If you want to know what’s happening in the world of Sonic the Hedgehog, then you’re in the right place! The Sonic Stadium’s News section is your first stop for all the latest information. Whether it’s news about video games, comics, TV shows or even movies, we have you covered!
Because Japan is about to observe Golden Week, a national holiday, these Wallpapers have come in a little earlier than usual, but it maintain the same high-energy and quality that we’ve come to expect from these stylish art pieces. Here we see Rouge kicking into high gear with a ferocity that can only be described as, ‘Give Me My Jewels Back Energy’.
Check out high-resolution Desktop and Mobile wallpapers on Sonic Channel’s website, and find some details (machine translated) from Sonic Team’s designer Tomoko Hayane on this piece below.
Unusually, it’s a Rouge that feels intense and powerful! You can almost hear the sound of her beautiful legs kicking up.
Come to think of it, Rouge played a big role in kicks in her debut work, Sonic Adventure 2!
You even had a one-on-one battle in space with Knuckles over the Master Emerald. The exchange between Knuckles’ powerful punches and Rouge’s kicks was a heart-warming battle!
Rouge’s mysterious and slightly sexy appearance is also attractive, but I think this kind of wild and cool scene is also wonderful.
By the way, it seems that Rouge is fighting with something in this wall illustration, but who exactly is the opponent that Rouge kicks so seriously? Is it a very formidable enemy, or is it a peer in the same industry aiming for the same jewel… I can imagine various things ♪
… Well, the latest game you can play with Rouge is Team Sonic Racing! Although there is no kicking figure, you can see the same mysterious charm and cool figure driving a racing car. Please give it a try!
See you soon! See you in the next wall illustration~!
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Sonic Channel has posted a new episode of its ongoing ‘Sonic Pict’ series today, ahead of Japan’s national ‘Golden Week’ holidays – this time focusing on Rouge the Bat, who is enjoying a little bit of alone time admiring one particularly precious gem.
Posted on the official Sonic JP Twitter account, the wonderfully-coloured and incredibly stylish scene is accompanied with flavour text that suggests that the sometimes-secret-agent has just completed some work for the government, with some kind words of appreciation from the President. We can see the scenery of Radical Highway in the background, along with a billboard featuring Big the Cat and a NiGHTS themed tower across the night sky.
Here’s the short story that accompanies the piece (machine translated):
“You did a great job, didn’t you? President Arigato”
After a certain big incident, there was a figure of Rouge enjoying the vacation in the suite while enjoying the beautifully shining “reward”.
The finest brilliance weaves the happy moments of the night…
From tomorrow #GoldenWeek! Have a nice vacation everyone!
Happy vacation, Japan!
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While a formal corporate response is still forthcoming, Curran’s words in the letter could be interpreted as positive. The exec stated that “Union matters are new to me and SOA and we are investigating and considering the options available to the company” – however, he later made clear that “No SOA employee will be treated any differently whether they support or do not support unionization.”
The letter, published by Axios journalist Stephen Totilo on social media, added: “Some of you may support unionization and some not. That is your legal right… We have a wonderful culture at SOA with a strong commitment to working together as a team. In my mind, it is the SOA employee culture that makes us such a successful company.”
Next steps, as Curran is said to understand it, is for the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to conduct a secret ballot of employees – in job positions selected by the NLRB – to determine if unionization will go ahead in a special vote.
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If you ever wanted to have the chance to create something Amy Rose-y in pixel-perfect proportions, then SEGA Japan has you covered. The company released a reference sheet of the Sonic series heroine, for fans to get crafty ahead of the release of Sonic Origins Plus.
As you can see, the sprite reference features Classic Amy Rose’s new standing pose and running animation, as seen in trailers for the upcoming compilation pack. A new addition to the Sonic Origins collection, Amy Rose is an extra playable character that can be used in Sonic 1, Sonic 2, Sonic CD and Sonic 3 & Knuckles.
Photos courtesy SEGA Japan Official Twitter Channel.
SEGA’s official Japanese social media channels shared a link to the Downloads page where you can find the PDF reference sheet, along with the above photo to show what you can do with it. The company also appears to task fans with an Iron-on Beads art challenge over the coming Japanese ‘Golden Week’ national holiday.
You can visit the downloads page here, there are other characters available to get creative with too, from Sonic to Tails and Knuckles.
