August 23^rd, 2001 (12:00am) - Sega® today
announced that its world famous blue hedgehog, Sonic The Hedgehog®, will
dash onto the NINTENDO GAMECUBE(tm) in a special edition of "Sonic
Adventure(tm) 2" (working title). Sega also announced that it plans to
release the first online network-playable game available for the NINTENDO
GAMECUBE system, "Phantasy Star Online(tm)" (working title). The
announcements were made at Nintendo’s Space World event in Tokyo, where Sega
will demonstrate eight titles for the NINTENDO GAMECUBE and Game Boy®
Advance video game systems, marking another milestone in the company’s plan
to bring its top-selling content and franchises to all video game platforms.
"Sega is making video game history with the announcement of ’Sonic Adventure
2’ for Nintendo GameCube," said Peter Moore, president and COO, Sega of
America. "By bringing Sonic to Nintendo’s platforms, Sega is delivering
one of the world’s most popular video game properties of all time to an even
greater number of gamers worldwide. Continuing Sega’s tradition of
innovation, Sega also plans to be the first to deliver online gameplay to
Nintendo GameCube with ’Phantasy Star Online.’"
Sonic The Hedgehog has been featured in more than 11 titles for different
Sega gaming platforms and has sold upwards of 20 million copies in
cumulative units over the past ten years. A leading icon in the video game
industry, Sonic has starred in three TV animated series, his own comic book
and was the first video game character to appear as a float in the Macy®’s
Thanksgiving Day Parade. Phantasy Star Online, the first online global role
playing game (RPG), has attracted more than 300,000 online registrants and
been honored with 14 awards worldwide since its launch less than one year
ago.
Sega titles demonstrated at "Nintendo Space World 2001" for the NINTENDO
GAMECUBE include "Sonic Adventure 2" for NINTENDO GAMECUBE (working title),
"Phantasy Star Online" for NINTENDO GAMECUBE (working title), "Super Monkey
Ball(tm)" and "Virtua Striker(tm) 3 Ver. 2002" (working title). For the
Game Boy Advance, Sega demonstrated "Sonic Advance" (working title),
"Columns Crown(tm)," and "Puyo Puyo(tm)." A title from the "Sakura Wars"
series was demonstrated for the Game Boy® hand-held gaming system.