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Ryuta Ueda leaves SEGA after 19 years of service

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Ryuta Ueda leaves SEGA after 19 years of service. While at SEGA he contributed to some masterpieces including being the chief graphic designer for Jet Set Radio, enemy art designer for Panzer Dragoon Orta and  he also worked on the Yakuza series.

Ryuta Ueda shared the news via his Twitter account this morning and as you know, he is going to be missed; the art design behind the Jet Set Radio series was totally ‘Next Level’.

EDIT: According to Hideki Naganuma, Ueda left SEGA on March 31st.

So, what is your favorite game that Ryuta Ueda worked on? 

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Persona 4 hits the Playstation 3 on April 8th

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Last time we talked about Devil Summoner getting a re-release via PS3’s PS2 Classics brand and now people will be able to download Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 as well.

The game is set to come out on April 8th and cost a mere $9.99 through PSN  in North and South America. This will allow SEGA gamers who haven’t experinced the classic Atlus game to dive right in.

I suggest all gamers give this game a go, it has some memorable characters, writing and story.

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Phantasy Star Online 2 Es starts open beta on Android

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Phantasy Star Online 2 might be well and out in Japan on PC and Vita, but their mini-version of the game called ‘Phantasy Star Online 2 Es‘ has met many delays. But don’t worry, the mobile version of the game has now hit open beta in Japan, at least on Android with a iOS version coming in the near future.

You can download here!

The mobile version is unique in the way it lets you connect to the Vita/PC version to download you character data and takes place at the same time as the story in full Phantasy Star online 2 and some items and experience you gain in the mobile version transfers back.

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The Sound of Alien: Isolation

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The music and sounds to the original Alien is perhaps just as integral and iconic part of the Alien franchise and SEGA seems well aware of that. In this latest video (Along with new gameplay footage to boot) Creative Assembly’s creative lead Al Hope speaks about the care the developer is putting into the sounds for Alien: Isolation.

Not only will it a soundtrack put together from it’s own personal orchestra (With some members of the group having worked with Jerry Goldsmith on the original film’s soundtrack) but also develop a dynamic sound system where the music changes depending on both what the player and the Alien is doing. It’s clear to see that SEGA is taking as much care as possible with this latest title after their mis-step in Aliens: Colonial Marines and having just won Eurogamer’s Rezzed Game of the Show award, they seem to be well on track to delivering a great Alien game.

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SEGA’s launch lineup for Amazon Fire TV

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Amazon’s new Roku/Ouya killer Fire TV was announced yesterday with a lineup of software partners including SEGA themselves. We didn’t really know what the lineup of games were until the system got shipped to the public today. Here’s Sega’s list of games along with their prices.

  • Sonic CD ($2.99)
  • Sonic 1 ($2.99)
  • Sonic 2 ($2.99)
  • Sonic 4 Episode 1 ($3.99)
  • Sonic 4 Episode 2 ($4.99)
  • Crazy Taxi ($4.99)
  • The Cave ($4.99)
  • Virtua Tennis Challenge ($4.99)

Since the Amazon Fire TV doesn’t make use of Google services, some of the games won’t have Google Play Achievements or use Google’s leaderboards. That will also mean that Sonic 2 doesn’t have multiplayer since it used Google’s services. According to Taxman, the developer, Sonic 2 won’t even have a splitscreen mode due to ‘the projects scope’. The Amazon Fire TV is already shipping and you can purchase on here. Gaming controller sold separately.

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SEGA in the Charts: MediaCreate charts for March 24 – 30 March 2014

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The releases come thick and fast for SEGA, coming off the back of Utakumi 575, PuyoPuyo Tetris and Ryu Ga Gotoku: Ishin! the latest entry in the Hatsune Miku: Project Diva f 2nd came out last week in Japan for both the Playstation Vita and the Playstation 3. This is the first time the series has launched on two platforms at the same time and is looking to take the crown of biggest first week from Hatsune Miku: Project 2nd. Also continuing to chart is Ryu Ga Gotoku: Ishin! hit the break to find out how both performed in this week’s chart!

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Cavespeak releases a English patch for 7th Dragon

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SEGA released 7th Dragon way back in March 5th, 2009 in Japan on the Nintendo DS. The game flew under most people’s radar, but not for me. I kept my eye on this one just because it was produced by legendary SEGA designer Rieko Kodama (Phantasy Star series and Skies of Arcadia).

That wasn’t the only big name SEGA star on the project, famous SEGA composer Yuzo Koshiro (Streets of Rage series, Shinobi series) joined the team.

Want the patch? Head over here.

Not sure if it means much but Famitsu scored the game a 9/8/8/8 (33 out of 40).  

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Have some fun with MIKUbits – the 24 hour Domino’s™ Pizza sponsored takeover!

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Hello everyone, I’m Barry, writer and editor at SEGAbits! Have you heard of Hatsune Miku? Today I’d like to announce a collaborative project featuring Hatsune Miku: MIKUbits website featuring Domino’s™ Pizza! Domino’s exists on a planet called Earth. Earth enables you to visit Domino’s to eat pizza. A Domino’s™ employee makes the pizza you eat. A great feature is you can eat pizza as you like.

I knew our talented SEGAbits writers could work together and create Hatsune Miku… articles. George-pi, Shigs-shi, Nuckles-shi, Ben-shi, Will-shi – EVERYONE! Amazing SEGAbits articles have been created with the fantastic imagination of the writers from all over the planet. The challenge was successfully carried out and this new collaborative website was produced. Throughout the day we’ll share Hatsune Miku content, and talk about delicious Domino’s™ Pizza on our social networks. And last, but not least… the live performance – has been cancelled. George refused to dress as Miku and dance on webcam.

