SEGA wipes Sonic 4 leaderboards

By Robert Purchese Published 29 November, 2010

Legitimate scores are collateral.

SEGA has wiped all scores from the Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode I leaderboards because some gamers were cheating.

Impossible times of 0 seconds and scores of 99999990 have been rubbed out, but so too have legitimate accomplishments. What's more, there's apparently nothing to prevent the hackers reposting these illegitimate results.

SEGA forum administrator RubyEclipse defended the decision (via Destructoid). "The reset was not useless - and is far better than simply leaving even more hacked times up there," RubyEclipse wrote.

"It's not a long-term solution, but while we look into what options there are to combat this effectively for good, I think it's very important to do what we can in the short-term, too."

"Be patient, guys - we're working on it, but an effective solution is not something that can be rushed."

Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode I was released in October. It totally prickled our fancy.

Sonic pricks his battles.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds. @Clert on Twitter.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (19) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • NewbieZilla #1 2 years ago

    Better to get it in now, than have people spend more time trying to get great runs, and then having it removed. This way, people can hold off till a permanent fix is done. Assuming that ever happens.

  • Toothball #2 2 years ago

    Not really that surprising. But without a fix the cheated scores will go back up, and people who got real ones won't bother retrying if it looks like their efforts will go to waste again. If you haven't been following Sega's various online efforts in recent times, this is pretty much what to expect from them these days.

  • darkmorgado #3 2 years ago

    Now do the same to Sonic All-Stars Racing, and I might actually go back to that game.

  • levitate #4 2 years ago

    Are people actually cheating at Sonic? I'm stunned, mankind has truly devolved lately.

  • mfnick #5 2 years ago

    Are you kidding?! I spent ages setting some of my times! & theres still no fix for it... So you're basically only punishing the legit players as the cheaters can just set their times again in moments. Whereas I spent hours - literally - getting 1 as-close-to-perfect run as I could.

    Thanks a lot SEGA.

  • Eraser #6 2 years ago

    If these illegitimate times and scores are so obvious to spot, then why not simply only remove those times? Or just leave them be, if I had the #4 time which is legit and I saw three "0 seconds" times before it, I'd know I was the real number 1.

  • fizzyfish #7 2 years ago

    "It's not a long-term solution"

    It's not ANY kind of solution. A non-persistent leaderboard tracks nothing by definition, hacked or legitimate. They should just take them down and (if its an option, I don't know) stop accepting submissions until the solution is worked out.

    @Eraser
    Perhaps the exploit allows for any score to be submitted and not just 'perfect' scores? If so, someone could repeatably submit a believable score that narrowly beats the current best (legitimate-looking) score to stay in the top spot while avoiding immediate suspicion.
    Edited by fizzyfish at 29/11/10 @ 12:13

  • patootik #8 2 years ago

    Why the F**K would anyone cheat in a video game time trial leader board?! There's no prize, no cash bonus, no satisfaction, no dignity, what could there possibly be to gain? I am dumbfounded.

    Also with times like 0 seconds wouldn't it be pretty easy to tell the hacked times from the genuine ones therefore allowing people to simply remove them from the equation when trying to work out where they stand on the leader board?

    Maybe they could have some kind of flagging system where the community highlights the clearly hacked times/scores and then the mods can check it out and remove it if it's a cheated time.

    Feel very sorry for those out there putting in many frustrating hours to get a little personal satisfaction only for a few sick f**ks to ruin it for them. Hope they get this sorted.

  • Stuz359 #9 2 years ago

    I remember competing on the original Sonic for game times. I knew I had one level perfect, there was no way I could be any faster, but I always saw times that were a couple of seconds faster than mine. Turns out they were all playing the NTSC version whereas I was playing my PAL version. Same with Super Mario Kart. Cheating fucks, it was a UK magazine.

  • Hog-lumps #10 2 years ago

    As a crude measure couldn't they calculate the time for the screen to pass at full run speed "as the crow flys" start to finish on each level (i.e. ignoring platform/routes) and then delete all times below this? Okay there may be cheaters just above this impossible time - but it would go a long way to removing the majority of cheaters without penalising the legit times......

  • asphaltcowboy #11 2 years ago

    Why wouldn't you wait until you had a fix before removing all the times?

  • Mono_X #12 2 years ago

    "So you're basically only punishing the legit players"

    @mfnick

    It's like when you were at school and the teacher would make the whole class stay in during break as punishment because of one kid.

    Basically Sega want you find a cheater and punch them in the teeth.

    Has this occurred on all platforms.

  • Toothball #13 2 years ago

    @patootik

    The reason that someone would cheat on a leaderboard like this is mostly because that they can.

  • Huxamalay #14 2 years ago

    If I were any good at Sonic 4 I'd be seething right now, its a good thing my scores / times are beyond shit

  • homerramone #15 2 years ago

    Theres a real simple solution to all the leaderboard cheating that goes on..

    Make leaderboards show friends only !

    Then if people wanna cheat they are only going to impress their mates - who will know they cheated.. and so are likely not going to be impressed.

  • mfnick #16 2 years ago

    @Mono - Except this has just made me pissed off at SEGA. Those times are just a group of faceless Gamertags that - while annoying - are quite easy to ignore. & this type of thing is normal with most games these days. However I expect the devs to sort the problem without screwing the legit players over. How much harder can it be to delete the 0 time scores than all of them?

    Those times got on my nerves when I looked at the leaderboards, but id rather just ignore them than have all my hard work wiped. Sega are going about this in completely the wrong way. Especially since they havent even solved the problem. In the article it says "far better than simply leaving even more hacked times up there" - is it fuck. The cheating times are obvious & easy to ignore. Id rather just figure out my position than have it deleted alltogether. Twats.

  • FuzzyDuck #17 2 years ago

    In other news, there's a certain group of gamers that really, really need to get laid.

  • rayscoota #18 2 years ago

    The best way would be to suppy some form of ghost data with the time, then they could be checked for cheating.

  • lucky_jim #19 2 years ago

    Isn't this kind of thing against the Xbox Live terms of service? Surely the best option would be for Microsoft and Sony to perma-ban these people from XBL/ PSN. You know, like Microsoft do if they suspect you of piracy: it's obviously do-able.