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It’s that time of year again! SEGA has released their report for fiscal year 2023, and with that, lots of juicy numbers and info. We’ll have a more in-depth look at the report later, but for now we’re going to focus on some of the bigger, Sonic-related numbers!
Like the headline says, Sonic Frontiers has sold 3.2 million units as of the end of March, meaning the same’s sales are still going strong. This puts it ever closer to surpassing Sonic Heroes’ 3.41 million units sold, which would make Frontiers the best selling Sonic game of all time. Given that Sonic Frontiers was at 2.9 million at the end of December, it certainly seems plausible that it will surpass Sonic Heroes by SEGA’s next fiscal report in July.
The Sonic franchise as a whole moved 8.15 million units this fiscal year. That an increase of 1.45 million units from what was reported back in December, eaning that way more than just Sonic Frontiers is selling right now. This is also a significant increase over the 5.8 million units Sonic sold last fiscal year.
In addition to all this, SEGA also outlines their efforts to expand Sonic’s mixed media presence and increase the franchise’s brand awareness. For 2024, SEGA forecasts that the Sonic IP will receive record licensing revenue.
If you want to see the report for yourself, you can find it here. It’s 75 pages and goes into a lot of detail on a lot of things, including multiple pages explaining why SEGA’s buying Rovio (spoiler: they want to increase their foothold in the western mobile gaming space, use Rovio’s mobile expertise on SEGA IP, and also Angry Birds is still very popular).
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Today, IDW has announced plans to cut 39% of its staff and delist itself from the New York Stock Exchange, as reported by Yahoo Finance. While an IDW Media Holdings investor report highlights the “approximately $4.4 million in annual savings,” this decision follows significant reported losses this year of $335,000. ICV2 notes that book channel sales were up in the company’s Q1 2023 financial reports, including those from the Sonic series and TMNT: The Last Ronin; however, major drops hit the company from their games division and streaming series.
As part of big shake-up, IDW’s Board of Directors has moved Davidi Jonas, previously Board Vice Chairman (and son of the Board Chairman), to CEO, and Amber Huerta, Senior VP of People and Organizational Development, to COO.
At this time, we do not have any specific information regarding how this may impact IDW’s Sonic the Hedgehog series, nor have we heard any reports of its staff being part of the 39% cut. With the series being one of IDW’s bigger successes, and SEGA continuing to collaborate with IDW writers and artists on non-IDW projects, it’s unlikely that Sonic himself will be on the chopping block. That said, executive shifts and deep staff cuts still have the potential to directly or indirectly impact the series.
We extend sympathies to all whose job was hit by these cuts.
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SEGA’s maraca shaking rhythm game is only a few months away, and its initial tracklist is finally coming into focus. Joining the two Sonic tracks announced last month are 20 new songs, including 17 from various artists and two covers crossing a variety of genres, including Latin and pop. Check out the list of revealed tracks below:
– “Break Free ft. Zedd” by Ariana Grande – “I Really Like You” by Carly Rae Jepsen – “Payback (feat. Icona Pop)” by Cheat Codes – “Let You Go (feat. Kareen Lomax)” by Diplo & TSHA – “I Will Survive (Eric Kupper Mix Extended)“ by Gloria Gaynor – “I Love It” by Icona Pop – “Centerfold’ by J Geils Band – “Bang Bang“ by Jessie J, Ariana Grande, Nicki Minaj – “Sucker” by Jonas Brothers – ”TiK ToK“ by Kesha – “Panama” by Matteo – “Plastic Hearts” by Miley Cyrus – “Celebrate” by Pitbull – “The Cup of Life (La Copa de la Vida)“ by Ricky Martin – “XS” by Rina Sawayama – “Bom Bom” by Sam and the Womp – “Azukita“ by Steve Aoki, Daddy Yankee, Play-N-Skillz & Elvis Crespo – “Macarena (Cover)” – “Fugue (classic)” – “La Bamba (Cover)”
The game is also now available for pre-order from various retailers listed here. The game will feature a total of 40 tracks, with more coming as DLC.
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Mighty takes centre stage in this new art piece published by the official Sonic Channel team, created to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the SEGASonic the Hedgehog arcade game.
Released in 1993 to a limited test audience in Japan, SEGASonic the Hedgehog was a unique arcade game that featured a trackball for movement of Sonic, Ray the Squirrel and Mighty the Armadillo (who debuted in this adventure). Players had to dash through isometric stages, bashing through obstacles as quickly as possible in order to outrun Dr. Eggman and his deadly traps.
