Exclusive: Source Says Sonic 4 Domain “Reflects the New Game”

By
Tristan Oliver
– February 3, 2010

Before Tonight’s Official Reveal, Something to Consider

Tonight, just a few hours before Project Needlemouse’s true colors are revealed to the world, TSSZ News would like to give you another bit of info that updates a story we brought you first Saturday–the existence of the domain name Sonicthehedgehog4.com.

Since the story’s initial publication, many fans and forums have slowly come to believe that Needlemouse will be revealed as Sonic 4, as we have projected.  After all, the domain was registered by Sega community and online director Brandon Laurino.  But after the discovery of various domains going up to Sonicthehedgehog10.com, there remain skeptics as to whether the registrations were protectionist measures by Sega, and nothing more.

Prepare to put those concerns to rest.

The same anonymous source who independently verified Laurino’s identity as a Sega employee to us Tuesday has returned our E-Mails, and says Sonicthehedgehog4.com was registered for a larger purpose.

“The name of the registered domain name reflects the new game,” says our source, who claims to be a former company employee.  “Sega isn’t very creative and moves like turtles.”

This, as the domain in question–as well as others–suddenly fell under password protection earlier today, instead of redirecting to Sega’s main website.  In light of this development, we’ve received a few news tips independent of our primary source to clarify what that means–in simple terms, something big is going on behind the scenes.

“Stage is a well-known term in web design, defining an area for uploading and testing applications and websites,” wrote Dennis from Germany, who linked us to another password protected site, stage.sega.com.  The website has a similar setup to what’s in place now at Sonicthehedgehog4.com.

In the meantime, our anonymous tipster tells us that Laurino himself may be doing the domain registrations on Sega’s behalf.

“Any previous internet practices such as registering domain names are now done by (Laurino),” the tipster said.  “He is kind of a micromanager, so that’s why he is doing these things himself instead of someone who actually knows how to hide sensitive information.”

That all in mind, it appears Sonicthehedgehog4.com will be used for something–the question now is whether the domain will be utilized sooner rather than later, and that’s not clear right now.

Laurino, as of the time of this article’s publication, still has not returned our request for comment.

With this and our past coverage in consideration, we feel pretty comfortable in saying you’re going to see Sonic the Hedgehog 4 in a few hours–just as we were comfortable saying that when the ball on this story started rolling Saturday.  There isn’t much room left for doubt, but we are all about to find out for sure, at 3AM ET Thursday, midnight Pacific time.  TSSZ News editor Ryan Bloom will be here during announcement time to give you the lowdown, and I’ll be back later Thursday morning to give you quick reactions to the news.  We’re here to give you the information without all the hysterics; we hope you’ll join us.

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