Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds Is Adding Bayonetta For Free

Sega Flexes Shared Custody Of Bayonetta By Adding Her To Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds Sega Published Sep 16, 2026, 4:39 AM EDT Josh Coulson is an editor at TheGamer covering breaking news on everything from colorful platformers to the latest Lego sets. Primarily a news writer since 2018, Josh has covered just about every major game from the past decade. Now an editor, their focus has shifted to being the leading affiliate expert at the site, building relationships between TheGamer and global brands including Mattel, Funko, and The Pokemon Company. Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds has quickly become to kart racing what Super Smash Bros. is to the fighting game genre. Sega has been pulling characters and worlds from not just gaming, but all sorts of IPs, and in year two, it will be reminding the world that it owns the rights to a character that most associate with Nintendo. Bayonetta Is Coming To CrossWorlds Sega It has already been almost a year since Sega launched CrossWorlds. During year one, Sonic and the gang have been joined by everyone from Mega Man, to SpongeBob, to Minecraft Steve. In year two, the first free character to enter the fray will be Bayonetta. A new year two trailer for CrossWorlds not only announced Bayonetta is joining the roster, but it revealed she will be free for all players, along with her Butterfly Witch boost type. There was no sign of a new track inspired by the Bayonetta games, but she will presumably get one, as the other crossover characters before her have done. Bikini Bottom is in the game, and the track that lets you race through various Minecraft biomes is still among the best in the game. Godzilla, Evangelion, And Bayonetta Walk Into A Room The trailer also served as a reminder that, while Bayonetta might be the most surprising character to join the CrossWorlds roster so far, she definitely isn’t the most out-there crossover still to come. Year two will also add Godzilla Escape, a track where you have to avoid the iconic kaiju and its atomic breath, and an Evangelion crossover where you race around a giant mech using themed upgrades. The reason Bayonetta’s imminent arrival in a Sonic racing game is somewhat surprising, despite characters from all over the place joining CrossWorlds, is because she is more commonly associated with Nintendo. Some of you might have even thought the Bayonetta IP is owned by Nintendo, but that’s not the case. The Bayonetta series is actually owned by Sega. You might have forgotten, not known, or assumed that had changed since Sega hasn’t published a mainline Bayonetta game since the original in 2009. Nintendo has published every game since, so Bayonetta 2, Bayonetta 3, and even the spinoff, Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon. Outside of her appearance on the Smash roster, however, Bayonetta doesn’t tend to show up much outside of her own games, neither for Nintendo nor Sega. That’s why it’s a welcome surprise to see her finally utilized as a crossover character. Bayonetta has fans, a lot of them, and it will be interesting to see how many new and returning CrossWorlds players she can attract, especially since she’s going to be free, which hasn’t been the case for all of the new characters added to CrossWorlds. Released September 25, 2025 ESRB Everyone / Mild Fantasy Violence, In-Game Purchases Developer(s) Sonic Team Publisher(s) Sega Engine Unreal Engine 5 Genre(s) Racing, Action