A commemorative illustration of “Sega Sonic the Hedgehog” celebrating its 30th anniversary since its release in 1993
This arcade game is the debut work of Mighty and Ray who appeared in “Sonic Mania Plus”
Characteristic trackball operation is tricky Mighty seems to be a master
It’s really nice to see Mighty (and Ray, to an extent) recognised again in official artwork/media, after their appearance in Sonic Mania Plus was largely seen as a one-off. What do you think of this art piece? Let us know in the comments below!
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Sonic’s differing US and Japanese design throughout the 1990s is well-documented, but Yasushi Yamaguchi appears to have inadvertently added a new piece of trivia into the history books. The original designer of Miles ‘Tails’ Prower recently revealed that, of all the issues SEGA Japan had with SEGA America’s take on the company’s mascot design, one of the most persistent was over Sonic’s little American crooked legs.
But after being shown photos of SEGA America marketing vehicles and materials featuring a brown Tails based on the old design, Yamauguchi decided to let it be known that SEGA Japan was often annoyed that the US office would ignore the Sonic Team’s design notes.
I have no knowledge of the [above] pictures or figures in the photos. At the time, Sega of America ignored the opinions of the development staff. They did not listen to our requests for the number of fingers on Sonic in the package art, or our request to fix his legs to be straight.
SEGA of America’s maverick approach to marketing and game development in the 1990s is well-documented – and it’s no secret that during the 16-bit console gaming era, the US and Japanese SEGA offices often did not see eye to eye, with the former often ignoring style, design and product guidelines from the latter headquarters.
Sonic the Hedgehog was regularly in the crossfire, with package art and various multi-media projects featuring artwork that differed from the original Japanese design. Most infamously, an entirely new backstory to Sonic’s origin was created by SEGA of America, seemingly without the knowledge of Sonic Team or SEGA Japan at the time. This had been made apparent in recent years with former Sonic Team alumni such as Yuji Naka expressing confusion at hearing stories about ‘Dr Ovi Kintobor’ at the Summer of Sonic convention.
Yamaguchi later added that SEGA Japan actually did not have the adequate resources to fully manage the company’s characters until after the release of Sonic CD, which might explain why there was suddenly a lot more cohesion between the East and West markets after in the late 16-bit era.
Despite all this hubbub in the 90s, it turned out that, according to the SatAM Historian, Sonic co-creator Naoto Oshima was apparently a big fan of the bow-legged American rendition of the hero! So, swings and roundabouts, I guess.
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The Yuji Naka insider trading scandal has taken another turn this week, with Naka reportedly blaming his recent activity whilst at Square Enix on a secretarial mistake.
Naka was arrested late last year for insider trading, and admitted to it in a trial last month. Naka claims that a secretary sent him information he was not meant to see.
According to Gosokkyu, who has been a good source of information over the course of this story, Naka is likely trying to make the case that this was not pre-meditated, in the hopes of getting a lighter sentence.
Whether this defense will help at all, we’ll just have to see.
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The director of Sonic Frontiers has confirmed that contributing writer (and IDW Sonic universe author) Ian Flynn will return to work on the upcoming story-based DLC for the game.
Morio Kishimoto responded to fan questions on his social media accounts about the content of the third expansion pack, which will come later in 2023 following Sonic’s birthday-themed DLC in the summer. “Of course, Ian Flynn will write it,” Kishimoto wrote in Japanese (English provided by machine translation).
“Although Sonic Frontier has a huge amount of settings, there are many episodes that could not be told,” the Sonic Team director added. “Now that we’ve decided which episode to go with, I’m sure we’ll be able to meet everyone’s expectations!”
The long-awaited story DLC for Sonic Frontiers will include new playable characters beyond Sonic for the first time in the game – heavily rumoured to be Tails, Knuckles and potentially Amy. It is assumed that the additional content will add much-needed context to many of the base game’s remaining mysteries and storytelling snafus, such as the meaning behind the familiar glyph symbol as well as questions raised by the ending (and post-credits) sequence.
“When I became director, the content of the game was changed to something completely different, but the development code name remained the same, so Rangers ended up being something completely unrelated to the content of the game.”
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An early sprite design for Miles ‘Tails’ Prower has been unearthed in a fresh set of 1990s SEGA and DiC design documents. The reference artwork comes from SEGA of America and was sent to DiC circa 1992, to brief the animation studio on how to illustrate Sonic’s foxy friend in the ‘SatAM’ and ‘Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog’ TV series.
