News

Toshihiro Nagoshi Becomes Sega’s Chief Creative Officer on April 1st – No Foolin’!

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Starting April 1st, theres a new CCO in town: Toshihiro Nagoshi. SEGA Sammy has announced that starting in April a bit of corporate reshuffling will go into effect, due to the retirement of some of SEGA’s higher ups. Naoya Tsurumi takes over the President and Chief Operating Officer role from the retiring Okitane Usu. Toshihiro Nagoshi, creator of Yakuza and producer of the recently released Binary Domain, will fill a newly formed Chief Creative Officer position. All I can say is that this is some great news! I know nothing about Naoya Tsurumi, but Nagoshi in a CCO role? Very cool. Always a good thing to see a talented person in a high level creative position. Check out the full report here in PDF form.

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Enter to win a chance for 40,000 MS points just for watching a Binary Domain trailer.

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That’s a lot of points!

For those worried about the promotional campaign on Binary Domain, check out your Xbox Live dashboard. Over in “games” there should be a small trailer ad for Binary Domain. Click on that, and you’ll be taken to a promotional page. Here, you can watch videos, checkout some screenshots or go to the Binary Domain marketplace to download the demo and maybe some future DLC. However, there’s one special trailer you can watch and register to win up to 40,000 MS points! That can buy a lot of games. Check it out on your Xbox 360 and enter to win. This may be an American promotion only. I’m not sure.

See? There’s at least SOME Binary Domain advertising promotions going on.

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R.I.P. Grind: Jet SET Radio Coming this Summer in Widescreen!

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Courtesy of the SEGA Blog comes some very exciting bits of info regarding the recently hinted at Dreamcast rerelease. For starters, the game being released is Jet Set Radio (as if there was any doubt). The second confirmation is that the game will be known as Jet Set Radio, so say goodbye to the original US title “Jet Grind Radio” (and good riddance!). Thirdly, the game will be in beautiful widescreen as seen in the screen shot above and after the break. Fourthly, the game is coming to XBLA, PSN, and Windows PC Digital Download this summer! SEGA has also announced a contest where fans can get there art in the game and win prizes for doing so. Reminds me of when the game originally released, I recall SEGA having a similar contest.

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A Friendly Robot Reminder: Binary Domain in Stores NOW!

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BEGIN COMMUNICATION Greetings carbon based lifeforms, SEGAbits-bot here. SEGA and Yakuza Studio’s newest game Binary Domain is now available to purchase and play in most human territories. I would direct you to a site that aggregates reviews for the game, but my subprocessors tell me that humans prefer the opinions of their peers. In the case of Binary Domain, it is advised to head on over to our forums to read the positive views expressed by SEGA fans who have already bought and played the game:

“I finished the game last night on survival difficulty – this is my favorite third person shooter campaign EVER.

Great and satisfying shooting mechanics, great and unique AI for the enemies, huge variety of enemies with really good designs…. and above all that one of the best boss battles in all time and i mean it! the bosses in this game is beyond incredible!”

-Suzuki Yu

“Very impressive for the team’s first third person shooter, I hope this does indeed become a series for SEGA!”

-Aki-at

For more information about the game, please allow me to direct you to our interview with the game’s producer. A happy release day and enjoy the game. END COMMUNICATION

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Another Sonic 4 Video, Another Release Date

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Another, longer, higher quality Sonic 4 video, this one with a presentation from a SEGA rep. Not much new information in this video, except for one piece of info: the game is still coming out in May. This flies in the face of what Phandroid reported earlier with their video, though it does pretty much lock down a Spring release window for the game. The SEGA rep also confirms that the game is launching on Tegra powered devices a few weeks before it’s released on other consoles.

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First Hands-On Video of Sonic 4 Episode 2 PLUS a Tentative Release Date

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This has turned into the day for Sonic 4 news, hasn’t it? SEGA and NVIDIA surprised visitors to the Mobile World Congress 2012 with the first ever public demo of Sonic 4 Episode 2! While the dude playing the game is pretty bad at it (don’t all early demo videos feature inept players?), it does show off a good two minutes of gameplay footage. I’m sure Sonic fans will be pouring over this little clip for the next month. Is a video not enough for you? Well SEGA has let slip a tentative release date, and it’s not May as XBOX Marketplace had originally suggested.

The game wasn’t perfectly smooth being mirrored on an HD television but Sega urged us to note that the build they were showing wasn’t at all final. When can you expect that final build, you ask? The wait won’t be too long – Sega tells us mid-April will be their target.

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Japanese Sonic 4 Episode 2 Site Opens! More Screens, Slick Interface.

