Welcome to the Archive site of The Sonic Stadium (2008-2023)
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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!
First4Figures has been on a roll with their line of Sonic statues lately, and this latest one appears to be no exception. After an initial tease last year and a confirmation of pre-order dates last week, the company has finally revealed its upcoming Sonic Adventure PVC statue.
As you can see, the statue looks incredibly faithful to the iconic Dreamcast Sonic cover pose, and comes complete with the Sonic Adventure logo and base. F4F posted a brief video teasing the product further on social media, alongside a reminder of the May 25 pre-order date.
We won’t know the statue’s price until pre-orders open, but it will surely be in the hundreds of dollars/pounds/euros and will almost certainly come in a multitude of variations.
You can register your interest here. Check out a still image and a video of the statue below:
PREORDERS OPEN IN 10 DAYS!
Sonic the Hedgehog: Sonic Adventure PVC statue coming soon to First 4 Figures! Preorders open on 25th May 2023.
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Sonic Labyrinth, a Game Gear game that combines Sonic with Marble Madness, is definitely one of Sonic’s more obscure games. It’s so obscure, in fact, that Ian Flynn has said on his Bumblekast podcast that it currently isn’t canon. Nevertheless, the official Sonic twitter account has taken the cute drawings from the game’s manual that tell the game’s plot, and have turned it into a little silent motion comic.
You can check it out in the embedded tweet below:
Unfamiliar with Sonic Labyrinth? Discover its story with our animated comic taken from scans of the game's original manual! pic.twitter.com/ds6EsrgEj4
— Sonic the Hedgehog (@sonic_hedgehog) May 16, 2023
In the game, Robotnik replaces Sonic’s shoes with special shoes that slow him down. Sonic must go into the game’s titular labyrinth to get the chaos emeralds back from Robotnik in order to get the shoes off.
Sonic Labyrinth released on the Game Gear in November 1995 and was later re-released via Sonic Adventure DX and the 3DS eShop. It will also be apart of the Sonic Origins Plus DLC, coming June 23.
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In addition to the 13″ plush toy and 5″ action figures already announced, Jakks Pacific has revealed that it will be also using its merchandise licensing deal with SEGA to release waves of smaller 2.5″ figures, as well as a replica of Knuckles the Dread’s Angel’s Voyage pirate ship as seen in the Sonic Prime TV series.
First, the small 2.5″ figures. Unlike their 5″ bigger brothers, these are sold in packs rather than individually. In the Wave 1 set you get little cute versions of Sonic, Rusty Rose, Tails Nine and the Prism Shard with a base to display it with. This multipack is ‘New Yoke City’ themed, which suggests that future Waves will focus on other Shatterverse worlds. The set goes on sale in July for $19.99.
Now this is really cool! Jakks is also releasing a toy vehicle replica of the Angel’s Voyage pirate ship, seen on Netflix’s Sonic Prime show. And it looks massive – there’s storage space for other 2.5″ figures (so you can hide away your Wave 1 multipack toys in there), three launching cannons, rolling wheels and even a trap door! The set comes with a Knuckles the Dread 2.5″ figure, so even if you don’t have Sonic in you can at least sail the seven seas with Knuckles. This also goes on sale in July for $39.99.
What do you think? And who do you want to see in future multipacks? Let us know in the comments below!
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SEGA and Jakks Pacific have announced a new licensing deal that will see the launch of a series of Sonic Prime toys to coincide with the continuation of the Netflix animation series. Among these is a new 13″ Sonic the Hedgehog plush toy and the first wave of Prime-themed 5″ articulated figures.
The Sonic the Hedgehog 13″ plush toy is posable, and “made from super soft fabrics and stuffing” (as per the press release we received for these products). Looks like you could give him a huge cuddle for days, to be fair. It will be on sale for $19.99.
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Meanwhile, the first set of 5″ action figures will offer over 12 points of articulation, so you can really go for it and recreate some creative scenes from the TV show (or from your own imagination). Wave 1 of the figures includes Sonic, Tails Nine, Thorn Rose and Mr. Dr. Eggman, and will be available individually for $14.99 each.
