Plenty of SEGA merchandise inbound at Comiket Special 6

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Running from March 28th to the 29th in Japan this year is the Comiket Special 6 – Otaku Summit 2015,” a massive event packed with stuff for, well, ‘otaku.’ However, SEGA have announced they will be in attendance at the event, with a corporate booth to sell merchandise. And when they say “sell merchandise,” they aren’t kidding!

SEGA has shown off some of the items available for purchase at the event, a snippet of which we’ve included below. It covers a huge range of SEGA stuff; Fantasy Zone, Space Channel 5, Sakura Wars, and Virtual On all get nods, along with some obvious faces such as Sonic, and the usual console themed stuff (including a rather nice SEGA Saturn bag). Also slated to be available at the event is merchandise for the SEGA feat. Hatsune Miku Project (plus Mikudayo, the terrifying Project Mirai mascot costume that became something more) and the much-loved SEGA Hard Girls. 

Contest: Win a 3D OutRun download code for Nintendo 3DS

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3D OutRun releases tomorrow to the Nintendo 3DS, and we’re so excited that – thanks to our friends at SEGA – we’re giving away copies of the game to fans on all of our social networks! The contest is open to fans in the Americas and EU, and we are giving away codes on the following networks:

  • Twitter – Follow SEGAbits and retweet the dedicated contest tweet – 3 Americas and 3 EU codes will be awarded
  • Facebook – Like SEGAbits and share the dedicated contest post -3 Americas and 3 EU codes will be awarded
  • Instagram – Follow SEGAbits and leave a comment telling us your region – 2 Americas and 2 EU codes will be awarded
  • SEGAbits.com (you’re already here!) – Leave a comment below telling us why you’re excited to play 3D OutRun and tell us your region, use a valid email address when leaving your comment – 1 Americas and 1 EU code will be awarded

Fans can enter on any network, and there is no limit to how many networks you enter on. The more networks, the more chances you have to win! Contest ends Sunday, March 15th

SEGA and Game Freak reveal Tembo The Badass Elephant for Playstation 4, Xbox One and PC

SEGA just announced that the game by Game Freak they’ll be publishing is Tembo The Badass Elephant, a side scrolling action game with 17 levels in which you play as an elephant who is also a commando who has save Shell City from the evil PHANTOM Army. So really it’s what you could expect from the studio that made Pokémon. It’ll be a single player game, and while there’s no multiplayer there are leaderboards as there’s a lot of stuff you can do to get points in each level. This is the third game to come out of Game Freak doing smaller projects aside from their usual Pokémon games, with the first two being HarmoKnight and Solitiba.

The game is being directed by James Turner, who also directed HarmoKnight for the 3DS. Gamereactor had an interview with him about the game, which can be read here. It’ll be released this summer for Steam, Playstation 4 and Xbox One. As for why it’s not coming to Wii U, it’s because James only put the aforementioned platforms on the mock-up poster for the game and kinda stuck with them through development. Screenshots can be found below.

Creative Assembly is celebrating 15 Years of Total War

Human history is a bloody and violent one. Kingdoms and empires have risen and fallen at the edge of a sword. From the time we first sharpen flint we’ve been a pretty stabby lot– thank goodness for that! Total War simply couldn’t exist without it. Thanks to SEGA and Creative Assembly we can relive our ancestors violent, tyrannical and stabby ways in a fun game! Yay!

The Total War franchise is celebrating its 15 year anniversary in 2015! Total War spans 11 games, over 2000 years of historical warfare and an incredible estimated 4.8 billion battles waged in the last 15 years. To celebrate this milestone SEGA and Creative Assembly have released a trailer (see above) to reflect on their own history and give us a hint of what’s to come.

If you visit the EGX Rezzed show in London this weekend you’ll be able to play both retro and modern titles spanning 15 years of Total War history. Plus a ‘huge’ Total War prize giveaway! See you on the battlefield!

Celebrating 20 years of the amazing world of Panzer Dragoon

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Although few gamers nowadays have heard of it, the original Panzer Dragoon trilogy has an almost legendary status among Sega fans, particularly among those that owned a Sega Saturn. What was it, though, that made the Panzer Dragoon games so special? There were many things that the Panzer Dragoon games did right at the time. The game’s 3D graphics were amongst the best seen on the system at the time, and the first two games raised the bar for the on-rail shooter genre. Similarly, Panzer Dragoon Saga’s story, voice acting and battle system were ahead of their time.

