SEGA News

The Creative Assembly will focus more on offline real-time strategy games following cancellation of Hyenas

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After having ceased production on Hyenas in September, SEGA says developer The Creative Assembly will shift focus back to doing what they do best: real-time strategy games. SEGA CFO and Koichi Fukazawa stated:

To put it simply, Creative Assembly was good at offline games in the RTS genre, but they took on the challenge of developing Hyenas, an online game in the FPS genre. However, although the game itself was good, we decided to cancel the development of Hyenas because we did not think it would reach a quality that would satisfy our users when we considered whether we could really operate this as a competitive online game for a long period of time.

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Sonic the Hedgehog 3 movie production photo shares first tease of Shadow the Hedgehog’s new look

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While yes, Shadow the Hedgehog officially made his theatrical debut in a mid-credits scene for the second Sonic the Hedgehog movie, it is worth noting that the model was largely a modified Sonic model intended only for that brief tease. Tails and Sonic also saw redesigns between their appearances in the first film and the second.

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SEGA Announces Virtua Fighter 3tb Online for Arcades in Japan

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SEGA announced Virtua Fighter 3tb Online for arcades in Japan during the Amusement Expo in Tokyo Big Sight event before beginning the “APM3” exhibition match event for Virtua Fighter esports. The game will have similar features seen in Virtua Fighter esports (Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown in US & EU) such as national matches, in-store matches, password competition with friends, ability to use Aime cards to save progress, and change from original and arrange BGM.

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Newly uncovered Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM) concept art gives us an early look at a robotic Dr. Robotnik

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Way back in 1991, when Sonic the Hedgehog burst onto the scene in his debut game, the title made such an impact in the west that TV networks and animation studios scrambled to create an animated series starring the blue blur. With Sonic came his cast of video game co-stars however at the time Sonic’s stable of characters was quite small. Outside of the little animal friends and badniks, we had Sonic, Eggman (localized as Doctor Robotnik) and eventually, in 1992, Tails. The first animated series to get the green light was what fans affectionately call “Sonic SatAM” or just “SatAM” as the series aired weekly on ABC Saturday mornings. This series retained Sonic, Tails and Robotnik, but also expanded the cast to include the Freedom Fighters as well as a lackey for Robotnik named Snively.

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SEGA News Bits Live: Sonic Dream Team Revealed

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I had the strangest dream. Sonic and friends went on an adventure inside my iPhone and… oh wait, it’s real! Sonic Dream Team was announced and on SEGA News Bits Live, Barry takes a look at all the details revealed about the Apple Arcade exclusive game.

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Marza Animation releases Halloween animated short “Ghost Tale”, a Sonic Unleashed: Night of the Werehog sequel

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SEGA’s animation studio, Marza Animation Planet, has been teasing something relating to the ghost girl and her two ghostly admirers throughout the year and we finally know what that is!

As a Halloween treat, Marza Animation Planet released “Ghost Tale”, an animated short featuring the ghosts from 2008’s “Sonic Unleashed: Night of the Werehog” animated short. While Sonic does not feature, there is a visual of the werehog on a poster in the background. It’s great seeing these fan favorite characters return, and here’s hoping the appear in more animated shorts or other media in the future!

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G FUEL unveils Amy Rose Strawberry Shortcake energy drink powder and collectible shaker!

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Energy drink company G FUEL has unveiled their latest Sonic the Hedgehog drink flavor, this time celebrating Amy Rose who turns 30 years old this year with her 1993 debut in Sonic CD. The drink is pink, obviously, and the flavor is strawberry shortcake. You can pick it up as an individual powder canister or a collector’s box with a canister and a pink shaker featuring Amy’s name and likeness! If you’d like to show SEGAbits some support, use promo code “SEGABITS” to save 20% on your purchase. The product is expected to ship in November, perfect timing for Thanksgiving dinner!

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The Creative Assembly suffers layoffs and Hyenas gets cancelled

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This certainly is not The Creative Assembly’s finest hour. Their all new multiplayer shooter (And the subject of one of my first written articles here on SegaBits) Hyenas has been unceremoniously cancelled in a brief recent SegaSammy financial report. Citing “lower profitability in the European region”, the decision was made from on high to axe Hyenas, along with several unannounced titles being developed there. As if to throw salt on the wound, Hyenas’s UK-based developer The Creative Assembly, known for Alien Isolation and the Total War series, is also suffering layoffs. All this comes according to a report from Eurogamer, which you can read here. The above message was also taken from the official Hyenas Twitter page.

This comes as a shock as Hyenas was just demoed at Gamescom only last month and in a recent closed PC beta just this month, along with a few all new trailers getting released. The developers even seemed rather enthusiastic about the game’s reception, in spite of any challenges with development, as referenced in an interview Eurogamer did with representatives of Creative Assembly at that very same Gamescom event. It truly goes to show that you can never be too certain what will happen behind closed doors in the world of game development. I can only hope the staff being let go have little trouble finding new jobs and supporting themselves and their families.

