Sega trademarks “Sonic Lost World(s)”

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Deefy on our forums has done some sluthin’ and found out that Sega of Japan has registered the trademark “Sonic Lost World”. Meanwhile, TSSZ discovered that Sega of Europe has registered the domain soniclostworlds.com. So which is it? Lost World or Lost Worlds? Is this a new, Next gen game? An iOS mobile title? A new chapter in the Storybook series? With E3 right around the corner, we should hear more about this title very soon.

Sega’s big weekend sale on mobile games

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Hey! Hey! Hey! It’s time to save some CRAZY money!

Sega is having a big sale on some of it’s most recent mobile games. Crazy Taxi (with the original Offspring music back in) has a $4 drop to 99 cents. After Burner Climax is also 99 cents while the brand new House of the Dead Overkill: The Lost Reels is down to $2.99 from it’s $4.99 price tag. Both HOTD and After Burner are available on iOS and Android while Crazy Taxi is iOS only. Better hurry, the sale is good for this weekend only.

Timegate Studios lays off its entire staff

                                                             "Free hugs!"

Timegate, developers of the decent digital title Section 8 and the “too big for its britches” Aliens: Colonial Marines (which Gearbox apparently outsourced a huge chunk of the project to) had filed for bankruptcy last week according to a post from Kotaku. But now it seems like they are going for a chapter 7 liquidation. It appears Timegates’ main publisher Southpeak has dissolved the studio entirely. Employees were sent home early today.

Sonic 1 heading to 3DS…in 3-D!

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Looks like we’ll be getting a heavy dose of the original Sonic 1 this year.

Thanks to our sister site Sonic Retro, we have learned that Sega of Japan have announced Sonic 1 as the third Sega game (along with Space Harrier and Super Hang-On to get the 3-D treatment. It looks like this will not be the same as the version coming from Christian Whitehead for the iOS. While it will have full 3-D effects, it will still looks to be in 4:3 mode. Besides 3-D other new features include..

  • Switch between Japan/Western version with some minor differences.
  • Spin Dash.
  • New animations in backgrounds like rippling effects in water.
  • CRT mode to give it that “classic” look.
  • Full controller customization. Set it to press A to jump or B to jump, or X to Jump or Y to well you know where I’m going here.
  • Sound settings for PSG and FM.

While the game will be coming to Japan on the 15th, but given how long it’s taking Space Harrier and Super Hang-On to come over here, it may be awhile before we see it stateside.

Sonic Talk #19: Ask Ian Part Duex

It’s been 13 episodes, but Sonic and Mega Man comic scribe Ian Flynn is back for another interview! We’ve got over two hours of questions from you, the fans! We’ll be taking about World’s Collide, the future of the books, his team up with Dawn Best on Sylvanna and his work on the superhero comic, The New Crusaders.Also, check out my written interview with Ian over at the Sonic Stadium.

For those waiting for the MP3/iTunes version, that will be up later this week.

Shinobi 3DS developer faces layoffs

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Griptonite games, makers of Shinobi on 3DS, Captain America on DS and many other portable games is hitting some tough times. The company, which has recently been aquired by Glu Mobile has had to make some cutbacks in order to maintain revenue. In this report from IGN, Glu Mobile CEO Niccolo de Masi gave the following statement.

We believe concentrating resources on fewer titles, with a greater centralized support infrastructure will accelerate revenue growth in Q4 2013 and beyond. We made over 20 new ‘games-as-a-service’ (GaaS) hires in Q1 and anticipate hiring at a similar rate throughout the year. Our goal is to shift headcount investment out of raw studio team volume and into our centralized GaaS functions. This rebalancing is expected to leave R&D costs approximately flat year over year. A reduction in force was commenced today to promote talent density throughout the studio, as well as fund over 80 new GaaS colleagues. This reduction is equivalent to circa 12% of the year’s starting headcount of 564 employees. Adding back forecast hiring we anticipate finishing 2013 with 582 Gluers worldwide.

Read the full article here.

