News

Team Sonic Racing joins PlayStation Plus free games for March

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The PlayStation Blog has confirmed that Team Sonic Racing will join their free PlayStation Plus games for March. Sony has also added Ghostrunner, ARK: Survival Evolved and Ghost of Tsushima: Legends. I would say this is a really good month for the service, we will see if this improves the Team Sonic Racing’s lack of online players.

The new games will update on the PlayStation Store on February 28th. If you haven’t you can also add EA Sports UFC 4, Planet Coaster: Console Edition and Tiny Tina’s Assault on Dragon Keep: A Wonderlands One-shot Adventure right now. As you can see, March is gonna be a way better month.

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Atlus announces Soul Hackers 2 for PS5, PS4, Xbox Series/One, and PC

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Atlus has announced Soul Hackers 2 for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series, Xbox One and PC (Steam). The first game, at the time titled Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers is actually already the ‘second game’ in the ‘Devil Summoner‘ series which itself is a side-series of the Shin Megami Tensei franchise which originally came out on SEGA Saturn and PlayStation, then getting a 3DS remake in 2012. Does all this confuse you? Probably why they decided a more simple, Soul Hackers 2 title instead of “Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers 2” 

The game is set to launch pretty soon, on August 25th in Japan and the next day world wide with Japanese voice overs and English, French, Italian, German, Japanese, Korean, and Chinese subtitles. In Japan they already announced a special Soul Hackers 2 25th Anniversary Edition for PS5 & PS4 that includes a three disc soundtrack, 100 page anniversary book with artwork & interviews, and more to be announced soon.

As for what special versions, day one editions or even pre-order DLC for those outside of Japan; its unknown as of right now. But don’t worry, we will keep you guys posted. Siliconera has a good breakdown on the Japanese content though.

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SEGA News Bits Live: Sonic 3 The Movie & Knuckles The TV Show

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Let’s talk about the latest Sonic movie news, including the upcoming sequel, the newly announced third film and the Knuckles streaming series!

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Third Sonic the Hedgehog movie in the works, Knuckles series coming to Paramount+

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The Paramount+ Twitter account shared the news today that a third Sonic movie is in the works, likely titled “Sonic the Hedgehog 3” as well as news that a Knuckles series will be releasing to Paramount+ in 2023 starring Idris Elba. The Knuckles TV series would be the first Sonic spin-off in the realm of television and movies, and would join the ranks of Knuckles spin-offs that include Knuckles’ Chaotix for the SEGA 32X and the Archie Knuckles the Echidna mini-series and ongoing comic book series.

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Rumor: “Wonder Boy Collection” rated by the ESRB for Nintendo Switch and Playstation 4

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Continuing the trend of Wonder Boy (aka Monster World) getting a lot of love as of late, there is likely a new collection of the games that will be revealed soon. As revealed by this ESRB description, Wonder Boy Collection is a collection of four of the Wonder Boy/Monster World titles, with versions for the PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch cited on the page. While the page doesn’t list the individual games, the description makes mention of alcohol like beer and cocktails being sold in a shop, which is likely a reference to Wonder Boy in Monster Land where one of the shopkeepers is a bartender lizard.

No other information has been revealed, such as pricing or other features, but the existence of this page implies that Wonder Boy Collection is far into development and will be released soon.

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The SEGAbits Swingin’ Report Show LIVE: The Pri Fun Printer Show

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Join Barry and Steve aka Ap0c as they unbox and try out SEGA’s Pri Fun, a printer released in 1994 intended for use with the Pico and Saturn. This episode is extra special as it is the first and ONLY video online showcasing the print process as well as the Virtua Fighter printer pack. Enjoy!

Also, learn more about a charity Steve is helping out in Philadelphia:

Chiptune Cares: A Mixtape for Philly is a big warm hug to the city of Philadelphia. The mixtape features donated tracks from over 20 artists, all with the goal of giving back to the community. In the spirit of a true mixtape, artists were asked to submit ANY track – old, new, previously released – whatever they felt strongly about submitting. The result is a diverse mix of genre, folks, and backgrounds all coming together for a great cause.

All proceeds from this album will go to Black Doctors COVID-19 Consortium, a fantastic charity bringing peace of mind to Philadelphia during tough times. Please see their website here: blackdoctorsconsortium.com

And for direct support outside of this album, please donate here – let’s help get the $1,000,000 goal: www.gofundme.com/f/covid19-BDCC

Support us on Patreon! Get early access, join in the conversation, get Q&A priority, become a guest on the show and more!

[Download] [RSS] [iTunes] [Archive]

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[lock-on] Volume 003 magazine shines the spotlight on the SEGA Dreamcast

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Magazines focusing on classic video games have seen a bit of a renaissance recently, and towards the top in terms of print quality and quality of writers seems to be [lock-on]. Unlike other contemporary retro gaming mags, [lock-on] has a much slower release schedule, with a Kickstarter campaign to fund each issue. While we in no way are telling you how to spend your money, as past SEGA focused campaigns from other individuals have gone unfulfilled, it is a good sign that the team behind [lock-on] have successfully delivered the first two issues.

The third issue, or Volume 003 as they call it, will focus a good portion on the Dreamcast with several guest writers. Check the campaign out for yourself, and after the break learn about what guest writers they have planned for the issue.

