Monthly Archives
February 2015
Update 2: SEGA has confirmed that eLicense is sending out the claims without their say-so, and that they intend to keep them from doing so any further.
Update: Members on our forum are saying that the copyright claims are being removed, even without disputing the claims. So it looks like it’s safe to upload videos with Sonic/SEGA music again.
Turns out that copyright laws can stop Sonic after all. Much to the annoyance of various popular Sonic video creators, a lot of Sonic videos on Youtube have been getting copyright claims because of the music used. This means that the Youtube users who uploaded these videos no longer get ad revenue from them. And this isn’t just affecting Let’s Players like ClementJ642, modders like Dario ff, Melpontro and Paraxade0 have been getting these claims as well for the use of Sonic music in videos showcasing their mods or speedruns. However, we don’t know if these copyright claims actually come from SEGA or not.
While it doesn’t look likely that SEGA’s American and European branches are behind this, we haven’t had a confirmation yet if SEGA Japan is behind this or not. The claims are being sent by a Japanese company called elicense, which has a service that specializes in finding copyrighted content on Youtube. And with no clear answer on whether or not SEGA Japan is trying to remove monetization from videos using Sonic music, people are speculating on if elicense is Content ID matching these videos for SEGA. This has also made Youtube users hit by these claims uncertain on if they should dispute them or not. SEGA has put out copyright claims on Youtube videos in their own name in the past though, and elicense is even targeting remixes of SEGA music.
Various users have tried to reach out to SEGA on Twitter, but so far they haven’t given a response about this.
Jolly Roger has been doing a fantastic job getting stuff from the Sonic X-treme build that was found to work. Most recently he got the level editor used for the game to run on modern Windows and OpenGL, and he has uploaded a video recorded by Andrew75 demonstrating it running on Windows 7. It still needs a lot of work, as it currently has a lot of bugs and crashing issues, but it’s very impressive how fast Jolly managed to get this to work in this state.
Be sure to visit the thread about what’s being found in this prototype on our forums, as lots of interesting stuff is being found from this version of the game. It’s very exciting as it looks like we’re getting closer and closer to having a build of the game that runs well on modern computers, especially now that it looks like we’ll be able to make our own levels. You should also check out this recently recorded footage of the OpenGL port of the prototype that Jolly Roger is working on.
Maybe a little later than we expected, but still we’ve finally gotten the first details of Sonic Team’s upcoming mobile game Sonic Runners. SEGA released a teaser trailer for the game, but it doesn’t show anything from the game aside from one of its music tracks, which is seemingly composed by Tomoya Ohtani. According to the game’s official site, it’ll be a free game with microtransactions that’ll be released for iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, and Android phones. The above promotional image also shows that Chao will make a return, that Windy Hill is one of the game’s worlds and that Mother Wisp from Sonic Colours DS is in the game for some reason.
Famitsu has given more details on what we can expect from the game, which Andrej from the Sonic Stadium has translated. The playable characters are Sonic, Tails and Knuckles, with more to be added later. Graphically it’s comparable to Sonic 4, as the game is played from a 2D perspective but uses 3D graphics. And while Sonic will run forwards automatically like in Sonic Dash, it won’t be an endless runner. Instead the game will have 50 stages with more that will be added later on, each of which take up to two minutes to finish. You’ll also be able to take multiple/hidden paths to get faster times. Aside from that, the game will have a story that’ll be split into short scenarios, with some of them having callbacks to older games.
There’ll parts throughout the game where Eggman pops up and has to be driven off, and the Colour Powers from Sonic Colours and Lost World also make a return. You’ll also be able to use support characters, and if you happen to live in Japan you can sign up to get a “special companion” when the game is released. Finally, you’ll also be able to compare times on leaderboards and there will be special in-game events during holidays like Christmas. Sonic Runners will be released this Spring in Japan, and seemingly soon after in the rest of the world.
Nobody knows if Monday Links is alive or not. Sometimes is just kinda pops up again, while at other times it just kinda seems to have died into obscurity. Some wonder if Monday Links was ever truly alive for the past year or so, as it only sometimes kinda popped up and then disappeared again for who knows how long. Others just don’t care cause really why would you you probably normally don’t even look at the front page and just go straight to the wiki or forums you jerk. >:(
Anyway, these Monday Links articles usually takes quite a bit of time to make so I’m gonna trim them up a bit from now on. From now on it’ll focus more on Sonic and less on SEGA in general. If you want to see the latest SEGA news and cool SEGA features, you should go visit SEGAbits. Those guys do a pretty damn good job covering all things SEGA and really I’m just wasting time linking all the stuff they put up there when you can just visit their site.
Also I’ll probably use more Space Dandy gifs.
Sonic Retro stuff
- Ell678 put together a trailer and a couple of new screenshots for his snazzy looking 2.5D fangame Sonic Incursion. [I guess people really like to use Tenderoni for Sonic trailers]
- The people working on Sonic 2 HD now put up a time lapse video of the new end level pose animation. [Cause who doesn’t like a cool end level pose?]
- Andrew75 is still updating his impressive Sonic X-treme inspired fangame Project AXSX. [Go take a look]
- S0LV0 has started a development blog on the stuff she’s doing for the Sonic Generations Unleashed Project mod. [Yup, work is still being done on that]
- SonLVL now has support for Chaotix object layouts. [Admittedly I’ve never used it before but it sounds like a neat addition]
Sonic stuff
- Here’s our first look at the Sonic X-treme OpenGL port [Holy shit you guys it’s Sonic X-treme]
- A Sonic remix album called Spindash is out now for ten bucks on various digital platforms. [Officially licensed by SEGA]
- No, Sonic’s not going to be mobile and PC only. SEGA of America is gonna have a huge re-structure but that’s not gonna affect any Sonic games Sonic Team or whatever has in production. SEGA is gonna push mobile and PC games harder (which they’ve already been doing), but they’re not gonna stop making console games. It’s still bad news of course, but not as bad as some make it out to be. [Not really Sonic related but it’s a rumor that needs to be cleared up]
- This anime fighting game called Dengeki Bunko Fighting Climax that has a Green Hill Zone stage will be getting a western release. [So it’s still Sonic related I guess]
- We thought that we’d get to see what Sonic Runners looks like last month but we didn’t. [😐]
No, not the game, but an amazing original 16-bit soundtrack called Sonic Jam!!!, by LoneEchidna (Sean Evans)! Take a listen, check out all his other great tracks, and don’t forget to subscribe to his soundcloud!