SEGA News

Rhythm Thief bombs in the UK (News/Rant)

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The good news? Rhythm Thief was not one of the cancellations reportedly occuring in the wake of SEGA’s recent financial woes; the game saw release in Europe earlier this month. The bad news? Nobody bought it. Though exact numbers are not currently known, SEGA’s forray back into Samba De Amigo-styled rhythm games failed to make the UK top 40 in its debut week, and its chart position remained missing in action in week 2.

I apologise in advance if this comes off as a rant; my intention is certainly not to upset anybody, but it’s hard for me to respond in any other way to what I find to be such an incredibly shocking turn of events. How is it that even with the fan outcry for more quirky, Japanese-style fare from SEGA, that with the good reviews and the lack of competition on the system, that with an ad campaign and Nintendo as a distributor…how is it that this didn’t sell? If niche Japanese beat-em-up Pandora’s Tower (on the Wii of all systems) can make this same chart (debuted last week at 38) then is it a stretch to expect a game being billed as one of the best rhythm games in years to find at least similar success?

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Project X Zone website updates with character voice samples

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[SPACE HARRIER AND OPA-OPA!!!]

If you go here you will see the official Project X Zone website. right away you will be treated to the game’s theme song. Wow, isn’t that a catchy song? Now that you are finished rocking out, you can click on ‘Entry Title’ to view character voice samples. If you look on the left you will see company logo with Japanese lettering beneath it. Those Japanese letters are list of characters. Click randomly for random voices.

If you haven’t seen our article on characters that have been revealed yet, then check that out here.

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House of the Dead 4 available now on PSN!

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Yes, it’s out. Go buy it and enjoy some HotD goodness.It’s available exclusively on PSN and is compatible with the Move controller. I had a preview written up for this from PAX, but my ultrabook died so I didn’t have access to it until today…since we won’t have a review up for a little while, maybe I’ll still put it up!

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Rare hires design chief from SEGA West

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Simon Woodroffe has been in the gaming industry for 20+ years working on titles like Simon the Sorcerer and Call of Cthulthu. But if you frequent this site, you probably recall his name from his work at SEGA, including working on titles like Renegade Ops and Sonic Generations. Simon Woodroffe is ready to move on and took the position of Creative Director over at Rare.

“Simon’s vast experience and knowledge are a fantastic addition to Rare’s strong Design team. He has worked on many innovative titles over the years, including some really impressive R&D prototyping projects. He is a terrific all-rounder and the ideal person to head up our Design department. Rare is committed to making the best possible games experiences that inspire everyone to play, and we believe the best way to do that is to attract the brightest and best talent in the business.” – Rare’s senior studio director Craig Duncan.

Its always good to see people that work on SEGA move on to bigger studios to work on more games.

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Binary Domain coming to PC on April 27th

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The release date for the digital version of Binary Domain has gotten a release date. You can download yourself a copy of the game on April 27th, aka in 10 days. SEGA has confirmed there are pre-order bonuses for both digital and boxed versions of the game, meaning there will be a retail version of the PC game. One of the pre-order bonuses is the ‘Dan Marshall Pack’ which gives the lead character more bionic upgrades and weapons. There is also the ‘Multiplayer Pack’ that adds Ninja as a playable class in multiplayer.

So who is going to pick this game up?

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SEGA Amusement teasing ‘R&D Spy Cam’ on Facebook

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Seems that SEGA Amusement is teasing a new product or cabinet on social sites. They have posted the picture above in an album called “R&D Spy Cam”, what it is or what it will do is not really known. But that isn’t all they posted, they also posted a clue in the discreption.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ S™

What is it and what could it be? Your guess is as good as mine.

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Binary Domain sells just 20,000 units in North America

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The NPD has just released their sales data for the month of March, and though it’ll hardly come as a surprise to most, the results aren’t looking good for SEGA’s robot-themed third person shooter. Binary Domain has reportedly sold just 20,000 copies in its first full month on North American shelves, while Mass Effect 3, despite a significant amount of fan backlash, managed 65 times that, selling 1.3 million for the month, not including its digital sales.

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Miku Flick now available worldwide.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2-b2iBnm40

Yup. A Hatsune Miku game has finally made it overseas. Miku Flick is an iOS game available on iPhone and iPad devices for a hefty (for iOS) $13.99. Published by Sega, Miku Flick comes with several of Hatsune Miku’s most popular songs. I know not a single one of them since I’m not a fan myself, but I do know her popularity is big enough that this is huge news for Miku fans. Who knows? If enough Miku fans buy this game, we may see more of her games arrive in the U.S. and Europe.

