Update: Sega has responded to the cover, and has announced that the games official product page will hit sega.com tomorrow.

Several hours ago, a Nintendo Power cover surfaced on the popular gaming forum Neogaf. The scan clearly stated that the issue would reveal information on a new Sega IP titled “Sonic & The Black Knight”, however a few sites began to doubt its legitimacy.

Various Photoshop “investigators” went to work hoping to expose the cover as a fake. I decided to go a different route and check to see if SEGA registered the domain name.

It turns out that they most certainly did register sonicandtheblacknight.com on what appears to be July 2, 2008. Below is the domain information extracted directly from the Japan Whois database.

Registrant :
Sega Corporation
Haneda 1-2-12
Ohta-ku, Tokyo 144-8531
Japan
phone : 03-5275-2789 fax :

Domain Name : SONICANDTHEBLACKKNIGHT.COM

Administrative Contact:
Domain Administrator dommaster@mark-i.jp
Sega Corporation
Haneda 1-2-12
Ohta-ku, Tokyo 144-8531
Japan
phone : 03-5275-2789 fax :

Technical Contact:
Domain Administrator dommaster@mark-i.jp
Mark-i Inc.
3-3 Kojimachi 6F KDX Kojimachi bldg.
Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 102-0083
Japan
phone : +81.352752789 fax :

Record expires on 2009-07-02 18:28:04+09.
Record created on 2008-07-02 18:28:04.67985+09.
Database last updated on 2008-07-02 18:28:05.02004+09.

Name servers :
NS1.WEBHOSTING.JP
NS3.WEBHOSTING.JP

This record created at Wed Jul 02 18:31:59 JST 2008.