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The History of Sega Japan R&D, Part 1: The Origins and the 80s

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THE ORIGINS

Sega is an interesting company when it comes to their origins. There are companies like Namco, Taito and Konami that started in the 60s with electromechanical games and there are those like Capcom and Square that started in the 80s with video games. Sega is different.

Sega had its roots even earlier with slots and jukeboxes in the 1940s in Hawaii, when they were known as Standard Games. Today, Sega of Japan would rather say that Sega didn’t start until it was moved to Tokyo and renamed to Service Games in 1951. However all that expertise in manufacturing slots and jukeboxes during the Standard Games days really gave Sega the boost they needed when they entered the market to manufacture their very first “Amusement Machine” in 1965, Periscope, which the company still prides itself for as it was their first worldwide commerical success.

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SEGA News Bits: Tokyo Game Show 2015 impressions

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This year’s Tokyo Game Show has come to a close and SEGA of Japan showed off plenty of titles at the event. On this SEGA News Bit video me and Barry discuss our impressions of SEGA’s showing, including Atlus games that made the show. Tune in and tell us what you thought about this year’s Tokyo Game Show in the comments.

Like these sorts of videos? Subscribe to us on Youtube and never miss a episode.

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Indie SEGA Dreamcast game Ghost Blade is now available for your undead console

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Its been a long time coming, but HUCAST Games’ latest release Ghost Blade is now available to purchase and play on your SEGA Dreamcast. Insert the obligatory “a Dreamcast game in 2015!?” here. Described as “an ace shoot ’em up for the Dreamcast with a focus on arcade action and an elaborate scoring system”, Ghost Blade promises three game modes with three player ships too choose from, five stages, a Caravan Mode, and support for the VGA Box, Arcade Stick, VMU and standard Dreamcast controller.

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SEGA almost licensed the technology that created the Virtual Boy

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SEGAVirtuaBoyFormer SEGA of America President Tom Kalinske has revealed on a Reddit community podcast that not only was SEGA in talks with Trip Hawkins about releasing the 3DO console (also talks with other manufactures including Sony), Tom reveals they also dodged another bullet by not entering an agreement with Reflection Technologies – the company that went on to make Virtual Boy with Nintendo. Seems that SEGA America was really interested in Virtual Reality headsets (they even showed their own prototypes at public events, but nothing was released).

“It was pretty cool. You could put it on and literally you were in a virtual world, and it moved as you moved your head.

One of the problems was almost everybody got sick. It caused severe motion sickness. Other people got severe headaches. I think we were right in turning it down.” – Tom Kalinske, former SEGA of America President on Virtual Boy tech

What are your thoughts? Did SEGA do the right move by passing on the ‘Virtua Boy‘?

[Via: Nintendo Life]

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3D Power Drift and 3D Puyo Puyo 2 gameplay footage shown off

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SEGA Japan  announced that they are releasing a second boxed version for their SEGA Reprint Archives, which gathers up SEGA 3D Classics digital releases into a physical format. While the first release was only made up of already released digitally titles, this second one has a few new titles that have not yet been digitally released. The two biggest titles are 3D Power Drift and 3D Puyo Puyo 2! During their Tokyo Game Show presentation, SEGA showed off gameplay footage of both these titles which you can see above.

3D Power Drift is actually running in widescreen, not every SEGA 3D Classic is released with native widescreen support (See their Genesis/Mega Drive releases), so its nice that they put in the extra effort. Seems that Puyo Puyo 2 will keep its original aspect ratio, from the footage being shown. Though, I guess if I had to choose one of the two games to get widescreen support it would be Power Drift. I’m pretty excited for these two titles to hit the US eShop at the very least, though also getting a physical release would also be nice.

[Via: Nintendo Everything]

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Persona 5 artist shows of his skills in this hour-long illustration video

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Shigenori Soejima has been doing Persona game artwork for a long time, he started at Atlus way back in 1995 working as a character portrait designer on Devil Summoner on the Sega Saturn. He got his big break as lead character designer and art director on Persona 3 and has continue being character designer for the franchise ever since then.

Persona 5 has been getting lots of praise for its art style, now Shigenori Soejima shows off his skills in this hour long sketch illustration of the Persona 5 gang. If you heaven’t heard, Persona 5 has been delayed and will be coming out in Summer 2016, over in Japan.

[Via: Siliconera]

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Hatsune Miku: Project Diva Future Tone to run at 1080p and 60fps on PS4

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SEGA has revealed during their Tokyo Game Show panel, oddly enough named ‘Sega feat. Hatsune Miku Project’, that Hatsune Miku: Project  Diva Future Tone will run at 1080p at 60 frames per second on the Playstation 4. If you didn’t catch the announcement for this title, its a console port of the long requested Hatsune Miku: Project Diva Arcade game.

SEGA also confirmed that Hatsune Miku: Project Diva Future Tone will be coming out after Hatsune Miku: Project Diva X (yes, there are two Hatsune Miku games in the works) which is due out on out for Playstation Vita in March.

