Taxman I ask and beg thee, would it be possible to post that awesome art on retro............ Please? Or if possible mention it to SEGA and have them release this as wallpaper on a Sonic CD webpage to promote the title? Thanks in advance!
I'm just going to ignore Sega's retrofitting of Sonic CD, thanks to their terrible PR campaign. If they had marketed it as a re-introduction or a return of a lost/obscure title in the Sonic franchise, things would have been different.
P.R. Campaign? Two guys sitting with a video game talking to a small handful of fans does not a 'campaign' make.
I don't ultimately care about where Sonic CD is placed in the timeline, so as long as I have a good time with it.
All right, after some discussion, facepalms and a slice of humble pie: http://www.sonicretro.org/2011/08/corrections-video-interview-with-ken-balough-on-sonic-cd-sonic-4/ All of this is the gospel now. Please don't make the higher levels of the Retro Illuminati force a shark week. Stay classy. :v:
Kind of curious as to what licensing issues they could have with the US soundtrack. It was in Gems, and more to the point, it was Sega produced. Shouldn't they already own the rights to it? Everything else in there is pretty easy stuff to guess; the tie-in between CD and S4:E2 is obvious with Metal Sonic appearing in the Episode 2 teaser, and even without official confirmation, it's pretty obvious why the game isn't on WiiWare. Also:
It could be one of those deals where their current license only applies to the version of Sonic CD from before. I.e. the PC and Sega CD versions. The copy in gems isn't a new game, it's the PC version being emulated on the gamecube. Licensing issues are weird, it's the same reason the writer's guild went on strike a few years ago, because their current contracts only granted them royalties from their shows being syndicated on tv, not the internet. Perhaps their license with the US soundtrack doesn't extend to remakes, which is essentially what this version of Sonic CD is.
On the bright side, the PC and Android versions might have an easier time with custom soundtracks if the files can be easily replaced.
How could Sega have had such trouble obtaining the rights for the US soundtrack this time around when, not only that particular soundtrack was supposedly owned by Sega and was created specifically for that audience alone, and was included in every US release of Sonic CD prior to this digital re-release, but of all things, they could (so far) only obtain the rights to the original Japanese soundtrack composed by Ogata & Hayata, the same soundtrack that they omitted from Gems Collection in 2005 due to licensing issues? Now that I think about it, perhaps the contract for the US soundtrack didn't include digital distribution?
Read my previous reply. Just because you own something doesn't mean you don't have to pay royalties to reuse it, and contracts for reuse are usually carefully worded so that you can only reuse them in certain situations. Again, refer to the writers guild strike as an example of how tricky licensing can be. Perhaps, due to this being a remake, Sega would have had to renegotiate the rights to reuse the US soundtrack, and given that the same amount of work would have gone into renegotiating the US soundtrack as the JPN soundtrack, they chose the JPN soundtrack due to its popularity and the fact that the US has had the US soundtrack for decades now.
Glad to hear that confusion is cleared up at last! The continuity mess seemed kinda odd, and honestly, Sonic CD really is one of those games that doesn't have a defined continuity place...glad to hear it's just being left alone, but brought up for the point that it's important to CD's plot. Cool with me. "More surprises" also sounds interesting...perhaps unlockable artwork for Time Trial goals and/or Time Stones? Maybe... Dem Metal Sonic projectors...never had a defined use in the original game. Wouldn't that be cool if we were rewarded with something extra for all Time Stones, Metal Sonic projectors, and Badnik Generators (A 100% run, basically)? I'm definitely curious as to what these "extra surprises" could be...
Advice for Sega: Drawing a Star Wars prequel analogy is a bad idea. Other than that- exactly why do people care about Sonic canon? Disappointed that 3DS/PSP/Vita versions aren't on the table at all; I'd like a portable version of this with actual buttons!
People are just that interested in trying to keep order of a story... for some reason. I didn't add it to the bullet list (probably should), but Ken did mention that quite a few of the Sonic games like Unleashed and Colors don't really connect to each other directly like Sonic 2, 3, and Knuckles or Adventure to Adventure 2 do. Meaning trying to establish a timeline is about as purposeful as making one in Zelda.
I think (hope) he meant Alumni. Those corrections make everything more clear now, thanks Gene and Shade for all this info from PAX.
Now I understood the Sonic CD's time line: Sonic 4 is the bad future of Sonic CD and Sonic Generations is the good future. :v:
