Well, Sega's gone ahead and ruined Sonic's birthday party in a way only the worst Silicon Valley boyfriend would dare to: the publisher is letting it be an opportunity to train artificial intelligence.
Now the Sonic franchise's 35th anniversary feels a lot more gloomy. People were excited about the apparent alternate-reality game Sega had set up, in which players were meant to "recover" lost Chaos Emeralds during free events in Los Angeles, San Diego, Chicago, and New York. Participating either online or in-person could make you eligible to win prizes like a little enamel pin or a Leblon Delienne sculpture, but it would also require you to consent to being scraped and prodded for the sake of AI.
