SEGA To Reveal Sonic The Hedgehog Augmented Reality Experience At SDCC

When it comes to virtual reality (VR) the usually highly experimental SEGA have been a tad hesitant to embrace the new technology. With the exception being the releases on PlayStation 4 of the PlayStation VR compatible games relating to Hatsune Miku. But Miku and her Vocaloid brethren are still licenced characters, and SEGA have yet to bring any characters or franchises they expressly own over to VR. Which is a little odd, as it’s not like they haven’t a fair few that could make the leap.

That’s not to say SEGA aren’t known to have been experimenting with it and other vision technologies. Videos from both SEGA Europe and SEGA America have both shown various headsets at their offices. SEGA America’s being a somewhat jokey (and meme related) mixed reality (MR) video for the Sonic The Hedgehog social media accounts that showed that the branch was in possession of at least one Microsoft Hololens.

Now it seems something more concrete may have come from their – or someone connect with the publisher’s – efforts. Eagle-eyed members over at UK-based Sonic The Hedgehog fan site The Sonic Stadium spied that something distinctly hedgehog related is apparently coming to this year’s San Diego Comic-Con (SDCC).  As well as a line-up of other VR and augmented reality (AR) experiences, including many previously featured uch as Raw Data, Paranormal Activity, Project Cars and John Wick, slotted away on the Comic-Con website’s Toucan blog is also that there is to be a reveal of something both Sonic and AR related at The Futurism & Tech Pavilion.

“SEGA is presenting an AR Sonic experience and a special concert with the awesome Shota Nakama on Thursday evening, and dome takeover on Friday!”

The ‘dome takeover’ it seems refers to the MR/360 domes of FulldomePro that will be at the pavilion and will apparently be involved in some way after the initial reveal. There is no word or clarification from SEGA yet as to what this experience entails, or if it involves forthcoming video games Sonic Forces or Sonic Mania. But it is likely that more will be revealed early next week.

We will of course, barring any giant water monsters or mustachioed space stations, bring you more news when it is revealed.

This article was originally written by the author for VRFocus.