This past weekend, SEGAbits writers Ben, Shigs, and Nuckles hit San Diego Comic Con and SEGA’s game preview event located at the nearby Nerd HQ. While Comic Con isn’t as game centric as E3, there was quite a bit of SEGA goodness to be found. We were able to check out the latest preview builds of Alien: Isolation and Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric, as well as interview Archie Comics on the upcoming Sonic Boom comic book series. But the main event had to have been Sunday’s Console Wars panel. The panel, which centered around the SEGA and Nintendo rivalry of the 90′s, featured special guests Tom Kalinske (Sega of America), Al Nilsen (Sega of America), Bill White (Nintendo of America), and Perrin Kaplan (Nintendo of America), as well as Console Wars author Blake J. Harris and Julian Rosenberg, producer of the upcoming Console Wars documentary.
Thanks to Blake, our guys were given the VIP treatment and secured some awesome seats – allowing us to film the panel and Q&A session and meet the SEGA and Nintendo legends! Check out the full panel above, and make sure to pick up your copy of Console Wars if you haven’t already!
Want more Console Wars discussion? Check out our three part interview series with Tom Kalinske, Al Nilsen, and Blake J. Harris.
sega of america
SDCC 2014: We See How the Sonic Boom TV Series is Made Along With a Bunch of New Characters
With the San Diego Comic Con coming up, SEGA is already showcasing some new Sonic Boom stuff. First up is this behind the scenes video about how the animated series is made. It shows various people who work on the series saying some stuff and we see some work in progress stuff. But more importantly, at one point in the video you can see concept art of Eggman playing volleyball with Orbot and Cubot in the background. We at Sonic Retro hope that there will be an entire episode dedicated to this piece of concept art, because there really needs to be one.
And now for something all Sonic fans like for sure: new characters! All of whom will appear in Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric, with some also popping up in the animated series. Sadly only a couple of them are recolors of Sonic, but I’m sure that there will be a lot of fan-art of at least one of them. All of them can be seen in the gallery below, you can read SEGA’s blogpost about them if you want to know more about them.
Courtesy of forum user RGamer2009, Sega of America has recently launched their digital download store to make it easy for people to locate SEGA titles for purchase through their own website. Currently the store only offers a line up of PC titles, including DLC, with no known plans for other platforms. The games can either be downloaded through Sega’s website, or if it’s noted, will give you a Steam key to activate on Steam instead. In addition, a network connection is usually required to activate your games online. This means that most, if not all titles, will have DRM enforced. This includes a limit as to how many times a game can be activated, and you must contact Sega directly to gain more activation codes.
With most of the legal hoopla out of the way, some of the games you can expect on the service include Steam activated titles such as Sonic Generations, Renegade Ops, and Football Manager 2012. In addition are non-Steam activated titles including Sonic & Sega All Stars Racing, House of the Dead 2, and of course your usual suspects of Sega Genesis Classic Collections.
There are a few problems with some of the store’s game specifications and logistics. For example, at the time of this writing, House of the Dead 2 was given a rating of Early Childhood. Plus the Sonic 20th Anniversary Pack which includes six Mega Drive/Genesis related Sonic games is offered for $29.99 compared to Sonic Mega Collection Plus, which is also readily available with six Game Gear games, comic book covers, illustrations and more for $9.99. Still, an interesting move to combine games sold through Steam as well as bringing back a handful of respectable PC ports through one service.
Courtesy of forum user RGamer2009, Sega of America has recently launched their digital download store to make it easy for people to locate SEGA titles for purchase through their own website. Currently the store only offers a line up of PC titles, including DLC, with no known plans for other platforms. The games can either be downloaded through Sega’s website, or if it’s noted, will give you a Steam key to activate on Steam instead. In addition, a network connection is usually required to activate your games online. This means that most, if not all titles, will have DRM enforced. This includes a limit as to how many times a game can be activated, and you must contact Sega directly to gain more activation codes.
With most of the legal hoopla out of the way, some of the games you can expect on the service include Steam activated titles such as Sonic Generations, Renegade Ops, and Football Manager 2012. In addition are non-Steam activated titles including Sonic & Sega All Stars Racing, House of the Dead 2, and of course your usual suspects of Sega Genesis Classic Collections.
There are a few problems with some of the store’s game specifications and logistics. For example, at the time of this writing, House of the Dead 2 was given a rating of Early Childhood. Plus the Sonic 20th Anniversary Pack which includes six Mega Drive/Genesis related Sonic games is offered for $29.99 compared to Sonic Mega Collection Plus, which is also readily available with six Game Gear games, comic book covers, illustrations and more for $9.99. Still, an interesting move to combine games sold through Steam as well as bringing back a handful of respectable PC ports through one service.
Courtesy of forum user RGamer2009, Sega of America has recently launched their digital download store to make it easy for people to locate SEGA titles for purchase through their own website. Currently the store only offers a line up of PC titles, including DLC, with no known plans for other platforms. The games can either be downloaded through Sega’s website, or if it’s noted, will give you a Steam key to activate on Steam instead. In addition, a network connection is usually required to activate your games online. This means that most, if not all titles, will have DRM enforced. This includes a limit as to how many times a game can be activated, and you must contact Sega directly to gain more activation codes.
With most of the legal hoopla out of the way, some of the games you can expect on the service include Steam activated titles such as Sonic Generations, Renegade Ops, and Football Manager 2012. In addition are non-Steam activated titles including Sonic & Sega All Stars Racing, House of the Dead 2, and of course your usual suspects of Sega Genesis Classic Collections.