The Creative Assembly working on new “multi-platform AAA blockbuster”

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It seems SEGA’s British developer has had a new project in the works as a recent job posting has revealed that the team is looking to hire a new staff member. Due to the nature of the prospective job asking for experience in “Experience of development on XB1, PS4 and PC platforms”, we can rule out this being some sort of Total War title (Indeed with Attila having just released and with Total War: Warhammer on the horizon, it seems the PC division already has it’s hands full) and might indicate a ditching of the last generation platforms Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. Could this be a sequel to Alien: Isolation? Very likely considering the sales of the title exceeded over 1.7 million as of December 31st 2014 and is in fact, launch aligned, the most successful Alien title SEGA has published in the third party era.

Furthermore the job posting is for “online/multiplayer programmer” which I’m sure is going to raise a few eyebrows for those hoping for an Alien: Isolation sequel with worries SEGA may introduce more prominent gunplay. It is worth noting however that Alien: Isolation began it’s life as a mulitplayer title where one player took the role of the Alien while the others had to hide from the “perfect organism” Considering the success of Alien: Isolation and the awards garnered, I would imagine SEGA would be reluctant to fiddle around with the formula. Personally speaking, Alien: Isolation was my Game of the Year and I’m very much interested in either a sequel or a new IP from the Creative Assembly’s console team.

Source: PC Gamer

SEGA unleashes Hatsune Miku Project Mirai DX trailer

Today is Hatsune Miku day so SEGA of Japan has released a trailer for their upcoming title, Hatsune Miku Project Mirai DX on the Nintendo 3DS. Project Mirai DX is suppose to be a re-release of the 2nd game in the series which is enhanced and will be the first 3DS Hatsune Miku game to be release in North America and Europe.

Unlike Hatsune Miku Project Diva games on arcades and Sony handhelds, Project Mirai features chibi versions of the main character cast which is unique to the 3DS platform.

You will be able to pick the game up for yourself in May 26th in North America and May 29th in Europe.

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SEGA announces its publishing Stella Glow on the Nintendo 3DS

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SEGA has agreed to publish Imageepoch’s newest game called Stella Glow. This isn’t the first time SEGA and Imageepoch worked together, they teamed up previously to create Sands of Destruction (2008) and 7th Dragon series (2009).

Stella Glow was suppose to be an important title for Imageepoch due to marking the studio’s 10th year anniversary, but also because it was suppose to be their first self published title. Rumor has it that Imageepoch hasn’t been doing great financially and that this move might be SEGA helping them release the game while the company prepares for the worst.

Stella Glow is an SRPG for the Nintendo 3DS platform and so far has only been announced for Japanese release. The game is set to hit Japanese stores on June 4th. You can read more about it on Famitsu. You can also check out the newly launched SEGA product site here.

Total War series sells 11 million within the last 6 years

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SEGA has announced their critical acclaimed series Total War has managed to sell 11 million units between the previous 5 installments (Empire, Napoleon, Shogun 2, Rome II and Attila) and a further 18 million units of DLC sold. What’s interesting to note is due to the fact that Attila is so new, it is almost assuredly that the majority of the 11 million sales is actually made up of 4 titles, showcasing just how popular the series is. Furthermore SEGA revealed that the first week sales in the UK for the latest Total War title, Attila, were 21,680 units with 81% of the sales coming from digital.

Speaking to MVC, Total War brand director Rob Bartholomew said;

“Since the release of Total War: Napoleon in 2010, we’ve built a great tradition of standalone follow-ups to our major titles, and it’s great to see Attila so well-received by fans and critics.

Globally we’re seeing this title reach double the sales of Napoleon in its first week and, as Creative Assembly’s home market, it’s heartening to see the UK taking its fair share of that success. With over a million people playing Total War each month now, it turns out there’s plenty of gamers who just want to watch the world burn. Who knew?”

Total War‘s impressive 1 million active users a month is surely another indication why SEGA, along with it’s life consuming Football Manager series, has been focusing so much on PC. As they continue to curve up a strong position in the PC market and with both Total War: Warhammer and Total War: Arena on the horizon, this series will prove to be a key pillar for the SEGA’s growth and prosperity.

Valkyria Chronicles sold over 200,000 copies on Steam

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put together a list of the most popular games of 2014 (meaning 2015 sales don’t count), ranking games that had the most owners and how many hours the games got played. As you know, SEGA released Valkyria Chronicles, a 6 year old Playstation 3 game on Steam last year. How did it perform?

