Latest news with #Sonic
Time of India
4 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Time of India
Sonic the Hedgehog meets DC Comics: New action figures and Funko POPs revealed
Image via Sonic Team In a bold crossover that blends the worlds of gaming and comics, Sega has teamed up with Warner Bros. Discovery, Jakks Pacific, and Funko to unveil a brand-new line of Sonic the Hedgehog x DC Comics merchandise. The announcement comes ahead of the much-anticipated game Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds and is part of Target's Summer Geek Out event. The collaboration follows the successful release of a limited comic book series earlier this year, which featured Sonic and friends suiting up as members of the Justice League. The unique pairing of two iconic universes was a hit among fans and critics alike, paving the way for an expanded range of collectibles. — sonic_hedgehog (@sonic_hedgehog) What's in the new Sonic x DC line-up? The latest launch includes two major collectible series, action figures by Jakks Pacific and Funko POPs. Both lines feature beloved Sonic characters reimagined as DC superheroes: Sonic as The Flash Silver as Green Lantern Shadow as Batman Amy as Wonder Woman Knuckles as Superman Tails as Cyborg Jakks Pacific's collection offers a 4-pack Power vs Speed set priced at $59.99, featuring Sonic, Silver, Shadow, and DC villain Darkseid. Additionally, 5-inch individual figures of Sonic, Silver, and Amy will be sold separately at $14.99 each. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Your Finger Shape Says a Lot About Your Personality, Read Now Tips and Tricks Undo Funko's Sonic x DC POP series includes all six crossover characters and has already witnessed high demand, with preorder stocks selling out quickly. The Funko figures are expected to ship in July and August, while Jakks Pacific's toys are scheduled to begin delivery from October 1, 2025. All items will be available exclusively via Target's online and retail stores in the US. Fans react with excitement and curiosity The crossover announcement has generated significant buzz on social media. While some fans praised the hero-character choices, others expressed hope for international availability. One fan tweeted, 'Sonic as Flash? Hilarious, but overkill!', while another called it 'the perfect hero pairing'. This Sonic x DC collaboration is part of Sega's broader push to expand the franchise beyond gaming. With recent partnerships like Magic: The Gathering and McLaren Racing, Sega is tapping into new audiences and keeping Sonic front and centre. Excitement is also building around Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds, the upcoming game that's already gaining traction among fans. The steady stream of crossovers and collectibles is helping maintain momentum ahead of its release. Looking ahead, fans can expect more creative collaborations and surprises from the Sonic brand. For now, the DC crossover offers a fun and collectible glimpse into what's shaping up to be a blockbuster year for the blue blur. Also Read: Death Stranding 2: How to claim the pre-order bonuses Game On Season 1 continues with Mirabai Chanu's inspiring story. Watch Episode 2 here.
Yahoo
19 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Amazon takes a big hit in the AI talent wars
Amazon takes a big hit in the AI talent wars originally appeared on TheStreet. Another day and another spicy development in the AI talent wars! Meta Platform's () Scale AI deal kicked the AI talent war into overdrive, and other tech giants are following suit. 💵💰💰💵 It's an AI hiring spree, and some of the finest tech talent could rake in record-breaking AI research salaries. Lately, if a tech giant misses the boat, that's essentially letting Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook fortune write checks to poach their best generative AI talent. Needless to say, the scramble is only getting more ruthless. Over the past few months, we've seen the hunt for the top AI researchers and engineers has turned into a full-blown AI talent tech has been itching for what seems like a small pool of people who can push generative models, large language systems, and next-gen AI forward. Breakthrough AI, including lifelike chatbots like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Grok, has made it crucial to lock down top talent fast. Meta, in particular, has been especially aggressive in chasing top AI talent. Just this month, it snagged three senior researchers from OpenAI's Zurich lab, including Lucas Beyer, Alexander Kolesnikov, and Xiaohua Zhai. This comes just weeks after CEO Sam Altman blasted Meta for offering nine-figure offers to poach his team. Meanwhile, Meta locked in a massive deal with Scale AI, dropping $14.8 billion for a 49% nonvoting stake. More importantly, that deal gives Meta direct access to Scale's 28-year-old CEO, Alexandr Wang, to help turn its artificial general intelligence dream into a reality. The massive Scale AI acquisition underscored