News

Demon Tribe now available and free to download on iOS

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Demon Tribe, produced by Masayoshi Kikuchi of Panzer Dragoon, Yakukza, and Jet Set Radio fame, is now available to download on iOS for free! That’s right, no need for us to convert prices or post a list of currencies for each country. The title is free to download now, and those who get into the game early gain access to exclusive KISS Demons and other launch rewards. As shared by the SEGA Blog, completing the following objectives unlocks exclusive demons designed to look like members of the band KISS:

Receive KISS ‘The Star Child’ Rare Demon (Paul Stanley) when you complete the tutorial!
Receive KISS ‘The Demon’ Rare Demon (Gene Simmons) when you share the exciting launch of Demon Tribe to your Facebook or Twitter profile from within the game!
Receive 1,000 CP (in-game currency) by raising your Organization Level to 20!
Receive Bonus Gems to summon more Demons just for logging in!

A weird, but welcomed, bonus indeed. SEGA describes the game as an intense real-time blend of MOBA, Card Collection and RPG gaming. Players are tasked with building a powerful team of fighters by capturing demons and fusing them into magic that transforms you and your tribe into the very demons you vanquish. For more info on the game, head on over to the SEGA Blog or simply download it now!

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Can you play a SEGA Dreamcast through the Xbox One’s HDMI in?

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Despite it being a big week for video games, with both Sony and Microsoft releasing new consoles, very little has applied to SEGA fans. Aside from Xbox One’s Crimson Dragon, there are no actual SEGA games releasing on either console at launch. However, thanks to GameSpot editor Peter Brown, who we’ve been chatting with on Twitter, we may have an answer for whether or not you can play a Dreamcast through the Xbox One. After we tweeted “Awaiting the first video of a Dreamcast with VGA out going through an HDMI converter box, and into the HDMI in port of an Xbox One”, Peter replied, “I tried passing a composite signal into a HDMI conv box, and it won’t work. Following up with Microsoft re: HDMI passthrough reqs”. So it looks like the Genesis, Saturn, or any other composite signal console running through an HDMI converter is a no go. Peter then tried running a VGA signal through an HDMI converter and….

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First 4 Figures Sonic Generations diorama up for pre-order, prices revealed

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First 4 Figures latest line of Sonic statues departs from the Modern or Classic designations for a theme dubbed The Sonic Diorama Collection. Promising to “celebrate iconic scenes from Sonic’s amazingly diverse history”, the first of these diorama statues features Modern and Classic Sonic rolling around at the speed of sound through City Escape in Sonic Generations. The statue is now up for pre-order, with an exclusive edition featuring illuminated sparks and ramp for $329.99, limited to 450 pieces. The standard edition lacks the lights and is $299.99, limited to 1,000 pieces. Both are estimated to release on the second quarter of 2014.

While the first of these dioramas is quite attractive, as with previous First 4 Figures Sonic statues, the price is ever going up as each new statue is revealed. The first Sonic statue, released in 2009, featured Sonic in his classic design on a Green Hill base for $129.99. The most recent Sonic statue, featuring Shadow, in the exclusive form was $229.99. By comparison, this new diorama is a $100 increase from the last statue, and a $200 increase from the first of the Sonic statues. What do you all think? Is $300+ worth it for this new statue? What Sonic diorama’s would you like to see in the future?

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Charles Bellfield, former SEGA VP of strategic planning and corporate affairs, has passed away

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Sad news this morning as we have learned that Charles Bellfield, SEGA of America’s former VP of strategic planning and corporate affairs from 1998 to 2003, has passed away. Bellfield was best known as the spokesman for Sega of America during the launch of the Dreamcast. The news of his passing came from his brother Edward through Facebook, saying that Bellfield had passed away in San Francisco on Friday night. Bellfield held other positions in the gaming industry including executive roles at Edelman, Capcom, Codemasters, 3DV Systems, EmotionPlay, and Imagination Technologies’ Pure North America division.

Peter Moore, Bellfield’s SEGA boss during the Dreamcast era, described him as “good time Charlie. The life of every party, a true bon vivant. The quintessential Englishman abroad. You’ve left us way too soon Charlie, but you’ve also left us with a hundred stories to tell and a thousand smiles on all of our faces. The room was a better, more fun-filled place when you were in it.”

We here at SEGAbits send our condolences to Bellfield’s family and friends. He will be missed.

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Review: Sonic Lost World (Wii U)

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I’ll forego the Sonic franchise history lesson that typically kicks off a Sonic review. As SEGA fans, we know where the franchise has been. Sonic Lost World, a Wii U exclusive title, answers the question: where is the Sonic franchise headed? Unlike the series spanning celebration that was Sonic Generations, Sonic Lost World introduces several new gameplay elements and shakes up the familiar 2008-2011 Sonic formula. Some may take this as a breath of fresh air, as the series has finally moved away from boost mechanics. Others, content with the direction the series was headed and the refinements Sonic Generations made to the formula, may find Sonic Lost World to be too much of a reinvention. Did Sonic Team’s shake-up pay off? Read on as we enter Sonic Lost World!

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Sonic Lost World demo arrives in the U.S. eShop

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Never say never, Sonic Lost World demo for both Wii U and 3DS hits the store today. What does this mean?  Well, it means that if you live in the United States you can try out Sonic Lost World for both Wii U and 3DS. The Japanese gamers have had the demos since early last month, lucky them!