Ian Flynn to be guest on the next Sonic Talk! Ask your questions here.

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The most famous writer in video game comicdom is coming back to Sonic Talk! Ian Flynn, writer of Mega Man, the New Crusaders and of course, Sonic the Hedgehog will be answering your all important questions on our next show! Questions like “What do hedgehogs smell like?”, ” Why aren’t (insert your favorite shipping pair here) together”, “Is Protoman secretly Racer X?”, and “If a tasmanian devil gets rid of all the echidnas in the world and no one cares, does it make a sound?”

Post your questions in the comments section below, and we may read them on the podcast! Let us know if you want your name to be read as well.

All questions must be in by Wednesday morning.

Please do not ask any questions about the Archie case against Penders as Ian cannot answer them.

Sega Pluto is up for sale

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How much is a super rare piece of Sega history worth to you?

As we reported just yesterday, one of the only two Pluto (the Saturn/Netlink hybrid) prototypes was picked up a few years ago by Destructoid reader kidvid666 for only $1. That protoype, designated Pluto-01 is now up for sale over at gamegavel.com As of this writing, the current bid is $7,600. Imagine, picking up some game system you’re unfamiliar with from a yard sale for $1 and having it worth near eight thousand if not more! Hurry up. Bidding ends April 26th.

Big weekend sale on Sonic PC games at Gamersgate

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This weekend, you don’t have to break the bank at the Casino Night Zone to get a ton of Sonic games at an affordable price. Gamersgate is offering Every Sonic PC title from 50%-75% off. Pick up Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed for only $14.99! You can also get Sonic Generations, Sonic 4, Sonic Adventure 1 & 2, Sonic CD and all Genesis tiles from as little as $1.25 and up. The sale is only this weekend, so jump on it as soon as you can!

In Japan, Domino’s Pizza wants you to “Have fun with Hatsune Miku”

I’ve heard of “singing for your supper”, but this is ridiculous.

In a cross promotion that’s pretty clever and cool if not a bit weird, Domino’s pizza has an iPhone app in Japan that lets you make your own vocaloid music that Hatsune Miku can sing. In fact, with the app you can have her do a live (as “live” as she is anyway) performance on your pizza box.Can you even take pictures of her that are both life-sized or tiny. What’s really weird is that most of the commercial is in English with American Dominoes president Scott… somebody or other hosting the ad and putting on the most hilariously awkward performance I’ve seen.

NiGHTS, Sonic the Fighters and more on sale on XBLA this week

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XBLA has a great deal this week on select Sega games. You can pick up NiGHTS and Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown for 400 points($5), or Sonic the Fighters, Fighting Vipers and Vitrua Fighter 2 for a measly 160 points($2)! The sale is just until the end of the week, so if there’s any you’re missing out on, now’s your best chance.

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.

Segabits at Round 1 Arcade

Hey folks, do you remember the newspost we put up about the Hatsune Miku game being tested near L.A. a few days ago? Well, it just happens to be at the closest mall near me. So, I set out and got some video.

It’s not just for Project Diva though, Round 1 is an AWESOME arcade. It’s a Japanese owned arcade franchise and it only has two arcades so far. Both in So Cal. They got Karaoke, Bowling, those Japanese photo booths, sit down fighting cabinets, tons of UFO catchers and most important, the newest video arcade games. This includes pretty much every light gun and racer game Sega’s made in the past ten years. It’s great for import Japanese games as well. From Initial D, Namco’s Mario Kart Arcade, Taiko Drum Master to many rhythm games including of course, Project Diva. Think Dave and Busters with a very Japanese flavor but with just some cafeteria food instead of a full restaurant.

Sonic Talk #17: Criticize This!

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It’s time for an all-new, slightly different Sonic Talk. We’re cutting waaay back on news discussion and just bringing up two to three main topics per episode along with the usual what we’ve been playing and Comic discussion. It’s my way of..well…ATTEMPTING to keep the conversation flowing well. Also, those of you with sensitive ears should be aware we are no longer censoring any of the naughty words. This means Alex has been unleashed!!