More free stuff! And it’s Friday – Free Stuff … Friday! This week we have a fun collection of prizes, we return with a video, and we have a special guest! As you might have heard, we have a new community manager in the halls of SEGA – Kate! Prizes, details, Kate and Julian – all below in the video, enjoy!

On the Block

1. Sonic Headphones & Awesome Neon Sonic Shirt! The headphones! They are back and they are still awesome. Even more awesome – we have one of the coolest shirts we’ve seen in a while – it’s a hit amongst our team. Neon. Sonic. Lacking in awesome or wanting to boost your overall awesome – look no further!

2. The House of the Dead Overkill – Wii Press kit! It’s coming to PlayStation 3 next week, so we have some House of the Dead goodies to pass out in the form of a fake VHS video cassette. This outdated technology once was used to show moving pictures! Inside we have one post card and one shirt, as well as the special cassette box.

3. Happy Tree Friends Wacky Wobbler! This prize is a throwback to our Happy Tree Friends downloadable title and is pretty cool. Featuring character Flippy in full wobble format it is also signed by Ken Pontac, writer on the Happy Tree Friends series! A true collectible!

4. Sonic Boom Shirt, Sonic CD Lanyard, Sonic Generations Buttons, and Sega Bag! Wow, big prize pack here for a big Sonic fan! The Sonic Boom shirts and Sonic Generations buttons were passed out only at our Sonic Boom event, the Sonic CD Lanyard and SEGA bag was a special giveaway at our Penny Arcade Expo event. Sonic Boom shirt is available in Small, Medium, and Large

5. Sonic Mini Figures Classic Collectors Set! Also a hit from previous giveaways! This pack includes all your favorites including Sonic, Super Sonic, Knuckles, Amy, and more!

6. Aliens Infestation Lenticular Print & Frame! This Aliens Infestation lenticular celebrates the 2D pixel art from WayForward. Featuring a battle between alien and colonial marine – this piece is a pretty unique giveaway that we made to promote the recent Nintendo DS game.

How it Works

1. You must be following us on Twitter to be eligible. (If you don’t have a Twitter account, you can create one by going to http://www.twitter.com and click the green “get started — join!” button in the center of the page.)

2. At random times on Friday, we will announce the prize we are giving away, a word or phrase, and what number of response you need to be to win. Send us a direct message (DM) via Twitter and be that number to win the prize. (@ replies do not count as entries!)

Example:

We tweet “GIVEAWAY: Sonic T-shirt, size L. Be the 15th person to DM “Sonic Adventure” to win!”

You see this, and want to win it, so you send us a direct message that says “Sonic Adventure”. If you are the 15th person to do so, you are the winner!

Quotation marks do not matter, capitalization does not matter, but spelling does matter!

3. All followers are eligible to win all prizes, unless a restriction is noted. Restrictions are usually due to the prize being region-locked. For example, US games that won’t work on UK gaming systems. There may also be age restrictions due to the rating of the game.

4. We will announce the winner on our Twitter feed once eligibility is confirmed.

How to Send Direct Messages on Twitter

Due to a change in our account status with Twitter, you should be able to send us direct messages without us following you.

There are a few ways to send us a Direct Message on Twitter. The easiest way is to go to our Twitter page and select “message” under the “Actions” heading in the side bar. If you do not see “message”, this means that we are not following you. Please send a message to @sega to let us know, and we will follow you. When you click “message” you will be taken to a window where you can type a message and press send.

You may also select the “direct messages” tab from your Twitter homepage, and select SEGA from the drop-down menu at the top of the page. Again, if you don’t see our name there, it’s probably because we’re not following you. Let us know, and we’ll follow you.

There are also many Twitter clients that you can use instead of using the website. These include TweetDeck, Twitteriffic, Tweetie, and Twhirl. Each of these programs works differently, so you’ll want to figure out how to send a direct message on the program you use. If you want to send us a test message, we’ll let you know if we received it or not.

With the holidays right around the corner, now is the perfect time to pick up a few goodies at a discount! Now through November 1^st, select North American titles on the PlayStation Network are available at special prices.

