Free tickets go live for the UK’s Weston Super Sonic 2015 Event

WestonSuperSOnic

Tickets for the upcoming Weston Super Sonic 2015 event based in Weston-Super-Mare, England, have officially gone live; and they’re going pretty fast!

Since ticket registrations opened yesterday, already over a quarter of the tickets have been sold, which is no easy feat for a fan convention to accomplish! The tickets are provided free of charge, and guarantee you access to the event – an event that sounds rather awesome, sporting guests such as Sonic the Comic artist Ferran Rodriguez, as well as other StC heavyweights Richard Elson and Nigel Kitching. If that wasn’t enough, Mike Pollock will also be providing a Skype Q&A at the event – and this isn’t even everything, with more events and guests planned than those listed here, such as tournaments and art contests with prizes available!

You can get tickets for the event by clicking here!

If that wasn’t enough, as we previously stated SEGABits will be there on the day, providing coverage to the great standards we strive for!

It’s certainly looking to be a incredibly promising and exciting event, and for those of you in the UK, we hope to see you there!

For those in the US, don’t forget about the upcoming Sonic & SEGA Fan Jam based in Savannah, Georgia coming later this year, hosted by us at SEGAbits!

SEGA Networks to launch game-focused crowdfunding service that could use SEGA IPs

crowdrive
SEGA Network a mobile gaming offshoot of SEGA and Japanese Television network Fuji TV have invested in Tokyo-based start up Goopa with an undisclosed amount of money. Goopa is known for crowdfunding independent anime and independent musical acts. This new investment will launch later this month and focus on crowd sourcing indie games, this new service will be called ‘Crowdrive‘.

According to the CEO of the company, Hiroaki Taira, crowdfunding is usually used to hire additional talent on projects. He also talked about how small the company really is, saying he started off with himself in Japan and two people in Thailand, now they have six people working on the project.

Even though Crowdrive will start off by funding mobile games, they say they want to extend the service to both console and PC games in the near future. Anipipo (their anime crowdfunding site) took 15% commission from projects and have stated that Crowdrive (their gaming crowdfunding site) will take less. They state that having a relationship with SEGA Networks opens the doors for projects that could feature SEGA IPs.

If SEGA Networks does try to revive a old SEGA IP through Crowdrive, what franchise do you want it to be?

Hulkamania runs wild in Crazy Taxi City Rush

hulkhogancrazytaxi

Well ya know somethin’ Segabits?!

I was driving down Venice beach on my way to Gold’s Gym. Sayin’ my prayers and eatin’ my vitamins, when a pregnant Hulkamaniac dove into the back seat of my convertible! She screamed “Shigster! I’m about to have a little Hulkamaniac and I need to get to the hospital as fast as possible!” I knew what needed to be done. I grabbed the wheel with my 24 inch pythons and drove like a mad man! I drifted up steep inclines and weaved in and out of traffic. Oh sure, I hit a few pedestrians but they were probably Piper fans anyway!

SEGA’s extended TV ad for Alien: Isolation looks great


I think they went for a more subtle approach in this ad than I thought they where going to go with. No pop up scare tactics and sets up the mood for the game rather well. It is also nice to see that SEGA is going to actually advertise this game (not that they didn’t with the last Alien game).

So what do you guys think of the advert?

SEGA releases 15 minute extended trailer for Yakuza Zero


SEGA has published their extended trailer for Yakuza Zero (or Yakuza 0), the extended look was featured on their Nico Nico broadcast and is now up on Youtube for all of us to enjoy.

No western release date for Yakuza Zero has been announced, but the game is heading to Japan this upcoming Spring 2015 on both Playstation 3 and Playstation 4.

Fighting Climax Developers Demonstrates Akira Yuki and Selvaria Bles’ Movesets In Action

Dengeki Online sat down with French-Bread battle planner Kamone and game director Takaharu Terada from Sega showcasing Akira Yuki (Virtua Fighter) and Selvaria Bles (Valkyria Chronicles) movesets for the upcoming console version of Dengeki Bunko Fighting Climax at Tokyo Game Show 2014.

