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SEGA’s Marza studio demos Unreal Engine 4 animations

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SEGA-Sammy owned CGI animation studio Marza Animation Planet has been plenty busy since they debuted in early 2006 by doing opening animations on various SEGA games (including Night of the Werehog animated short), working on the CGI movie ‘Space Pirate Captain Harlock‘ and even being confirmed as doing the CGI for Sony Pictures ‘Sonic the Hedgehog’ theatrical film. Seems that the company is always looking ahead and are now getting their feet wet by trying animations in Unreal Engine 4, showing off detailed animations running on the primarily used game engine.

These are ‘real-time demos’ shown off to Japanese gaming website 4Gamer. Marza talks about how making animations in a game engine is new to them and how impress they are with what is possible. This could help SEGA’s development team create faster assets and cut development time in games. The demos they showed off included Happy Forest (above), Ultimate Bowl and Kuro 1.2 in-engine effects . To see the other tech demos hit the jump.

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Total War: Warhammer introduces us to the Dwarfen battle units

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SEGA and Creative Assembly have released the latest unit spotlight video, this one focusing a three Dwarfen units: Longbeards, Ironbreakers, and the Hammerers. Since in the Warhammer universe (much like most fantasy universes) the Dwarfen are masters at crafting and expert miners, expect some great weapons along with some amazing beards.

The video above is rather short and more of a basic introduction to the race. Doesn’t really detail all the backstories, lore and seems more like a teaser for an upcoming trailer. Let me give you more details:

  • Longbeards: Are the old, wise and experienced warriors in the Dwarfen ranks. They are respected due to being veterans and no one in the dwarfen ranks have experienced the amount of battles than the Longbeards.
  • Ironbreakers: As miners, someone has to protect the lower depths against Skaven and Goblins who try to tunnel into the Dwarf strongholds. These experienced tunnel fighters are the Ironbreakers, with a saying that for every land battle they partake in, they had dozens more underground.
  • Hammerers: Picked by the King himself as his personal bodyguards, with a rich history in Dwarfen history dating back to a High King, whose body guards got overrun and slain. Miners near by picked up the fallen body guard’s weapons and help the King escape, ever since then the King has had Hammrers as body guards.

Creative Assembly have already confirmed that Total War: Warhammer will be a trilogy. I think there is a lot of lore and back stories to make these games very interesting and deep, I just hope that the base packages are worth it. Honestly, Creative Assembly games have too much DLC.

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SEGA Tunes: Jamming out to the Gunstar Heroes OST

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So as most of you guys know we are celebrating ‘The Year of Developers‘, one of the focused developers this month is Treasure and since their cult classic ‘Gunstar Heroes‘ just got a re-release on the Nintendo 3DS we decided to have a look at the games soundtrack. Honestly, most people will be quick to give you hundreds of reasons why you should play the game, but almost none of them will mention the fantastic soundtrack.

Let’s look at some of my favorite tracks and then you can tell me some of your favorite tracks (or tracks you hated) in the comment section.

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Yakuza 5 now available to pre-order on PSN, includes 15% discount and theme

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While we don’t know the exact release date for Yakuza 5 yet, SEGA has just announced that the game is now available to pre-order on PSN. What perks does pre-ordering a digital title have? 15% off the $39.99 launch price plus a free Playstation 3 static theme! SEGA has also released the third and final developer video, embedded above, featuring Gio Corsi of SCEA Third Party Production and his interview with Yakuza series General Director Toshihiro Nagoshi and Producer Masayoshi Yokoyama. Topics include the game’s music, the developers’ thoughts on the Western release and the game’s themes.

Update: Sony has confirmed that all the Japanese DLC will be included with each copy of the game.

After the break, check out SEGA’s official pre-order press release. Yakuza 5 is so close, who’s excited?

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Grandia II Anniversary Edition out now on Steam and GOG

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What isn’t there to like about Grandia II on the SEGA Dreamcast? Now you can relive those memories on your PC via Grandia II Anniversary Edition. Personally this is one of my favorite RPGs released during that era and for the time had a really fun combat system.

What you get: 

  • Visual upgrades to textures, lighting, and shadows
  • Original Japanese voice option
  • Additional difficulty level
  • Gamepad support
  • Steam Trading Cards
  • Steam Achievements
  • Steam Cloud Save Support
  • Selectable Video Options
  • Remapable Keyboard & Gamepad Support
  • 100 Save File Slots
  • Dreamcast VMS Save File Support

Yes, you can import your save files from the Dreamcast VMU. You can pick it up on either Steam or GOG, if you buy it right now its $14.99 (25% off) and after August 31st, it will go back up to its regular price of $19.99. I got to say, that is a damn good deal.

