If you’ve got a mobile phone (and lets face it who hasn’t) it’s likely you’ve been jamming with Sonic and crew.
In Japan Sega has thus far been committed to producing its brand of classic gaming, what it calls ‘Sonic Cafe’ on the DoCoMo’s i-mode. Sonic Cafe isn’t just restricted to producing Sonic games, although it does boast a strong line up from the blue one (Check out the TSS Sonic Cafe page) there are other franchises too, most of which Sonic Team have worked on, and there in lies the connection.
DoCoMo and Japan quickly enlisted the help of former ally Germany (KPN[2]) and together they began their assault on the other mobile networks. The Netherlands (KPN[2]), Belgium (Base), France (Bouygues Telecom), Spain (Telefonica Moviles), Italy (Wind), Greece (Cosmote), Australia (Telstra) and Taiwan (Far East Tone), Singapore (StarHub), Israel (Cellcom), Ireland (O2) and Russia (MTS), all telecommunication networks fell the the might of DoCoMo and its i-mode, but the United Kingdom and its O2 network provided the final resistance. Finally surrendering on October 2005, the i-mode Alliance had won, and heralded a new age in mobile phones and Internet access.
There are those that suggest DoCoMo had SEGA draft Sonic into its army. After driving the ‘Orange’ corporation from Japan SEGA and Sonic were quick to infiltrate it on native ground (as well as other networks). ‘Sonic The Hedgehog’ mobile was a strong game that rallied consumers to the Alliance and SEGA’s cause.
Using it’s European beachhead SEGA were able to bribe the Orange network with a tantalising promotional competition. Those on Orange could text GAMES SONIC to 247 for a free download of the Sonic game. Those who downloaded the game were automatically entered in to a competition to win a flight on a Hawker Hunter Jet (no doubt inspired by the ‘Sonic Riders’ bird characters) aswell as two nights accommodation, flight training, and video and photo evidence of the event. Runners up would win a copy of Sonic Riders and a Nintendo DS.
Once the UK had fallen DoCoMo and O2 began constructing weapons to combat the nonbelievers. O2 incorporated the i-mode technology into its NEC 343i, NEC 411i, Samsung S500i , Samsung Z320i phones.