Sega Puts The Sonic Into Panasonic Mobile Phones

May 20, 2005

Panasonic today announced that it has secured the rights to feature SEGA’s blockbuster game, Sonic The Hedgehog, on its new series of mobile phones. As previewed on SEGA’s booth at the E3 premier game show in the US, this is the very first time the game has been installed on a mobile phone and will be available in handsets launched by Panasonic from Q3 this year.

Sonic The Hedgehog will be pre-installed on six new Panasonic phones including the company’s flagship phone of the year, the VS3, which is perfect for playing games on with its superior screen of 16 million colors and outstanding brightness of 300 candela. Sonic The Hedgehog will also feature on the following Panasonic handsets being launched this year: VS7, SA6, SA7, MX6 and MX7.

Sonic The Hedgehog was first introduced on the SEGA MEGA DRIVE in 1991 and since then, 38 million copies have been sold worldwide, making it SEGA’s top selling game of all time. Users will now be able to help Sonic face his arch-enemy Dr. Eggman through their mobile, with the same high speeds and high-resolution images used on the SEGA MEGA DRIVE version. The mobile version of Sonic also comes with the new ‘ranking’ and ‘difficulty settings’ functions and all stages (apart from the special stages) found on the SEGA MEGA DRIVE.

Masatoshi Kitade, Director for Global Marketing, Panasonic Mobile Communications, said: “This is a very exciting partnership, not only for both Panasonic and SEGA but also, I’m sure, for Sonic The Hedgehog fans across the world who can now play their favorite Sonic game on their mobile phone. Sonic The Hedgehog is truly an iconic character and the game itself is legendary, making it the perfect partner for Panasonic.

“The advanced features of the VS3 make it a superb mobile to enjoy Sonic The Hedgehog on. It’s slim, stylish and feature-rich allowing consumers to enjoy games as well as their phone without compromising on quality.”

Panasonic plans to actively install popular games on its mobile phones, like Sonic The Hedgehog, as well as increasing the availability of music and movie content as part of its strategy to expand content for the ever-advancing mobile phone market.