The Amplitude Studios developed Endless Space 2 sees its full release today on Windows and Mac. The turn-based strategy sci-fi game is a sequel to 2012’s two-time Unity-award winning Endless Space. As of July 2016, Amplitude Studios is a fully owned subsidiary of SEGA, meaning Endless Space 2 is a franchise fully owned by SEGA!
While the game has been available via early access since October 2016, today marks the full official release. The game is available on Steam and Amazon, and is available in two digital editions: the standard edition of Endless Space 2 for $39.99 and the Deluxe Edition of Endless Space 2 for $49.99 which includes a digital soundtrack, the “PATHFINDER” hero ship skin and “PATHFINDER” academy heroes Brunem Berto-Lancellum and Kinete Muldaur.
Over on the infamous video game messaging board, NeoGAF the CEO of Just Add Water confirmed that the Shenmue HD Remasters of the first two titles are real. First you’d ask yourself who the development team ‘Just Add Water’ really is. Well, I did some journalistic google searching and found their wikipedia page:
Just Add Water (Development) Ltd., doing business as Just Add Water, is an independent video game developer based in Otley, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom. Founded by Stewart Gilray in 2006, Just Add Water has worked on different titles for the PlayStation 3 and PC, notably the Oddworld series. They have teamed up with Oddworld Inhabitants, to recreate the series in high definition as well as working on new installments in the series.
The Just Add Water CEO didn’t confirm anything outside of a short ‘Oh, it’s real… :-)’ message, so we made this a rumor considering that he could just be kidding with fellow board members. Though you’d think someone that is a CEO of a company that specifically ports old games wouldn’t be joking about Shenmue HD Remasters being the works. Considering Shenmue news is serious business to fans that have been waiting for SEGA to port the games since forever. Maybe Shenmue HD Remasters will be shown off in some form come E3 next month? What are your thoughts about SEGA possibly doing Shenmue HDRemasters of the first two games? Would you purchase them again? Let us know in the comments below.
On this SEGA News Bits, George and Barry discuss the recent news of SEGA of Japan announcing the revival of major IPs during their “Road to 2020” business presentation. What franchises could they be referring to? Find out as we dig through the news archives to uncover an old survey that just might hold the answer!
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Who called it? For the past month or two, we’ve been speculating that the third gameplay style in Sonic Forces is a character creation system not unlike Phantasy Star Online. Today, SEGA and the Sonic the Hedgehog YouTube channel revealed just that! Per the video description:
In a world where Eggman has taken over, even two Sonics will need some help. For the first time in the series’ history, create and play as your own custom character in the war to take back the planet.
The third character seems to play like both modern and classic Sonic, but with the added ability to use gadgets like flamethrowers and grappling hooks. Also revealed was a gameplay sample of the unnamed avatar in action, which you can see after the break. What are your thoughts on this reveal? Let us know in the comments below!
[UPDATE] We’ve added the press release as well, found after the break, which details the customization system and what animal species you can expect. Also, we’ve added some new screens and concept art!
Packaged Games Field (example titles: Total War: Warhammer, Yakuza 6: The Song of Life, Football Manager 2017, and Persona 5)
Expand existing IPs and obtain new IPs for North American and European PC games
Build revenue base by being entrusted with outsourced development
Challenge for new IPs
Revival of major IPs
Effective utilization of development engines
Digital Games Field (example titles: Puyo Puyo!! Quest, Hortensia Saga, Chain Chronicle 3, and Phantasy Star Online 2)
Create titles that will become global hits
Establish digital marketing business
Expand overseas publishing business
Maintain profits through long-term operation of existing titles
Develop next-generation titles
If you notice, they have a nice section where they highlight that they are planning not only original IPs but also SEGA plans “revival of major IPs”. But what would SEGA consider a “major IP”? One of the challenges SEGA has with reviving IPs is that they want them to be ‘global hits’, so what titles do you think are considered ‘global hits’? SEGA plans “revival of major IPs”, do you believe it or is it a ‘wait and see’ sort of thing?
Sonic Mania is a game that embraces old school aesthetics, so it is fitting that fellow SEGA and Sonic fan Ineedmorcowbell created a Sonic Mania skin for the old school program Winamp. Initially released in 1997, Winamp is a freemium media player for Windows, Android, and macOS. If you had a computer between 1997 and now, chances are you downloaded this program and still have it on your machine. What Ineedmorcowbell’s skin does is turn the entire player into Studiopolis Zone.
