SEGA News

Yakuza Kiwami Limited Edition Japanese PlayStation 4 model revealed

January 14, 2016 by George

The Yakuza series isn’t particularly new to getting limited edition models of PlayStation consoles, so its no surprise that Sony has announced the Limited Edition Yakuza Kiwami model for Japan. I’m not a big fan of the Playstation 4 limited edition consoles because it just seems like they put a decal on the HDD bay cover and call it a day. But if you gotta have it, it will run you 36,980 yen (about $314) plus tax. What does the package include?

500GB PlayStation 4 model (Jet Black/Glacier White) x1
Wireless Controller (DualShock 4) x1
Yakuza Kiwami PS4 HDD Bay Cover x1
Monoaural Headset x1
Power Cord x1
HDMI Cable x1
USB Cable x1

What about the game? Sorry, the bundle does not include the game and you will have to purchase that separate. This is basically a Playstation 4 with a Yakuza Kiwami themed decal. Worth the price? That’s up to you.

[Via: Siliconera]

SEGA partners with ‘goGame’ to publish Japanese mobile games globally

January 14, 2016 by George

SEGA has now moved forward in their next step for mobile publishing by partnering up with goGame, which is a company SEGA Networks has a large stake in. They will be launching ‘goPlay’ a publishing platform for mobile developers (mostly being aimed in Japan). The idea is that there will be tiers of services the developers can purchase to fit their needs.

While stuff like localization, customer support and other features offered with this service cost money, there is a free option that includes access to SEGA’s Noah Pass ad network of over 100 million users in Japan. This will allow mobile developers to get ad revenue for their creations while SEGA gets a bit off the top. Another ‘free’ service is ‘goPay’ which allows developers to easily receive payments globally, goGame only starts to take 3% from transactions after the game generates over $100,000 dollars in revenue.

Its pretty ironic that SEGA is investing in these sort of companies focused on global publishing when they have one of the worse track records of localizing their own products.

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Yakuza: Kiwami gets high marks from Famitsu

January 12, 2016 by George

The latest issue of Famitsu is out in Japan that means we get to see the latest review scores from Japanese games we won’t see in the West for quite awhile. This week’s big releases include SEGA’s remake of Yakuza 1, being titled Yakuza: Kiwami in Japan.

Here are all the scores in the recent issue of Famitsu:

Dasshu Adventure: Kami Kudashi no Uranai Sara (3DS) – 7/7/8/8 [30/40]
Drop Zone Under Fire (3DS) – 6/7/6/5 [24/40]
Fast Racing Neo (Wii U) – 7/7/7/9 [30/40]
Hyrule Warriors Legends (3DS) – 9/9/8/10 – [36/40]
Just Cause 3 (PS4) – 8/8/9/8 [33/40]
Just Cause 3 (XBO) – 8/8/9/8 [33/40]
Seisen Chronicle (3DS) – 7/7/8/7 [29/40]
Yakuza: Kiwami (PS4) – 8/9/9/8 [34/40]
Yakuza: Kiwami (PS3) – 8/9/9/8 [34/40]

The way that Famitsu reviews work is that four people write a short review and give it a score in the end, those scores are added up in the end. Yakuza: Kiwami was the second highest rated game, losing by two points to Hyrule Warriors Legends on Nintendo 3DS.

[Via: Gematsu]

Infamous SEGA CD game ‘Desert Bus’ getting a sequel with VR support

January 12, 2016 by George

Desert Bus has become a infamous game not only due to never having a official release, but universally being known as the ‘most boring game ever’ by many online publications. Is this an insult to the game? Nah. The game was a mini-game that was set to release in a compilation called Penn & Teller’s Smoke and Mirrors back in 1995 and was purposely mean’t to recreate a endless feeling when driving through the Nevada desert.

Jillette announced the game via this weeks episode of Penn’s Sunday School:

“I’m working with Randy Pitchford. This is not announced publicly. We are going to do a — this is a big, big deal — a new Desert Bus. And it’s just going to be for charities, so charities can use it to raise money.”