All of these products will be available in physical stores and online retailers in “North America, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, Europe, Middle East and Africa” (so practically everywhere, then) in July. Just in time to start playing along with the new episodes when they air on Netflix.
Which ones are you getting?
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Netflix has announced a release date for the continuation of its ‘Sonic Prime’ animated series. The ongoing series run – which is being dubbed ‘Season 2’ by fans – will premiere on the streaming service on July 13, 2023.
A new image has been released by the company, along with a synopsis reminding everyone of the overall plot of the show. You can see both below.
Synopsis: The action-packed adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog go into overdrive when a run-in with Dr. Eggman results in a literal universe-shattering event. Desperate to piece his prime reality back together and save his old friends, Sonic races through the Shatterverse, discovering strange worlds and enlisting new friends in an epic adventure of a lifetime!
The first batch of Sonic Prime episodes launched on Netflix back in December 2022, and only contained eight episodes. We hope this next set of episodes is larger and fully fleshes out Sonic’s journey across the Shatterverse worlds. For instance, how does Shadow play into the proceedings and how do the pair work together to help fix the broken dimensions?
We’ll have a good couple months to wait and figure it all out. Who’s excited!?
The Sonic Stadium may link to retailers and earn a small commission on purchases made from users who click those links. These links will only appear in articles related to the product, in an unobtrusive manner, and do not influence our editorial decisions in any way.
The Sonic Stadium may link to retailers and earn a small commission on purchases made from users who click those links. These links will only appear in articles related to the product, in an unobtrusive manner, and do not influence our editorial decisions in any way.
SEGA may be showing something new next month, as the publisher has been announced as a participating partner for the upcoming Summer Game Fest showcase on June 8th.
The live event, which has grown in recent years and has seemingly replaced the cancelled E3 2023 convention originally planned for this year, will feature over 40 game companies “that plan to update fans” on current and new projects.
Last year, SEGA was in full attendance of Summer Game Fest where it used the event to reveal more about Sonic Frontiers. The company also offered demos of the game to press at SGF’s associated ‘Play Days’ hands-on event.
It’s not clear what kind of “updates” SEGA will bring this year – the showcase will run close to the release of Sonic Origins Plus, so there may be some last-minute reveals relating to that (although it is unlikely as we probably know everything there is to know about that DLC pack now). Sonic Frontiers is also due some additional expansion content, so we could get an update on that (Sonic’s Birthday DLC will be coming soon).
Of course, there’s every chance that SEGA may just be revealing non-Sonic projects and updates too – or, if we were to cross our fingers really tightly, maybe a new Sonic project announcement of some kind?
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IDW has revealed their line-up of Sonic comics for August, and it’s a doozy: the month will see the release of two jumbo-sized Sonic one-shots, plus the monthly comic’s 64th issue, which’ll be all about Sonic.
First, we have a special issue about Sonic’s “900th” adventure, which appears to be commemorating Sonic’s 900th issue of sequential storytelling, including all the comics and manga released over the decades (which you can read about here, FYI, though I really need to add Sonic Adventures & fix some typ-os). Check out the solicit below:
Saving the world is a piece of cake when you’re a speedy blue hedgehog. And Sonic is about to go on his 900th world-saving adventure! Sonic and his friends are playing a game of hot potato! Only the potato is the Warp Topaz, and it could warp the whole world into oblivion! The gang is passing off the Warp Topaz in a relarace to get rid of it once and for all.
The story will retail for $5.99 and feature contributions from “various” writers and artists. Amongst the writers, Ian Flynn has confirmed he’s writing the comic’s bookend framing device. Daniel Barnes (Scrapnik Island) and Aaron Hammerstrom have also been confirmed. Aaron Hammerstrom will also be penciling his story, and Mauro Fonseca will also be penciling a story. Nathalie Fourdraine and Reggie Graham have both been confirmed for colors, and Rik Mack will be handling some of the issue’s inks.
