SEGA News Bits: SEGA re-releasing legacy games like Shenmue?

SEGA Europe’s marketing director Jon Rooke said in a recent interview that SEGA was looking at opportunities to re-release Legacy titles like Shenmue. On this episode we sit and discuss the possibility of this being just PR talk, we discuss what is a SEGA legacy title and discuss SEGA legacy games we want to see re-released. Let us know what you consider a legacy title and what games you want to see re-released in the comments below!

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SEGA posts sales profits despite having fewer sales

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SEGA-Sammy has posted their detailed financial report for the last six months, spanning from April to September 2015. If you guys didn’t know, April 1st is when SEGA’s massive restructure happen and around June is when SEGA of America did their big move. Not only that but the company hasn’t been releasing as much software as they used to, but they still manage to make profit even with a decrease in sales.

SEGA-Sammy reports 1.2 billion in net sales, which happens to be a decrease of 2.5% over the same six month period in 2014, where they reported over 1.3 billion. Yet SEGA-Sammy posted a profit of $7.9 million, compared to losing $23 million in 2014.

SEGA-Sammy said that digital games just happen to be one of the big money makers for the company which happen to them get out of the red. What games did good? Lets look.

SEGA News Bits: Sonic 25th Anniversary game to play like classic games?

SEGA is getting ready to celebrate Sonic the Hedgehog’s 25th Anniversary next year and their new marketing director in Europe has dropped a hint on what to expect that new game to play like. According to him the new Sonic the Hedgehog games will be more inspired by how they “played in its heyday.” What is Sonic’s heyday? What does this all mean? Let’s talk about that. Read the original story here.

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Review: The Legend of Legacy (3DS)

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The Legend of Legacy piqued my interest when I heard that the team behind the game (Furyu) was billing the title as a spiritual sequel to the SaGa series of games, a series of RPGs that I played many moons ago. Did I enjoy them? Hard to tell since I was quite young when I played them but the name always stuck with me over the years. I  was excited to start this long RPG trip and ready to see if the game will live up to its ‘Legacy’ namesake. Well, does it? One way to find out…

This is Saturn Rips n’ Tears some huge guts, with DOOM on SEGA Saturn

Halloween is upon us; and so Tracker returns to delve into hell, with id Software’s classic first person shooter, DOOM!

The SEGA Saturn port of DOOM has received heavy flak over the years for being an awful port of the classic shooter. Is it really that bad? Tracker sets out to rip and tear his way through the game to find out.

This is Saturn is a video series created by British teenager Liam ‘TrackerTD’ Ashcroft, aiming to give an alternative and in-depth look at the good, the bad, and the ugly of SEGA Saturn gaming, all whilst maintaining a somewhat strong accent.

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SEGA News Bits: New Valkyria Chronicles game trademarked?

Did SEGA just trademark a new Valkyria Chronicles game? If you recall we ran a story on SEGA’s trademark for ‘Valkyria of the Blue Revolution, which many have speculated to be SEGA trying to bring back the franchise. Me and Barry sit down and discuss what we think of the whole situation. Sit back, sit down and join the discussion in the comment section.

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Tell us your top 25 SEGA games – submit your list today!

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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!

The History of Sega Japan R&D, Part 3: Innovative Heights and the End of an Era

REUNIFICATION AND TWELVE INNOVATIVE R&D STUDIOS

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Playing up an executive managing director and joking about the state of the Dreamcast at the time, says a lot about Sega’s attitude at the time.

In Part 2 we covered Sega’s golden age, but great heights inevitably can bring great lows. Sega had lots of up and downs throughout their history. They also had great games, lots of them! But ultimately Sega did not make that much money from the Saturn. However, in the arcades they did absolute gangbusters. Sega needed to change their approach in regards to development and also their hardware. The solution was to make the Dreamcast and NAOMI arcade hardware the same and have all of the internal studios make games for it,in turn allowing them further grow and prosper. Twelve R&D studios in total were established, and the nine software studios were not split into arcade and console divisions – they made games for everything. Hisashi Suzuki and Yu Suzuki would manage the arcade business, with Hisashi putting in his final stretch at Sega before retirement.

SEGA News Bits: SEGA says new Panzer Dragoon Won’t Sell

We did a news post on how Phantasy Star Online 2 producer Satoshi Sakai if they where every going to do a game with a Dragon protagonist like Panzer Dragoon, according to Satoshi Sakai SEGA isn’t in the position to have a game like that sell. So we sat down and discussed if there was a market for a game like Panzer Dragoon and if SEGA of today could manage to make the game sell.

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SEGA News Bits: Sonic Boom Season 2 announced & the state of the franchise

With Sonic Boom Season 1 coming to a close and the announcement that the series will continue with a second season we thought it was time for us to chime in on the show. We talk about what we liked, disliked about season 1 and our hopes for season 2. Tell us what you thought about Sonic Boom season 1 in the comments below and tell us what you want to see for the second season!

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SEGA News Bits: Ghost Blade impressions & Hucast Games controversy talk

Today on the SEGA News Bits we have not only one, but two videos for you to enjoy. Why two? Well, we ran too long and I decided it was best to cut the conversation into two separate videos. The above video is Barry’s initial impressions of Hucast Games’ Dreamcast Shoot ’em up Ghost Blade. The second video has us talking about the article that DCGX wrote about Hucast games (the publisher of Ghost Blade). Its a great article, check it out.

If you want to see our video on our Ghost Blade impressions, thats above and if you wanna see us whine about the Dreamcast indie scene you can watch that below. If you like what you see don’t forget to comment, like, share and subscribe to us on YouTube.

The History of Sega Japan R&D, Part 2: The 90s Golden Age

THE NUMBER ONE ARCADE ENTERPRISE

The Model series of arcade hardware by Yu Suzuki in co-operation with Lockhead Martin, where the next step in the Sega arcade world. Virtua Fighter sold Sega Saturns in Japan.

The Model series of arcade hardware by Yu Suzuki in co-operation with Lockhead Martin, where the next step in the Sega arcade world. Virtua Fighter sold Sega Saturns in Japan.

In Part 1, we looked at Sega’s origins and their Japanese game development during the 80s. In Part 2 we turn our attention to the golden age, when Sega was fought in the console wars and arcades were in full-force globally. Throughout the 90s, Sega would really grow up and mature and have individual divisions, splitting into arcade and consumer software and product development. Many of the programmers, designers and planners of the 80s and earlier would become managers and producers of their own divisions.
Let’s start Part 2 off with the growth of their AM studios, which is short for Amusement Machine Research and Development.

Review: Dengeki Bunko: Fighting Climax (Playstation 3)

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What happens when you mix popular light novel characters and popular SEGA franchises in one crossover fighting game? You get Dengeki Bunko: Fighting Climax,a crossover fighting game developed by Japanese game developers French Bread & Ecole Software who have worked on the Melty Blood series. The game is published by SEGA and features various light novel characters from ASCII Media Works’ Dengeki Bunko imprint as a celebration of the publication’s 20th anniversary. Not only does the game feature light novel characters, SEGA fans will be very pleased to see what this game has to offer when it comes to fan service. Be sure to hit the jump for my review of Dengeki Bunko: Fighting Climax!

Opinion: Hucast and the Business of Dreamcast

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When speaking of the SEGA Dreamcast “nostalgia” is a word that is often mentioned, and it wouldn’t be an incorrect description of many gamers’ feelings towards the system. Countless articles and blog posts have been written about the prominence of the Dreamcast and how it died too soon. From that love of the little white box, an incredible scene of independent developers and publishers has continued the dream over the past decade with a steady stream of new games and multiplatform releases.