Sakura Wars Mobage will feature a costume changing system and sign ups

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A few months ago, SEGA and Red Entertainment made a partnership with Mobage to develop a new Sakura Wars game which displeased many fans in Japan.  However, Sakura Wars for Mobage  will feature a original story featuring several characters from the franchise a new gameplay system that involves changing costumes.

Details about how this  will change gameplay have not been announced as of yet. Signups for Sakura Wars for  Mobage start today and if you register early you’ll get an ultra rare  Sakura Shinguji card. Service for the game is scheduled to begin sometime this winter.

Special Thanks to SEGAFAN for the tip!

SEGABits @ New York Comic Con 2013 Panel Video: SEGA Through The Years

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Hello SEGABits readers, Kori-Maru here back from my trip from New York Comic Con with coverage of SEGA and Hardlight Studios panel titled “SEGA Through Out The Years” with special guests from SEGA attending the panel such as Ethan Einhorn, Chris Olsen, and Masayoshi Kikuchi-san as they explain SEGA’s history, focus on mobile, a few announcements, and the company’s future followed by Q/A and trivia contest. During the Q/A session, there were a lot of interesting questions from the audiences that may interest a lot of SEGA fans, so stay tuned for that. I also have tons of pictures of a few SEGA cosplayers and employees for our readers to look at. To view the video of the panel and pictures from the convention, hit the jump!

Sakura Wars the Movie now avalible on Blu-Ray/DVD Combo Pack

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Western Sakura Wars, anime, and hardcore SEGA fans alike can now rejoice as Sakura Wars the Movie makes it’s grand return today on Blu-Ray disc for $34.98 in retail stores and $17.49 with 50% savings on Funimation’s store page. The Blu-Ray version contains tons of special features such as interviews with the creators, promotional videos, Japanese commercials and more. Hit the jump for the summary of the movie.

SEGABits Gaming Community Night featuring Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown on XBLA

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Want to play SEGA games online with the staff and writers of SEGABits on PSN and XBLA? Look no further, we at SEGABits are willing to play SEGA’s library of titles along with our readers and forum members twice every month on the weekends.

Our first game featured on our gaming community night is Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown on Xbox Live Arcade on Sept 7th at 6pm Eastern Time. If your interested, add me “KoriSX15” by 5pm EST time and I surely will add you on the list.

Sakura Wars CG Motion Manga heading to Japan by TOMOTOON!


SEGA and Red has collabrated with japanese animation studio TOMOTOON! to bring the manga adaptation of Sakura Wars by series creator, Ouji Hiroi, to life with CG motion, which was also translated into english towards the Western manga readers by the manga publishing company, TokyoPop.

The trailer features a few first panels of the manga in full motion CG, almost compared to the Valkyria Chronicles cutscenes. I happen to like motion comics by comic publishers like Marvel and DC Comics for example and pretty stoke to see how this turns out as a fan of the series. What are your thoughts?

SEGAbits Event: Project X Zone Launch Party in Savannah, GA!

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Attention to our SEGABits readers of Georgia!

My friends and I, along with my local GameStop, are teaming up to throw a launch party for the upcoming crossover RPG game of the century: Project X Zone. The game features numerous SEGA, Capcom, and Namco Bandai franchises! To celebrate this crossover, I want to invite you the launch party for the Western release of the game! Come and play games developed by Namco Bandai Games, Capcom, and SEGA that are represented in Project X Zone such as Tekken, Virtua Fighter, Street Fighter, Sakura Wars, Megaman X and more. If you would like to come in cosplay as your favorite character from Namco, Capcom, or SEGA, we will gladly take pictures and send them to the companies community pages. It’s $5 dollars to get in and receive a random raffle ticket to win a free copy of Project X Zone. The party will be held at the Applebees Restaurant near 1120 Abercorn St Savannah, GA 31419 on June 26th at 5:30pm-11:30pm. Combining your attacks is the key to victory! Hit the jump for more details.

