News

Sonic & SEGA All – Stars Racing shipped for US arcades

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Sonic & SEGA All – Stars Racing has officially shipped for American arcades. It took them quite some time, didn’t it? I remember hearing about the arcade announcement a few months back, and it’s just now being released.

The game will feature all of the original content from the console versions, and will be equipped with a subwoofer seat, widescreen video, multicolor cabinet illumination, and a special steering wheel with its own weapon launch buttons. It will also feature a ticket dispenser which, during a “winner takes all” mode, will award a preset number of tickets multiplied by the number of drivers to the first place racer.

The cabinets were shipped early this month, according to the article, so look for it now in your closest arcade.

[Source:Vending Times]

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SEGA publishing Aliens Infestation according to trademark

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The Australian classification website has posted that SEGA filed for Aliens Infestation. Says it will be a ‘computer game(s)’ and being done by Wayforward Technologies.

Wayforward was doing the DS version of Aliens: Colonial Marines when it was put on hold. Their DS game was going to be a 2D shooter, much like Contra. Maybe SEGA decided to release the game with its own title?

[Source: Classification]

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Yu Suzuki talks Shenmue and open-world games

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Yu Suzuki was interviewed in the latest Famitsu issue, isn’t it great having more and more Yu Suzuki content? This time around he talks about why Shenmue cost so much. Basically his team was an arcade team and they tried to do a game that wasn’t thought about before, on a console that they haven’t really worked on much.

“The main difference between open-world games and other types of games is the overwhelming size of them. Making all the endless objects that build up the world one by one, and portraying how the weather and time of day affects it all, requires massive amounts of time and manpower. “For example, if you enter a building, the room on the other side of the door doesn’t exist until the game generates it in the sliver of time when the player pulls the knob. We didn’t make every tree in town individually, either. There are a bunch of graphic resources for tree branches and leaves, and trees are generated mathematically based off of them. The NPCs in town are also independent — instead of giving unique motions to every single one, they all function independently based on road data and behavior pattern programming.” – Yu Suzuki, producer and director for Shenmue

Not to mention all the details that Shenmue had, which most had to be done by hand!

Continue Reading ➜

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Arc System Works now owns the Guilty Gear franchise

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Back before the SEGA and Sammy merger, Sammy published a pretty good fighting game known as Guilty Gear. The games where developed by Arc System Works. When the merger happened, the rights to the series were owned by SEGA Sammy. Sadly SEGA Sammy had no plans to continue the franchise.

Arc System Works started a new 2D fighter for this generation called Blazblue. Hardcore fighting fans never forgot their original franchise and asked if it would ever come back. Daisuke Ishiwatari, creator of Guilty Gear, said there would be a new game eventually.

Now Arc System Works filed a trademark for “Guilty Gear”, which was published in the Japanese database today. This either means that the developer bought the rights to the franchise from SEGA-Sammy or SEGA-Sammy gave them the franchise. Most likely bought.

Arc System Works has confirmed that they do own the Guilty Gear franchise now, so this isn’t some sly deal.

[Source: Siliconera]

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Leaked Shinobi Teaser – Sort Of

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A teaser trailer for the new 3DS Shinobi game has been leaked, sort of…
At least half of it has leaked and unfortunately for us it doesn’t give much away. The trailer suspiciously cuts off abruptly just before the good stuff, almost making me believe that the ‘leak’ could be just another marketing ploy.

The only thing we can take from this short trailer is that they know their Shinobi history! Well, that’s a good start I suppose.

Sega, who usually refuse to comment on leaks, said that they ‘had no comment’… but added: “Keep your eyes open for something official coming your way later this week.”

Heh.

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Sonic Free Riders joins Games on Demand

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So let’s say you just got a Kinect unit and you really want to play Sonic Free Riders… Like now. You don’t want to drive to Wal-Mart or some other lame store full of lame people to stand in a lame line to purchase your lame game (oh snap).

Don’t worry, Microsoft and SEGA got you covered. Introducing Games on Demand. Basically you can purchase the game on the Xbox Live Marketplace and download it through the internet. This is the future my friends.

Game is being priced at $49.99. Yeah, pretty much full retail. Rethinking about visiting that lame store?

[Source: SEGAblog]

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Shinobi & Sonic Generations confirmed for Nintendo 3DS

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Following our article earlier in the day, the newest cover of Nintendo Power not only shows Sonic Generations for the Nintendo 3DS (This despite SEGA’s attempt at hiding such information in their recent report) but indeed confirms the revival of the classic SEGA series Shinobi. Nothing else has been released just yet, but in the coming hours or days we are sure to get some scans of both particular games and confirmation if the original protagnist Joe Musashi returns or a new character once against takes on the title of the ninja master.

[Source: NeoGAF]

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Anarchy Reigns gets its latest character: Leo

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Leo’s reveal for Anarchy Reigns adds him to the growing roster of MadWorld characters who will be playing a role in PlatinumGames’ upcoming brawler. Leo, who played a small (but key) part in PlatinumGames’ first effort, MadWorld, will be joining the fray and he looks to be yet another totally badass character. His bio describes him as a “cyborg.” His appearance in Anarchy Reigns adds to the feeling that this is indeed taking the form of a sequel, in some capacity, to MadWorld.

Screens and concept art after the break.

[Source: Sega of America]

Continue Reading ➜

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More Shinobi on the Horizon?

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Someone over at Neogaf has uncovered some pretty interesting news! In this profile for Branden Brushett, one of the environment artist at developer Griptonite Games, he lists Shinobi 3DS as one of the games he has worked on.

