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Sega's released Sonic & Knuckles on RealOne arcade. You can download an hour free trial of it via this page, which also shows the system requirements you'll need to run the game. If you don't have RealOne arcade, it gets downloaded onto your hard drive. You can buy the game for $14.99, which gives you unlimited access. According to Sega.com you can get the lock on extras for Sonic 2 and 3, but this may be only by the paid version, or not actually a feature of the RealOne version of the game.

Sonic 1, 2, 3 and Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine are already available on RealOne arcade, and Sonic Spinball will apparantly be released later this month.

Sega have also released some Game Gear games for the Tungsten T palmtop, including the 8 bit versions of Sonic 1 and Dr. Robotniks Mean Bean Machine. This page has all the details.

Source: Sega.com

Sega has an upcoming new section dedicated to Sonic. You can see it here. There will be a Global Sonic, Games, McDonald's, Downloads, and Community areas once it's completely up.

Source: Sega

From Gamespot:

Both companies comment on the possibility of a merger.

Yesterday, Namco and Sega officially commented on the news of a possible merger between the two companies. Namco confirmed in its statement that it has requested a reopening of merger talks with Sega. Namco said that the two companies formed an alliance in the arcade field in September 2001, which led to talks of a merger last year. However, the talks have been halted since then, at Sega's request.

Sega said that it has received the proposal from Namco and will begin examining the offer carefully, especially since it is already in merger talks with Sammy. Sega hopes to come to a preliminary decision on April 23, when the company will hold its executive meeting.

Sammy, which hopes to close its proposed merger deal with Sega in May, said that it was not aware of any talks between Sega and Namco. Sammy has not finalized any merger plans with Sega as of yet, but it hopes to do so in May and merge in October.

Namco also added that the merger of the two companies would be highly beneficial in all fields of its business. Investors seem to agree: Since the Nikkei Journal broke the news, Namco's stock has risen 1.3 percent and Sega's stock has risen 15.72 percent. On the other hand, the merger of Sega and Sammy has been widely debated among investors, and when the merger talks were first announced in February, Sega and Sammy experienced a rapid decline in stock value.

The Nikkei Journal's Web site, Nikkei Net, reports that Namco hopes to begin the merger as early as the beginning of 2004. The Nikkei also reports that Namco proposed a stock merger ratio to Sega, and even said that Sega could be the surviving company brand. Namco has not commented on any details given by Nikkei Net, stating that no specific points have been decided on as of yet.

By Hirohiko Niizumi

Source: Gamespot