Ineedmorcowbell has this to say about the project:
After watching game play of Sonic Mania’s Studiopolis Zone, and seeing the Hornet Van. I felt like it needed to dance! This whole project was built around getting that Van to dance! From there, I designed how all the windows and standard features would be reskinned. There is all kinds of animations like the clouds moving, or lights glowing, to the projector playing different animations that react to the music.
All the sprites for this skin have been redrawn by myself! I used the debut, and various game play videos to collect the sprites to use, then redrew them in a much lower resolution. Similar to the original Genesis games. To produce a much crisper look then just using them straight from the videos. The only things that I didn’t redraw were some of the animations for the projector that use the developer logos and intro for the game. Christian Whitehead was redrawn because the original design was very seizure inducing. The Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles Head was done in illustrator.
I spent a lot of time and work really hard on this, so let me know what you think!
The SEGAbits Swingin’ Report Show is back, bringing you an interview with Maarten Brands, CEO of Cook & Becker who is behind the upcoming Sonic the Hedgehog 25th Anniversary Art Book! In this, his first public interview talking about the book, Maarten goes into the history of the international art dealership Cook & Becker, how the SEGA partnership began and what fans can expect from the Sonic art book.
We’ve long sung the praises of Platinum Games’ Vanquish, so you can guess that we here at SEGAbits are very excited to see the announcement of the game coming to PC. When the game released in 2010, it earned an A grade in our written review.
Set to release May 25th, and available to pre-order now on Steam, the PC version of the game promises a fully unlocked framerate, HD resolutions up to 4K and all DLC. What more, if you own Bayonetta on PC you get 25% off Vanquish and pre-ordering gets you a Deluxe Digital Edition which features a digital art book, OST sampler, avatars, and wallpapers.
Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap, the remake to the 1989 SEGA Master System cult classic will be getting a physical release this summer by Limited Run Games. This physical version of Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap will be exclusive to the PlayStation 4, will come in a standard and regular editions. Limited Run Games tweeted that the physical release will be coming sometime this summer and haven’t given us an update on when we can pre-order.
If you would like to get a physical version of Wonder boy: The Dragon’s Trap, make sure you are ready to pre-order the day it goes live because these releases sell out fast. I mean, look at a list of games they have published that are no longer available. I’m glad that Dot Emu and LizardCube listened to fans who wanted a physical release and made it happen. For those who asked for a physical release, I hope you guys pick up a copy of Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap this summer. But I have a feeling this is going to sell out rather quickly. What are your thoughts on Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap getting a physical release on the PlayStation 4? Are you picking up a copy?
At long last, The Top 100 SEGA Games list is here! Those who follow the site know that this ginormous list has been a long time coming. Back in October 2015 we began gathering top 25 lists from the SEGAbits community and the SEGA fan community as a whole for what was at the time intended to be compiled into a list of top 50 SEGA games. The reason for a list was a reaction to a certain big name gaming site that released a top 100 video games list without a single SEGA title. How IGNorant.
Seeing as a ranked top 25 list is a lot to ask, we gave fans all of 2016 to submit lists that followed strict guidelines. Games had to satisfy two of the following: be published by SEGA, be developed by SEGA, IP owned by SEGA. Also games had to be released between 1960 and October 19th, 2015. Once the lists were collected, we had over fifty lists of top 25 games. That’s over 1,250 entries covering nearly 300 games! Now, after six months of compiling, counting, sorting and writing up descriptions we are finally very happy to present to you The Top 100 SEGA Games!
Special thanks to the SEGAbits writing team for pitching in to tally votes and write descriptions when I felt that the task was impossible. And of course, special thanks to SEGA for making the games we love.
No this isn’t the infamous Sonic Xtreme originally developed for the SEGA Saturn but cancelled due to development hell. Sonic Extreme was a cancelled skateboarding game originally pitched by a development studio called Vision Scope Interactive, which as the name suggested involved Sonic characters preforming skateboarding tricks and races similar to the famous Tony Hawk Pro Skater series involving hover boards. A prototype of the game was originally found in a Xbox devkit and leaked on the internet in 2011.
