The rumors were true! The latest issue of Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu has revealed the fourth title in the Valkyria Chronicles series, Valkyria: Azure Revolution, as well as a remastered release of the original Valkyria Chronicles – both for the Playstation 4.
The first wave of backwards compatible Xbox 360 games playable on Xbox One have been revealed, and we’re happy to report that some SEGA games made the list. Interestingly, all but one of the titles are Xbox Live Arcade releases, but by and large it is a solid selection. SEGAbits forum member crackdude was nice enough to share the list and highlight the SEGA titles. You can check out the backwards compatible games by checking out the forum post, or see them after the break!
Back in late September we speculated that SEGA of America had moved in with Atlus USA at their offices in Irvine, California. While all signs pointed to “yes”, we didn’t want to be 100% certain until we had official word from SEGA. Thanks to SEGAbits forum member NoirSuede we have confirmation from SEGA that they indeed have moved in to the Atlus offices.
In a recent official SEGA Twitch stream, NoirSuede asked “is the non-Sonic Sega of America staff in the Atlus USA office?”, to which SEGA replied “some of them”. So the official word is some, but not all. So where are the others? The SEGA West corporate page lists the Atlus address, as well as an address in Burbank, California at 250 East Olive Avenue. These offices house Marza Animation Planet, but we have heard from some fans that this office now doubles as the Sonic brand office. Burbank would be a fitting location for Sonic, given the upcoming Hollywood film from Sony Pictures.
Yesterday SEGA announced that Joseph Kim, formerly of the studio FunPlus, has been named SEGA’s vice president of product. Kim is being tasked with managing the mobile product strategy in Western markets. Sega Networks COO Chris Olson said “This position is instrumental in pulling all three of our wholly owned studios and two studio investments together to drive Sega’s success on mobile. Kim’s rich background in successfully bringing games to market along with his experience in consulting and analytics makes him the best candidate for the job, and we look forward to seeing him work his magic.” Kim had this to say regarding his role: “In mobile gaming, the best is yet to come. I look forward to working with the teams at Sega to help deliver awesome game experiences to existing and future Sega customers.”
Of course, what really matters are Kim’s results, so it will be interesting to see if there is any major shifts in SEGA’s mobile output moving forward. Hey, Joseph, if you are reading this: bring some of those Puyo Puyo’s sitting with you to the West!
[Via: GameIndustry.biz]
It’s not all that often we hear of new games for SEGA’s Master System. While 2015 appears to be the year of the Dreamcast, SEGA’s first Western console effort has received a new game available to play today entitled Moggy Master from homebrew development team The Mojon Twins. The game is a port of Moggy, a ZX Spectrum game from 2005 also by The Mojon Twins. In the game, players control Moggy, a little yellow guy, who is out to save his purple friends.
If you love classic Atari arcade games, this is definitely worth checking out. And why shouldn’t you try it out? The game is free and available to download today! Just use an emulator or flash cart, should you own one.
[Via RetroCollect]
As Shenmue 3 enters the third month of post-Kickstarter development, a much welcomed progress report has been posted detailing what the team has been up to and what they plan to work on in the coming months. Most exciting are four screens of the game in-progress showcasing battle tests, a cutscene, and an environment which you can see after the break or at the above link.
Via XBLA Watchdog Twitter user Lifelower comes news that SEGA Japan has announced that the Xbox Live Arcade and Wii Virtual Console versions of Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic the Hedgehog 2 will be pulled tomorrow, October 30th. The reason for the games being pulled is unknown, but there are two possibilities. The most likely reason is that the contract for the games’ music rights, which are held by the original composer Masato Nakamura, are expiring and these versions of the game are affected. Another possible reason is that the Taxman/Stealth remastered versions are finally making their way to consoles, but take that possibility with an Oil Ocean sized amount of salt.
If you haven’t bought these versions yet, you have less than a day to do so. However it should be noted that there are several other versions out there including the original cartridges, Sonic Jam for Saturn, Sonic Mega Collection (playable on both the Xbox 360 and Wii via backwards compatibility), Sonic’s Ultimate Genesis Collection, the aforementioned Taxman/Stealth remastered versions, and 3D Classics versions. I’m sure I missed a couple dozen others, but you get the point.
Marketing Week held an interesting interview with SEGA Europe marketing director Jon Rooke. The interview, which centers around the company’s recent changes and a shift in approach, also touches on the Shenmue series. SEGA allowing Yu Suzuki to use the license to make a third game and the Kickstarter campaign proving to be a success “shows that people love [SEGA’s] legacy”, said Rooke. The article adds that Rooke said SEGA is exploring ways to re-release the original two Shenmue titles.
Could it be that much like Valkyria Chronicles performing well on PC, it took the successful backing of Shenmue 3 for SEGA to rethink rereleases of classic titles? It has long been rumored that there are reasons for SEGA holding out on Shenmue and Shenmue II, chief among them being that there are rights issues standing in the way. Whatever the case, it’s good to hear somebody like Jon Rooke speaking publicly about a possibility of a re-release.
