“Sonic Generations Beta” turns up in Steam Registry

By
Ryan Bloom
– June 19, 2011
Evidence mounts on the existence of a PC version So you may remember that a little over a month ago, Sega/Sammy put out an earnings report that mentioned that Sonic...

Evidence mounts on the existence of a PC version

So you may remember that a little over a month ago, Sega/Sammy put out an earnings report that mentioned that Sonic Generations was coming out for the Xbox 360, Playstation 3, and additionally the Nintendo 3DS and Personal Computer. This earnings report was later modified to remove mention of the 3DS and PC versions, though a Sonic Generations 3DS was eventually confirmed by Nintendo Power merely a week later. Whether the PC port of Sonic Generations had gone the way of the supposed PC port of Sonic 2006 was unknown – until now.

DrKirby of NeoGAF has offered this tantalizing image:

Click to Enlarge

If you haven’t already deduced for yourself, this is a product listing on Valve’s leading PC download service Steam for a “Sonic Generations Beta”. Specifically, it’s from Steam’s “ClientRegistry.blob” file, which contains basic product data for everything currently in Steam’s database, both on games the player already owns, and on games they have yet to purchase (and it should go without saying that attempting to edit that file is probably not a good idea). This only adds credence that Sonic Generations is planned for a PC release.

Running through the displayed info, not much can be discerned about this version of Sonic Generations. Outside of the fact it’s obviously labeled a “Beta”, the other checkboxes don’t tell us much – thumbing through nearly 9,000 Steam product entries, the “Is Steam 3 Subscription” and “Proof of Prepurchase” checkboxes generally seem to be shared with unlisted pre-release review copies of games. What this means is that unless you have a special download code, you aren’t allowed access – leading to the obvious conclusion that this is intended either for the press or Sega’s own internal development teams.

It’s important to note, then, that this still does not guarantee Sonic Generations will actually release on the personal computer; it is entirely possible that some other issue is preventing Sega from announcing that version of the game at this time, though what that issue may be is anybody’s guess – but rest assured, if one does get announced, we’ll let you guys know.

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