Are you sad to see Hyenas canned? I know I am, especially cause I never even got to participate in any of the betas. Maybe any of you who did can tell us about your experiences in the comments below? I’d especially appreciate it.

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Several Sega Forever mobile games unceremoniously delisted + End of Service announcement

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Remember Sega Forever, and how that started out in 2017 as Sega Europe’s initiative to bring classic Sega games to mobile app stores as free, ad-supported games? Well, Sega Forever is now “Sega For-never,” as more than half of the games released through Sega Forever have now been delisted from the Apple App Store and Google Play Store without so much as an official announcement. On top of that, the games now display an “End of Service” message like the one shown above saying that the games will remain playable, but will lose their online features, which amounted to save states being stored online, leaderboards, and offering you the option to pay $1.99 USD to play without ads. It also has a “More Info” button to show you where else the games available through Sega Forever can be played, but it only currently leads to Sega’s home page. (The above message comes from the Space Harrier II Classic app. I have not been able to confirm if the non-Genesis games display a message like this.)

Check in past the break to see what the remaining games are, as well as some more unsettling news…

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Like a Dragon Gaiden’s opening movie and main theme “Katatoki” released featuring Yojiro Noda & Rapper JID

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SEGA has released Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name, this opening movie really shows a contrast to Like a Dragon Infinite Wealth, which is more upbeat story trailers featuring the main cast on an adventure; Like a Dragon Gaiden shows Kazuma Kiryu on the other hand living in the shadows.

What is Kazuma Kiryu doing? What he does best, hanging out at bars and smoking cigarettes.

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Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth Trailer shows improved gameplay, guest stars Danny Trejo joining cast and looks tropically amazing

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Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth might be breaking my hype meter, I was on the fence when SEGA revealed that Yakuza: Like a Dragon would take the game from action gameplay to turn-base and not only that replace our favorite hero Kazuma Kiryu. But after playing Yakuza: Like a Dragon, the new combat system, characters and story have become my favorite in the franchise. I did feel like one of the only things holding it back was a more fleshed out combat system and it looks like the team is working overtime to deliver not just making our hero Ichiban a fish out of water in Hawaii, the first time the series has visited America, but also improving a lot of the gameplay. Like the ability to move your characters and actually refocusing on how the characters use items in their paths being shown so far. While the trailer has also shown brand new jobs, I think an issue with the previous title was that only a few jobs where viable in the long run. While new jobs are great, I hope they are all good enough to play in their own way and it isn’t like the previous game where only a few really viable to play high level.

OH AND SEGA BASS FISHING AND SPIKEOUT ARE AVIALBLE TO PLAY IN ARCADES! WE WILL ALSO FIND OUT ABOUT ICHIBAN’S MOM! HYPE METER TO 100%!

You can also check out the ten minute story trailer after the jump, this story trailer shows the first American celebrity to be featured in a Yakuza/Like a Dragon game, Machete himself Danny Trejo!:

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Sonic Superstars gets fantastic “Trio of Trouble” animated short

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One thing that I have loved about the recent classic Sonic the Hedgehog games have been the animated shorts they’ve been releasing, starting with Sonic Mania Adventures! This time, Sonic Superstars gives us this really nicely animated “Trio of Trouble” short. Sadly, when I say short, I mean too short. I could really go for a classic Sonic, silent cartoon. I love it. Obviously the animated short’s name is a reference Sonic the Hedgehog Triple Trouble, the Game Gear exclusive game that was the first time Fang (or Nack) was introduced! We even did a SEGA Talk discussing the game, which you can listen to! 

Sonic Superstars is getting closer to release date as October 17th will be here faster than you can say “Does Fang have a Nack for treasure hunting?” .

 

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SEGA Model 3 Classics, Daytona USA 2 (SEGA Racing Classic 2) and Fighting Vipers 2, set to be playable minigames in Like A Dragon Gaiden

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In a recent issue of Famitsu, it has been confirmed that classic arcade titles, Daytona USA 2 (now renamed SEGA Racing Classic 2) and Fighting Vipers 2 will be fully playable as minigames in Like A Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name. For the first time ever, arcade goers can now play Daytona USA 2 at home and Fighting Vipers 2 can now be played worldwide as the original home ports were only available for Europe and Japan territories.

In addition, SEGA Master System titles will also make an appearance again as playable games since Lost Judgment such as Flicky, Galaxy Force, and many more. It amazes me to see more arcade titles ported to RGG games from Yu Suzuki’s classics, Model 2, and now Model 3 games. If this keeps up, I wonder what rare classic SEGA games will appear in Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth?

Like A Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name will be available for PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC (Steam) on November 9.

Check out screenshots after the jump.

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Sonic the Hedgehog 2 Movie Filming Location Tour in Canada

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I recently took a trip to Canada and was surprised to learn that a key filming location for the Sonic the Hedgehog 2 movie was just eight minutes off our main route! Located in Fort Langley, British Columbia, Canada, this location was home to much of the Green Hills scenes in the sequel including the town hall, main street and Mean Bean coffee storefront. Enjoy this walk through cinema history!

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