Liam Robertson, a known contributor to the website Unseen64 that specializes in beta and cancelled video games, decided to investigate further into how the game was originally pitched by contacting Vision Scope Interactive employees. The results includes how the opportunity came to be due to helping with developing the CG cutscenes in Sonic Heroes, how the prototype was quickly assembled and pitched, and it’s connection to the similar Sonic Riders released years later.
What Sonic Extreme might have been if it became a full title is unknown, but it’s nice to know more information about another curious case in Sonic’s history.
Bayonetta released in early April to PC, and on this SEGA News Bits George and Barry take a look at the sales figures. Are Bayonetta‘s numbers Heaven or Hell for SEGA? What games could we see released next? Find out on this witchy News Bits! Want to win a copy of Bayonetta for PC? Enter our contest which runs through May 11th!
If you enjoy our SEGA News Bits segments and want to support us: Give us a sub and give this video a like so it shows up on more like minded fans YouTube recommendations. You know, how that new YouTube algorithm is.
Atlus is now showing off the box art for Etrian Mystery Dungeon 2, this box art is for the standard edition of the game. Etrian Mystery Dungeon 2 was announced back in March, when they detailed that there would be two versions: standard version and the ‘Etrian Odyssey 10th Anniversary Box Limited Editon’. The cover is illustrated by series veteran Hiroshi Sasadzu with the cover featuring Kenkaku, Buccaneer, Alchemist, Monk, and Farmer. All classes you’ll be able to play in Etrian Mystery Dungeon 2.
Etrian Mystery Dungeon 2 comes out exclusively for the Nintendo 3DS in Japan on August 31st. Atlus USA has been pretty silent on releasing Etrian Mystery Dungeon 2 or even last year’s Etrian Odyssey V over here in the West. Maybe they have given up on the franchise? I hope not, since the games feature fantastic music by Yuzo Koshiro and you know I love me some Yuzo Koshiro music. What is your thoughts on the game’s cover art? Let us know in the comments below.
Toshihiro Nagoshi is known for a lot of things. Super Monkey Ball, Daytona USA, Yakuza series, great tans, and now he wants to extend that list with a new franchise. Nagoshi posted on his personal blog about the new Yakuza game and putting his strength into ‘new developments’:
“Yakuza Studio has also reorganized, and from this year to next year we’re considering various developments, during that, I think that there will surely be developments that everyone expects. But personally, while putting my strength into new developments, I’d like to work hard enough so that you expect great things from me.” – Toshihiro Nagoshi
While we already knew that a new Yakuza game was in the works by the Yakuza Studio, it is interesting that Toshihiro Nagoshi is working on a new franchise or at least it seems that way. The last new IP that he and his studio made was 2012’s Binary Domain, which bombed for SEGA. Lately they have been playing it safe and having a new Yakuza game isn’t surprising. It makes guaranteed money, even tho it seems to be at a slight decline compared to past titles. The question is, how will they continue it now that Kazuma Kiryu’s story has ended with Yakuza 6? I guess we will find out soon enough, but I wouldn’t mind a Yakuza Kiwami 2. What are your thoughts on the studio ‘considering various developments’ and would you like to see a new title from Toshihiro Nagoshi? Let us know in the comments below.
Atlus has teamed up with iam8bit to offer two versions of its Persona 5 soundtrack. Before today, Persona 5 soundtrack fans could pick up the 110 track album on iTunes for a cool $29.99. That’s cool, but some of us prefer physical stuff and now iam8bit promises to release the Persona 5 soundtrack on vinyl, set to ship on the fourth quarter of 2017.
The Persona 5 soundtrack is set to come in two flavors:
The Essential Edition: Featuring the most popular music from the Persona 5 soundtrack and shipping on 4 LPs. Price: $100
Deluxe Edition: The complete Persona 5 soundtrack featuring all 110 songs. Limited to 1,000. Ships on 6 LPs. Price: $175
You can pre-order the Persona 5 soundtrack now, via iam8bit’s website. iam8bit promises that each version will come in ‘premium packaging’. No cover art has been revealed yet. What are your thoughts on this western pressing of Persona 5’s soundtrack on vinyl? Let us know in the comments below.
