Random: Devolver Cheekily Prods Sega Over Sonic Origins Pre-Orders

I'd never heard of this game before this. Nice marketing move.

Kinda hypocritical of them to do this considering the BS they’re doing with Demon Throttle lmao

I freaking love it lol

If the new character animations locked behind the 'Coming soon' DLC paywalls have Sonic rave dancing, the missing Letterbox mode for Digital Deluxe buyers shall be forgiven.

Ah but no mention of the animations being DLC or not
: P

@Funneefox You're right, it kind of is. It would be funny if SEGA respond with a 'Physical only' edition to troll Devolver.

Funny stuff.

Sadly that chart, like all their upcoming games, lacks the Switch check marks..

This killed me. 🤣🤣🤣
Oh man, what I'd give to shake the hand of the designer that thought of this.

@JJtheTexan now you know how I feel when I gave the bozos at strictly limited my money for their turrican collections because a bunch of games were exclusive to those and not the digital version and after 3 years still haven’t gotten it while l constantly still see them getting deals for new compilations and rereleases and pulling the same sh@t lol

That last line made me smile. Sega's marketing department need to be restrained from shooting themselves in the feet.

@Sam_TSM You don't have to pay more for it, its a free pre-order bonus that comes with both the standard and deluxe versions.

In Sonic Origins, there is a mode that is 16:9 in aspect ratio (like widescreen tvs), and one that is 4:3 (like retro tvs). The spare black space on either side when showing the 4:3 image on a 16:9 tv/switch screen is called a letterbox (which doesn't make much sense, but its because its more common for the black space to be at the top and bottom - like when 2:39 / cinemascope movies are shown on 16:9 tvs, giving the appearance of looking through a letter box).

The game lets you put different desktop wallpaper like images in this black space, should you wish, and if you pre-order Sonic Origins you get an additional exclusive wallpaper option on top of the other options included as standard. Its a tiny, insignificant thing that no one will be upset if they miss, but maybe nice as a permanent reminder you pre-ordered, and bragging rights for people who stream the game or record video footage. The other pre-order bonuses (100 coins and mirror mode) can be earned/unlocked through gameplay so the exclusive wallpaper is the only long-term bonus for pre-ordering. The fact they made such a big fuss about these three bonuses leading to the confusing graph that this meme is parodying is whats making people take the mickey out of the term - simply because its making such a big deal out of a single jpg/png image.

@Sam_TSM No problem. In fact, you are entirely correct - strictly, "letterboxing" is the horizontal black bars, and "pillarboxing" is the vertical equivalent (letter box holes being vertical, but the pillar box itself being horizontal, of course). Those are the true terms we use in film production. But it never really took off with the mainstream public and studies have shown that for marketing purposes (like on DVD/Blu-Ray cases) "letterbox" is the recommended term to use for both for maximum clarity even though its not truly correct.

Same thing with "panning" a camera left and right, and "tilting" a camera up and down. To most people, "pan" just means to slowly move the camera to look in a different direction and "tilt" causes confusion as they think of dutch angles etc. I've often seen game instructions where the right analogue stick being used to "pan the camera around". Not strictly correct, but the people have redefined the popular meaning to be broader.

@Sam_TSM Oh, cool! Well, as my IMDb biography alludes to, though I've been producing or working on low budget straight to DVD or streaming movies for most of my film career, since 2014 I've been spearheading development of a huge superhero project with a major company, due to be announced at a big comic con this year after a 2 year Covid pushback.

Part of my agreements were to hand over control of much of my social media and make pretty much every new friend, partner or colleague sign NDAs 😂 Plus once I started working with certain big brands and stars I literally started getting random people showing up at my house and had to move multiple times, and I've got a small but dedicated handful of crazies who like to post lies about me everywhere (I assume the same people who used to send death threats after I refused to cast them or invest in their projects), so I've been slowly making myself more and more difficult to contact, sadly.

However if you are on IMDB Pro I believe that in the next few days, my agent's new contact details will be added there, feel free to reach out if you like (say we spoke here and it should be passed on to me), always happy to meet fellow film friends 😀

"When things like bonus animations and letterbox backgrounds are locked to pre-orders (or given as early access bonuses if you pre-order special editions),"

How tf has the gaming industry stooped so low that THIS is even ok? I thought Sega selling bloody gore effects behind paid DLC multiple times was bad enough.

At least people who spout "Sega does what Nintendon't" can stfu for now lmao.

@Entrr_username The only exclusive content linked to pre-orders is a single wallpaper style border image. The other stuff can be unlocked for free. The paid DLC is 100% included in the deluxe version, which is only £4 / $4 more than the standard version. Hardly anything scandelous.

However, being the tiny $4 price and the fact the game isn't even a full priced release anyway, personally I agree that it would have been simpler and less controversial to only have one version that includes everything and sell it for the price of the deluxe version. Adding the standard version but having it only $4 cheaper is confusing and messy and $44 is frankly a bargain compared to most comparable releases (for example $60 for 3D All Stars).

I'm not saying Sega don't price-gouge. I personally felt the huge amount of DLC characters and stuff for the recent Monkey Ball was excessive and overpriced and most of it should have been free unlockables. But in this case of Sonic Origins, as far as I can see they are doing close to nothing wrong except messing up the marketing, making people think its like when Ubisoft/Activision want you to buy 4 different $60 versions of the same game to get all the weapons, costumes and missions, when infact its the difference between one $40 or $44, with nothing but minor cosmetics in the more expensive version.

DD is hilarious with this stuff. Their E3 from last year is chef's kiss

@Entrr_username True its kinda Crappy, I think nintendo has done much worse then this LOL.

@samuelvictor Awesome, detailed and polite reply explanation. It wasn't towards me, but I learned a lot from what you shared.

Good. Sega should be absolutely ashamed of what their doing with Origins.

@WhatsUpFlapjack Hey, thanks! 😀

@ShadowofTwilight22 Locking quality of life features behind amiibos is one of Nintendo's greatest lows along with limited digital availability of Super Mario 3D All-Stars.