You May Have Tasted Old Badnik Seafood
There once was an old tagline for summer repeats on television–If you haven’t seen it, it’s new to you! It appears that philosophy can be applied to the image you see above, the concept image Sega of America released Friday to promote Project Needlemouse. Evidence has surfaced that suggests Sega successfully kept it under wraps for eight months.
This was discovered late Saturday by Sonic Retro Tech Member FraGag, who analyzed some of the embedded data from that image, usually added when scanned or saved in photo editing programs. That data indicates the image was first created on May 15, 2009, nearly four months before the first teaser trailer was released:
According to the EXIF tags, the JPEG picture was saved in May 2009. This gives us an idea of how long Project Needlemouse has been in development. Unless SEGA is trying to trick us by falsifying the date?
If it’s not a trick, this may be a good thing. It shows that Sega is taking its time and carefully planning out Project Needlemouse, and that the idea of the next Sonic has been several months (if not more) in the making, not a quick shotgun announcement. It also indicates that the game, at this point, should be well in development.
On the other hand, that raises another issue. Thousands of fans navigated the social media landscape last week with rousing success to get more information on Project Needlemouse, only to get the concept art, and not much else. Some fans desperate for video or a screenshot were disappointed that was the only media to come out of last week’s melee. Dating the image so far back would indicate something tangible exists today, if not for a couple of months (though that would contradict another revelation.) If there is something more appreciable than this concept art, why did Sega hold back after a four month media drought?
Tell us your thoughts in our comments area.
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I don’t see why this is an issue… It’s their prerogative when to release an internal piece of development artwork.
They’re probably trying to avoid any hype…Unleashed was in the public eye too long before release. They also might be trying to avoid having to deal with the public response…fans and media are pretty annoying in dissecting Sonic games before they’re finished.
Hey, wouldn’t it be great if they did this retro style and just gave us mockups and grainy pics from levels that don’t even get it in the game?
Richard, I agree with you in the sense that you’re raising a larger issue…Sega’s trying to time out media releases for their titles, as they’ve done with ASR. It is their prerogative, but that tends to be how leaks happen.
But if the art’s from May, there has to be a lot more than this right now. I know of at least a few people who didn’t want to go all over the place with that trivia business last week, but signed up for Facebook, Twitter, or Sega’s forums anyway for that contest, in the hopes of getting something more. This considered, I can certainly understand that disappointment now.
-T
So what? If it reveals that they’re heading in the direction of making the game more nostalgic, then power to them.
Of course the game is well under development. It releases this year.
Sonic’s May 15? year Hmm….
at first i was a little dissapointed that all SEGA released was 1 page of a revised badnik, but then i realized that this is a great thing cause 1. unlike unleashed, SEGA is doing an amazing job at keeping everything all sealed up! this tells us that SEGA is really working hard on the game! 2. original badniks return? Hell Yeah! 3. this just gets me pumped up more!!
Yeah, I was a bit bummed to not get any game footage, but we just gotta wait and see. Can anyone say E3?
Pandering buffoons, it’s all well and good that they are going in a positive direction, but that’s not the point. They short-changed us, slighted us even, on that sham of a ‘contest’. Something like that shitty concept art is something they’ll probably end up putting in the game’s gallery. ONE image is NOT a ‘prize’.
I think its not a trick.. good news people
SEGA’s doing the right thing, I’m very auxius to but with the realease of S&SASR and SA on the Xbox360º I can wait a bit longer
SEGA continue the hard and AWSOME work
@Skai Cyan: SEGA did say that it wasn’t going to be anything huge and that we shouldn’t get our expectations too high. You either missed the memo or are just spoilt.
Besides, we were very fortunate to get this information we worked for, so shut up.
I think that they’re holding back on anything really big to keep us wanting more.
Hey, don’t we still have February 5 or something to wait for? I thought somebody said something about possible PNM info being released that day.
@Skai Cyan: Imagine if it would’ve been a trailer and we wouldn’t have gotten all 3 bonus points. It was obvious they wouldn’t give us anything of that magnitude as a bonus.
@Skai Cyan: Beggers can’t be choosers.
cool but i want to see a new trailer of sonic
Absence makes the heart grow fonder. All things in moderation. Patience is a virtue.
Surprises are cool, especially if you really have to wait for them.
Besides, those were easy as hell questions. Aside from the confirmation that Sonic will be the only playable character (and that there’ll be no new friends presumably), is it even fair to expect much more than a scrap of detail?
Quit whining and wait.
Dosent affect me in anyway, im still hyped after seeing this concept art
Honestly, I HATE teasing. I’d much rather know NOTHING.
Personally, I find it great that SEGA has managed to keep shit under the wraps for once.
@Kits’Okami
This is the first I’ve heard of such talk.
@Marcello Forrest
Again I say, if they weren’t ready to show more about this game, they should’ve kept thier mouths shut in the first place.
@serpx
They offered information, I was content until this debacle.
I don’t get it. So many people are complaining about this whole mess. Personally, I have no problem with them showing us concept art. And for those who are complaining about not having another trailer and/or screenshots, think of it this way: AT LEAST THEY GAVE YOU SOMETHING!!!
Good grief! You guys don’t appreciate anything these days, do you?! Would you rather have them wait many months later to tell you about this little info?! Because if that were the case, you all would STILL be complaining that “all we have is a trailer” and “we don’t know anything else except it’s 2D and HD”. Well, NOW YOU KNOW MORE. It may not be much, but it’s something! That concept art revealed more than what to expect in this game other than “Sonic being the only character”. It’s showing us that SEGA is trying their best to capture the feel and look of the old school days (Genesis era) of what Sonic used to be. So, to all you crybabies out there, GET OVER IT! Just be happy for once that they decided to show us a little bit more than nothing at all.
Man, to think of what SEGA is going through with this: One minute, you complain about them leaking info for games like Sonic Unleashed. Then when they don’t the next time, you complain YET AGAIN for not seeing leaked gameplay….
I know they’d have to be confused at this point.
If the concept art is old, this is no surprise. I’m not usually the one to say this, but how is this news?
AngelJump makes the most sense out of anyone here. Just be patient, most likely E3 is when any trailer might pop up.
Well, now that i no longer feel bitter about that messy campaign and now that my heart is starting to heal. i want to wish the best to Sega on this game. Believe me, i really want to see this game not only to give Mario a run for it’s money like in the good old days, but also to completely surpass NSMBW. Sega did it in the 90′s and i’m sure that they can do it again.
After a very rough decade for our favorite Hedgehog i think it is time for him to finally step it up and run again aiming for the top. just like that song in sonic CD: never say he can’t. Nothing can survive the will to stay alive, if you can try, you can do anything.