According to the post Valkyria Chronicles ranked just above Telltales Games’ Game of Thrones series with 210,299 owners and almost 2 million hours played by fans. That is pretty incredible if you ask me and further proves that Japanese games do have a place on PC services like Steam.

Even though Valkyria Chronicles was an older port, it sold comparable to SEGA’s new Alien: Isolation game which had 329,649 owners on steam and over 3 million hours played.

I think the biggest success for SEGA digitally in 2014 was (by no surprise) Football Manager 2015 which had over 850,000 owners on the service and fans have logged in over 130 million hours into it (in little under two months!).

Seeing as Valkyria Chronicles‘ PC success has shocked even SEGA, what older console games do you think will do well on Steam? 

The Chaotix are playable in Sonic Runners today

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For a limited time only, the Chaotix are available to play in Sonic Runners starting today. The Chaotix campaign will last from 3/5 to 3/15 They increase ring bonuses by 75%. Vector is a power type, Espio is the speed type and Charmy of course, is the flight type.

Only thing is, I haven’t figured out how to play as them. I finished my latest mission as Sonic and Tails, but the Chaotix don’t seem to be available anywhere (although, since it’s not technically 6 AM in the U.S. as of this posting, thy just might not be available yet). There’s still no set release date for the U.S. version yet, but we will inform you the moment it’s known so stay tuned!

Alien: Isolation pre-release footage released, features unused third person view

Games change during development, even change after media journalists have gotten a good look at the game. Creative Assembly’s Alien: Isolation is no different. The footage above shows what could have been Alien: Isolation before they changed it to first person prospective.

Personally think they did the right move making it first person due to the nature of using melee combat and I hate using melee combat in 3rd person shooters (see: Gears of War, Binary Domain and Uncharted series).

So what do you think?

Official Nintendo listing reveals 3D OutRun release date

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Nintendo 3DS owners looking to add to their SEGA 3D Classics library needn’t wait long, as Nintendo’s official site lists 3D OutRun for a March 12th release! Priced at $5.99, the game includes all of the original’s content, two new songs and 60 fps gameplay. Check out the full description below:

3D Out Run™ is the critically acclaimed 1986 driving game designed by Yu Suzuki, re-mastered and enhanced for the Nintendo 3DS™ hand-held system. 3D Out Run includes all of Out Run’s original content, alongside two new songs and runs at 60 frames per second, which is twice the speed of the original version. The game features a built in Stage Select option that allows players to save and resume progress mid-game, has adjustable difficulty settings, and includes unlockable car customization options. Additionally, players are able to choose from a number of real-life arcade cabinets wherein everything from the appearance to the environmental sounds of the specific cabinet are recreated, providing a true and authentic arcade experience.

Game Freak and SEGA tease something for March 11th

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The Twitter account of RPG Site tweeted that they had received a postcard from SEGA and Game Freak teasing that they’ll seemingly reveal a new game on March 11th. Nothing is known about it aside from its cartoony look.

Game Freak is most well known for being the studio behind the Pokémon games, but you may also know them for making Pulseman for the Mega Drive. This is the first time SEGA has collaborated with the developer since the release of that game.

Swingin’ Report Show #76: Interview with Stealth, co-developer of Sonic the Hedgehog 1&2 Remastered

On this week’s SEGAbits Swingin’ Report Show podcast, we’re joined by Stealth, who worked on the official recent remasterings of Sonic The Hedgehog CD, Sonic The Hedgehog, and Sonic The Hedgehog 2 alongside fellow developer The Taxman.

Stealth talks to us about how the remasters began development, the process of remaking classic Sonic titles, the much talked about the remastered Sonic The Hedgehog 3 proof of concept, and what fans can do to try and make Sonic 3 remastered a reality. Also featured is discussion of Sonic The Hedgehog 4 and the recent decisions SEGA has made with the franchise. If you love classic Sonic games and behind-the-scenes stories of game development, this is the show for you!

Also, Barry and George discuss the recently revealed ToeJam & Earl: Back in the Groove Kickstarter by Greg Johnson (who will be joining us next week) and Sonic Team’s mobile release Sonic Runners, which soft launched yesterday.

Support the Sonic 3 Remastered campaign: http://sonic3remastered.com/


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