“He’s calling it Desert Bus 2.0. I’m calling it Desert Bus 1.0003. It’ll be a period piece, it’ll be set in 1992, like the original Desert Bus, just high-fidelity. We’re doing a couple other games. It’ll be a bundle of things. We’re talking to a bunch of people. It’ll probably be agnostic in terms of platform. It’ll probably be for the [Oculus] Rift and for the PlayStation VR.””

Yes, he is working with infamous CEO of Gearbox Software Randy Pitchford who is responsible for great titles like Alien: Colonal Marines and Duke Nukem Forever. While we all know the game is mean’t to be boring, its nice he is doing it for charity.

What do you guys think?

Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games 3DS hits North America on March 18

January 11, 2016 by George

Nintendo of America have tweeted that Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games is set to release on March 18th for the Nintendo 3DS.

As for the Wii U version, Nintendo posted on their Facebook post that it will be coming ‘later this year’. Why the lack of release date for the Wii U version? No idea.

Anyone looking forward to this game?

SEGA posts ten hours of their APM D-1 FIGHTING FESTIVAL Competition

January 8, 2016 by George

Before the year closed SEGA teamed up with Arc System Works and Koei Tecmo to host APM D-1 FIGHTING FESTIVAL over in Japan. It was a massive tournament mean’t to highlight their various properties and support the community of players.

You can see the full ten hour tournament video or you can see time stamps below:

Blade Arcus from Shining – @ 56:35
Koihime Enbu – @ 3:03:54
Dead or Alive 5 Ultimate – @ 3:45:14
Guilty Gear Xrd -REVELATOR- @ 5:49:17
Dengeki Bunko FIGHTING CLIMAX IGNITION – @ 8:06:54

SEGA’s Japanese tournament was rather more intense than traditional tournaments. Once you lost, you were eliminated, there was no loser brackets here. SEGA posted a results page for the tournament here. Jawa Curry Akira (who obviously played Akira) won the Dead or Alive 5 Ultimate can be seen crying after his victory here. Chin up man, we too are hoping for a Virtua Fighter 6!

[Via Shoryuken]

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Valkyria Chronicles Remaster gets a slew of new screenshots

January 8, 2016 by George

Valkyria Chronicles Remaster is close to release over in Japan that it has now launched its Japanese Playstation webpage that provides a ton of new screenshots for the remastered Playstation 4 game.

If you didn’t already know this version will run at a full 1080p, feature Playstation Network Trophies (the Playstation 3 version didn’t have any) and will included all the downloadable content released for the original.

This game is set to launch on February 10th over in Japan and first print copies come with a battle demo for Valkyria: Azure Revolution. No western release dates have been announced for the remaster or Azure Revolution.

SEGA and Atlus storm Metacritic’s best-reviewed 3DS games chart

January 7, 2016 by Sharky

Metacritic have released their list of the 25 best reviewed 3DS titles of 2015 where SEGA and Atlus have swept the floor with the competition. Metacritic– for those who don’t know– compiles review scores from major video game critics to find the average score.

SEGA and Atlus boast almost half of the list with 12 of the 25 spots, including two of the highest rated games; 3D Streets of Rage II and 3D Gunstar Heroes both scoring a well deserved 89/100. (Nintendo’s The Legend of Zelda: Majoras Mask 3D also scored 89.)
Also worth mentioning is SEGA and Atlus’ success on the PS Vita in 2015, where they claimed 5 of the top 25 best scoring games.
Unsurprisingly the duo didn’t fair so well on home console, having barely released anything for those systems 2015. Choosing to bump many of their games in 2016 for longer development cycles.

Hit the jump for the full list of 3DS titles in Metacritics 2015 highest scoring list..

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Super Fighter Team releases two new SEGA Mega Drive/Genesis games on cartridge

January 5, 2016 by George

The indie publisher Super Fighter Team isn’t new to the SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive scene, they are known as the people that brought over Beggar Prince and Legend of Wukong to SEGA’s 16-bit machine. Now they release not one, but two new SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive games on cartridge.