Also, it shows Tails as brown. Very brown.
The discovery follows the reveal of early Tails artwork designed by several sources, including original Tails designer Yasushi Yamaguchi and Greg Martin. These sprites come from this same SatAM Sonic artwork depository, a resource that community archivist @Fieryfurnace obtained recently.
[The assets folder] also included the only colour reference DiC was sent which I’ve found so far (again, I’m assuming this would be late April 1992 based on the dates for the other Tails sheets and DiC’s character design timeline). It’s an early (perhaps the earliest?) sprite sheet of Tails for Sonic 2. This Tails is burnt orange/brown with a peach snout, chest fur, and inner ears. The tips of his tails are white, the same colour as his gloves.
Sonic fans with long memories may recall a version of Tails represented in various merchandise and other media with a peach-coloured muzzle (as opposed to the white colour we are now used to). This was no accident – Fieryfurnace posits that all of that was an accurate depiction of the character as referenced in the above reference document. You can see an image of this below, courtesy of Fieryfurnace:
While there is evidence of an artist – possibly at DiC – taking a stab at recolouring Tails, it was not until Yamaguchi’s final design came in that a standardised look for Tails was set across all media (and even then, there were divergences across territories, such as on Sonic 2’s Mega Drive box artwork). Fieryfurnace tracks the “origins of DiC’s colour schemes for Tails” in the image below:
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144 employees at SEGA of America’s Irving, California office about to form what is will be the largest multi-department games industry union in the United States. They filed an election petition with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) with a supermajority of support within SEGA of America, meaning the union will almost certainly be certified. The new union, which will be called the “Allied Employees Guild Improving SEGA” or “AEGIS,” will partner with the Communications Workers of America (CWA) in representing the employees of SEGA of America’s various departments incuding QA, localization, product development, live services, and marketing.
The official logo for AEGIS
According to reporting from The Verge, work on the union began more than a year ago. Torie Winkler, senior community manager, told The Verge that a mutual love of the games they worked on fueled the unionization effort. Communication between departments over games eventually led to discussions of how unionization works. Over the course of the last year, employees haven’t experienced any anti-union sentiments from SEGA management. They’re hopeful that management in SEGA of America and Japan will voluntarily recognize the union once it is certified.
AEGIS explained why they were unionizing in a statement on their new Twitter account, saying “We are unionizing because we love the games that we work on, we love our coworkers, and we love working at SEGA. But unfortunately for many this job is not sustainable. Our goal is to make SEGA someplace where we feel employees can thrive for many years to come.”
The tweet goes into further detail, explaining various issues employees face, including below-industry-average pay, weak benefits, a lack of paths for promotion, and a third of long-time employees lacking full-time status and all the benefits that come with that. The union hopes to correct these issues by attaining a higher base pay, improved and stable benefits (such as healthcare and retirement), increased and clearly outlined opportunities for promotion, balanced workloads and schedules, and ensuring adequately staffed departments to end overwork.
You can read the full statement here. AEGIS also has a petition, where you can show SEGA management you support the union, here. AEGIS also encouraged the tweeting of #UnionizeSEGA and #AEGISAlly as another way of showing your support.
Now it’s up to the National Labor Relations Board, a federal agency responsible for enforcing US labor laws, to set a date and ensure the election is appropriately run. Once the election is certified, the union will be official. The Communications Workers of America, which AEGIS will be partnered with, is the largest communications and media labor union in the United States, representing more than 700,000 employees. They will go by the local union number “CWA Local 9510,” which is used to identify a union’s location.
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For those not in the know, the Sonic Amateur Games Expo allows amateur game developers to show off their Sonic fan games and demos alongside some other projects showing a wide range of different gameplay styles.
For more information and to check out last year’s games, check out the official SAGE website.
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If you haven’t been paying attention to YouTube in the last couple of years, you might be interested to know that there’s been a bit of a trend – particularly in Japan – towards creating content using virtual hosts instead of real people. Even the Sonic social team has got on board recently with its TailsTube series.
Now, SEGA Japan has launched its own VTuber called Usaki Rin, and one of the first things the company got ‘her’ to do was to sing Sonic Adventure 2’s “Escape From The City”. Because, of course it did.
This cover of the iconic City Escape theme, which features a cool new arrangement by Jun Senoue, was actually posted a couple weeks ago on Usaki Rin’s standalone YouTube channel – and is itself a full version of a song originally performed back in February during a ‘SEGA New’ livestream.