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Why is it that the official Japanese sites for Sonic games are always way better than the English language ones? Why not translate what little text there is into English and make it so one site can cover all territories? While I ponder such things, I invite you to explore the recently opened Sonic 4 Episode 2 site from SEGA of Japan. There you’ll find new screens, a character bio section, an explanation of the combo moves (in Japanese, of course) and confirmation of Sylvania Castle and White Park being the first two zone names. If you dig a little, you’ll even find tiny screens of the first boss, Egg Serpentleaf, in action as well as a in-game menu screen. Of interest to Ice Cap fans, one screen shows off Sonic and Tails doing a bit of snowboarding in White Park. After the break, browse through the many screens!

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SEGA maimai: A new kind of arcade rhythm dancing game

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This new flashy arcade unit by SEGA is their latest rhythm dancing game called maimai. It features a round screen with lights around it, and when the game tells you to hit a certain spot in the circle, you do it. Pretty simple, till they speed it up.

Also the cabinet has a camera that allows users to record themselves playing a session and upload it to the popular Japanese video site Nico Nico Douga. SEGA states in the interview that this rhythm game is supposed to allow people be more social. Yes, they know it looks like a washing machine. The arcade is set to hit Japan in July of 2012. The video also confirms that SEGA is planning a Western release. Yeah, that was unexpected.

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Shining Blade gets two Japanese commercials

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zx5_pQ00tvo

Above is the 30 second spot that will be airing over in Japan. Seems that SEGA is going to go out and promote this PSP title, even though the Vita just came out. Do you think it was a good idea to skip the Vita for now?

Hit the jump for the second spot, this one shorter at 15 seconds.

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Sonic 4 Episode 2 Achievements Revealed!

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Well this is a surprise! The list of achievements for Sonic 4 Episode 2 have already been revealed. What, is this game expected to release next week? It seems every day we’re getting more and more info. Revealed within the list are a few zone names, the return of red rings AND the return of a classic zone. Check out all the achievements after the break! Also, we reveal a zone name NOT mentioned in the achievements list or anywhere else on the net for that matter first site to mention the reveal of a new zone name before the “Continue Reading” button, and some new screens. Of course, expect some spoilers.

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SEGA announces Jet Grind Radio for PSN/XBLA

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Well, little else needs to be said. My only hope, and I know it might be a long shot, is that we get the whole soundtrack intact. The music, each and every song, is crucial to Jet Grind Radio, so hopefully SEGA won’t be pulling a Crazy Taxi on us.

No release date has yet been given for what will hopefully be a truly epic blast from the past. The teaser also does not indicate whether any new features or graphical improvements will be added.

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Sonic Monopoly Arriving August 2012

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Thanks to the Sonic Stadium’s resident merch hound Hogfather, it has been discovered that American board game company USAopoly will soon be releasing a line of Sonic the Hedgehog games and puzzles due out in August 2012! Various online toy and game retailers have started posting up pre-orders for games and puzzles, including a Sonic die cut puzzle, a Sonic memory game and… a Sonic Monopoly! The last item mentioned is the most exciting of the three. Many franchises have gotten the Monopoly treatment, including Nintendo, World of Warcraft, Seinfeld, Simpsons and Futurama.

A Sonic Monopoly could be awesome, or it could be a disappointment. USAopoly has a history of some great versions of the classic game, such as the Simpsons version. However, other franchises aren’t so lucky. Nintendo Monopoly, for example, features a plain white board with Nintendo characters acting as property. How uninspired! I only hope that some Sonic fans are working on the project, so we get a Monopoly that the franchise deserves. And hey, if it doesn’t work out, you can always print out and play the Sonic Monopoly that I’m making! The image above came from my work-in-progress board.

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eBay: The complete US Master System collection

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No, I’m not going to start heckling my crap to you guys, plus this isn’t crap. If there are any girlfriends or moms reading this and saying that video games are crap, then this is crap I want. All over me. The collection includes a US Master System with 114 US Master System games. Impressive!

Happiestsellever!, you can thank me for the shout out later. Check his auction here. Yeah, the dude wants almost 5 grand for the whole thing. Is it worth it? How much would you pay?

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Sonic Heroes hits PSN in Europe

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Sonic Heroes is now available to purchase via PSN as part of the Playstation 2 classics re-releases. This means that it’s emulating the PS2 version of the game, which some say is the worst of the lot. But hey, its only £7.99/€9.99. I assume that it’s going to come out for the US PSN very soon as well.

What other SEGA PS2 classics do you want to see re-released through PSN?

 

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