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Devil Summoner getting a PS2 classics re-release on Playstation 3 this week

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Have you guys played Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. The Soulless Army (let that roll off the tongue) on the Playstation 2? If you didn’t, you will have your chance to try it this week, since the game will be dropping on PSN!

Playstation Store description:

In the shadowy evening mist of Taisho, a young girl appears with an unusual request: “Please kill me…” As Devil Summoner Raidou Kuzunoha, uncover the mystery of the girl’s strange abduction in this unique action RPG .

This title being re-release is actually the 3rd in the franchise, the original Shin Magami Tensei: Devil Summoner was actually a SEGA Saturn game, the first Shin Megami Tensei Saturn game at that.

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New Head of Xbox Phil Spencer says gamers want Microsoft to bring back Shenmue

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Following his recent appointment as Head of Xbox at Microsoft, Phil Spencer spoke with Polygon about his ideas for the future of the brand. Regarding his leadership, Spencer promised that “with me you’re going to get a focus on gaming first and a best platform to play games on.” When asked about what games he receives requests for, Spencer named the Shenmue franchise as the biggest request Xbox owners ask Microsoft for. Spencer jokingly referred to it as “the big Shenmue contingency.”

A new Shenmue isn’t on the horizon just yet, but it is good to know that people like Phil Spencer have the franchise on their minds thanks to the efforts of fan campaigns. Help out the #SaveShenmue campaign yourself by heading over to their site and spreading the word.

 

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Atlus debuts new logo and website to match

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One of the things many Atlus fans feared during the SEGA-Sammy buyout, was that SEGA would kill off the Atlus name and rebrand their titles under the SEGA logo. Seems that is not what will be happening, now Atlus is its own company, separate from Index Corps. To celebrate, we have a new logo (above). Forgot what the old logo looked like? Here it is.

Here is the new Atlus website and here is the new Index Holdings (who also got a new logo).

So, new logo or old? Tell us in the comments!

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Celebrating a year of SEGAbits & SEGA Retro Lock-On Technology

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A year ago today, we made the late night announcement that SEGAbits would be partnering with Sonic Retro, and the expansive SEGA Retro wiki would fall under the SEGAbits banner – making it our dedicated information site for all things SEGA. Since the announcement, we’ve made the move to Sonic Retro’s servers, writers from Sonic Retro have taken on writer roles at SEGAbits, we’ve utilized the SEGA Retro wiki in articles highlighting classic SEGA games and consoles, and in collaboration with SEGAbits and Sonic Retro writer Bartman we’ve created SEGA Channel Retro – a revamped retro streaming channel for SEGA content.

While we didn’t accomplish everything that we have hoped for over the past year, we have some exciting things on the horizon! This Spring we plan to introduce SEGAbits Model 5, a website redesign that will truly bring SEGAbits to the next level. We can’t spill the beans yet, but at the very least we can say it will be wider. Also, on June 28th SEGAbits and Sonic Retro will be co-hosting a panel entitled Surviving the Dreamcast Apocalypse: SEGA Fans in the 21st Century at the Too Many Games convention in Oaks, PA. Then, of course, there are our plans for tomorrow.

On behalf of myself, George, and all the writers and contributors, I want to thank our readers and community members for their continued support in making us the number one SEGA news and information site on the internet!

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Alien: Isolation release date announced – get ready to not be heard in space on October 7th

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SEGA of America and SEGA Europe have announced the release date of the upcoming Creative Assembly title Alien: Isolation! Fans can expect to get their hands on the game on October 7th, 2014 on Xbox One, Xbox 360, Playstation 4, Playstation 3, and Windows PC. Hey, just in time for the Halloween season! Via a press release from SEGA, Alistair Hope, Creative Lead at Creative Assembly had this to say of the game’s release: “We couldn’t be happier to finally announce a date for Alien: Isolation, the reaction we have seen so far has been simply incredible, from the screams and shrieks to the cold sweats and racing hearts. It’s the Alien game that we’ve always wanted to play and we can’t wait to let everyone get their hands on it this fall.”

View the full press release after the break.

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Increase the number of SEGA releases for the PC petition passes 10k signatures

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The fan run initiative to increase the number of SEGA games on PC have passed a milestone with their online petition, amassing over 10,000 signatures – 10,219 at the time of this article. The petition respectively asks that SEGA “consider releasing more games (to PC), particularly from your Japanese division”, naming Bayonetta, Vanquish, and Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown as potential games. If you haven’t signed the petition yet, we urge you to head on over to their page today and add your name to the growing list. We’re over halfway there, folks!

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Phantasy Star Online 2 getting closed English beta in South East Asia

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We already knew that there was an English version of Phantasy Star Online 2 headed for South East Asia and now ASIASOFT (co-publishers) are teasing their ‘soon’ to start closed beta by releasing the above trailer and screenshots.Sadly, SEGA West hasn’t announced anything outside of their PAX announcement about Phantasy Star Online 2, seemingly disbanding the project. I guess for gamers like you and me, the wait for a English version of Phantasy Star Online 2 will be over…

Since this is for South East Asia, it will be a bit hard to get a key to the close beta, but don’t worry it won’t impossible. The following are community moderators at Asiasoft which will be giving out beta codes. Go ask them nicely:

We are working on getting some beta keys for the site and giving you guys more content as it gets closer to beta time. Who is excited? English site can be found here.

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