Above is IGN’s video where they … get this, talk positive about a Sonic game! I know, I couldn’t believe it. Though, if you are tired of this game being compared to Mario Galaxy….it is weird that right after the guy says that Sonic is going back to his roots with stages, colors and etc, but is still Mario Galaxy looking? Riiiiight…
I also like how they pretend the 3DS version doesn’t exist.
We already knew that SEGA was going to have an easy mode for Yakuza 1&2 HD, but what else are they making easier? According to Producer Mitsuhiro Shimano, some people didn’t beat the first two games due to getting stuck. He says that they will tweak the upcoming HD re-release to make it easier on new comers.
Some of the adjustments make sense, like batting cages will now be marked on your map and signs on walls will be easier to read (due to 1080p resolution of course). Outside of this, heat gauge will also be available at the start, for those that aren’t good with action games.
The developers stated they will make good use of the second screen so you can see your completed missions, current missions, maps, relationship with cabaret girls, foods you have eaten, and more.
Hit the jump to read a special message from Shimano to fathers.
If you purchase SEGA’s Total War: Rome 2 title you will be granted early access to Creative Assembly’s side project, Total War: Arena. If you haven’t heard, Total War: Arena is going to be a free-to-play MOBA title (think DOTA 2, League of Legends).
That isn’t all though, along with early access players will receive a exclusive ‘Legion Armoury’ bonus and roughly $15 dollars of in -game currency. According to SEGA, this title maybe a MOBA game, but they say its nothing like DOTA or League of Legends.
Total War: Rome 2 comes out September 3rd worldwide!
Recently MCV had an interview with SEGA Europe’s COO Jurgen Post where they talked to him about SEGA’s future and their restructuring. If you guys noticed in their last financial statement, the company is doing well now. According to Jurgen Post, SEGA is very prepared for next generation because they have so much invested on the PC market:
” The next-gen console market is exciting and we are following it closely. We have a lot of PC studios, and in that sense you might say we are very prepared. If, as many say, these next-gen machines really are more like PCs than ever then we have a lot to take advantage of in terms of technology. The PC base certainly makes it feel much easier for us.” – Jurgen Post, COO of SEGA Europe
He even talked about porting some RTS titles in the future, stating that even exclusives like Diablo III are jumping ship. I guess we will see. Even though right now the only ‘next generation’ console they are supporting is the Wii U, which has Post a bit concerned.
It seems that SEGA of Japan (not America or Europe sadly) are having a surprise announcement on August 18th. The announcement will be part of an event where they will announce the ‘Yakuza (Ryu Ga Gotoku in Japan) Character General Election’ contest at Shinjuku Alta Vision.
So, what do you guys reckon this ‘surprise announcement’ is all about?
It seems that SEGA’s new RTS, Company of Heroes 2, will no longer occupy store shelves in Russia as its publisher over there 1C-Softclub has bowed to pressure from press to remove the game from store shelves.
It seems people in Russia are taking great offense to how the game portrayed the Allied Forces in Company of Heroes (first one) as brave and honest, but the sequel, which focuses on the Russian forces, decided to use ‘offensive’ stereotypes. Relic on the other hand stand by the game, stating that it’s historically accurate, and that they used eye-witness testimony when they made the game’s story mode.
Seems that they even have a 17,000 signature petition wanting to remove the game from Steam. My opinion? As much as I hate developers showing how ‘great’ American soldiers are and how ‘every axis power is evil’ or ‘brutal’ compared to us, I have to say they are taking way too much offense to this. If you don’t like what the game offers, don’t buy it. But don’t go and force everyone not to experience it because it offends you.
Your thoughts?
If you remember when SEGA announced Phantasy Star Online 2, they announced it for both PC and Vita, as well as smart phones. But the smart phone version never really came out. Don’t worry, it seems that SEGA hasn’t forgotten, at least on Android.
Its no doubt that I loved Binary Domain when it was released last year. Don’t believe me? Check out our review. So for this episode of Sequel Saturday, we will talk about what we would want to see changed in Binary Domain 2, if there ever happens to be one in the future.
If you guys didn’t know, Atlus’ parent company, Index Corporation is in a finical mess. The company is in over $2.4 billion yen in debt and is also being investigated for fraud. The company recently talked about selling assets, but now it seems that they might just be bought out whole.
Bloomberg reports that 20 companies are in the race to buy Index, one of those companies is SEGA-Sammy Holdings who is leading the pack. It seems that bids have exceeded the $150 million everyone thought Index was worth, the current bid is at $200 million! It is said that bidding will be narrowed down by next week and if all goes well we will find out what company gets Index and their assets.
But lets say that SEGA does buy Atlus, would that be a great thing for gamers? I mean, I love SEGA and I love Atlus games, but Atlus always brought obscure games over from Japan for Wesetern audiences. Without them we wouldn’t have Demon Souls or even the recent Dragon Crown, while SEGA seems more hesitant to bring over titles (Yakuza 5, Valkyria Chronicles 3 and more). What are your thoughts?
