Personal Gifts to Sonic Retro Admins After Sonic 4 Leaks Raise Questions

By
Tristan Oliver
– October 31, 2010

Why did Kevin Eva Reward the Key Harbor of the Sonic 4 Leaks?

In recent months,  you may have noticed the presence of “joint exclusives” on other sites provided in cooperation with Sonic Wrecks and its webmaster, Kevin Eva, an employee of Sega Europe.  They have been few and far between, and ranged from an announcement of an announcement that ultimately yielded Sonic 4′s delay to the most recent reveal of an in-game cutscene from Sonic Colors.  In on the alliance is Sonic Retro, which in March and April came under intense scrutiny for allowing the slow release of in-game video for Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode I’s Microsoft PartnerNET build by a forum member, eventually revealing the entire game’s contents.  Only after the damage was done was any serious administrative action taken, including the outright ban of any Sonic 4 discussion on the website for a short time.

That is where this story starts.  It turns out prominent names in the Sonic Retro hierarchy were offered their first exclusive shortly after that incident, one you weren’t supposed to know about.

While legal threats and takedown notices were levied upon most anything relaying that and other leaked Sonic 4 videos, from YouTube accounts to 1UP.com (and this site, for the record), TSSZ News has found at least two top Sonic Retro admins were offered and, in one case, given personal gifts by Eva after his request to purge leaked material on the was mostly, though not completely heeded.  Such philanthropy was offered even as Eva was one of many on Sega’s community teams using the threat of legal action to have that material removed elsewhere–and evenas  some of those leaks were available on Sonic Retro up until Episode I’s launch.  You may remember that Sega of America community manager Aaron Webber even warned to another member of Sonic Retro in February, six weeks before leaks ramped up on the same website, that any compromise “would have huge consequences for us (Sega), and I know it wouldn’t end on a good note for anyone.”

But the only known consequence for Sonic Retro, it appears, was the receipt of a signed print of Sonic and the Secret Rings, autographed by director Yojiro Ogawa.  Its receipt was first disclosed publicly on Twitter May 10th by Sonic Retro forum administrator Dustin Wyatt, known casually as Tweaker.  Wyatt revealed he received a package from Sega’s European division, sight unseen.

“Just received an envelope from SEGA of Europe!” the Tweet read.  “It had a signed print from Secret Rings signed by the game’s director, Yojiro Ogawa.  Neat!”

From there, a public Twitter conversation ensued between Wyatt and Eva, and the print was revealed to be a gift sent by Eva.


“That’s your present from me I promised,” said one Tweet from Eva’s @SonicWrecks account also dated May 10th.

“Like I said my little personal stash.  Well deserved as well,” proclaimed another Eva Tweet.  Thanks for all your help.”

That “help” was the removal of those leaked playthrough videos, not directly hosted but hyperlinked from Sonic Retro forums, which caused almost unprecentended fan reaction.  The videos were made available in increments during the week of March 28th by Sonic Retro forumer infinity, who has since been banned from the research hub.  Still, the video spread, with both Sega’s community team and the company’s legal department sending takedown notices to alleged copyright offenders throughout the week to most who linked or hosted the material.

“We were helping SEGA take down all the Sonic 4 stuff as a whole and Kevin seemed to be impressed at our dedication in particular,” Wyatt said when reached for comment by TSSZ News on the matter in August.

But it wasn’t until the final zone, E.G.G. Station, and the game’s ending teasing Metal Sonic for the next episode was shown on April 3rd did Retro moderators make any effort to remove the video or references to it and other leaks.  Once the last bit of Episode I was spoiled, administrators temporarily banned all Sonic 4 discussion, and in doing so, caused a stir that reached outside the confines of the Sonic community, with critics labeling Retro heads as hyprocrites, if not outright mocking the website.  That forced the hand of webmaster Courtney Grimes, known as Scarred Sun, to admit a relationship between the website and Sega was forged in an explanatory statement April 5th.

“When we spoke to (Sega) representatives, we were looking forward to establishing a relationship that would lead to things that would ultimately help the Sonic fan community [....] we would be able to gain access to things that we cannot now get under current procedures,” the statement read.

It was after that statement was made that Eva began coordinating the gift giving.  Wyatt told TSSZ News anything sent was alleged to be out of Eva’s personal collection of Sega related merchandise.

“He (Eva) took me aside after the fact, thanked me, then sent me a message on Skype asking for my address because he wanted to send me and SS ‘something nice for all the hard work,’ Wyatt explained.  “What I can tell you is that none of this was a ‘bribe’ or whatever.”