Under Brandens Experiences, the top listed experience is;
’Shinobi 3DS, and an Unannounced title’

Pretty cool right? Well, maybe… Looking at Griptonite’s track record I wouldn’t blame any Shinobi fan for hopping off the hype train. They’re a license game developer first and foremost.

But all hope is not lost. MOST of their games are ‘me too’ games which come out along side bigger, higher budget titles. Could this mean there is a Shinobi revival on the horizon? I sure hope so, but if this turns out to be the only upcoming Shinobi game, can I have permission to be pissed off?

A lot of Sega fans have a soft spot for Shinobi and to see the series in the hands of Griptonite who have a very mixed, lower end track record is a bit of a worry. I hope Sega knows what they are getting themselves into if this turns out to be a horrible decisions like the atrocious reboot of Golden Axe… Here’s hoping for a fantastic Shinobi game both from these guys and a HD of the Shinobi series!

[Credit to: Superannuation]

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Drama: High Voltage & Joystiq won’t get along

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Summary: Basically what happened is that Joystiq wrote a negative Conduit 2 review. Joystiq rated the game a 1/5, which would usually be the end of the story. But not with High Voltage. The writer for Joystiq, who happens to have a published book, all of a sudden just got a ton of negative spam reviews on Amazon.com for the book. After people accused High Voltage Software of writing them, the company has finally confessed that they did come from someone in the studio.

“Matt Corso did indeed write that internal email, however if you read the email he encourages folks to read Mike’s book and then write their own review in a ‘turn-about is fairplay’ sort of way” wrote Nofsinger in an official explanation. The email went to 70+ people on the list contains nothing slanderous or inflammatory; I believe people took it as such (the fact that there aren’t 70 negative reviews would support that assumption). Sure, it’s a tad unprofessional but if you knew Matt personally as I do, you would know it was nothing more than a tongue-in-cheek jibe at most. And for that, I apologise on behalf of High Voltage Software.” – Eric Nofsinger, Chief Creative Officer at High Voltage

So what does the writer for the inflammatory review have to say? What about the Joystiq writer who wrote the review?

Continue Reading ➜

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Kamiya talks Bayonetta spin-off starring Jeanne

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Platinum Games has released their 8th director commentary video. Basically Kamiya plays through the game, while he talks about various things. In this video he mentions wanting to make a Bayonetta spin-off starring Jeanne.

“I’m sure those of you who’ve unlocked the special features know about Cutie J. She’s Jeanne as a heroine, who would star in a spin-off game I like to fantasize about.” – Hideki Kamiya, Bayonetta Director

Another idea he spits out in the videos is a prequel to the game, one that would take place before the war between the witches and the sages with a younger Balder. Its too bad that none of these ideas are actually games in development. Shame.

[Source: Siliconera]

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Sonic the Hedgehog 3 – Flipbook Animation is Awesome!

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Check out this really cool Sonic the Hedgehog 3 flipbook animation. I have some serious admiration for anyone that has the patience to make such a long and detailed flipbook.

I remember getting flip books like this in cereal back in the 90’s, I gave it a go and made a very primitive flip book of an alien space ship flying though clouds… It was bad to say the least!

[Thanks to TaroYamada]

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Get Ready for SONIC GOLF in 3D

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Yes, Sega has decided to shove the fastest video game character in the slowest sport.

What’s more surprising is that this isn’t new apparently the game was released in time to celebrate Sonic’s 15th Anniversary remember the fantastic year where we got Sonic The Hedgehog Genesis (GBA), Sonic Riders, Sonic Rivals and ofcourse best of all Sonic the Hedgehog 06.

Yes, Sonic Golf was released in 2006 for Cell Phones and now 5 years later it is getting a 3D entry in the series for NEC Casio’s CA-o1 series.

Source Andriasang 
Further Reading: Sonic Wikia

Special thanks Deefy via Forums

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Kingdon Conquest surpasses a million App Store downloads

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SEGA’s free to play (with paid updates) iOS title has officially surpassed a million downloads on Apple’s App Store. An impressive feat indeed. Here’s the press release:

SAN FRANCISCO – May 17, 2011

SEGA® of America today announced that Kingdom Conquest™, its first free-to-play MMORPG for iPhone® and iPod touch®, has surpassed 1 million downloads worldwide. After launching in North America and Europe last fall, Kingdom Conquest quickly took the #1 spot in the Free RPG category on the App Store across eight different countries. The game also held the top spot in Free RPG App Store Sales ranking for 93 consecutive days after launching in Japan this past January.

Along with reaching this milestone, Kingdom Conquest also received the 2010 “Innovation Award” during the Global Mobile Game Award at the Global Mobile Internet Conference last month in Beijing. The game is currently available in 20 countries, and SEGA plans to expand the game to an even wider audience in the coming months.

Kingdom Conquest offers players a unique blend of competitive, massively multiplayer strategic gameplay with 3D, monster-slaying action. Players must delve the many dungeons and ruins that litter Magna, the Land of Monsters, defeating and capturing the creatures within to build out their army and grow their kingdom. Shrewd players can also acquire Charge Points via in-app purchase that help boost their progress in focused ways, from increased treasury capacity to speedier resource gathering.

To download Kingdom Conquest for free and join the global battle for Magna, the Land of Monsters, visit the app store at http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/kingdomconquest/id384877854?mt=8


[Source: Gamasutra]

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