the importance of valuable, top-notch, human-labeled data. Meta's big bet highlights that owning the data pipeline matters; it could potentially gain a decisive edge in building those flashy generative AI models. Meta's moves have already shaken up the whole tech space. Google's looking to cut ties with Scale to keep Meta out of its training secrets, and Microsoft's bringing in its data labeling in-house. More Tech Stock News: Circle's stock price surges after stunning CEO comment Veteran analyst drops bold new call on Nvidia stock Analyst reboots AMD stock price target on chip update Even startups like Anthropic and xAI are looking to scoop up the best talent in competing against the big guys. According to a Reuters report, Vasi Philomin, a vice president of generative AI at Amazon () , has left the company. Philomin told Reuters he's headed to another company without any was one of the major forces behind Amazon Titan and Bedrock, spending eight years shaping strategy. These pillars have become critical in Amazon Web Services' push to make AI plug-and-play for any customer. Moreover, he also helped the tech giant launch Nova for multimodal tasks and Sonic for lifelike speech, keeping pace with ChatGPT, Gemini, and Grok. He also helped plug Anthropic's Claude (from Amazon's $8 billion Anthropic investment) into Alexa, showing off Amazon's powerful playbook. Philomin's exit comes at a time when the top AI talent turns into tech's priciest prize. The top tech leaders are reportedly using sports-style scouting to find hidden talent and dropping $100 million signing bonuses to attract talent. For Amazon, losing one of its key AI architects is a big wake-up call. Despite pouring billions into big-name deals and research efforts, Amazon is at risk of its rivals snapping up its generative AI talent. Though Rajesh Sheth (formerly of Elastic Block Store) is already handling the bulk of Philomin's work, the need for a deep bench of AI leaders ready to shape models, products, and strategy is as imperative as ever. Big picture? Philomin's move is just another sign that the top minds in the AI space hold all the cards right takes a big hit in the AI talent wars first appeared on TheStreet on Jun 27, 2025 This story was originally reported by TheStreet on Jun 27, 2025, where it first appeared.
Time of India
20 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Time of India
Sonic the Hedgehog x Magic the Gathering collab coming soon; Here's everything you need to know
Magic the Gathering (MTG) is adding to its Secret Lair releases with a Sonic the Hedgehog collaboration. The Secret Lair series refers to the trading card game's limited-time releases that feature special artwork and can only be purchased directly from Wizards of the Coast, in contrast to most randomized card packs that are available at local game retailers. Sonic the Hedgehog's collaboration with MTG comes on the heels of several other high-profile Secret Lair drops, including crossovers with Final Fantasy, Spongebob Squarepants and Deadpool. Among the Sonic the Hedgehog collaboration packs is the Turbo Gear, and it will consist of seven preexisting MTG cards, which will be redrawn with Sonic the Hedgehog artwork. The Sonic the Hedgehog cards will be exclusive to Secret Lair's website We're incredibly excited to announce that Sonic the Hedgehog is coming to Magic: The Gathering in the new @MTGSecretLair x Sonic Superdrop!Three unique drops beginning July 14th. Stay tuned! The Sonic the Hedgehog cards can only be purchased via MTG's Secret Lair website. The Turbo Gear drop is expected to occur on July 14, at 9 am PT. The Secret Lair cards are of limited quantity, and will cost $29.99 for the non-foil version, and $39.99 for the foil version. The Turbo Gear drop isn't the only collaboration MTG is doing with Sonic, but, all the drops are meant to complement each other. The Turbo Gear cards are confirmed to be Sonic-themed redraws of seven MTG cards that are as follows: Sonic's Biplane (Weatherlight), Knuckes's Gloves (The Reaver Cleaver), Air Shoes (Swiftfoot boots), Egg Hammer (Myr Battlesphere), Piko Piko Hammer (Hammer of Nazalm), Power Sneakers (Lightning Greaves), Egg Pawn (Myr). Magic the Gathering has done several high-profile collabs Seven more cards from Secret Lair x Sonic! 🌀💨#MTGSecretLair Star City Games (@StarCityGames) June 27, 2025 Seven more cards from Secret Lair x Sonic! 🌀💨#MTGSecretLair Magic the Gathering's Secret Lair series was first introduced in 2020 in an effort to boost direct sales from Wizards of the Coast's own websites. From 2020 to 2023, these Secret Lair releases were print-on-demand, meaning that they had no preexisting inventory and were instead produced as per player demand. Starting in 2024, Secret Lair has shifted to the limited-print model, thus paving the way for several high-profile collaborations with renowned IPs. Among their most ambitious collabs has been with Final Fantasy, where the drops consisted of an entire draftable set of MTG cards.