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Yakuza creator confirms that his new game will be shown at Tokyo Game Show

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I know that some of the more hardcore SEGA fans are a bit upset that SEGA recently teased a new Hatsune Miku game. No fear SEGA fans, because during today’s NicoNico Live steam, Yakuza and Super Monkey Ball creator Toshihiro Nagoshi teased what to expect from Sega and his team next month:

“I’m so anxious for Tokyo Game Show! Although I’m not allowed to say why I’m feeling this way, yet. We’ll announce [a new title] at Tokyo Game Show, and it’ll be a good one and I believe that Sega’s live showing at Tokyo Game Show will be the most exciting one we’ve seen in a while.” – Toshihiro Nagoshi

The producer for Yakuza, Yokoyama Masayoshi teased this game in July stating that the studio was hiring new talent. As of right now, Yakuza Team (aka Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio) has over 150 workers under the Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio banner. Considering that they are hiring more, this might be one of SEGA’s biggest games ever. I guess we will find out more next month at the Tokyo Game Show, but as far as them teasing it, it seems this title will not be related to the Yakuza IP.

Like always, in Nagoshi we trust.

[Source: Silioncera]

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SEGA Japan launches teaser site for upcoming Hatsune Miku game

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Next39
[This article has been edited with newly found information. This is almost 100% a Hatsune Miku game]

SEGA Japan has now launched a teaser site for an upcoming unannounced game that will most likely be unveiled at this year’s Tokyo Game Show (which starts next month). So what do we know about it so far? SEGA is calling this tease ‘neXt39‘ which is what we will be referring to the game until we find out the official name. The teaser page has the following numbers: “3939.00 / 3939” since the slash usually means division in math, it would equal to 1. Is this a clue? The screen also has strands that move in the background, 6 of them to be exact (with the only color repeating being yellow).

But Hatsune Miku also has a long series of using the number 39, specifically having a song named that. Not only that, Sam Mullen, the localization producer even explained the significance of Hatsune Miku using the number 39. Not only that a twitter user by the name of @Rorru pointed out that the teaser page’s timer ends minutes before Hatsune Miku’s birthday and that the color strands each represent a Cryptonloid. Hopefully this isn’t the only game announced at TGS, considering that Yakuza Team was teasing a new game.

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SEGA has no plans to release the PS4 version of Phantasy Star Online 2 outside of Japan

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The people at Kotaku has contacted SEGA about the possibility of the Playstation 4 version of Phantasy Star Online 2 coming West. This is the response they recieved from a SEGA representative.

“SEGA is currently not planning to release the PS4 version of Phantasy Star Online 2 outside of Japan,”

It has been over 3 years since SEGA announced at PAX 2012 that they would be bringing Phantasy Star Online 2 over from Japan on the PC and Playstation Vita. Then, silence. We got a few generic ‘it’s still coming’ answers from them, but this is the first time they have officially denied its Western release.

Talk about not caring about their own fan base, huh? It’s hard to stay positive when the Western branches don’t care about their core fanbase or their in-house Japanese IPs. Then when they do finally get around to releasing it they are surprised at the success these Japanese in-house developed games have. No shit! With this and the recent announcement that they reskinned ‘Puyo Puyo Quest‘ into some generic food puzzle game, SEGA is really making it hard to be a fan.

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Stella Glow’s latest trailer introduces us to Witch Tuning

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So Atlus USA has posted the following trailer showing off the gameplay mechanic knowing as Witch Tuning for their upcoming American 3DS JRPG published game Stella Glow (SEGA published it in Japan).

It seems that if your ‘tiny female’ characters except a man into their heart they can awake their inner Goddesses? At least that is what I got from the trailer and I’m not sure how that will fly over with the new sensitive generation of gamers. What are your thoughts?

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Yakuza 5 avatars hit US PSN – Could the game be releasing soon?

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While we await news of when SEGA will be releasing Yakuza 5 to the West, avatars for the upcoming game have recently hit PSN. Could this mean a release date is nearing? Those who have followed SEGA of America’s digital releases in recent years should be well aware of the fact that the company will release and announce the release date of a game on the same day, with the only real indicators of an upcoming release being things like PSN avatars being made public. While this is all speculation on our part, the fact that SEGA has quietly released these avatars for the upcoming game must mean something… right? In the meantime, enjoy a cool Goro Majima avatar for just .49 cents.

