Four days before the game's release, Sonic & All Stars Racing Transformed was already getting suggestions from its community for future downloadable content additions. Steve Lycett of Sumo Digital, the game's developer, popped into the thread, joked about how tough it was to please the fans, then set down a challenge: if they could come up with a way to pick three characters, he'd present the results to Sega.
Well, they've somewhat called Lycett's bluff. Three characters, in an online vote, have satisfied his demands of getting at least 1,000 votes by Dec. 1, in a campaign massing nearly 15,000 votes overall. So far Hatsune Miku, Segata Sanshiro (the Sega Saturn mascot), Ryo Hazuki of Shenmue each have more than 2,000 votes.
The next two closest characters are Vectorman at 939 and Bayonetta at 890, which could push them over the 1,000 vote tally but still well short of these top three. With no guarantees Sega will go for any of these choices, it may not hurt for Lycett to have some alternates.
The game is set up for downloadable content releases (you get Metal Sonic and two Outrun tracks, locked on the disc, with the game's "Bonus Edition") but Sega hasn't made any plans official yet. However, changing your system's date to Nov. 21, unlocks Alex Kidd as a racer, a kind of Christmas present for the community.
S0L's Challenge: The Campaign for SEGA characters to become DLC. [Sega forums; thanks Skyler O.]