Another small mention was the Playstation VR enabled ‘Sega feat. Hatsune Miku Project: VR Tech Demo’, which SEGA says if there is enough positive fan feedback that they will consider making it a full product.

[Source: Gematsu]

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Cook and Becker release officially licensed Sonic the Hedgehog and Virtua Fighter art prints

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paul veer sonic the hedgehog print for SEGA

Art Dealership Cook & Becker have released several new officially licensed SEGA prints, adding to their previous prints including Phantasy Star and Streets of Rage; as well as a gorgeous Shenmue print. This time in the spotlight are two Virtua Fighter prints (for different coloured backgrounds) and everyone’s favourite spiny mascot, Sonic the Hedgehog himself. The Virtua Fighter print was produced by Gerald Parel, whilst the Sonic print was produced by Paul Veer (Also known as @pietepiet on Twitter), who you may know for his work on games such as Nuclear Throne. 

You can check out the prints here:

Unframed, the prints cost $115, or roughly £100/140 Euros, give or take. Be sure to let us know your favourites, and support these incredible artists! You can check out previews below.

 

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Persona 5 delayed until summer 2016, but you can watch the new trailer now

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Persona 5 was suppose to ship during the 2015 fall season in both Japan and North America. Today Atlus has announced that they will be delaying the release of the game until summer 2016.

Why the sudden cause of delay? According to director Katsura Hashino, they have the game together but are still tuning the gameplay, you can see the interview with Hashino after the break.

A few Japanese voice actors have been announced at TGS as well:

Check out voice samples on Persona 5‘s TGS website.

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Total War: WARHAMMER gameplay shows off 16 minutes dwarf scrimmage

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This Let’s Play is an example of an early Quest Battle from the Dwarfs campaign. In the vast tunnels of the Underway, a Dwarfen force lead by High King Thorgrim Grudgebearer is ambushed by a Greenskin horde.

Showcasing new features and never-before-seen units battling underground for the first time in a Total War game, this video is a taste of things to come and a glimpse into the dark and exciting fantasy world of Total War: WARHAMMER.

Total War: WARHAMMER will be released in 2016 for the PC.

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Atlus teases that it will announce a new title soon

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Atlus has been plenty of busy at this year’s Tokyo Game Show not only promoting the upcoming games like Persona 5, Odin Sphere: Leifthrasir and 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim (which was announced at TGS). But it seems that isn’t all the small publisher has up its sleeve, according to Atlus director of consumer software Naoto Hiraoka, “Soon, we will announce a new title” Hiraoka teased during a Sega Group title presentation.

Tokyo Game Show 2015 ends on September 20th, so if they plan to announce it at the event, then it should be by then. But then again, he never hinted at when the game would be announced.

[Source: Gematsu]

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Project X Zone 2 release dates revealed for North America and Europe

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While the sequel to 2012’s SEGA/Capcom/Bandai Namco crossover game Project X Zone hits Japan this year on November 12th, it looks like those hoping for a localized release won’t have to wait long! The game is due out February 16th, 2016 in North America, and February 19th, 2016 in Europe.

While the first game was an enjoyable fan service filled time waster, Project X Zone 2 looks to be taking things to a whole other level with the inclusion of Segata Sanshiro. There are other additions to the game, but Segata eclipses them all. Don’t hold me to this, but rumor is the game’s cover art will simply be Segata’s scowling face. No logos, no rating info. You won’t even have to pick the game off the shelf, it will jump right into your cart and drag you by the collar to the cash register.

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Shenmue 3 kicks off three month PayPal Slacker Backer Campaign

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For those that missed out on the initial Shenmue 3 Kickstarter campaign, Ys Net has just kicked off a second campaign which is set to run for a little over three months and utilizes PayPal. Dubbed the Slacker Backer Campaign, the campaign is described as follows:

For everyone who could not participate in the Shenmue III Kickstarter, we have heard your voice! Here is one more chance to show your support and make Shenmue III even better. All funding collected here will be added to the Kickstarter total for the game’s development.

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Stella Glow hits North America on November 17th

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Stella Glow, a SRPG for the Nintendo 3DS is one of those games that almost never came out. The developer Imageepoch was not only going to develop it themselves, but also self publish Stella Glow to celebrate the studio’s 10th year anniversary. Sadly the company had to file bankruptcy. SEGA picked up the publishing rights for the game in Japan and like typical SEGA fashion, had no plans on publishing it outside of Japan.

In comes Atlus, who picked up the title to distribute in North America (game is coming to Europe via NIS America) and now we have a release date! Set your calendars to November 17th, the game will retail for $49.99/ CA$59.99. If you get the game during its launch window you will get the ‘Launch Day Edition’ upgrade for free. Hit jump to read what you get with the Launch Day Edition of Stella Glow.

[Source: Gematsu]

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