Sakura Wars The Movie to be rereleased by Funimation in Blu Ray format

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News has it that Funimation has picked up the license rights to rerelease Sakura Wars: The Movie on Blu Ray Disc this morning. A source from Twitter states that the movie will still retain the Geneon Dub with added extra features. The movie was previously released on DVD and PSP UMD by Geneon a few years back. The movie’s plot follows the Imperial Assault Force after Lt. Ogami Ichiro departs to Paris and are later introduced to Star Division’s member Rachete Altair to battle against the upcoming evil that is descending upon the Imperial Capital.

If your a fan of SEGA media, you should check this movie out when it’s rereleased on Blu Ray. Now if only Funimation can obtain the TV series rights for Toonami. Hit the jump to see the Twitter announcements.

SEGA X BBC Earth’s First Look Trailer of “Orbi”

Reported on SEGAbits in 2011, BBC Earth partnered with SEGA to create a unique visitor experience that would fuse nature with technology and offer an entirely new multi-sensory adventure that revolves around our planet. Developed by SEGA’s Facility Business, the trailer for Orbi shows mother nature at her finest, featuring immersive animal and nature footage. The video also shows off what the layout of the attraction will look like once Orbi opens.

I’m not going to lie, this is pretty innovative for SEGA to do. If you have any thoughts on Orbi, leave a comment below.

Project X Zone crossover contest – Mash up Namco, Sega, & Capcom characters

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Capcom-Unity in collabration with Namco Bandai Games and SEGA West are hosting a fan art contest for Project X Zone, which is set be released on June 25 in the US and July in Europe, to have your favorite Capcom character dressed as another character from Namco or SEGA. Will someone draw Jin from Cyberbots in Ogami Ichiro’s outfit from Sakura Wars, Frank in Bruno Dillenger’s attire from Die Hard Arcade (Dynamite Deka in Japan), or go all out drawing Felicia with Sonic the Hedgehog’s gloves and shoes? The possibities are endless! The contest runs from today through Friday May 31, 9pm PST and Capcom-Unity will pick up to 3 winners for the limited edition of Project X Zone. There’s also another contest if anyone is attending MCM Expo this year for cosplaying as one of the cover characters in Project X Zone.

More SEGA All-Stars Packs heading to Samurai & Dragons

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Sega of Japan are releasing another set of Sega All-Stars card packs, but this time with even more lineup of franchises from Sega’s past ranging from Alex Kidd, Comic Zone, to The House of the Dead and Rub Rabbits plus with a couple of obscured IPs. According to the site, the first pack will be available today through May 8th and the second pack will be available from May 8th to May 22nd. Samurai and Dragons is free to download on the Japanese PSN for PSVita. So if you have a Japanese account and you have a thing for fan service from Sega, check the game out! Wish I had a Vita right about now. Hit the jump to see which SEGA franchise was represented in one of the packs.

SEGA planning another live stream event… with special guests featuring Takenobu Mitsuyoshi, Ms. Arisa Noto and Hiroshi Fujioka (Segata Sanshiro)

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Toriaa! SEGA fans of yesteryear can rejoice as SEGA Corporation is having a two part live stream event featuring Takenobu Mitsuyoshi and his SEGA Sound Unit band,  Ms. Arisa Noto (“Hello, Little Monsters”) as a guest vocal along with a special guest who was famous as a certain judo karate expert who we all know and love who beats up people for not playing the SEGA Saturn in Japan and sacrificing his life to protect us from a evil gaming company, Hiroshi Fujioka aka Segata Sanshiro. Judging from the Google translation, the event will focus on the aspects of Segata Sanshiro and new music played by the SEGA Sound Unit Band. The event will be held at TV Tokyo Center and stream live on March 16, 2013 19:30 (Sat. JPT). Read more of the this story to read the summary of the event, pictures and links to the live stream.

Sakura Wars So Long My Love seiyuu, Naoya Uchida, to have a live birthday concert

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Famous Japanese voice and stage actor Naoya Uchida, who is known as the voice and potrayer of Commander Michael Sunnyside from SEGA/RED’s fifth installment of Sakura Wars, will be turning 60 this year and to celebrate his birthday, there will be a live concert plus special guest, Dandy Dan (potrayed by Mr. Shintaro), will appear on stage. For our SEGABits readers who reside in Japan, the live birthday concert will be held on May 1st at Ebisu Switch Skylight. Hope his birthday goes out with a bang to the rooftops! (SW fans would know this)