Well, now you can! Above is a Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time mod that replaces the Nintendo favorite hero, Link, with a much more SEGA approved Sonic the Hedgehog.
But you say, Sonic is suppose to run fast, well he does in this mod. Take a look. “You’re too slow!”
Its crazy knowing that filtering your content can do so much good for your company, especially SEGA’s recent financial results for the first quarter of its 2014 fiscal year. SEGA-Sammy’s operating income for the quarter ended on June 30th and totaled 16.1 billion yen ($163.85 million), 197.7 percent higher than the same time last year. Net income came in at a (for SEGA-Sammy) staggering 12.9 billion yen ($131.6 million), which is a 408.8 percent increase year-over-year.
SEGA-Sammy totally improved their consumer business segment, which includes those video games you loved published by SEGA and its Japanese pachislot/pachinko machine division. Panchislot/pachinko branch of the company saw a increase of revenue of 138.5%, totaling 18.7 billion yen ($190.2 million).
According to SEGA-Sammy’s press release, their latest RTS game (which they got by buying the team/their franchises from THQ for 26 million) Company of Heroes 2 sold a staggering 380,000 copies. I know most of you will see this and say it isn’t over a million units so it is a failure, but you have to know that this report is from June 30th, the game launched on June 25th. The only other major SEGA retail title outside of Company of Heroes 2, was the Playstation Portable Japan only title 7th Dragon 2020-2. SEGA’s publishing side saw a year-over-year decrease of 9.7 percent, selling 1.21 million units.
SEGA also reported favorable performance of their digital games on Windows PC, Playstation Vita and mobile devices. SEGA-Sammy state that Phantasy Star Online 2 (Japan only for now) helped bring the operating income of the consumer division up to 39 million yen (approximately $396,000).
It should be a good year for SEGA with Total War: Rome II, Football Manager 2014 and Sonic Lost Worlds around the corner.
The ESRB has finally posted its rating for Sonic Lost World and it decided that the game is rated E 10+, for ‘aggressive language’. Before you freak out, its not that big of a deal, check out some of the lines they consider ‘aggressive’ below.
Rating Summary: In this action platformer, players control Sonic the Hedgehog as he attempts to stop an evil villain’s plans. As players zoom through fantastical landscapes, they collect items (e.g., gold rings and power-ups), avoid hazards, and use spin attacks to defeat robotic enemies; enemies break apart amid colorful explosions. During gameplay, characters sometimes use aggressive language (e.g., “You’re going home in a box,” ‘I’m going to skin you alive,’ and ‘I long for death’s cold embrace.’). Cutscenes also depict laser fire and explosions, as well as dialogue that references violence (e.g., “I’ll get fat from eating your black hearts,” “One second you’re contemplating genocide,” and “As long as I can still strangle a Zeti, my hands are fine.”).
What are your thoughts?
People have been wanting a new Sakura Wars game for awhile, the franchise might not be huge but it has a nice cult following. SEGA and RED (developer) have been teasing that it would be coming back. So we finally get it announced and it turns out to be a Mobage game.
“The yet untold story of the other battle faced by the young maidens!”
Mobage (Mobile Games) is a social portal used for games, focusing on freedium sort of experiences where the user gets the based game for free but pays for ‘extras’. This is very typical in the mobile landscape. Also looks like Kōsuke Fujishima won’t be designing characters for this project, the first ever for a Sakura Wars game. Japanese fans are not happy with the announcement, hit the jump to read some of their angry comments they left on Jin115.
There have been a lot of theories flying around online as to why Sonic Lost World is a Nintendo exclusive. Some say that Nintendo came to SEGA, offered them a pay check for exclusivity, and that before then the game was supposed to come out on all platforms. So what does Takashi Iizuka say when asked the question in the Official Nintendo Magazine?
“The Wii U hadn’t been revealed when development began for Sonic Lost World, so we were working on a PC version in order to see what kind of platformer we could make. Then, when we tried to think about which platform would be best for this game, we chose Nintendo.” – Takashi Iizuka, head of Sonic Team
So there you have it, straight from Takashi himself. Though, I assume people with their own theories will brush this off and say it isn’t true. If it is or isn’t true, who cares, Sonic Lost World is coming exclusively to Wii U (and 3DS) this fall. Though, I would really like a PC version to be released, that would mean it’s still ‘console exclusive’.
This weekend at the PAX Australia event, fans of the game ‘Plants vs. Zombies‘ got to see a weird version of their favorite PopCap tower defense game. The game running on the SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive.
Penny Arcade got a chance to play the game and posted the above video of it in action. Dave Cudrev from Retrospekt said he bought the game from the creator, who is a Russian coder. His hobby was rebuilding games and selling them on Ebay.
He purchased the game for $30 dollars, with no box or manual. Other games the coder has re-worked include Darkwing Duck and Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers for the Genesis/Mega Drive. I have to be honest, this would be a cool conversational piece of software to have.