The first game is Magic Girl, a Taiwanese scrolling shooter that was released back in 1993. The game stayed in Taiwan and became a obscure relic of the 90s. But now Super Street Fighter Team have picked it up and given it a proper translation!

Cascade is a intergalactic dice puzzler with its own unique style. This game was developed by Epyx and was set to hit the land of the rising sun back in the 90s. Now that Super Street Fighter team picked up the rights, everyone gets to enjoy it the way it was mean’t to be played.

The games come complete with manual, box and the game on cartridge. Each game costs $58 dollars including shipping if you live in America, $65 including shipping worldwide.

[Via: RetroCollect]

Sentai Filmworks bringing Phantasy Star Online 2: The Animation to North America

December 29, 2015 by Barry

While it’s not the video game, some form of Phantasy Star Online 2 will be making its way to North America thanks to anime licensing company Sentai Filmworks which has picked up the distribution rights for “Phantasy Star Online 2: The Animation” in North America. In a press release dated today, Sentai Filmworks revealed that the anime series will be a part of their winter 2016 anime season lineup. Sentai Filmworks releases anime on both traditional and digital media platforms, so expect “Phantasy Star Online 2: The Animation” to be released on one of or both of those formats, and based on Sentai Filmworks’ past releases a home video release is possible.

After the break, read the full press release.

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Yakuza 0 won’t hit North America till 2017 says Playstation.com

December 29, 2015 by George

Seems that SEGA likes to be really abstract on these Yakuza localization release dates. Not only was Yakuza 5 suppose to release in November, then barely made it in late December but Yakuza 0 seems that it is being aimed for 2017. That would mean by the time it gets here the game would be 2 years old, Yakuza 1 remaster and Yakuza 6 would already be out in Japan. What a vicious cycle of playing catch up for American fans.

Awhile back SEGA released a trailer stating that the game was coming out for both Americans and Europeans, but now SEGA has stated that they have no plans yet for a European release.

What do you guys think? Is waiting till 2017 for a localization of Yakuza 0 too long? Could it be that Sony is using 2017 as a place holder instead of ‘TBA’?

[Via: Playstation LifeStyle]

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Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 details released including the character roster

December 28, 2015 by George

Nintendo has opened the official Japanese website for Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, this was for the 3DS version of the game. The page detailed various things including the sporting events, character roster, amiibo support, and various modes.
There are a total of 14 Olympic sports included in this handheld title. This includes soccer, golf, 100m dash, 110m hurdle, long jump, javelin throw, 100m freestyle swim, archery, boxing, table tennis, beach volley, equestrian, BMX, and rhythmic gymnastic hoop. This will also include 14 extra competition events which are basically one of these with gimmicks added from the Mario & Sonic series.

Local play is only possible if each person has a copy of the game, but the game will feature ‘Download Play’ mode which will let you play with people that don’t have the game but these users will have a limited selection of characters to play as.

Talking about characters, hit the jump to see the 40 characters (not including Miis) that will be in the game.

[Via Nintendo Everything]

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Valkyria Chronicles Remastered – Playstation 4 Trailer

December 25, 2015 by Sharky

Take a gander at Valkyria Chronicles Remastered in this beautiful new trailer that’ll reminding you just how charming the first entry in this acclaimed series was.

Valkyria Chronicles Remastered was announced for the PS4 along side the newest edition to the Valkyria franchise, Valkyria: Azures Revolution, (PS4). Azure Revolution which takes the series in a new medieval meets steam-punk direction will exist parallel to the Chronicles series meaning Valkyria fans may have a lot to look forward too in 2016 and the years to come.

Personally I can’t wait to triple dip on Valkyria Chronicles or find out more about Valkyria: Azures Revolution. If you didn’t already know, all first print copies of Valkyria Chronicles Remaster will come with a demo of Valkyria: Azures Revolution! Squad 7 Move Out!