As you can see from the video, you can see how the two characters moves transition from their own respective franchise including a few interesting combos. Not only normals and specials, they’ve also demonstrated the support character system for each character. Dengeki Bunko Fighting Climax is schedule for release on November 13, 2014 for PlayStation 3 and PS Vita.

SEGA’s Crazy Taxi: City Rush is the most downloaded iOS game for August

Crazy-Taxi-City-Rush-Hack-Cheats-Engine-2014
It seems that Hardlight Studios has another hit on their hands with Crazy Taxi: City Rush, as it topped the most downloaded game lists on iOS for August. Even though most fans where disappointed that it wasn’t a full fledged arcade experience, SEGA and Hardlight did have the designer of the franchise (Kenji Kanno) was brought in to help in development. The new mobile take on the franchise seems to be a hit, we even gave it a good review.

Crazy Taxi franchise is 15 years old, so its nice to know that a new generation of gamers will know what Crazy Taxi is and hopefully the brand doing well on mobile will open doors for a brand new home console release. We can dream, can’t we?

SEGA celebrating Total War weekend, let’s you play Rome II for free

TotalWar
SEGA and Creative Assembly have launched ‘Total War Week‘ on Steam, through September 25-29th. This means 75% discount on all Total War back catalog, including titles like Viking: Battle for Asgard and Total War: Shogun 2.

Not only that, but if you click here you’ll be able to download the full Total War Rome II and be able to play it for free all weekend. That totally beats a demo, right?

SEGA 3D Reprint Archives officially announced, with boxart by Ken Sugimori

SEGA3DClassicsBoxArt

The retail release of the SEGA 3D Classics Line we reported on the other day has now been officially announced by Famitsu!

The details are the same as the rumour from beforehand; the collection contains 3D Space Harrier, 3D Fantasy Zone, 3D Outrun, 3D Streets of Rage, 3D Shinobi 2,and 3D Ecco the Dolphin. Also included are two bonus titles, Space Harrier 3D and Outrun 3D, two Master System games that originally made use of the SEGA Master System’s 3D Glasses peripheral.

As if that wasn’t cool enough, the boxart has been released – and it features artwork by legendary Pokemon artist Ken Sugimori! This is a surprise on one hand, but on the other hand Ken is quite a bit of SEGA fan, what with having an amazing Dreamcast case for his 3DS, and his Twitter handle being @Super_32X, the Japanese name of the SEGA 32X, amongst other things. Anywho; Space Harrier’s never looked quite so good!

Overall, this looks to be an excellent package, and one that, unlikely as it is, I’m personally hoping makes it to the West.

The archives page on the official SEGA Japan site can be found here.

Pier Solar HD coming out this week on PS4, PS3, PC and Ouya

pshd_ks1280set_2
The HD remake of Pier Solar and the Great Architects, the 2010 SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive RPG, is finally set to release on September 30th on the PS4, PS3, Ouya and PC via Steam.

Sounds awesome but what about us that pre-ordered the Xbox One, Wii U and even the physical Dreamcast version? Publisher Watermelon Games said they will be announcing release dates on those platforms later this month.

Who will be picking up the game on these platforms?

“Diggin’ in the Carts” interviews Hiroshi Kawaguchi and Yuzo Koshiro

The new series from Red Bull Music Academy, Diggin’ in the Carts, that we previously reported on, has uploaded it’s fourth episode, in which we get brand new interviews with SEGA music legends Hiroshi Kawaguchi and Yuzo Koshiro.

For those unaware, Kawaguchi was behind the soundtracks to several of SEGA’s finest soundtrack work, such as OutRun, Space Harrier, After Burner, Power Drift… we could go on. To this day, he still works at SEGA, and still his output never falters. Suffice to say, he’s probably one of the most talented video game composers of all time, and his list of works is nothing to scoff at.

