SEGA to localize Yakuza Zero for the Chinese market

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It seems that SEGA of Japan is really trying to cash in on the newly opened Chinese console market, a few months ago SEGA announced that they would be localizing Phantasy Star Nova and Shining Resonance in traditional Chinese. Now they have announced the same treatment for Yakuza Zero.

I’m glad that SEGA is taking advantage of China lifting the ban on consoles back in 2013. Even though console games had a 14 year ban, PC games did not and that industry was worth 6 billion dollars in China. I can see why SEGA is gambling on releasing their games for Chinese players.

But as a American gamer all I’m asking is where is my English releases of Japanese SEGA games…

Yakuza Zero’s Game Center to have playable versions of AM2 arcade classics

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Famitsu has confirmed a few titles that will be in Yakuza Zero‘s Game Center. The titles confirmed so far include:

  • Out Run
  • Fantasy Zone
  • Space Harrier 
  • Hang-On

If you didn’t catch the early information on this title, it is a pre-quel taking place in 1988, so it is fitting that they would include SEGA arcade classics like this. You know who also did this over a decade ago? A little game called Shenmue, you might have heard of it?

Honestly, this is what I wanted to hear when I found out that Yakuza Zero was taking place in the 80’s, classic AM2 arcade hits.

AmiAmi now taking pre-orders on their official SEGA Dreamcast hoodie

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Popular Japanese online figure shop AmiAmi are now taking pre-orders for their official Dreamcast hoodies, pictured above. The Dreamcast hoodie sadly only comes in white as of now. They do ship outside of Japan, if you wanted to purchase one, but will have to eat the shipping cost.

The Dreamcast hoodie isn’t set to ship till sometime in November. How much will this hoodie cost you? $58 dollars plus shipping. Yes, not cheap.

UPDATE: The hoodie is being designed by Cospa while AmiAmi is distributing the hoodie.

SEGA announces its TGS line-up, teases new Hatsune Miku project

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SEGA has finally revealed their line-up publicly for next week Tokyo Game Show this will include SEGA published games, Atlus and even titles by other publishers that will be shown at their booth. Some of them are big western publishers without enough Japanese presence like Electronic Arts and Warner Bros. and others are just small Japanese companies without means like Silver Star Japan and Compile Heart.

SEGA is set to hold a number of stage events including one on Septermber 18th when the company will announce a new Hatsune Miku game, Atlus will get their own stage show on September 20th and Yakuza 0 will get a variety of stage shows planned throughout TGS.

Hit the jump to see the full TGS schedule.

Football Manager documentary hitting UK cinemas next month

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FilmNova is doing a documentary titled Alternative Reality: The Football Manager Documentary, which will be a feature-length film that goes into the game’s popularity and impact on the culture of football it has within the profession. I think as Americans we don’t really grasp how popular Football Manager is overseas, just a quick look at their Steam stats shows why its one of the top 5 played games on Steam .

Sadly the documentary is only going to be shown for one night at Vue cinemas across the UK on October 7th. It said if you want your local Vue to show the film, to follow them and bother them on social media. After October 7th the documentary will be made available word wide for download and streaming.

The documentary isn’t our story – it’s the story of the people who escape to the alternative reality of being a football manager, and the effect this has had on their lives. It’s also the story of how a computer game made by football fans has become a part of the world it set out to replicate. But it’s not just for people who play – it’s also for people who’ve ever wondered why others spend so much time escaping into this world.” – Miles Jacobson (Sports Interactive chief)

It has also been confirmed that after the Vue screening there will be another short film revealing new features in Football Manager 2015. Hit the jump for a list of Vue’s showing the documentary on the 7th of October.

SEGA announces F2P RPG ‘The World End Eclipse’ made by the Valkyria Chronicles team

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Famitsu reveals that SEGA has a new free-to-play ‘online theater RPG’ video game as they describe it. It will be launched this winter in Japan on the Playstation Vita, mobile and PC. Save data is said to carry over to all three platforms, online servers are also shared meaning cross-platform online play is a possibility.

The game seems to be online only and will have simplified RTS like elements that let you build, explore and fight. Battles are said to be mostly automated with ‘fast-forward and pause buttons’.  I can see this be SEGA’s take on the ever popular Clash of Clans franchise.

SEGA makes sandcastle arcade game using real sand


 
Making arcade games means you have to think of new ideas to attract consumers walking by. This time, SEGA is making a real sandcastle building arcade game that uses sand that resembles dirt mixed with some Play-Dough, along with dynamic image projector technology. The idea is to replicate playing with sand at the beach, so if you dig a hole inside the sand it will be filled with water. There are quite a bit of animated displays that occur while playing to keep the kids interested. Very unique technology, and great for younger arcade visitors. The game is similar to 2009’s Brick People, in which you stack real blocks and little men on a screen climb your creations to reach items.

Above you can see the trailer, what do you guys think? Would this get your attention and money?

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SLaVE announced for SEGA Dreamcast

The Dreamcast’s life-after-death continues with yet another new game from the indie scene: Jay Townsend’s SLaVE. This new game is considerably different from most other indie projects the Dreamcast has received over the last few years. Neither a sh’mup nor an old school RPG, SLaVE is instead a colorful first person shooter built around an enhanced Doom engine called 3DGE.

Jay Townsend is making this game in collaboration with indie developer Isotope and GOAT Store Publishing. Only 484 copies of the game will be produced, including 400 limited edition copies and 84 “Limited Limited” edition copies, which will be sold for $20.84 and $30.84 respectively. You can pre-order them here. Production is slated to begin in April 2015.

SLaVE is supposed to combine the game design sensibilities and aesthetics of 80s arcade shooters with old school first person shooters like Doom and Wolfenstein. The game was originally revealed for the PC and is not currently slated for any other platforms besides the Dreamcast.

