The iOS version of Sonic CD has transitioned from a paid model to a free-to-play model with ads as reported by TouchArcade. The game is also the Free App of the Week on iTunes. However, users who had already purchased this particular Sonic the Hedgehog game found that they could only remove the ads by paying $1.99 even if they've already purchased the game.
Sonic the Hedgehog PR and Social Media Manager Aaron Webber stated in a tweet that players who have previously purchased the game should not be seeing ads.
https://twitter.com/RubyEclipse/status/791533467146162176
Aaron Webber is perhaps best known as the operator of the official Sonic The Hedgehog Twitter account. He took over the account a little over two years ago, and his rather creative efforts in tweeting have contributed to the account crossing the 1 million follower mark recently.
It stands to reason that paid users should also not be charged an additional $1.99 to remove ads they shouldn't be seeing in the first place. TouchArcade reached out to SEGA and received a statement that the company is aware of this particular issue with Sonic CD but did not have a comment at the time. The tweet from Aaron Webber came shortly thereafter. We reached out to SEGA and received the following official statement:
As part of a special [promotion], Sonic CD is now free with ads (regularly priced at $2.99) from the App Store. For players who previously purchased Sonic CD, ads were mistakenly added to their game. This was not intended and the issue has now been resolved. Players will need to update to the latest version of Sonic CD on the App Store. We apologize for the error.Additionally, the SEGA representative who responded to me stated that they had "[worked] through the night" to correct this issue. The issue has been fixed as of the 2.0.1 version of the game. Furthermore, they've stated that a bug exists where a pop-up will erroneously state "No Internet Connection"; you can simply dismiss this pop-up and play the game nonetheless (provided that your Internet is actually working).
Sonic CD is not currently available on the Play Store as it was taken down for maintenance in May in order to fix Android-specific issues with the downloader code.
Initially released in 1993, Sonic CD was later ported to Windows three years later. The mobile version of the game was released on iOS and Android in late 2011 and on Windows Phone in late 2012. The 2011 version of the game allowed the player to play through the game as Sonic's companion Tails after completing the game at least one time.
Do you own any of the Sonic the Hedgehog games on mobile? How do they play on mobile devices? Does SEGA generally do a good job of porting the titles to the mobile platform? Let us know in the comments below!