But the Official Japanese SEGA Twitter account has only just got round to posting it, so we’ve heard it, and now we’re obliged to share it with you, ensuring that there is truly no escape from hearing the vocalised tones of our new Kawaii Overlord.
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The third issue in IDW Sonic’s Eggperial City arc is out today in comic shops and on IDW’s website and Comixology! This issue sees Sonic and friends battling Shadow androids while trying to take down Dr. Eggman’s self-repairing & expanding Eggperial City.
Check out the official solicit, cover variants, and preview pages below:
solicit:
“ Androids everywhere! Three teams are trapped in Eggperial City, fighting wave after wave of androids. Sonic is speeding, Amy is smashing, Tails is flying. Shadow is punching, Omega is ripping, Rouge is…looting. But will it be enough? And has anyone seen Tangle?!
Preview pages:
Cover variants:
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SEGA have announced a collaboration with Uncanny Brands to bring yet another appliance to the kitchens of hardcore Sonic fans; a waffle maker!
The waffle maker is being added as a prize option at the US restaurant chain Dave & Buster’s, so for the time will only be directly available for North American fans.
The waffle maker, as well as featuring a modern Sonic design, will be able to imprint a Uekawa-style Sonic head onto each waffle thanks to an ultra-detailed plate.
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If you’ve been wondering what’s going on with that Knuckles show for Paramount+, wonder no more: Sonic Movie director Jeffrey Fowler has confirmed via his Twitter account that filming of the show is officially underway, with him in the director’s seat for the pilot. Whether this marks the official first day of shooting, or if this is just the first day he can talk about it, is currently unknown. The Knuckles series is supposed to debut later this year.
Interestingly, Knuckles’ iconic Sonic OVA hat is in the photo, meaning it is almost certainly going to be worn by him in the series. According to Variety, the series will see Knuckles “agreeing to train Wade as his protege and teach him the ways of the echidna warrior.” Adam Pally (Wade Wipple) will star alongside Idris Elba, who will be reprising his role as Knuckles.
Edi Patterson, Julian Barratt, Scott Mescudi, and Ellie Taylor will features as recurring actors while Tika Sumpter (Maddie Wachowski) will guest star along with Rory McCann. James Marsden (Tom Wachowski) is not currently listed as a returning actor, so it seems like outside of Wade and Knuckles, the series will focus on a newly introduced cast. Additional casting is expected to be announced at a later day.
The series pilot is currently filming in London using a script from Sonic 2 screenplay writer John Whittington, and will serve as head writer. Brian Schacter and James Madejski have also been confirmed for the writing team.
We’re likely to hear more about the Knuckles series in the coming months, so stay tuned! It’s supposed to release some time this year.
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Hallmark has their upcoming Christmas ornaments available on their website. Along with a new Sonic in spin-attack mode, comes a Sega Dreamcast with lights and sounds similar to what we got last year with the Sega Genesis ornament. The Sega Dreamcast has a tiny, 8-bit Sonic in the VMU and plays music from Emerald Coast.
The Sega Dreamcast ornament will retail for $22.99 US while the Spin-Attack Sonic will retail for $18.99 US. Both will be available on October 14.
Check out our Twitter page here and here to see video of the ornaments in action.
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Details on Jakks Pacific’s upcoming line of Sonic Prime toys have been leaked by Entertainment Earth, a toy wholesaler that specializes in selling toys to stores. They posted a listing, which was quickly removed, detailing the nature of the upcoming toy line.
The Sonic Prime action figures will be five inches tall, and the first wave will consist of the following characters:
Sonic
Dr. Eggman
Thorn
Nine
While Earth Entertainment was quick to remove the listing, they weren’t quick enough. The Twitter account Sonic Merch News spotted the listing and tweeted it out.
These aren’t the first Sonic Prime toys to be revealed. PMI announced their own line back in January, and Turkish toy company Dede has pasted the show’s branding on various toddler toys.
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After years of development plus a 24-hour delay due to bad weather, the European Space Agency’s Jupiter Icy Moon Explorer (aka JUICE) is just hours away from launching and starting its eight-year journey to Jupiter. JUICE will explore the Jovian system, particularly the icy moons of Ganymede, Callisto and Europa, before eventually settling into an orbit around Ganymede in 2034. If successful, JUICE will be the first spacecraft to orbit a moon other than our own.
And Sonic will be along for the ride!
