Where Things Are, And Where We Are

“Out of curiosity, Mr. LMC, what ever happened with that early Sonic Unleashed build you showed off a few years ago?”

The following message was sent in via our Bluesky account, and it’s a fair enough question. It’s been some considerable time since I teased something I found in the archive from the same leak of Sonic Unleashed materials the Night of the Werehog stuff and other bits came from.

Since the question was asked politely, and I was in the right mindset for it I gave a pretty full answer in a thread that I’m reasonably sure next to no one has seen. I’m writing this bit some time after and backdating the posting, to the time of the initial response, for clarity. I thought I’d add it to LMC as an actual update just in case I have any more queries and I can just point and go ‘here you are’. Because things are far from simple. They very rarely are, of course.

My original thread text – slightly edited on the formatting – starts now:

Hey. The video of the early cutscene and scratch track? Still here. I still plan to do a full video on some of the leaked bits we know about Unleashed that are interesting/REALLY STUPID. But it does require framing, and proper ‘for education’ friendliness. I can’t really just go ‘KAPOW! Here you are.’ That’s not just for our sake, but oddly for SEGA’s. It is interesting and we want to celebrate the craft and the creative process whilst making sure nothing ‘gets out’ that is super sensitive that we should NEVER know in the community at any point. Showing a bit of respect, y’know?

This is despite… well. We have ZERO relationship with SEGA itself now. And frankly we’re wary of engaging with them. At all.

My personal relationship status with SEGA is very much “it’s complicated” and has been for years. Me doing SEGA community preservation work quietly in the background: the TSSZ stuff (I’m actually using TSSZ’s Unleashed feature image for this post just for a giggle), trying to recover media from defunct websites, giving a new home and coat of paint to old podcasts, plus the occasional Sonic Wrecks comic. Is both a feeling of obligation and my way of trying to stay connected in some way. Repair the damage done to me (by and to) the thing I cared about.

It’s going…okay. Ish.

That’s more to do with how I feel about Sonic nowadays more than anything. Kinda numb. Very burnt out on it. The odd reaction and harassing messages I got to the rescued early build discs – like I somehow owed the Sonic community something after two decades – certainly did not help.

(Website Addendum: LMC’s community is small, but genuinely friendly folks. I was less than thrilled by people going out of their way to harass them online. Doesn’t exactly convince me to trust you or do things for you. If you are a decent human being, hit up our Discord if ya wanna chill and talk games, wrestling, life and nonsense. Link is top right of the website.)

Again for those reading this later those discs are with Hidden Palace, we sent them there after properly looking into who would be best placed to help after our own attempts came up short. I know it’s been a tough ride for them, there’s some bad burns, but if they find anything THEY’LL tell you.

But unless Summer of Sonic magically re-materialises (something else that historically has not been that kind to me, sadly) I’m pretty much done and dusted going out of my way for anything beyond the odd thing for close friends in SEGA/Sonicland. Did I mention I love RadioSEGA? Support RadioSEGA.

Ultimately, this is a big time sink for me and something I’m not massively motivated to do, sadly. Especially when there are other website projects that are more important to the site and me right at the moment. Any time I have tried to get going, something bad happens almost immediately to do its damnedest to stop me. Plus Recompiled changed some plans that were already in progress for this. Gotta say, the non-response to that by SEGA has been… interesting. Pleasantly surprising, actually.

But maybe I should listen to the universe if it really hates this thing that much?

It’s a ‘you’ll see it when you see it’. Maybe as part of a big feature, maybe just a small one off segment and see if there’s interest there for other things. Maybe as part of a panel if anyone asks me one day? Who knows. Stranger things have happened. You’ll see a video about things you didn’t know about Summer of Sonic before this, that’s for sure.

But anyway. Not the answer you wanted. Sorry about that, but also *points to thread and shrugs*.