Hindustan Times
20 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Hindustan Times
Magic: The Gathering teams up with Sonic the Hedgehog for Secret Lair crossover. All you need to know
Magic: The Gathering, a collectable card game from Hasbro, is all set to roll out three new card collections in collaboration with Sega's Sonic the Hedgehog. These will be based on the highly popular Sonic universe, Variety reported. This comes after Magic: The Gathering witnessed several Secret Lair crossovers in 2025, from popular ones like SpongeBob to Deadpool. Magic: The Gathering teams up with Sonic the Hedgehog for Secret Lair crossover As part of the latest partnership, fans will soon get to witness several of the Sonic the Hedgehog characters reimagined as Magic: The Gathering cards. The Secret Lair card sets will be one-off, limited-time offerings from the two brands. These remain different from the main cycle of Magic cards, which Wizards of the Coast has been releasing on a regular basis. Among these is the all-new Secret Lair x Sonic: Friends & Foes collection. A description for the same, according to Variety, stated that the drop will feature seven new designs in total. These will help bring the popular Sonic the Hedgehog characters to life. 'Wizards of the Coast paired the new card designs with original art, including some from fan-favourite Sonic artists doing their first-ever work for Magic: The Gathering cards,' it added. Among the Sonic the Hedgehog characters who have been featured in the seven cards under the Secret Lair collection are Sonic the Hedgehog, Super State and Shadow the Hedgehog. Other famous characters include Miles Prower, Dr. Eggman, Amy Rose and Knuckles the Echidna. Apart from Secret Lair x Sonic: Friends & Foes, the other two collections under Secret Lair include Secret Lair x Sonic: Turbo Gear and Secret Lair x Sonic: Chasing Adventure. How to get them? Fans will be able to get their hands on the Secret Lair collections from 9 AM PT on July 14. These will be made available at For Secret Lair x Sonic: Friends & Foes, people will have to pay $39.99 for the standard edition and $49.99 for the foil version. Similarly, the standard edition of Secret Lair x Sonic: Chasing Adventure can be purchased for $29.99, and $39.99 is set for the foil version. The same pricing applies to Secret Lair x Sonic: Turbo Gear -- $29.99 for standard and $39.99 for foil. FAQs: 1. Which Sonic the Hedgehog characters will be featured in the Secret Lair collection? These include Sonic the Hedgehog, Super State, Shadow the Hedgehog, Amy Rose, Knuckles the Echidna, Miles Prower and Dr. Eggman. 2. How to purchase the Secret Lair collection? Fans can buy the new cards from 3. What is Magic: The Gathering? It is a collectable and digital trading card game.
Yahoo
20 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Sonic The Hedgehog Is McLaren's Newest Brand Ambassador, Even Though He's Faster On Foot
Who's Lando Norris? Move over, McLaren has a new brand ambassador, and he's one of the most dashing, debonair, and well loved celebrities on the entire planet. No, not Brad Pitt — we're talking about none other than Sonic the Hedgehog. A video game hero since the early 1990s, Sonic has officially inked a deal with McLaren Racing. This makes his parent company SEGA the "Official Gaming Partner of McLaren Racing." This actually isn't the first time Sonic and the House of Papaya have crossed paths. Way back in 1993, when Sonic was all the rage, he was no less than the actual trophy at the European Grand Prix, won by McLaren's own legend, Ayrton Senna. But that was back when the hedgehog was young. Now he's all grown up, and while his archrival Mario remains stuck in karting leagues, the big blue boy has made it all the way to Formula 1. Even though he's faster on foot. What a champ. Read more: Every 2025 Formula 1 Livery, Ranked From Worst To Best McLaren says that the partnership with SEGA will bring "creative integrations and experiences that fuse the worlds of motorsport and gaming, and engage audiences of all ages both on the grid and screen." Oscar Piastri as a character in the next Sonic racing game, maybe? Certainly, as F1 flirts with esports and the video game world more, a direct pairing between the two industries makes sense. Both companies also have big milestones next year: Sonic turns 35 (I remember when he was just a pup!), and McLaren will race in its 1,000th Grand Prix. In fact, the joint festivities begin as soon as next week. The orange-shirted ones will descend on Trafalgar Square for McLaren Racing Live: London on July 2-3. Netflix heartthrob Zak Brown will be there, as well as some classic McLaren cars, Q&A sessions with team members, and, of course, merch. SEGA will be there, too. The real question, naturally, will be whether or not Sonic becomes a trophy again. No word on that one, but if you just believe, it will happen. As to when the first Green Hill Zone Grand Prix will be, you'd have to check the 2026 F1 calendar. Want more like this? Join the Jalopnik newsletter to get the latest auto news sent straight to your inbox... Read the original article on Jalopnik.
