What you need to know
- The official Google Play Store account revealed that he doesn’t know what was supposed to be a fun throwback to an iconic video character anything via Sonic the Hedgehog on X (formerly Twitter).
- Every single post in the X thread was accompanied by a community note pointing out the glaring and obvious inaccuracies.
- In the end, we heard from Sonic himself, who joined the X users and poked fun at the original Google Play Store thread.
The official Google Play Store account on X (formerly Twitter) often highlights video games, characters, and pop culture moments on its page. But what was supposed to be a fun throwback to one of the most famous video game characters of all time backfired on the Play Store’s social media team. In a thread about the history of Sonic the Hedgehog, the Google Play Store account got it all wrong, and we mean that literally everything.
The original premise was: “Sonic, but the further you scroll, the older he gets.” Seems simple, right? All you had to do was find pictures of Sonic throughout the story and list them in chronological order. For the Play Store, it was anything but that.
Things started off on the wrong foot when the Play Store tried to show an image of Sonic from 1991, but there was just one problem. Tails was featured in the corner of the picture and Tails was not introduced as a character until the following year. A 2013 version of the original game was actually shown on the Play Store, dubbed “8-Bit Glory.” In fact, the original 1991 Sega Genesis version of Sonic was a 16-bit game.
Sonic, but the further you scroll the older he gets – a thread 🧶🧵April 27, 2024
Do you think the errors stopped there? Think again. When the Play Store tried to find an image of Sonic from 1993, it shared one from 2014 instead. It’s pretty obvious to everyone, even those who don’t have a knack for Sonic, that the Sonic design in this post so was not from 1993.
Instead of showing the 1996 Sonic, the Play Store released a 2013 iteration. Instead of a 2003 version of Sonic, we got a 2005 version. Trying to show off the 2006 character, a post shared 2017’s Sonic. And in a truly notable glitch, the Play Store ended up correctly displaying the original 1991 game – but called it “2018 Sonic”, which “looked oddly like Sonic from the ’90s”.
Originally, we thought the Play Store finally got it right when it posted a screenshot from the Sonic the Hedgehog movie and claimed it was a sample of 2020 Sonic. But as it turns out, this frame is from second Sonic film released in 2022. Wrong again.
2020 Sonic. It’s been a strange year for all of us, let’s leave it at that 😵💫 pic.twitter.com/ngNp2seo5mApril 27, 2024
Of course, Community Notes had a field day with all of these errors and covered the entire thread with corrections. In the end, the official Sonic the Hedgehog himself chimed in: