Sega shuts down Mega Drive art book

Sega has shut down an unofficial art book focused on the Sega Mega Drive after years of work and despite similar projects.

Bitmap Books, a book publisher that has a long history of publishing art and history books about the games industry, has revealed that its latest project has been shut down by Sega.

The project in question was called ‘The Unofficial MD/GEN: A Visual Compendium’, and would have featured artwork and stories about games on the Sega Mega Drive. Bitmap has previously published similar ‘visual compendium’ books, including books on the Nintendo Entertainment System, the SNES, and even the Sega Master System.

Unfortunately, it seems like Sega isn’t too keen on the Mega Drive getting the same treatment. According to a blog post on Bitmap’s website written by the publisher’s creative director, Sega asked Bitmap to remove the listing or “face potential legal action”.

“I’m afraid to say that we have been asked by SEGA to remove the listing or face potential legal action,” Dyer said in the statement, “As a small business, this is not something we can risk. After discussions, their position is non negotiable. It is of course their right to protect their IP as they see fit”.

Bitmap Books says it tried to stick to third-party titles, but Sega still shut the project down. Picture: Bitmap Books

Dyer says that he personally has regrets with the project, as he should have realised and communicated that it was untenable much earlier than he did. He says that because of numerous efforts to state that the book was not officially sanctioned by Sega, and because Sega often allows fan projects to go ahead, he believed the book would be okay.

Sega has recently embraced some fan projects, particularly when it comes to its flagship franchise, the Sonic series. Sonic the Hedgehog social media manager Katie Chrzanowski said in a 2021 tweet that fan games and art are usually allowed, “so long as no profit is involved”, though she stressed that each project is addressed on a case-by-case basis.

Fan projects are generally believed to exist in somewhat of a legal grey area, although for the most part they are technically considered copyright infringement, even if no profit is involved. Dyer says that he and Bitmap would still like to release the PDF of the book for free if possible, but is unsure if it will be allowed.

The Unofficial MD/GEN: A Visual Compendium would have featured hundreds of pages showcasing Mega Drive artwork and video games. Picture: Bitmap Books

Sega’s latest Sonic game, Sonic Frontiers, will be getting free DLC characters this year, one of which is said to add new characters to the game. It comes after a middling critical reception for the game, which is hovering around a score of 70/100 on score aggregator website Metacritic.

Sonic the Hedgehog also might be getting Lego this year, according to a prominent Lego insider and blogger. Lego fan site PromoBricks has a history of accurately reporting information about upcoming Lego sets, and says that as many as five new sets are on the way.

Written by Oliver Brandt on behalf of GLHF.