Expect a SEGAbits review for Sonic Lost World to be posted soon.

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Haruka cleans your home in Yakuza Restoration

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Haruka has been in the Yakuza franchise since the first title came out on the Playstation 2 back in 2005 and is a main character of the franchise. In this title, the character Ryoma Sakamoto (played by Kiryu Kazuma) meets Haruka (yes, they are keeping her name) after saving her from a incident (that isn’t revealed). After that, she decides to let him live with her. Yeah, even she’s confused in the picture above.

Check the gallery after the jump for more photos of her sweeping dirt, caressing Ryoma’s head and other creepy shots.

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Football Manager 2013 has been ‘pirated over 10.1 million times’

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Miles Jacobson, studio head over at Sports Interactive has stated that Football Manager 2013 has been illegally downloaded well over 10.1 million times, during his talk at the London Games Conference.

How did they get this number? According to Jacobson the crack had a ‘Home’ flaw which allowed the developers to trace and track IP addresses of the pirates. So which country had the most pirated copies of the game? Not surprising it was China with 3.2 million downloads followed by Turkey with 1.05 million.

Out of the 547,000 people that downloaded the game in Italy was from Vatican City, I’m assuming downloading pirated software is not shunned by God.  Of course just because they pirated the game doesn’t mean they lost a sale, which Sports Interactive seems to agree. They do say they lost 176,000 sales (their figure) due to pirates. That would mean that 1.74% of pirates would have purchased the game, but didn’t due to them getting it for free. How much did SEGA lose? $3.7 million in revenue. They say that this lead to the team creating harder to crack DRM for Football Manager 2014.

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Sony’s Third Production Team receiving many requests for Yakuza, Shenmue

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A few months ago, Sony announced the formation of the Third Party Productions team, a new group within Sony’s third party relations meant to facilitate the localization or porting of content between regions or consoles. The first project announced by this team was the Vita port of Borderlands 2, which is a pretty major feat to accomplish in and of itself.

The team has since asked fans to send in requests for the kinds of games they’d like to see on their Playstation console of choice, and according to Sony’s Adam Boyes their top two choices were none other then SEGA’s Yakuza and Shenmue franchises. For what this means, please check out the full quote below the fold. For the full interview, please visit Kotaku.

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Check out SEGA’s Plants vs. Zombies The Last Stand arcade cabinet

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SEGA Amusements is teasing new items that will be at their IAAPA 13 show in a few days. One of their machines that they are going to promote is this Plants vs. Zombies The Last Stand arcade machine. This is the first time we have seen the cabinet and its pretty flashy.

First thing you will notice is that this isn’t a port of the mobile game for arcades, it looks like a light gun version of the game. So is this basically House of the Dead: Plants vs. Zombies? Who knows. But it would be awesome to have some House of the Dead cross overs in here. What are your thoughts?

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Help kickstart SEGA Mega Drive/Genesis: Collected Works

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2013 appears to be the year of SEGA Kickstarter campaigns. We’ve had Not Enough Rings, Redux: Dark Matters, and now we have SEGA Mega Drive/Genesis: Collected Works. Darren Wall, the UK man behind the campaign, is attempting to create what he describes as the “definitive volume” of the SEGA Mega Drive. The end product will be a book, officially licensed by SEGA, containing “an unparalleled treasury of production artwork, interviews, development sketches and hardware manufacturing plans”. The project also promises:

It will also include over 20 exclusive interviews with original SEGA team members – many of whom have never been interviewed before – a foreword by industry legend Dave Perry and an insightful 10,000-word piece by Keith Stuart (Games Editor for the Guardian and regular contributor to Edge) on the machine that changed the landscape of gaming forever.

The book will showcase a wealth of SEGA’s 16-bit titles, from blockbuster games such as Bare Knuckle/Streets of Rage, Sonic the Hedgehog, Phantasy Star, Gunstar Heroes, The Super Shinobi/Revenge of Shinobi and Golden Axe through to cult gems such as Rent-a-Hero, Vectorman and DecapAttack.

Darren Wall shouldn’t have any problem with meeting his £30,000 goal, as at the time of writing this there is 27 days remaining and he is only £10 away from completion. Head on over to the campaign page and show your support! We’ll keep you updated on the project as it progresses.

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New DLC for Racing Transformed discovered on Steam

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Mystery DLC has been discovered on Steam for Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed. It has a date of November 5th. I remember a while back Steve Lycett saying there would be one more character coming this year who was rated highly on the poll. This could mean anything though. Do you think it’s Miku? Do you think its Ryo Hazuki? Do you think it’s Kazuma Kiryu? Let us know in the comments!

It might also be important to note that the past few character updates have been included as patches, yet whatever this upcoming content is seems like it’s going to be paid DLC.

View the full article to see a picture of the STEAM data.

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Hatsune Miku Project Diva f PS Vita English version releasing Early 2014

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Hungry for more Vita games? SEGA has heard your cries. Announcing Hatsune Miku f for PS Vita, the original Hatsune Miku Project Diva f game that was released in Japan. We never got the PS Vita version in the west, but it looks like we will be getting it now. Lots of people say the Vita version is better than the PS3 version due to no input lag on the screen and tapping the screen for the stars instead of flicking the control sticks. Not to mention that great looking OLED screen.

I guess this means the PS3 version must of sold well in the west for them to want to bring this over.. now, about PSO2…

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