Nothing to wear for Halloween? POW – Dress your Home avatar in the Alpha Protocol Tactical Gear pack for only $14.99!  10 hour drive to grandma’s house for Thanksgiving?  BAM – pick up the SEGA Genesis Collection for PSP for the low price of $12.99! Need a Christmas gift for yourself? KAPLOW – SEGA Rally Online Arcade for PS3 is only $6.99. A complete listing of sale items is below.

PlayStation 3:

Crazy Taxi: $6.99 (30% off)

SEGA Rally Online Arcade: $6.99 (30% off)

Gunstar Heroes: $2.99 (50% off)

Alpha Protocol Tactical Gear pack: $14.99

PSP:

SEGA Genesis Collection: $12.99 (20% off)

Crazy Taxi: $6.99 (30% off)

Phantasy Star Portable 2: $19.99 (50% off)

Valkyria Chronicles II & Valkyria 2 DLC Pack 2: $22.99 (almost 50% off), $13.79 for PlayStation Plus members (almost 70% off)

Get your first look at Wii gameplay for Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games in this trailer, which features London Party Mode.

On your marks and get set for the world’s greatest sporting event as Mario & Sonic head to the London 2012 Olympic Games. Coming exclusively to Wii and for the first time on Nintendo 3DS, Mario & Sonic return in an all new celebration of the Olympic spirit. Hosted within the truly iconic setting of London, the games are back, bigger and better than ever before, bringing even more multiplayer fun and excitement to friends and families everywhere.

Attention, Spiral Knights!

We have an exciting new release, including new elite ranks of boss levels, and a special Harvest event – live now in the Clockworks!

Shadow Lair Levels

The wheels deep beneath Haven have been turning, and something wicked this way comes: The Shadow Lairs have fallen into place, looming ominously within the shadowy shadows of the shadow-halls of the darkened shadow-dark of Floor 23.
Heed the shadows! This is no ordinary level set, but nightmare renditions of the most challenging levels of the Boss Levels of the Clockworks. They are for the hard-core elite rank of Knights only. You will need Tier 3 gear, and that gear will need to be ideal for the Shadow Lair, the shadows of which you are assailing:

• Gloaming Wildwoods: The Snarbolax chortles as he galumphs through the tolvey woods, deadlier and even more frumious than usual.
• Royal Jelly Palace: Winter has come to the Palace – shiver with cold and terror in your suit of armor, as you take on the stone-cold jelly mistress, the Ice Queen!
• Ironclaw Munitions Factory: More explosions and an even more-ultimate ultimate weapon!
• Firestorm Citadel: The citadel has been cursed, and the hordes you fought through before have been transformed – behold and witness, the mighty Darkfire Vanaduke!

All Shadow Lairs feature the following rewards:

• Increased Crown and Heat payouts
• All treasure blocks are red treasure blocks
• All boss monsters drop double boss tokens
• Unique 5* materials guaranteed for each successful run
• Unique 5* gear that can be crafted, including the Heavenly Iron Armor, the Snarbolax Coat, Ice Queen Crown, Mercurial Demo Suit, Arcane Salamander Suit and the Almirian Crusader Armor.
• A very special artifact with unique properties…

For more information, including accessing the Shadow Lair, check the Spiral Knights release notes at the official site!

The Dark Harvest Festival

Krogmo is not the only King on Cradle – the delightfully mischievous and mischievously delightful Punkin King has arrived in Haven, celebrating the Harvest, darkly, until November 1st!

Whatever magic comes with the harvest has filtered down into the clockworks itself, and all Clockwork Tunnels-style levels (such as Power Complexes and Blast Chambers) now have a chance to spawn special rooms inhabited by the Punkin monarch himself: give him a visit, and see what he has in store for you – candy tokens, or perhaps something else …
‘Tis also the season for dressing up in awesome costumes, and the Candy Tokens can be exchanged in the Haven Town Square for gnarly masks! These include:

- Paper Frankenzom Mask (lasts 2 weeks)
- Paper Phantom Mask (lasts 2 weeks)
- Paper Spookat Mask (lasts 2 weeks)
- Replica Frankenzom Mask (lasts 2 weeks)
- Replica Phantom Mask (lasts 2 weeks)
- Replica Spookat Mask (lasts 2 weeks)
- Authentic Frankenzom Mask (lasts forever!)
- Authentic Phantom Mask (lasts forever!)
- Authentic Spookat Mask (lasts forever!)

This event ends November 1st, so gather ye candy tokens while ye may!