See all the avatars after the break.

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Super Mario Maker’s unlockable Sonic the Hedgehog Amiibo skin

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sonic-super-mario-maker-amiiboIf you didn’t know, Super Mario Maker will allow you to use your Amiibos to unlock ‘skins’, in case you got bored of controlling a slightly overweight mustached man. The one above is the Sonic the Hedgehog skin, that looks like it was ripped from the first Sonic the Hedgehog on the SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive. Meaning, its actually 16-bit, yet its being used in Mario’s 8-bit NES style game. Its a shame, I’m actually a fan of the Sonic the Hedgehog‘s 8-bit look.

But what do you guys think of this unlockable? Are any of you guys picking Super Mario Maker when it comes out this September? Hit the jump to see Sonic in action after the jump.

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SEGA’s new mobile game ‘Cranky Food Friends’ gets soft launch

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Do you like food? Do you like match four puzzle games? Then SEGA has a game for you *points directly at you*. SEGA have soft launched Cranky Food Friends, but you won’t be able to play it if you don’t live in Canada, Sweden or Norway meaning exactly no one will be able to play it right now. Not to mention it also seems to have been launched on iOS only.

Talking about mobile, SEGA has actually launched a forum for their mobile games using the SEGA.Net url, which was used during the Dreamcast era to sell their SegaNet online services. Yes, times have changed.

It seems that this game and Puzzles & Glory are going for the huge puzzle market that has been created by Candy Crush and Puzzles & Dragon. People have also been comparing the premise to ‘Crying Breakfast Friends!‘ from the hit show Steven Universe. Not very original and probably won’t appeal to your average SEGA fan.

[Edit] People are telling me that this game is a reskin of Puyo Puyo Quest!!, it seems that its Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine all over again. Puyo Puyo > Cranky Food Friends. [/Edit]

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Former SEGA employee portfolio reveals Crazy Taxi 4 pitch

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The classy people over at Sonic Stadium have found images from a portfolio of a former SEGA Studios Australia employee Brooke Luder that revealed a Crazy Taxi 4 pitch and the fact that Sonic Classic Collection on the Nintendo DS was originally going to have more games than it did. What games didn’t make the final product? Sonic Spinball, Sonic 3D Blast (aka Sonic 3D Flickies’ Island) and Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine. Sprites from Sonic Spinball and Sonic 3D Blast still made the game’s credit roll at the end.

Also part of her portfolio was a pitch made by the team to SEGA for a Crazy Taxi 4. She created the concept art you see on the header image, showing a passenger jumping from one Taxi to another. We could speculate that this was part of some gameplay mechanic that was pitched by SEGA Studios Australia for a new game.

Another pitched concept that SEGA Studios Australia was part of was a London 2012 Olympic game, but that isn’t as interesting. To see what was on her portfolio, hit the jump.

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Grandia II Remastered coming to Steam & GOG on August 24th

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We have finally gotten a release date for Game Arts classic Japanese RPG Grandia II, which the publisher will be re-naming Grandia II Anniversary Edition as it plans on releasing the game on both Steam and GOG.com next week! That’s right, August 24th is the release date for this game.

“After careful consideration, we have chosen to retitle the game for PC to Grandia II Anniversary Edition in order to properly celebrate Grandia II’s 15th anniversary. The fans voted and, now, we are proud to bring a revamped edition of the classic role-playing game from Dreamcast to PC as Grandia II Anniversary Edition.” – Kazuki Morishita President and CEO of Game Arts

If you get the game during its launch window you will only need to fork over $14.99, after this  limited period it will go up to its regular $19.99 price. Not bad for a HD port of a great game like this. Are you picking up a digital copy of the game?

[Via: Gamespot]

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SEGA details ‘tour mode’ for Miracle Girls Festival rhythm game

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Do you like your rhythm games with a hint of moe? Is the numerous Hatsune Miku games just not cute enough for you? Don’t worry because SEGA has Miracle Girls Festival coming out this winter in Japan exclusively to Playstation Vita.

SEGA has detailed one of the game’s main features, “Tour Mode” which will let you become a concert director while picking from over six different location venues throughout the nation (I assume nation = Japan).  You’ll preform the sets, try to get a quota of audiences to fill seats and all that jazz.

You’ll earn ‘Miracle Coins’ by playing through songs and the number of coins you receive depends on how well you do. You use said currency to unlock new songs. If you want a list of songs that will be included in the full game, hit the jump. Personally these games aren’t my style, but if you like them then this one looks… cute?

[Via: Gematsu]

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