As we reported back in 2019, Sonic adorns the spacecraft as part of the logo for one of its instruments, the Radio & Plasma Wave detector (RPWI):
SEGA was nice enough to grant the team permission to use Sonic in their logo after the RPWI team leader, Dr. Jan-Erik Wahlund, requested it. According to Dr. Wahlund, Sonic was chosen due to his many adventures in space, as well as Wahlund and his team’s deep affection for the character. That the spacecraft is called “Juice,” a commonly used word by SatAM Sonic and his assumed name during the show’s Blast to the Past two-parter is purely coincidental.
The launch will occur at 8:15 AM EST and will be livestreamed from the ESA’s website here, or on their Youtube channel here.
The Sonic-adorned space craft will be launching from Guiana Space Center using an Ariane 5 rocket. It’ll be going on a little tour of the solar system over the next few years, using Earth, the Moon and Venus for various gravity assist maneuvers, before eventually passing through the asteroid belt (where it may do a fly-by of an asteroid) and reaching the Jovian system in July 2031. In July 2032, it will do a flyby of Europa before settling into a high-inclination orbit around Jupiter in order to study its polar regions and magnetosphere.
In December 2034, it will begin the aforementioned orbit around Ganymede, before crashing into the moon at some point the following year. That final maneuver may be changed if scientists conclude it may contaminate a liquid ocean.
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This week, Sonic Speed Simulator developer Gamefam has reached a settlement with the National Labor Relations Board regarding an early 2023 complaint. GamesIndustry.biz reports Gamefam put developer Joshua DeBoer on leave after DeBoer discussed the studio’s salaries with other employees to identify if Gamefam payed below industry expectations for the duties involved.
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We have gotten our first look at early, never-before-seen Sonic Frontiers footage thanks to a video leaked to Twitter from a now-deleted account. The account, @AVtoGAMEnoYAMI, was focused on another game that appeared in the footage, but the Sonic Frontiers stuff is what we’re (mostly) interested in.
The footage shows off some interesting details, including a larger Kronos Island that appears to be linked to the Rhea and Ouranos islands, a different Caterpillar miniboss, and a Super Sonic with a way more showy transformation, complete with loads more yellow energy. The footage appears to be from an internal SEGA meeting from 2021, meaning it was never meant to be seen outside the company.
Given the nature of this footage, we won’t be posting it. We will be posting some screenshots from it, however, much like we did on Twitter, though these are of a somewhat high quality.
Below are screenshots from the Sonic portion of the video. Please excuse the quality, that’s baked in to the originally uploaded video:
The other two games shown in the video were what appears to be a Persona 3 remake, as well as the oft-rumored new Jet Grind Radio, which may be SEGA’s fabled super game.
It’s pretty interesting seeing footage from earlier in Sonic Frontiers’ development. Hopefully, SEGA will allow us to see more from earlier phase’s of the game’s development, in a legit (and higher quality) way.
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In their effort to preserve and document as much from DiC’s Sonic cartoons as possible, Sonic DiC preservationist Fieryfurnace has found never-before-seen early Tails artwork, likely the earliest ever uncovered. The bulk of the artwork is from Yasushi Yamaguchi, who originally designed Tails. Two pieces are some turnarounds from Moore & Price Design, while the final piece is a sketch from US Sonic game box artist Greg Martin.
Check them out below:
Yasushi Yamaguchi:
Moore & Price Design:
Greg Martin
Notably, Yamaguchi’s Tails artwork is less consistent between pieces, and also features a Tails that is far fluffier and furrier than the final design. He gave more details on Twitter:
“These are the earliest character set-up drawings. Since the development period for Sonic 2 was short, we used these drawings as a base and brushed up the design as we created the game.”
This artwork was found in a box of Sonic SatAM pilot material that Fieryfurnace paid to have scanned, and then posted to Twitter. These were the reference materials SEGA of America sent DiC during the development of the SatAM pilot, likely as far back as April 1992. You can find out more about their efforts to find and preserve various materials from the Sonic DiC cartoons here.
They’ve said they will be uploading all future scanned materials to a drop box, which you can find here.
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An obscure arcade carnival game starring one of Sonic’s animal buddies has recently been uncovered: “Air Circus,” starring the seal Rocky. The machine was discovered in a high quality scan of SEGA’s 1994 Amusement Machine Guide, recently uploaded to Retro CDN. The scan also includes a high quality image of Curling Holiday, another obscure machine starring the penguin Pecky that has been known about since at least last year. Check out images of both machines below:
Air Carnival challenges the player to balance beach balls on an air stream coming out of Rocky’s mouth and getting it to float. “Curling Holiday,” a miniature curling game, had two players competing to toss Pecky-adorned curling stones at a target on the table. It kind of worked a bit like air hockey.