The same can be said for Yuzo Koshiro, whose works include the soundtracks to the Streets of Rage games, as well as The Revenge of Shinobi. In addition, he’s even worked on the new Super Smash Brothers for Wii U/3DS, and if that wasn’t enough, he too has generally kept a consistent quality throughout all of his work.

He also worked on Shenmue, which is of course no small feat, with the game boasting a breathtaking score.

The episode also mentions Masato Nakamura’s work on Sonic the Hedgehog; somewhat unsurprisingly, he was unavailable for comment. It is quite entertaining to see Flying Lotus and Thundercat’s rendition of Green Hill Zone. There’s also a bit of pretty rare SEGA merch in there, as the vinyl record “SEGA Music” with various arcade SEGA tunes turns up in the possession of J. Rocc!

Overall, it’s a fantastic episode, and one I personally recommend SEGA fans check out. And if that’s not enough, an upcoming episode also features Takenobu Mitsuyoshi, so stay tuned!

You can catch the episode by clicking here!

SEGA and The Creative Assembly announce Total War: Attila at EGX London 2014 – game to release in 2015

SEGA and The Creative Assemblyhave unveiled a new Total War title, Total War: Attila, at this years EGX London event. Described as “challenging” and designed for “Total War veterans”, Total War: Attila will obviously feature Attila the Hun, leader of the Hunnic Empire, and his one million horsemen. At the height of his reign, his control stretched from the Ural River to the Rhine River and from the Danube River to the Baltic Sea. Eurogamer, which went hands-on with the game, describes how diseases will play a part in the game. The cleaner and healthier a city you have, the less a chance you have of facing disease. The spread of disease will affect player’s soldiers, which will impact their performance in battle. Other features include a region overlay which provides regional details like wealth and disposition, the return of the family tree (a feature missing from Rome II), and dynamic fire, a new weapon which allows buildings to burn and fires to spread.

Total War: Attila is expected to release next year, and we’re certain a press release is on the way. In the meantime, enjoy the above trailer and get ready to welcome Attila into your homes.

Update: The official site for the game is live, check it out and learn more about the latest Total War title.

Update 2: Press release, screenshots, cover art, and concept art after the break.

Update 3: SEGAbits forum member JRcade19 spotted a mention on the SEGA Blog that the game is due for release in 2015 on Windows PC and Mac. An interesting development, given traditionally PC and Mac releases of SEGA titles are years apart.

SEGA (IPs) in the Charts: MediaCreate charts for Sep 15 – 21 Sep 2014

Bayonetta-2

Although the sales of Bayonetta 2 will in no way effect SEGA’s profits, it’s still a SEGA IP and a major one at that. When it was released it quickly became a fan favourite last generation. The original was the third collaboration between SEGA and Platinum Games and was released in late 2009 in Japan and early 2010 in Europe/America. There has been much discussion about moving the sequel over to the Wii U and whether it would pay off, and now we finally get the first sales data for the title as it was launched in Japan last week, hit the break to find out how well the Witch is doing on the Wii U.

Is a Nintendo 3DS SEGA 3D Classics collection retail release in the works for Japan?

b00
 
Spotted on NeoGAF and reported by gamestalk.net comes word that a physical release for SEGA’s 3D Classics collection for the Nintendo 3DS may be releasing to Japan on December 18th for 3,980 yen. The compilation is said to include a mix of wave 1 and wave 2 titles: 3D Space Harrier, 3D Fantasy Zone, 3D Outrun, 3D Streets of Rage, 3D Shinobi 2, and 3D Ecco the Dolphin. Also included are two bonus titles, Space Harrier 3D and Outrun 3D which originally released to the SEGA Master System and utilized the 3D glasses.

This leaves 3D Super Hang On, 3D Sonic the Hedgehog, 3D Altered Beast, 3D Galaxy Force II, 3D Afterburner II, 3D Fantasy Zone, and 3D Thunder Blade as eshop exclusives, but it is likey that if this compilation sells well, the rest will be released in another volume.

We’ll share more news on this potential release as we hear it, so stay tuned!