This isn’t the only Dreamcast project GOAT Store and Isotope are working on. Earlier this year GOAT Store revealed that it would be publishing another Isotope project running on the same technology, Hypertension: Harmony of Darkness. Check out a developers diary for SLaVE and a trailer for Hypertension below the fold. Check out the official press release here.

Relic removes Game for Windows Live from Dawn of War II and adds dedicated servers

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Dawn of War II is a Warhammer 40k based RTS that was massively successful when it came out in 2009. To many people’s dismay it used Game of Windows Live as its multiplayer and even with these hurtles it was massively successful. Fans asked for years for the developer Relic Entertainment and its then publisher THQ to remove Microsoft’s Game for Windows Live.

Relic was bought by SEGA in 2013 and with that all their game’s transferred ownership to SEGA. Seems they don’t have plans on abandoning support for older titles since a new update (2.6.0.10216). Not only that, this and its predecessor Dawn of War 1 have now been moved to dedicated servers. This is a big update for the game that fixes a lot of  lag experienced by players. 

Game also uses Steamworks for matchmaking, but since the removal of GFWL it will be impossible to unlock achievements, but there will most likely be a update on steam to add Steam achievements in the near future.

SEGA launches copyright complaints against Hi Score Girl manga

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It seems that Square Enix’s manga branch is in a bit of trouble with companies for using copyright characters in their video game themed manga ‘Hi Score Girls‘. It seems that they used Virtua Fighter characters in the manga before SEGA actually granted them permission to use them and even though SEGA didn’t take legal action they did use them for a couple of years and that they ‘strongly objected’ the use. The weird thing is now they are OK with the usage of their characters in game if they are allowed to OK it before publishing and if it works for their PR for a game. The revelation comes in that ‘Hi Score Girl‘ manga was using copyright characters for years before getting permission.

This isn’t the only company to come out of the wood work years after the manga used their characters, SNK Playmore stated they where never asked if they could use their characters and showed 100 instances that characters from The King of Fighters, Samurai Showdown and other franchises where used in the manga.

The editor-in-chief of Squar-Enix’s Monthly Big Gangan has posted a message stating that the magazine will be put on temporarily halt due to alleged copyright violations.  The manga launched in 2010 and the complaints are barely coming in, what are your thoughts on the issue?

Upcoming Sonic soundtrack album “Passion & Pride: Anthems with Attitude from the Sonic Adventure Era” tracklist and cover art revealed

As we previously reported, a new Sonic soundtrack album, “Passion & Pride: Anthems with Attitude from the Sonic Adventure Era” is on the way, due for September. Today we’ve gotten a plethora of new information on the release, including the rather awesome cover art, seen above, and a full tracklist.

The new information comes from the album’s official listing on the Japanese Sonic the Hedgehog website, Sonic Channel, and the tracklist, containing songs from Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure 2, is as follows:

Super Monkey Ball Bounce now available from the App Store and Google Play

SEGA has just released Super Monkey Ball Bounce to Apple’s App Store and to Google Play, along with the above launch trailer. The game, which was revealed back in May, received the SEGAbits hands-on treatment in June at a special SEGA mobile event outside E3. Described as “Super Monkey Ball meets Peggle”, Super Monkey Ball Bounce is (as described by our own nuckles87 in his preview) a free-to-play game in which you launch a ball into a 2D course, try to bounce it off of various objects in the environment and hit specific targets marked with stars. There are bumpers and curved surfaces to bounce and roll the ball off of, as well as special “power up” blocks. This game is all about using physics and objects in the environment to hit all the targets before you run out of balls. It’s a fairly simple concept, but a fun diversion.

So if you have an iOS or Android device, give Super Monkey Ball Bounce a try and let us know what you think about it in the comments below!

There’s gonna be a Nintendo Direct that’s all about Bayonetta 2 today

Update: The Nintendo Direct has aired, you can see it above.

If you wanted to see more new stuff of Bayonetta 2, you’ll be able to see a lot pretty soon. Nintendo announced yesterday that they’ll be streaming a Nintendo Direct showing new Bayonetta 2 stuff later today. You’ll be able to watch it here. As for when it will start:

  • 3PM PST
  • 6PM EST
  • 11PM BST
  • 12AM CET on September 5th

This post will be updated when alternative streaming links are available.

SEGA says Gearbox just as involved with marketing Aliens: Colonial Marines

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Seems that the drama never stops for SEGA of America and Gearbox Software, continuing with details on a new court filing by SEGA on September 2nd. According to SEGA’s attorney that despite what Gearbox said about them not being responsible with marketing. SEGA disagreed and stated that they had equal part and would sometimes overstepped their boundaries. SEGA went as far to say that they were kept in the dark about certain promotional decisions.

One of these claims is that Gearbox co-founder Randy Pitchford wold go to events and state to the press that the demos where “actual gameplay” which of course is false.

SEGA has already admitted to wrong doing and will pay $1.25 million dollars, Gearbox was allowed to join in with SEGA if they would agree to pay a additional $750,000 in the settlement, but it seems they will continue to fight on. According to Gearbox they operated as a contractor and that SEGA had final word on the game and marketing.

Yakuza Zero’s first trailer shows Kazuma being a bad ass

Toshihiro Nagoshi went on stage at Sony’s TGS press conference to present this trailer of Yakuza Zero, which shows a younger Kazuma Kiryu in the year of 1988 as a debt collector. This is during a time when the economy in Japan was in shambles, which will have an affect on the game’s plot. He also announced that the game will have two playable characters: Kazuma Kiryu and Goro Majima.

The reveal of this trailer at the conference can be seen here. The game will be coming to Playstation 3 and Playstations 4 during Spring 2015 in Japan.