[Update: Debunked & False] Rumor: Valkyria Chronicles 1, 2 & 3 remakes coming to Playstation 4

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A rumor has sprung up on NeoGAF stating that this week’s Famitsu will reveal a Valkyria Chronicles Remake and a Valkyria Chronicles 2&3 Remake coming out for Playstation 4. The post goes on to state that the first game will be releasing in the summer of this year, followed by 2&3 in the fall. The sequels appear to be bundled into one game. The first game will have a visual upgrade while 2&3 will have graphics based on the first game’s visual style. The releases are also to include all the DLC and feature lots of balance adjustments.

The NeoGAF post says the “source is 2ch leak but its reliable source so its basically confirmed.” The mention of 2&3 being a bundled collection can be found here. As with all the rumors, take this with a grain of salt until officially confirmed.

Update: Dualshockers did some digging and came up empty handed, stating that the rumor was false.

To confirm the legitimacy of the post, I reached out to Masaru-san, one of our readers that regularly receives Famitsu the afternoon before release and that often sends us information about its content, and he indeed confirmed that Valkyria Chronicles is nowhere to be found on the latest issue.

Drat drat and double drat! Despite being false, let’s hope SEGA still has plans to rerelease Valkyria Chronicles on some platform… PC perhaps?

Announcing the SEGAbits Summer of Art Contest!

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SEGA has created some of the most beautiful games and iconic characters that gaming has ever seen. As such, SEGAbits would like to celebrate SEGA’s legacy of creativity with the Summer of Art contest! We will be taking submissions from across the world from fans expressing their SEGA passion! Not only will we be taking art, we will also be taking poems, original music and short videos! The more creative and passionate, the better! Just, you know, don’t get weird.

The contest will run until July 15th. The winner will receive:

  • A set of Jet Set Radio pins, given out by SEGA during PAX East and E3 2012
  • A set of Valkyria Chronicles 2 pins, given out by SEGA exclusively at PAX Prime 2010
  • A Jet Set Radio music CD
  •   A copy of the Valkyria Chronicle Design Archive
  •   A free commission of a SEGA character drawn by Archie Sonic the Hedgehog artist Tracy Yardley
  •   A free SEGAbits t-shirt

Select pieces of art and music will also be entered into our banner art rotation and featured in Tuesday Tunes.

Four runner-ups will also be receiving Valkyria Chronicles 2 pins and Jet Set Radio pins.
To help inspire you, SEGAbits will be posting an article full of concept art every Sunday! If we get enough submissions, we may also post some samples of what we’ve been receiving. Continue reading for guidelines on what will be accepted and how we will be taking submissions. We may be updating this contest with additional prizes as they become available. Stay tuned!

Vanquish goes free for Playstation Plus subscribers. Valkyria Chronicles 2 for $9.99

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Sam Gideon will be sliding into many PS3 hard drives as Platinum Games fast-paced shooter Vanquish goes free tomorrow for Playstation Plus subscribers.Sony announced the game joining it’s instant game collection earlier today. Better have a good size hard drive, as this game is 11.6 Gigs in size.

Those of you looking for other Playstation discounts, Sega dropped the price on several PSP games including Valkyria Chronicles 2 for $9.99, Sonic Rivals 1 & 2 for $6.99, Crazy Taxi for $4.99 and more.

Yes Virginia, you can play most Sega PSP games on your Vita!….If you have a PS3.

Hello fellow Vita owners and congrats on your purchase! Now, if you’re a Sega fanboy like me, you may be dissapointed in the selection of Sega games available for PSP through the Vita store. There’s Crush for $4.99 and nothing else. You’re probably thinking “Is that all of the PSP games compatible with my Vita?” Well, the answer is…no! There are a ton more PSP games that work with the Vita that for some reason are not on their store. This includes almost all Sega PSP games with one huge exception. Keep reading to find out how!

Valkyria Chronicles 2: World Artworks Book is coming to America

Valkyria Chronicles has some amazing art, so its good to see the Japanese artbooks get American releases. This is going to be the second Valkyria Chronicles artbook that publisher Udon has published in America. The first art book released had art from the first title, this new one is going to be based on the PSP sequel.

If you guys want to pre-order the art book, you can do so on Amazon. The book is listed for $31.24, with a release date of April 10th, 2012.

Valkyria Chronicles III isn’t being localized

I’m one of those people who fell in love with the Valkyria Chronicles video games and highly enjoyed the second entry to the franchise, even though it was on the PSP and not on the PS3.

So what about the 3rd game in the franchise? According to SEGA’s Hiroshi Seno, they have no plans on bringing the 3rd game over to the Western market. Why? Due to Valkyria Chronicles II selling poorly. I think part of the reason the second game did poorly was due to it jumping platforms, especially to a platform that is dying outside of Japan (the PSP).