The machine was brought to the attention of the wider Sonic community thanks to a topic on the Sonic Retro forums, which was then disseminated to Twitter by Dave Luty.
In addition to these high quality images, someone in the linked thread also linked to a video showing the machines in action that was posted to Youtube years ago. In addition to footage of the two aforementioned games, it also has rarely footage of the game “Sonic Canball” in action!
You can check out the footage in the embed below, or here.
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It’s that time of the month again! SEGA of Japan’s Sonic Channel has released their April artwork over at Sonic Channel. This month’s art is all about Silver, and you can check out both the regular and mobile versions of it below:
But that’s not all! Silver was also the subject of some artwork from the official Sonic Japanese Twitter account. Their latest art casts Silver in the role of a delivery boy, delivering cookies and other things in Soleanna’s Castle Town. Check it out:
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SEGA’s April Fools Day video game, The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog, has become anything but a joke – with over one million players downloading the title since it launched on Steam on March 31. We feel like that has to be some kind of record, right? Well, if it isn’t, it’s still super impressive!
The news was announced by Sonic Social Media Manager Katie Chrzanowski, who also executive produced the light-hearted detective thriller. Chrzanowski also revealed that the game has been highly rated by those who have played it too, with ‘Murder’ currently sitting at #61 on highest-rated games on Steam of all time.
It’s an incredible milestone for a comical spinoff game made entirely by the US-based Sonic social media team. Of course, while the fact the game is free could go some way to explain its explosive popularity, it doesn’t discount the huge positive reception from all players who have tried it. It’s been warmly embraced by everyone who has taken the time to play it – it’s a great little detective story!
So it has been a great weekend for the Sonic social team – and all it took was killing off their company’s mascot! Congratulations, SEGA!
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SEGA HARDlight recently teased some new incoming characters for avid players of its mobile Sonic games, with the below image shared on its social media accounts last week. Now, following a server maintenance update we know more about the two musical racers about to hit Sonic Forces Mobile and Sonic Dash.
Promising “sweet melodies and electrifying guitar solos”, Popstar Amy and Rockstar Rouge will soon take centre stage in an upcoming in-game event, likely to be formally announced next week once HARDlight’s Spring-themed catch-up event ends.
Both new characters will come with an exhilarating 10/10 Speed stat when they arrive in Sonic Forces Mobile, but Popstar Amy will be built more for Acceleration (7/10), with a Strength stat of 6/10. Meanwhile, Rockstar Rouge goes all out on Strength (8/10) at a cost to Accel (6/10).
Popstar Amy will be equipped with Wind Boost and Tornado, along with new skill Solo Hit that constantly drops stun hazards ahead of your rivals as long as it’s active. Rockstar Rouge hits the track with Electro Boost and Storm Cloud, on top of a skill called Hard Rock – this will silence any nearby rivals and also fire off multi-lane projectiles at further-away enemies!
The introduction of these two new characters should spice up the action on the circuit, no doubt! We can’t wait for the in-game event to begin.
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IDW Comics is celebrating five years of non-stop Sonic action by re-releasing its landmark debut issue from 2018 in a special collector’s package.
The “5th Anniversary Edition” reprint of IDW Sonic #1 will, as you’d expect, come complete with all the original stories that published with the original comic’s release, along with a bonus short story and some additional commemorative material. Some of this will include a special look at how the IDW Sonic comics are made.
We’re used to IDW going a little bit variant-cover happy with its releases these days, but on this occasion there will be no less than five covers to collect! Cover A will be a collection of all the first four issues’ connecting covers, with the other Covers handled by well-known artists that have had a hand in the Sonic comic series over the years.
IDW Sonic #1 5th Anniversary Edition: Cover A by Tyson Hesse
Cover B by Tracy Yardley
Cover C by Matt Herms
Cover D by Jennifer Hernandez
Cover RI by Jon Gray and Reggie Graham
The 5th Anniversary Edition should be in stores right now for you to buy (release date 5 April), at a price of $7.99. Solicitation information below.
It has been five years since Sonic the Hedgehog #1, can you believe it?! Five years of friendship, speediness, and chili dogs!
