All two hours of it are free
Remember that Sonic 30th anniversary concert that Sega teased recently? Well it’s out! In free YouTube form! And it’s incredibly legit.
You can watch the entire thing below, which plays out very similarly to Video Games Live. There’s a legit symphony involved, and the concert is backed up by clips of gameplay to break up the shots of the performers. The concert is edited nicely in video form too, showcasing gameplay on screen for the audience on occasion.
Just for reference, the concert starts 15:00 into the video (here’s a timestamp) and of course it kicks off with Green Hill Zone 1. Interestingly, it moves chronologically, and once it gets into the Sonic Adventure era (39:00), I know a lot of you are going to be hitting nostalgia overdrive. Sonic Adventure tunes are insanely popular, to the point where I can randomly Google a song and see them hit multiple millions of views.
Oh, and be sure to catch the post-intermission swap (1:16:00), when it changes from the symphonic stylings to the Tomoya Ohtani Band, and Crush 40. Yes, they play Open Your Heart (random search came up with 10 milion views) and Escape from the City (guest singer Nathan Sharp does a fantastic job on that one!). I’ll also never get the image of a very serious symphony performing “Live and Learn” while images of Sonic and Shadow dot the screen out of my head.
There’s also a rather wholesome moment in the concert, as spotted by Nintendo Life. Evidently the Chao Camera Mod, a fan project created by a person that goes by Exant, was featured in the concert and credited. The Sonic brand social media manager even acknowledged the modder after the concert. While many publishers are suing their fans, Sega is smartly celebrating them and thinking more long term when it comes to brand loyalty.
As a reminder, Sega has reiterated that fan projects are all good for the most part, so long as they aren’t monetized.