Hey SEGA, if you have no plans on bringing it over, let someone like Atlus USA or NIS America bring it over. Thanks.

[Source: 1up]

The Weekly Five: SEGA PSP games that should be ported to PS3


SEGA has had some highly rated games released on the PSP, sadly mostly everyone outside of Japan has decided to ignore the platform. Sony recently announced the ‘PSP Remasters’ series. Games from PSP ported over and enhanced on the Playstation 3.

One of the first games to get this treatment has been Monster Hunter Freedom 3, which looks great. I decided to put together 5 games that deserve the PSP Remasters treatment.

SEGA games in Famitsu Top 100 2010

On a yearly basis, Famitsu publishes the top 100 best selling games and as always, SEGA manages to make a few on the list. Although in terms of total, it’s not overly impressive, SEGA still maintains a strong position and suffers from far fewer financial failures than recent years, they managed to get 7 games in total and no prizes guessing which was the biggest seller for SEGA.

17. [PS3] Yakuza 4 (Sega) – 557,771
32. [PSP] Hatsune Miku: Project Diva 2nd (Sega) – 341,663
40. [PSP] Kurohyou! Yakuza New Chapter (Sega) – 264,766
49. [PSP] Keion! Afterschool Live (Sega) – 231,976
61. [PS3] End of Eternity (Sega) – 184,662
74. [PSP] Valkyria Chronicles 2 (Sega) – 153,487
89. [PSP] Shining Hearts (Sega) – 130,258

Another entry in the Yakuza series and again continues to slightly push up from sales of Yakuza 3 (Which did around 509,000 with the original release, not accounting THE BEST release which did a further 80,000) and Project Diva 2 improves on the sales of the original in a big way (Which managed 186,000) and becomes the 22nd most successful game on the PSP in Japan. The PSP Yakuza title does a modest amount, matching that of the sales of the original release of Yakuza Kenzan, indicator of the userbase in terms of sales for the next spinoff title perhaps?

K-On does very well for SEGA although I would imagine that would be it’s final total outside of a re-release in Japan, I can’t quite see it coming out in America or Europe. Valkyria Chronicles 2 does ever so slightly better than the original (8,000) but this does not include the re-release of the original title which nothced up a further 82,000 unit and the sales of End of Eternity certainly suggests a sequel maybe forthcoming.

Finally Shining Hearts, despite doing 100,000 in it’s first week, ends up with a modest extra 30,000 and it does seem that perhaps despite the impressive first week opening, it may not go down as the most successful and I can probably imagine a sigh of relief from dissatisfied fans of the franchise.

[Source: NeoGAF]

Valkyria Chronicles II DLC trailer is pretty nifty


Trailers, not just a moving house, but moving pictures  of awesomeness. Check out the trailer above, showing off some of the DLC you will be able to purchase on the PSN store tomorrow. The pack will cost you only $4.99, comes with 22 missions.

In Japan, they paid a dollar per mission. So yeah, purchase it and thank SEGA for bundling them all together.

[Source: SEGA PR]

New Valkyria Chronicles II art book hitting Japan

Valkyria Chronicles II is still getting stuff released for it in Japan, soon it will get its 8th book released. This one is called “Valkyria Chronicles: Royal Academy Gallian Artworks World” or along those lines.

The book is set to hit Japan on October 8th and be priced at 3,570 yen. The cover art is done by Raita Honjou.

[Source: Valkyria Portal]

Valkyria Chronicles 2 – All Unlock Codes!

Valkyria Chronicles 2 is a well supported game! Not only did the DLC content just release. With 22 new missions for just $4.99 but all of the free unlock codes have been revealed!

Most of the codes are for ‘stickers’ which you attach to your tank. The stickers give your tank different effects and attributes. Many of which feature characters and logos from other Sega series such as Skies of Arcadia, Yakuza, Phantasy Star and Sonic. Something we are always happy to see.

Some other codes however unlock new playable characters!

Hit the jump to see all of the codes!

Valkyria Chronicles 2 DLC hits PSN today


We here in the west will get our first paid DLC for Valkyria Chronicles 2. What a DLC it is, 22 missions bundled up for an awesome $4.99. Seems that the Japanese store charges a dollar per mission, so the bundle is definitely worth it.

The DLC should be hitting the PSN store later in the afternoon. Keep your credit card handy, also if you haven’t picked up the game, you should! Review should be up later today or early tomorrow.

[Source: PSblog]

Unlock Isara in Valkyria Chronicles 2

It was revealed today by Sega that having save data of Valkyria Chronicles (original) and entering the code/password below on Valkyria Chronicles 2 will unlock Isara Gunther from the original Valkyria Chronicles and her tank sticker for the Valkyria Chronicles 2 main tank.

The code is:
37LRK5D214VQVFYH

Happy gaming!