'Sonic Forces' DLC Release Date: Popular Meme Inspires Game's Latest DLC

For its latest "Sonic Forces" downloadable content (DLC) release, SEGA took inspiration from a meme and it should come as quite a treat to those who love the ones based on the game.

Those who play the recently released title may have encountered online a purposely poorly drawn Sonic the Hedgehog on Microsoft Paint dubbed as Sanic the Hegehog.

This very illustration was used as the design for the free DLC t-shirt that "Sonic Forces" players can now don as they speed through the game.

SEGA made the announcement on the official Twitter account of "Sonic Forces," tweeting:

Get ready to go fst. The "Sanic T-shirt" is now available for free download in Sonic Forces! (Yes, it's real.)

As expected, gamers responded to the announcement with heaps of memes as well. Some were excited about the prospect that more and more studios are embracing memes in games while others cannot help but wonder why this DLC is even a thing.

"Sonic Forces" is just one of the many games to get the meme treatment. The popular doge meme was incorporated in a portion of "The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild" although some gamers did not find it funny.

Bungie recently found itself in hot water when it included controversial "Kek" imagery to some player gear in "Destiny 2," which the developer quickly removed.

"Sonic Forces" was released early this month, but it failed to replicate the success of "Sonic Mania" released last August. On Steam, the game is rated "mostly positive" in more than 1,600 reviews while it received a score of 58 out of 100 over at Metacritic.

In terms of sales, "Sonic Forces" also underperformed. During the first week of its release, it sold 5,938 units on PlayStation 4 (PS4) and 4,686 units on the Nintendo Switch for a total of 10,624 units.