Well they certainly kept this one quiet! Pedigree Books have announced that they will be releasing a new Sonic The Hedgehog Interactive Annual which is expected in stores this August. However, this isn’t just your typical annual or yearbook, this one has a special party trick. It takes advantage of Augmented Reality.
If you have a smart phone or another device that can perform this party piece, if you hold it above certain pages, you’ll be treated to additional content such as stories, activities, annimations, puzzles and even extended character profiles. Pedigree claims 20% of the book will have the ability to do this.
The range will be sold alongside other franchises and be catergorised as ‘Super Interactive Annuals’ and will go on sale this August. No details on prices or if this would be released worldwide were given, however odds are you’ll probably find a comic book store or online bookshop that might be willing to import it for you.
As a bit of trivia, to my knowledge, the last time a Sonic annual/yearbook came out was back in 1992, twenty one years ago… if you are old enough to remember seeing these in bookshops, high-five… that was a totally radical time.
I still have my Sonic annuals from the 90s! I wonder if this new one will have comic strips too.
Umm… If this “annual” is coming this August, why does the image say “super interactive annual 2014”? Are you sure it comes out THIS August? 😐 (I really hope though that it does come out this August!:D)
Yes it is.
This is common for most annuals and books to do this. A lot of the time these things get released in August – September of the year, and they typically get dated the next year.
I don’t particually know why they do this, however, I imagine it’s to do with Christmas, annuals and books tend to be given away as Christmas gifts, so when someone recieves it, it’s more like a book for the whole of the next year as apposed to the ‘best of’ or compilation of the year thats just gone.
I don’t know the exact reason, but the dates are right, it’s dated 2014, but it’s coming out in August 2013.
Odds are if you look, you might find The Beano Book 2014 or Dennis the Menace 2014 due for release around August, even though it’s still 2013.
Cool, thanks for the information! 😉
Is this for a Western release or an European release? I can never tell with things like these.
Pedigree Books only publish in the UK, so not even European-wide.
Is it just me, or do all of these books reuse previous promotional CGI artwork with nothing new? In that case, any attempt at a comic would sadly look really weird.
Wow Annual the draw for Sonic characters to draw colors on August .
A part of me is crossing my fingers that this may contain some random stories from the Archie series, in the same vein as what France and Germany currently have going on.
*crosses my fingers that i can use the AR features with my Windows Phone 8 smartphone*