To celebrate, we’re getting the team back together! Join Ian Flynn and Tracy Yardley for a reprint of #1, plus an all-new bonus short story, a look at how the comics get made, and more!
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A unique version of Sonic Adventure, “Sonic Adventure Tournament Disk,” has been uncovered by video game preservationist Comby Laurent. This version of the game was specially made for a Sonic Adventure tournament that ran during “The SEGA Dreamcast Mobile Assault Tour,” a 22 week long American promotion that started on August 23 1999. The Assault Tour was a joint event between SEGA of America and IGN that had two Dreamcast-themed trucks traveling across the US, giving some American gamers their first chance to check out SEGA’s new console.
This version of the game drops players right into Emerald Coast with a fully upgraded Sonic, giving them two minutes to get as many points as possible. Participants could win everything from t-shirts, to Japanese VMUs and Millennium 2000-branded Dreamcast controllers. The top 4 finalists were brought to Las Vegas at the end of the tour, where they could complete for a $15,000 grand prize. The second and third place winners received $5000 and $2500 respectively, while the fourth place winner got some SEGA swag.
While this is mostly notable for being a special version of Sonic Adventure from an obscure part of SEGA’s history, it’s also a very-late prototype build of the game. It’s dated August 10, 1999, just two days before the final build on August 12. As a result, the differences between this build and the final are minor, only lacking music for the DLC and a fully completed European localization.
If you want to read more about this game and the event, or play what those contestants did decades ago, you can find the dump of this unique, once lost piece of history on Laurent’s website, here. You can check out a recording of the game in action in Laurent’s original tweet below:
Tomorrow is the 4th of April. What's on the 4th of every month?
In the meantime, enjoy the Sonic Adventure Tournament Disk prototype and don't hesitate to read the interview of one of the organizers of "The Sega Dreamcast Mobile Assault Tour" event👇https://t.co/klrHQdGsuupic.twitter.com/yNjRvT0kZo
— Sega Dreamcast Info (@CombyLaurent1) April 3, 2023
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According to a rough machine translation, the trademark move was intended for the first update, but was held for additional polish.
ORIGINAL STORY: According to Sonic Frontiers Facts+ via Twitter, a line of code in the latest update shows that holding the rightmost face button along with the L Trigger will cause a spin dash on the ground while holding the L Trigger in the sky will have Sonic coming down with a spin dash as well. This doesn’t appear to work currently, and may only be there for future characters. We’ll probably know more when the second update launches.
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In a tweet that went up a few hours ago, Headcannon confirmed that they have contributed to the upcoming new content for Sonic Origins Plus, including Amy Rose’s new sprites and Knuckles’ campaign in Sonic CD.
It's coming – Sonic Origins Plus! We're happy to announce that we’ve once again cooperated with SEGA to update this project; you know we can't resist Sonic! Here’s some of what you can look forward to in Origins Plus: [continued in thread] https://t.co/X46RoXPfsD
Headcannon specifically calls out the work of team members Andy A-Start and DashPadSPD for design and data management in the expansion. In addition to the character updates, Headcannon also supplied additional enhancements which were not specified. Closing out the thread, the team thanks SEGA for their openness to the developer’s feedback and suggestions, and they appreciate the level of trust SEGA put in them.
Headcannon was responsible for bringing Sonic 3 & Knuckles to the Retro Engine in Sonic Origins’ initial digital release. While our staff has had very positive experiences with collection, some members of the community and members of Headcannon itself have expressed dissatisfaction with its technical shortcomings.
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Following several other major publishers, IGN is reporting that SEGA too will not be exhibiting at E3 this year. It has been a trying year for the ESA and partner ReedPop as the two attempt to revitalize E3 following several years of cancelled and online-only shows. With this announcement, all three console platform holders, as well as Ubisoft and Tencent, have bowed out of the expo. With so few companies willing or able to commit to the event, it’s unclear if the show has a present, much less a future.
While SEGA may not be at E3, there is still the possibility for other announcements this Summer. Both SEGA and Atlus have previously been a part of Summer Games Fest, and there are already a number of known SEGA and Atlus projects looking to launch this year and beyond: Hyenas, Endless Dungeon, Samba de Amigo, and Like a Dragon Gaiden (plus multiple updates to existing Sonic games).
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![Spin Dash Coming to Sonic Frontiers? [UPDATE: Kishimoto Confirms It Is]](https://www.sonicstadium.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/frontiers-rev2-895x375.jpg)
