consideration for loyalty, I can't defend.

Save data comes with strings

Sega does allow save data transfers from Switch to Switch 2, but even that comes with caveats. As confirmed on Sega's site, several DLC items vanish during the transfer, including the Inugami Korone collaboration cosmetics and the Sonic Emote Koco DLC. The Explorer's Treasure Box DLC also has to be installed before starting a new game, or some items simply won't appear. So you can carry your progress over, but you'll lose pieces of it along the way.

What makes this sting is that Sega already knows how to do this better. As Nintendo Life pointed out, Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds, a more recent Sega release, offered an upgrade pathway for existing owners. Frontiers didn't get the same treatment. Sega hasn't explained why, and the silence is frustrating. If there's a technical limitation preventing an upgrade, say so. If it's a business decision, own it. Saying nothing and hoping people don't notice the fine print is the worst option.

The physical version adds another wrinkle. Consumers who picked it up at retail discovered it's a Game-Key Card, not a cartridge. You're still downloading the full game. For a $49.99 product sitting on a store shelf in a box, that feels misleading, even if it's becoming more common across the industry.

I liked Sonic Frontiers when it launched in 2022. It was a genuine step forward for 3D Sonic, and the free updates that followed made it considerably better. But asking Switch owners to rebuy the whole thing at full price, on a platform that's backward compatible with their existing copy, while stripping out some DLC during save transfers, is the kind of anti-consumer packaging that erodes goodwill. Sega is riding a wave of Sonic momentum right now between the anniversary celebrations and new game announcements. A $10 upgrade fee, or even a modest discount for existing digital owners, would have cost them almost nothing and earned them a lot of goodwill. Instead, the fine print on their own website confirms they didn't even consider it.