Talk:Sonic Adventure 2: The Trial

Wen was this released in North America?

Right now we are saying it was released on 2001-01-23 in North America. However, if we look at the Sonic Retro page we find out that this demo was bundled with Phantasy Star Online. Looking at that page, the date was changed to 2001-01-30 early last year while Pirate Dragon was going through release dates for various things.

The current Phantasy Star Online reference (https://web.archive.org/web/20010201164400/http://www.ebworld.com/ebx/categories/homepages/dreamcast.asp) is from EB World (back when those existed in America), meanwhile the old reference, as well as the current North America reference for the release date of this demo is from Sega's own website (https://web.archive.org/web/20031211233850/http://www.sega.com:80/games/dreamcast/post_dreamcastgame.jhtml?PRODID=187) which lists the aforementioned 2001-01-23 release date.

Which one is right? Because this page's release date for North America is entwined with that of PSO. JaxTH (talk) 20:01, 22 January 2023 (EST)

I think it got pushed back a week but Sega forgot to update the date on the webpage, this was the same time as they announced the discontinuation of the Dreamcast, so I guess they were focused on other stuff ... (https://groups.google.com/g/rec.games.video.sega/c/BxlkgidBCAU/m/aKxiSTZ7fwEJ) (https://web.archive.org/web/20010205171200/http://gexpress.com:80/whatsnew.cfm). Looking through Usenet posts I think the earliest date (taking into account timezones as most of those Usenet posts are dated in UTC, so mainland US is 5-8 hours behind) I could find that someone bought it was 2001-01-31, but EB Games were usually the fastest to put games on shelves, and their "New Releases" dates were supposed to be the date games were available in store, so I went with that. Sega's online store sent them out to customers on 2001-01-30, so I guess it's at least theoretically possible that some got delivered the same day. Also, Sega's standard release day was a Tuesday at this time. Pirate Dragon (talk) 10:37, 23 January 2023 (EST)

Seems that it was pushed back 2 weeks to 2001-02-07 at the last minute, and then brought forward a week a few days later (https://web.archive.org/web/20010202135300/http://segaweb.com/news/0101/081.html). Pirate Dragon (talk) 11:15, 23 January 2023 (EST)

So according to this last link (https://web.archive.org/web/20010201074200/http://www.segaweb.com/release/index.html) it came out on the 29th. Is this the date we're going with for the American release then? JaxTH (talk) 17:10, 23 January 2023 (EST)

29th should be the date the game shipped to distribution, it would usually take a day for EB Games to get it in to stores (so you often get 2 different dates with EB Games; a ship date prior to release, and a release date when it hits stores ... explanation: https://web.archive.org/web/20001213103700/http://www.ebworld.com/ebx/categories/homepages/comingsoon-home.asp?intDeptTab=5&rowsperpage=25&SortByNAme=no), and a day or two later again for smaller specialist retailers. So I'd stick with the 30th as that's when EB Games said it had been released and there's no evidence that it released earlier anywhere else. Unfortunately Sega's PR department must have got gutted as they didn't put out the usual press release for PSO release.Pirate Dragon (talk) 18:38, 23 January 2023 (EST)

The 30th it is then. I guess we should double-check the EU date as well then. Thanks for the help with all these dates as always. JaxTH (talk) 19:17, 23 January 2023 (EST)