To that point, personal access was the only access Sonic Retro received, until a May 17th “joint-exclusive” tease of what ultimately was first formally announced on Gamespot–the delay of Sonic 4′s release to Fall.  The website had to wait until late October for anything more in the public interest, receiving access to an in-game cutscene from Sonic Colors for the trouble.

But before then, Eva asked for both Wyatt and Grimes’s mailing addresses in April to send gifts.  We know both were offered, but can only confirm Wyatt actually received something.  Multiple requests for comment to Grimes asking if she accepted this offer and related inquiries were not returned.

Some of that work Eva thanked them for, however, remained unfinished.  Leaked material–albeit less–was discussed and even made available on Sonic Retro’s main pages up to launch day.  Though videos “outside of Splash Hill Zone” were outlawed both on the forum and IRC channel once discussion resumed, a February 16th article written by Wyatt showcasing a menu with the game’s zones was still publicly available, before any formal unveiling, and still is as of the time of this article’s publication.  The same is true of a March 28th article, also written by Wyatt, that linked to and discussed the full game soundtrack, though the link to the third party website no longer contains those assets.  A February article titled “More Sonic 4 Screenshots Leaked, on PartnerNET” and a March article titled “New Sonic 4 Assets” were removed from Sonic Retro’s main page.  All were, at one point, front page news on Sonic Retro.

In an April 3rd interview with TSSZ News, Wyatt said of those materials in whole, “Once something leaks, I don’t particularly see the point in trying to suppress.”  And in her April 5th statement on Sonic Retro, Grimes referred to those leaked materials as “low impact.”

“Barring a single leak involving achievement text and a video sent anonymously to GameVideos, every single reveal about Sonic 4 has come from…Sonic Retro,” said another portion of Grimes’s April 5th statement.

To Eva’s end, the offer to Wyatt and Grimes came as he continued to threaten other sources in his capacity as a Sega employee for harboring the same material Sonic Retro did–contradicting and potentially undermining the control of such sensitive content.  A May 21st remark on his Twitter account affirms his continued the push to purge unauthorized material from the Internet, and infers knowledge of the use of alternate, deceptive titles–common practice in YouTube videos–in spreading the leaks.

“Just kicked some improper video ass,” Eva said in the Tweet.  “False titles indeed….”

For Mark Methenitis, an attorney with The Vernon Law Group in Dallas, Texas, and the webmaster of the Law of the Game blog, it’s behavior like Eva’s, juxtposed with Sega’s efforts to eradicate the leaked content, that calls ethics into question.  TSSZ News sought his insight in May, when this story was first fermenting.

“The part that bothers me is the use of formal cease and desist letters to the other sites,” Methenitis explained.  “At a minimum, if they (Sega) never intended further action, it’s a tactic that still acts to benefit one site over the others once the information is out and no real effort is being made to control it.  If they actually intended selective enforcement, I think there would be a fairly big legal battle over the issue.”

In particular, Methenitis finds offers to those behind the principal source of the Sonic 4 leaks while punishing others unsettling–but not a legal cause for action.

“It’s certainly a mixed message, and may do more harm than good in the PR  world in the long run,” Methenitis said.  “But beyond questionable ethics, there’s not much stopping them from adopting this tactic.  It’s certainly not one I would advise.”

“If this is a real leak, it’s nothing short of baffling that one site (Sonic Retro) would be systematically excluded from the cease and desist mailing,” Methenitis continued.

*****

Wyatt, however, sees the situation in another light: as one friend trying to help another.

“My initial SEGA of Europe comment was more or less innocent misunderstanding that probably wouldn’t have mattered much in the long run since nobody particularly cared to look more into something that, quite frankly, was nothing more than a friendly gesture by a friend who happens to also be a SEGA employee,” Wyatt said, citing his May 10th remark on Twitter.

Wyatt claimed to TSSZ News Sonic Retro’s partnership with Sega, cited in Grimes’s April 5th statement, extended to the American division only, and that Eva, in this context, was acting independent of the company.

“Our relationship with SEGA is with SEGA of America–completely unrelated to Eva and SEGA of Europe,” Wyatt said.

It must be noted, however, that all of Sonic Retro’s “joint-exclusives” thus far have been through Eva, and not through the American division.  Still, Wyatt insists anything Eva has done for him and Grimes–and perhaps for Sonic Retro–was of his own accord.