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SEGA News Bits Live: Sonic’s Boots & SEGA’s Arcades

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Let’s discuss the shocking revelations pertaining to Sonic’s feet! Oh, and that small bit of news about SEGA pulling out of the arcade operations role for good. All that and the past month’s news on this SEGA News Bits Live!

If you want to support this type of content, you can check out our Patreon!

If you enjoy our SEGA News Bits segments and want to support us: Give us a sub and give this video a thumbs up so it shows up on more like-minded fans YouTube recommendations. You know, how that YouTube algorithm is.

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Sonic the Hedgehog 2 movie tie-in books are now available to pre-order

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I’ve long been a fan of Sonic kid’s books, even when I was well past the age of being a kid. The past few years have seen some excellent short story collections set in the game universe, and with the new Sonic movies from Paramount there are even more Sonic books to collect! Now available for pre-order are a collection of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 books based on the upcoming movie. I thought it would be handy to fans if I broke down the new releases and shared where you can purchase them.

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SEGA Sapporo Studio Launching, Hiring Local Talent To Handle Game Development & Debugging Work

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SEGA has now established SEGA Sapporo Studio, which is located in Sapporo city and is looking to hire local talent. According to SEGA’s new press release, the team was created due to the rapid progress of digital content in the recent years and is centered around increasing ‘game content’ for software manufactures.

The idea will be that SEGA Sapporo Studio will hire high-quality (according to their press release) and stable development production line. It seems that the studio will be debugging games for other studios and even program their own game software. Oddly enough, SEGA’s press release also includes a message from the Mayor of Sapporo (using Google Translate):

“We are delighted to open the SEGA Sapporo Studio. We are very reassured to welcome everyone who is active at the forefront of the game industry to Sapporo City, which is working to promote the creative industries. We hope that it will be the goal of students studying CG / programming and children who yearn for game creators, while working together to develop the industry and create a town. We pray for further development in the future.”

It also looks like the company is still hiring, as it has only existed since December 1st, 2021.

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GENDA SEGA Entertainment Changes Name to GENDA GiGO, Fully Acquiring SEGA’s Japanese Arcade Management Division

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Cha-cha-changes are happening with SEGA’s arcade division in Japan. If you guys have been keeping up with the news since Covid, SEGA went from trying to launch its own innovative cloud based “FOG” system, to closing down iconic SEGA Arcade landmark locations and even selling 85.1% of its arcade management business to GENDA!

At the time, GENDA announced it would keep the SEGA branding at actual locations and name the company GENDA SEGA Entertainment. Seems plans have changed as GENDA has announced it will rename the company GENDA GiGO. Not only that, the company also announced it was buying the last remaining 14.9% of shares owned by SEGA, meaning SEGA doesn’t have any say in the company (and probably didn’t seeing as they had minority control). SEGA is completely out of the arcade management business! This is a end of a long, historical era for the company.

This doesn’t mean SEGA isn’t making arcade games still, it just means they no longer manage and own their 200 plus locations that they used to manage before Covid. Now I wonder if these arcade locations will still keep the SEGA branding they promised…

UPDATE: Arcade Heroes have confirmed that the existing locations will remove the SEGA branding and replace it with GiGO.

[Translated by: @Gosokkyu]

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SEGA’s Mission: Impossible Arcade DX cabinets begin shipping in America & Europe

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For old school SEGA fans, before their entry into the (and then exit of) console market, the company had always been about arcades and still are. The latest entry is a licensed Mission: Impossible game that hos now begun shipping its Deluxe cabinets around America and Europe. SEGA’s arcade division isn’t a stranger to using licenses to create high quality arcade experiences since they’ve also made games based around Die Hard, Rambo and even recently Transformers.

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[Exclusive] Classic SEGA Interview: Smilebit’s Takayuki Kawagoe talks Jet Set Radio Future with Xbox Nation Magazine

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This interview originally appeared in the premiere issue of Xbox Nation Magazine. Stay tuned for scans of the magazine itself later this week!

Takayuki Kawagoe – Smilebit
Past projects: General development, project manager for various 16-bit titles, and head of the Saturn software lineup. Sega Rally 2 and JGR (Dreamcast), along with many others.
Xbox projects: Gunvalkyrie, JSRF: Jet Set Radio Future, Panzer Dragoon.
Favorite food: Any fish, Korean BBQ, and Italian food
Favorite movie: “Some Kind of Wonderful,” and any kung fu movie starring Jet Li.
Favorite music: Beastie Boys, De La Soul, Peter Gabriel, Joe Strummer/The Clash, Jim Foetus, Malcolm Mclaren, The Smiths, Nay Nays, Kyoko Koizumi, Robert Wyatt, Elvis Costello, Serge Gainsbourg, electro pop, hip hop, Latin beats, reggae, punk, and ’80s music in general.

XBN: Please describe your role in the development of Jet Set Radio Future?

Takayuki Kawagoe: As the producer for JSRF, I motivate my staff, consult with them, decide which direction the project should take, balance the budget, promote the title, etc.. Regarding the content in the game: because this is the second title, I trust Mr. Kikuchi (director) and Mr. Ueda (art director) with most of the finer details of the game. That said, I get my words in their works…I’m their “nagging father”…

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