The comic will also have seven different covers, all from pretty notable Sonic comic artists. Easily the most surprising (and most familiar, for our older British readers) is legendary Sonic the Comic artist Richard Elson. His cover was not among the ones shown today, unfortunately.
In addition to elson, we’ve got other legendary Sonic artists such as Tracy Yardley!, Jon Gray, Yuji Uekawa, Adam Bryce Thomas, Evan Stanley, and Nathalie Fourdraine. You can check out Uekawa’s (B) ,Thomas’ (D), and Fourdraine’s (retail incentive) covers below:
Next, we have “Sonic the Hedgehog Endless Summer,” which is part of a larger line of IDW one-shots of summer-centered stories featuring other characters including My Little Pony, TMNT, and Dungeons and Dragons.
We’re bringing you an endless summer with everyone’s favorite characters in four unique one-shots! Wave goodbye to the office and say hello to the beach! Sonic drags Jewel on a well-deserved beach day to spend time with her besties, Tangle and Whisper! But when they all settle in for some rest and relaxation…they realize the Babylon Rogues had the same idea… at the same beach. The only way to settle this is with a totally tubular beach showdown!
The issue will feature writing by Gale Galligan and art by Tracy Yardley! and retail for $7.99. It will also feature three covers from Tracy Yardley! (cover A), Jack Lawerence and Reggie Graham (cover B), and Natalie Haines (retail incentive cover). There will also be a coloring book version of Yardley’s cover. You can check out all of these covers below:
Finally, we have issue 64, which’ll be a special Silver-centered issue featuring two stories. The story is part of a larger story arc about the villain Mimic infiltrating the Diamond Cutters. This will, oddly enough, be the second time Silver has attempted to weed out a potential traitor in a Sonic comic.
This issue is all about Silver the Hedgehog! First, he’s incredibly suspicious of the Diamond Cutter’s new member and he jumps to a conclusion that leads him to some hasty accusations. Awkwardness ensues. Then, Blaze comforts Silver as they bond over being away from home and in Sonic’s world.
The comic will retail for $3.99 and feature writing from Evan Stanley, who is writing the comic’s main story, and Ian Flynn, who will be writing the back up. It will also feature interior art by Aarom Hammerstrom and Evan Stanley, as well as three covers from Jack Lawerence (A), Jennifer Hernandez (B), and Nathalie Fourdraine (retail incentive). Check them out below:
Although these comics are all currently scheduled for August, this could change in the future, as IDW has been known to delay comics. Stay tuned for future IDW Sonic updates!
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Purveyors of high-end Sonic the Hedgehog merchandise First 4 Figures are due to begin taking pre-orders for a Sonic Adventure-themed statue at the end of this month.
Last year, First 4 Figures teased a statue based on the infamous Sonic Adventure “spaghetti” pose.
It appears that the product will be one or two variants of the statue as two different height and material options are available.
SONIC ADVENTURE PVC STATUE PREORDERS OPEN IN 13 DAYS!
Sonic the Hedgehog: Sonic Adventure PVC statue is coming to First 4 Figures!
Will you be preordering? Let us know in the comments!
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The Sonic Stadium may link to retailers and earn a small commission on purchases made from users who click those links. These links will only appear in articles related to the product, in an unobtrusive manner, and do not influence our editorial decisions in any way.
Fancy getting some funky new footwear to show off this summer? Well, fashionable shoemaker Crocs will have you covered. In a brand new collaboration with SEGA, you will soon be able to buy a set of Sonic-themed clogs, as well as a variety of character charms to decorate them with.
The clog design itself is classic Crocs all over – with the colour of the shoes matching Sonic the Hedgehog’s iconic red sneakers. The kicks also feature a white trim to suit Sonic’s red-and-white footwear, too. It looks like the Crocs come complete with a set of charms in the box – you can see chili dogs, rings and Chaos Emeralds adorning the shoes in the image above there.