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SEGA announces that Hatsune Miku: Project Diva series has shipped over 1 million units

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SEGA has announced that the Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA series on PSP has shipped over 1 million units. That would mean this is counting sales for Hatsune Miku Project DIVA, Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA 2nd, and Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA Extend. To celebrate this milestone SEGA has announced they will be distributing commemorative pins to 390 randomly chosen fans that fill out the survey on the game’s site. The survey will run from April 12th to April 27th.

I guess that new Hatsune Miku game being teased as “Next Hatsune Miku Project Diva” shouldn’t come as a shock seeing how the series did over a million in Japan. Some might argue and say it’s three different titles. Actually that is rather good for the series being a niche Japan only series. Not to mention the Extend game is just a re-release of Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA 2nd.

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How currency in Phantasy Star Online 2 will work

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Everyday new information on Phantasy Star Online 2 hits the net and the more I hear about it the more excited I get.  Let’s be honest, most of my early 2000’s  were spent  playing Phantasy Star Online on the SEGA Dreamcast and a decade later it seems I will be doing the same with the sequel. How exciting is that?

When we learned that Phantasy Star Online 2 went free-to-play, most people were wondering how SEGA was going to handle payments for content. Lots of people thought this could hurt the series. Well, now SEGA lets us know about the currency in Phantasy Star Online 2 and how it works. They have announced that there will be three types of currency. That’s right, three.

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Some direct screens of SEGA/Capcom/Namco’s Project X Zone

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Namco-Bandai has released direct screenshots of their latest crossover game featuring characters from their franchise and also SEGA and Capcom. The game is called Project X Zone, which was revealed the other day via Famitsu. The game definitely has a budget look, using older 16-bit looking graphics.

Namco and Capcom have teamed up before for a game on the Playstation 2 called Namco x Capcom, which seems to have the same exact concept as Project X Zone. Sadly this title didn’t make it out of Japan. I wouldn’t expect this one either.

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The next Hatsune Miku game gets details leaked early, coming to Vita and PS3

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SEGA has now given details on their tease for the next Hatsune Miku game. Sinobi, a Japanese blogger who happens to have early access to Weekly Famitsu has posted up details for the game.

As of now the game doesn’t have a real name and is using the placeholder title “Next Hatsune Miku Project Diva“. The game will keep the basic gameplay from the previous Miku games while introducing new elements like touch controls (referred to as “scratch”) and new bonuses will be given to users that connect combos in specific time limits. The game has confirmed it will have four difficulty settings.

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SEGA teasing new Hatsune Miku game

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Even though SEGA has posted the terrible news that a lot of projects would be canceled; then revealing that only franchises like Sonic, Aliens and a few others would be safe. So what will happen to the Hatsune Miku development team?

Seems that they get to develop a new Hatsune Miku game. SEGA has just put up the teaser site for an upcoming new game in the Hatsune Miku universe. Will this new title finally mark Hatsune Miku‘s debut on Playstation Vita?

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Preview footage of Hell Yeah! Arkedo and SEGA’s chainsaw bunny platformer

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Arkedo’s up and coming strange but yet fantastic looking title Hell Yeah was shown at PAX and it is the first time we got to see a decent amount and also plenty of focus on the gameplay. Project Hell Yeah! promises to feature over a hundred different enemy types and a good deal of customization. We also find a rough release date for the title, with Arkedo’s Camille Guermonprez saying we should expect Hell Yeah! for PSN, XBLA and Steam in mid-summer.

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Sonic 4’s Episode Metal game length revealed?

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Sonic 4 rep and on-again-off-again moustache wearer Ken Balough has possibly revealed Episode Metal’s length. Ken spoke of Episode Metal in an interview and stated the following: “You’re going to unlock about 25% more game”. This percentage is interesting. Does Ken mean that Episode Metal is 25% the size of Episode 1? Episode 1 consisted of 17 acts. 25% of 17 is 4.25 acts. Episode Metal’s teaser promised “Four Exclusive Levels”. So with this in mind, Episode Metal might actually end up being shorter than a typical Sonic 4 episode. It could consist of four reworked acts/levels, each act taking place within a different zone. Either the four zones found in Episode 1, or three Episode 1 zones and Stardust Speedway or an Episode 2 zone. Fans disappointed in this news may be happy to hear that Ken also revealed “there’s more cutscenes in Episode Metal than all of Episode 2”. So while Episode Metal may be short, it will have a good deal of story. Also, it’s basically free so don’t complain!

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