“That’s what (the gifts) were–personal tokens of his appreciation as a person, since he is in fact an ordinary guy who just happens to be employed by SEGA,” Wyatt said.  “Nothing more. I can’t stress this enough.”

There’s a significant hole in Wyatt’s argument, however, and you’re looking at it.  The photo above, provided by Wyatt to TSSZ News, is the enevelope Eva allegedly used to send the signed copy of Sonic & the Secret Rings to him.   Wyatt claims the envelopes are available for any employee to use for “any given purpose,” in his words.  But Sega branded labels appear throughout, including what appears to be Sega branded company postage, sent out of Brentford, Middlesex, in the United Kingdom–home of the offices of Sega Europe Ltd, according to GamesIndustry.biz.  However personal the gifts may have been, if they were sent directly through company resources–which, to be clear, can’t be completely confirmed on the picture alone–it’s a tremendous lapse of judgment given Sega’s objectives at the time.

“From what I’ve been made aware of these envelopes are literally just sitting around to send mail through if you’re an employee there,” Wyatt said, adding his belief the envelope is the only physical connection to Sega Europe, as opposed to any possible use of a company postage system.

“If this is not the case–and it should be, given that if company policy dictated otherwise they’d be aware of it by now–then I have no knowledge of it,” Wyatt added in a follow-up E-Mail.

We have no knowledge of it from Eva, either.  E-Mails requesting comment on the matter from him were not directly returned, but vaguely referenced our request in a July 31st Tweet he made, in which he accused of TSSZ News attempting to tie of the release of this story to the 2010 Summer of Sonic convention.

*****

We do, however, know Sega conducted a short investigation of the matter when we started asking questions of them directly earlier this Summer.  In a phone conversation with TSSZ News at the beginning of June, then-VP of Marketing Sean Ratcliffe told us the company found no qualms with Eva’s conduct.

“It was a thank-you gift to the website,” Ratcliffe explained, after being reminded the personal circumstances of the offer.  “We really don’t have a problem with that.”

It was from Ratcliffe that we learned Sonic 4′s real reason for delay, which we told you about in September: poor focus group testing that occurred before the meat of the leaks were made available.  When the leaks did happen, he explained Sonic Retro was asked to remove offending material, but was never given a cease-and-desist letter.

“A cease and desist letter wasn’t necessary,” Ratcliffe said.  “That’s not helping the consumer at all.”

Ratcliffe explained Sega’s established media partners–some 300 of them–were all given a pre-emptive request not to publish the leaked content.  Ratcliffe estimated “99.9%” of those partners complied.  For the record, TSSZ News was not among those notified ahead of time.

The conversation took an odd twist after that, when Ratcliffe constantly voiced his opinion that there was no story to report.  Ratcliffe even offered TSSZ News the opportunity to be among the press core at Sega’s next New York event for dropping the story.  That never happened; neither did an assurance made by Ratcliffe to afford a conversation between this organization and Sega staff in the hopes of forging a closer relationship.  We now know there’s a good, if not suspicious reason for that; as learned earlier this month, Ratcliffe left the company for reasons unknown later in June.

As good a person Eva may be, and as personal his gifts may have been, it is clear he is using his professional connections to benefit his closest Internet friends first and the fandom second, bending the rules of engagement–and perhaps basic company policy–in one of Sega’s most serious leaks in recent memory.  Nowhere is that more evident than in the above publicly published photo, taken March 18th within the halls of Sega Europe, not two weeks before a couple “low impact” leaks already available on Sonic Retro–and pleas from Sega’s own staff for there not to be anymore–became a serious security breach, all within the confines of the website.  Eva–the friend or the Sega employee, we’re not sure–afforded the invitation to Grimes and Sonic Stadium webmaster Svend Joscelyne; all three are pictured.  That Eva the friend in effect handpicked his proteges at the time for the more professional purpose of promotion and preferential treatment may not be that surprising; admittedly, both Sonic Retro and The Sonic Stadium are formidable, influential forces within Sonic fandom.  But when Grimes admitted the website she’s responsible for was the principal source of nearly every Sonic 4 leak before launch, and said leaks were cleaned up, at best, in haste, why couldn’t Eva, the professional, separate those circumstances from Eva, the personal friend?  For that matter, why didn’t the whole of Sega?  Why, instead, was such bipolar behavior rewarded?

These are questions all parties may have to ask themselves again as Sonic 4: Episode 2 waits in the wings, with spoilers across all community factions chomping at the chance to put Eva and Sega’s loyalty to friends and fans to the test.

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