Crocs’ Sonic clogs come in three different sizes – Toddlers ($44.99), Kids ($49.99) and Adult ($59.99) – so everyone in the family can wear matching shoes while on the beach.
And if you wanted to give the shoes even more flair, you can purchase additional charms – known as ‘Jibbitz’ for some reason – for the princely sum of $4.99 a piece (or $19.99 for a set of five). That way, you can push Sonic to one side and decorate your Crocs with your actual favourite character.
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If you’re enjoying the 16-bit remake of Game Gear classic Sonic Triple Trouble, then you’ll be happy to hear that the fan game’s developer, Noah Copeland, has announced that more content is coming soon – alongside a Mac and Android version of the game.
Copeland shared the above image on his social media account, highlighting an upcoming reveal event where details of the content update will be shared. The event will take place on May 26th at 7pm CDT on Copeland’s YouTube channel.
Sonic Triple Trouble 16-Bit was completed and released to the world in August 2022, and has been a fan favourite ever since launch due to its creative translation of the Game Gear original into Mega Drive/Genesis hardware. We’re super excited to see what kind of content is being planned for this new release, so we’ll make sure to update you as soon as we know what it is!
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Cook and Becker, the art company behind the incredible Sonic the Hedgehog 25h Anniversary Book, is teasing a brand new project on its social media channels – and it appears to be a print run of a Classic Sonic art piece.
The above image was shared on the publisher’s Twitter account yesterday, with the text “Get ready, Sonic fans! Something fast and exciting is coming your way.”
Some keen-eyed fans have already discovered the full image – a huge Sonic the Hedgehog 2-inspired piece created by artist Dave Rapoza. Rapoza previously shared the image on his own social media back in January, and even sold his own prints of the artwork for a short while. It seems like he’s made a deal with Cook and Becker to make a bigger print run.
We’ll wait and see what Cook and Becker’s full reveal for this is, but even if it’s a print run of the above piece, we’re all for it. Would you buy this artwork and frame it for your wall? Let us know in the comments section below.
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Take this with an extremely huge vat of salt, but an image purporting to be an official banner image of a new upcoming Sonic x Minecraft crossover DLC pack has begun circulating around the internet.
The above image, according to a number of social media gossip accounts, was apparently pulled from the Marketplace API from within Minecraft itself. As you can see, it illustrates a new set of Sonic the Hedgehog-themed textures for the block-building sandbox game, allowing the ability for players to create accurate depictions of various characters and Badniks from the Sonic game universe.
While we’d be careful of fully believing this until something is officially announced, the image does look pretty authentic, and it wouldn’t be beyond the realm of possibility for additional Minecraft DLC to become a reality soon. With the original Sonic DLC released back in 2021, SEGA and Microsoft have since worked together to launch updated packs, with the most recent appearing last year.
Regardless of whether it’s true or not, do you want to see more Minecraft Sonic DLC? Let us know in the comments section below!
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The 60th issue of IDW’s Sonic the Hedgehog series is right around the corner, and to entice fans further the comic publisher has revealed a special variant cover that is only available online.
The below cover has been created by artist Gigi Dutreix, and makes a big deal out of the number ’60’ (which is a bit off as it’s not exactly a milestone issue number for comics). It looks pretty cool though, so if you want to get a copy you’ll have to do it via IDW’s website (pre-order price is $10).
It’s reported that a special foil version of this very cover will also be released as a Convention Exclusive, meaning you’ll have two ways to get this new variant. The foil version sounds like it’ll probably be very good indeed.
We’ve covered this already but in case you need a reminder, here’s the synopsis for the upcoming issue.
The battle rages on! But how do you fight a city?! Sonic and friends race to stop Eggperial City from expanding, badniks from attacking, and Dr. Eggman from…doing whatever it is Dr. Eggman does.
Sonic #60 is set to be available from 17th May.
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Sonic Frontiers has seemingly become the fastest-selling mainline 3D Sonic the Hedgehog game ever, as SEGA casually announced yesterday that its latest open-zone adventure has sold 3.5 million units. This puts it above the last officially-released sales data for Sonic Heroes (in 2007), which previously held the title with around 3.4 million units.