There are a few problems with some of the store’s game specifications and logistics. For example, at the time of this writing, House of the Dead 2 was given a rating of Early Childhood. Plus the Sonic 20th Anniversary Bundle which includes six Mega Drive/Genesis related Sonic games is offered for $29.99 compared to Sonic Mega Collection Plus, which is also readily available with six Game Gear games, comic book covers, illustrations and more for $9.99. Still, an interesting move to combine games sold through Steam as well as bringing back a handful of respectable PC ports through one service.
Courtesy of forum user RGamer2009, Sega of America has recently launched their digital download store to make it easy for people to locate SEGA titles for purchase through their own website. Currently the store only offers a line up of PC titles, including DLC, with no known plans for other platforms. The games can either be downloaded through Sega’s website, or if it’s noted, will give you a Steam key to activate on Steam instead. In addition, a network connection is usually required to activate your games online. This means that most, if not all titles, will have DRM enforced. This includes a limit as to how many times a game can be activated, and you must contact Sega directly to gain more activation codes.
With most of the legal hoopla out of the way, some of the games you can expect on the service include Steam activated titles such as Sonic Generations, Renegade Ops, and Football Manager 2012. In addition are non-Steam activated titles including Sonic & Sega All Stars Racing, House of the Dead 2, and of course your usual suspects of Sega Genesis Classic Collections.
There are a few problems with some of the store’s game specifications and logistics. For example, at the time of this writing, House of the Dead 2 was given a rating of Early Childhood. Plus the Sonic 20th Anniversary Bundle which includes six Mega Drive/Genesis related Sonic games is offered for $29.99 compared to Sonic Mega Collection Plus, which is also readily available with six Game Gear games, comic book covers, illustrations and more for $9.99. Still, an interesting move to combine games sold through Steam as well as bringing back a handful of respectable PC ports through one service.
Courtesy of forum user RGamer2009, Sega of America has recently launched their digital download store to make it easy for people to locate SEGA titles for purchase through their own website. Currently the store only offers a line up of PC titles, including DLC, with no known plans for other platforms. The games can either be downloaded through Sega’s website, or if it’s noted, will give you a Steam key to activate on Steam instead. In addition, a network connection is usually required to activate your games online. This means that most, if not all titles, will have DRM enforced. This includes a limit as to how many times a game can be activated, and you must contact Sega directly to gain more activation codes.
With most of the legal hoopla out of the way, some of the games you can expect on the service include Steam activated titles such as Sonic Generations, Renegade Ops, and Football Manager 2012. In addition are non-Steam activated titles including Sonic & Sega All Stars Racing, House of the Dead 2, and of course your usual suspects of Sega Genesis Classic Collections.
There are a few problems with some of the store’s game specifications and logistics. For example, at the time of this writing, House of the Dead 2 was given a rating of Early Childhood. Plus the Sonic 20th Anniversary Bundle which includes six Mega Drive/Genesis related Sonic games is offered for $29.99 compared to Sonic Mega Collection Plus, which is also readily available with six Game Gear games, comic book covers, illustrations and more for $9.99. Still, an interesting move to combine games sold through Steam as well as bringing back a handful of respectable PC ports through one service.
Courtesy of forum user RGamer2009, Sega of America has recently launched their digital download store to make it easy for people to locate SEGA titles for purchase through their own website. Currently the store only offers a line up of PC titles, including DLC, with no known plans for other platforms. The games can either be downloaded through Sega’s website, or if it’s noted, will give you a Steam key to activate on Steam instead. In addition, a network connection is usually required to activate your games online. This means that most, if not all titles, will have DRM enforced. This includes a limit as to how many times a game can be activated, and you must contact Sega directly to gain more activation codes.
With most of the legal hoopla out of the way, some of the games you can expect on the service include Steam activated titles such as Sonic Generations, Renegade Ops, and Football Manager 2012. In addition are non-Steam activated titles including Sonic & Sega All Stars Racing, House of the Dead 2, and of course your usual suspects of Sega Genesis Classic Collections.
There are a few problems with some of the store’s game specifications and logistics. For example, at the time of this writing, House of the Dead 2 was given a rating of Early Childhood. Plus the Sonic 20th Anniversary Bundle which includes six Mega Drive/Genesis related Sonic games is offered for $29.99 compared to Sonic Mega Collection Plus, which is also readily available with six Game Gear games, comic book covers, illustrations and more for $9.99. Still, an interesting move to combine games sold through Steam as well as bringing back a handful of respectable PC ports through one service.
Yesterday, SEGA held their first ever “Community Event” at their headquarters, inviting those far and wide to come, check out the place, play a bit of Phantasy Star Portable 2, and talk about Sonic’s other latest outing, Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1.
Because he simply had nothing better to do, forum member Sammybeany decided to attend, not really interested in playing Phantasy Star but plenty prepared for the “highlight” of the evening, the Sonic the Hedgehog 4 feedback session.
As can be expected, the half-hour alloted was not nearly enough time for proper discussion. Sammy was slightly agitated and how quickly they tried to move things along (almost like the release of Sonic 2006 haha see the joke I made there), but a lot of topics were brought up in the discussion that at least were heard by Aaron Webber and Ken Balough. Is it enough to force SEGA’s hand and change the direction of future installments? Who knows. But hey, at least there were free gourmet sandwiches.
To read his entire report, either go to the thread on the forums, or just click on the jump below. And be sure to keep an eye out for Retro’s own Slingerland give his two cents on The Sonic Stadium. Update: Slingerland’s report is up. Check it out.