Update: The article’s author has shared the exact quote from Jon Rooke on Twitter:
When I asked about Shenmue being remade, I was told: “There are lots of opportunities for legacy titles. We are exploring. We know what fans want as they have a petition.” So it now appears that the quote wasn’t referring to Shenmue specifically, but legacy titles as a whole.
[Source: Marketing Week]
Recently, a major gaming news site that will not be named (on account of their IGNorant actions) made a top 100 list of what they deemed were “The Top 100 Video Games of All Time”. While these sort of lists crop up online often, and they are never in any way definitive, SEGA fans were quick to notice that not a single SEGA title made this list. Seriously? This got us to talking in the SEGAbits Forums about just how many great SEGA games there are, which led to us attempting a list of the Top 50 SEGA Games as decided by the fans. We sorted out a way to formulate a list, but the one thing we desperately need are lists of your top 25 SEGA games! Yes, you!
Pier Solar and the Great Architects is a game that has been a long time coming. Developed and published by Watermelon Games with work starting as far back as 2004, Pier Solar originally released to the Genesis/Mega Drive back in 2010. Since then, the team held a successful Kickstarter which lead to an HD remake of the game for a slew of modern handhelds and consoles, but SEGA fans were most interested in the proposed Dreamcast release. While modern platforms have since seen release of the game, Dreamcast fans had to wait a bit longer. Today, it seems that wait is over as backers from both the Kickstarter and Watermelon Games website have received notifications that the game is now shipping!
I’ll admit, after being disappointed by other indie developers I was hesitant to put my money towards the release until solid proof that it was going to release by the end of the year (the initial expected release was way back in December 2013). Luckily I was able to pre-order the game earlier this month, just days before they cut pre-orders off. Since then, the game has been relisted on the Watermelon store with a price increase of $6 (from the initial $50) and a “SOON AVAILABLE” notification of November 11th. So if you had a pre-order, be excited because the game is coming! And if you don’t, there should be additional copies available soon.
In a recent post on the SEGA Blog, it has been revealed that the December 31st, 2015 placeholder pre-order date for Yakuza 5 is not accurate. If all goes to plan, the game will release in mid-November. Why the uncertainty? According to SEGA, “a few weird development bugs that popped up in localization caused the delay”. So there you go, mark a potential mid-November on your calendar and SEGA plans to share more details soon.
The blog post also lists 5 movies to watch before playing Yakuza 5, and if that sounds familiar its because we listed 5 movies to watch in anticipation of Yakuza: Dead Souls. Nice to see the SEGA Blog taking a page from SEGAbits. 😉
While this is leaning towards Capcom news, it’s worth newsing here on SEGAbits. SEGA Sammy Holdings owned Marza Animation Planet, the animation group responsible for several SEGA CG cutscenes and the upcoming Sonic the Hedgehog movie, has joined forces with Capcom to produce a CG Biohazard/Resident Evil movie slated for a 2017 worldwide release. Japanese gaming site Inside reports that Ju-on: The Grudge creator and filmmaker Takashi Shimizu (creator of Ju-on) will be executive producer, Takanori Tsujimoto will direct, and Psycho-Pass writer Makoto Fukami is working on the script.
Like paintings of classic consoles? Artist Randy Gallegos has you covered. From the series dubbed “Hearts for Hardware,” described as a platform-agnostic celebration of older gaming hardware, comes three SEGA focused oil paintings featuring the SEGA Genesis and the original 3-button and 6-button controllers. You may have seen Randy’s work before, as he spent two decades working as an illustrator in another area of gaming, creating imagery for Magic: the Gathering and Dungeons & Dragons. With “Hearts for Hardware”, Randy combines his love of classic gaming with his painting skills. The results look great!
Check out Randy’s other “Hearts for Hardware” paintings on his website, including the NES, Playstation, and others. More SEGA works are on the way, including some import Japanese consoles. Looking forward to seeing where the series goes! After the break, check out the 3-button and 6-button SEGA Genesis controller paintings.
In the midst of Ghost Blade, the impending release of Pier Solar and the release of Volgaar the Viking comes yet another indie Dreamcast game – Fruit’Y! Developed by retroguru, Fruit’Y is a fruit matching puzzle game featuring 120 levels, pixel graphics and a killer soundtrack. What surprised me the most is that the game is out now to purchase – no pre-orders here folks – and is incredibly affordable. A pressed disc with full color art in a DVD case will only set you back 2.50 Euros or around $2.81. Shipping isn’t too bad, as it only cost around $10.41 total for the game to ship from Germany to SEGAbits Midwest HQ in the United States.
The game is limited to 500 copies, so pick one up soon from Dragon Box Shop! I’ve already seen people receiving theirs in the mail, and hope to get my hands on my copy within the next few days.
The sequel to SEGA’s mobile hit Sonic Dash is here – Sonic Dash 2: Sonic Boom! That’s right, a sequel set in an entirely different branch of the franchise. I honestly cannot recall another video game that has done this, but hey, SEGA is known for being innovative. The game is available now on iOS and will hit the Google Play store soon for Android, and according to the official Sonic twitter account can even be played on Apple Watch via a companion app.
After the break, check out the full list of features and try the game for yourself. Like it? Hate it? Sound off in the comments below!