The new milestone means that Sonic Frontiers has sold an additional 300,000 units since the start of April 2023, and puts it on a course to be one of the franchise’s best-selling titles. SEGA confirmed that they will be seeking to keep the momentum of the game’s sales going by continuing its strategy to develop cross-media products, merchandising and a regular game release cadence.
Things were interesting on that front as well, with a slide and mention that plans were in place to establish cross-media collaborations between a number of SEGA and Rovio IPs. While the company stopped short of outright announcing a Sonic x Angry Birds crossover, you can see from the slide image above that the publisher is undoubtedly looking at ways to further expand fanbases of both brands in similar ways.
We’ll wait to see what happens on that front. For now, it seems like there’s enough celebrating to do with Sonic Frontiers’ newly-found title as fastest-selling 3D Sonic game! Congratulations SEGA and Sonic Team.
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UK-based pop culture art outlet Moor-Art Gallery has launched a new set of official Sonic the Hedgehog prints, based on concept artwork developed by Sonic Team for the open-zone adventure Sonic Frontiers.
Each set contains four selected pieces, each 10″x 8″ inches in size (25.4cm x 20.3cm) and printed on Mohawk Superfine Eggshell art paper. The prints each highlight a significant scene in Sonic Frontiers, that helps tell the story of Sonic Team’s planned concept for the final game; Sonic exploring vast open worlds, battling monster-sized enemies and encountering mysterious foes.
You can’t get these prints individually, so if you like one you’re going to have to get them all. Which is fine because they all look fantastic anyway. Each set is hand-signed and numbered, with only 150 sets available for purchase, so if you want to frame some awesome-looking Sonic Team art on your wall you better be quick.
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In what has become a monthly tradition, SEGA’s Japanese Sonic Channel team has opened a poll to ask fans which character they would like to see in the next Isekai ‘Fantasy Artwork’ episode due later this month. This time around, Tails will be the star of the show, but only Wave the Swallow or Marine the Raccoon can ultimately join him.
Just like many of the previous polls, both options feature side (or minor) characters that would benefit from some new official artwork. Wave the Swallow made her debut in the spinoff racing series Sonic Riders, while Marine the Raccoon’s only appearance has been in the Nintendo DS sequel Sonic Rush Adventure.
It is probably the latter fact that explains why Marine is currently pulling ahead in the poll at time of writing, which is now taking place on a Google Form rather than directly on Twitter. There are many fans that want to see more of Marine, it seems!
As for the scenario, as per usual that is mostly a mystery but we do have some clues. According to machine translation of the Sonic Channel’s social media accounts, Tails will be presented as a “prince of the entertainment world”, and whoever wins this next poll will join him as his “princess”.
Who would you like to see win the poll? Let us know in the comments section below!
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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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Sonic Channel has published its latest Calendar Artwork for May 2023, and the results of its fan poll from earlier this month have been realised! The latest in its ‘fantasy scenario’ art series, this new piece features Vector as a superhero protecting Vanilla the Rabbit (presented as a theatre-going contemporary damsel in distress) from certain robot doom.
According to the Sonic Channel blog accompanying this artwork (via machine translation), “This month [we have] Vector, looking like an American comic book hero, and Vanilla, looking a bit more adult [sophisticated]! What is the mysterious giant robot looming far beyond the city at night?”
The interesting mashup is the latest in the Sonic Channel social media team’s ‘Isekai Ohgiri’ series, which places well-known characters from the Sonic the Hedgehog series in unconventional situations and scenarios. Previously, we’ve had Shadow and Infinite doing battle as idol singers, Amy and Blaze seeking truth in some celestial powers, Tikal and Chaos running a pizza parlour and Silver and Elise stunning the crowd as ice-skating performers.
You can download this latest May 2023 Calendar art, as well as all previous months in this series, on Sonic Channel’s website.
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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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