SEGA News

Hyperdimension Neptunia vs Sega Hard Girls opening movie released

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Developer Compile Hearts is teaming up their Hyperdimension Neptunia gals with Sega Hard Girls (aka Hi-sCool! Seha Girls) in the upcoming Playstation Vita JRPG ‘Hyperdimension Neptunia VS Sega Hard Girls: Dream Fusion Special’.

The game will start Compile Hearts’ IF-chan along with Hatsumi Sega (new character), who both travel back to ‘sega-based eras’ to recover long lost history. Hyperdimension Neptunia vs Sega Hard Girls hits Japanese retail shelves on Novemeber 26th. As of right now, there are no plans on releasing this game outside of Japan, but you never know in the near future.

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Alien: Isolation mod gets rid of the alien

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Imagine if you played Alien: Isolation without the alien hunting you down, that would be crazy. That would only leave you with, well, isolation.

That is the point of this mod by Steam user [Lebowski]-=ThArK=- which technically doesn’t remove the alien from the map, but makes it immobile in a vent. Meaning that you will be able to run around and take in the retro future art without being scared of being hunted down.

You can go ahead and check out the mod here.

[Via: Eurogamer]

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See what SEGA games made the Xbox One list of Xbox 360 backwards compatible titles

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The first wave of backwards compatible Xbox 360 games playable on Xbox One have been revealed, and we’re happy to report that some SEGA games made the list. Interestingly, all but one of the titles are Xbox Live Arcade releases, but by and large it is a solid selection. SEGAbits forum member crackdude was nice enough to share the list and highlight the SEGA titles. You can check out the backwards compatible games by checking out the forum post, or see them after the break!

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Some of SEGA of America’s staff confirmed to be working in Atlus USA’s offices

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Back in late September we speculated that SEGA of America had moved in with Atlus USA at their offices in Irvine, California. While all signs pointed to “yes”, we didn’t want to be 100% certain until we had official word from SEGA. Thanks to SEGAbits forum member NoirSuede we have confirmation from SEGA that they indeed have moved in to the Atlus offices.

In a recent official SEGA Twitch stream, NoirSuede asked “is the non-Sonic Sega of America staff in the Atlus USA office?”, to which SEGA replied “some of them”. So the official word is some, but not all. So where are the others? The SEGA West corporate page lists the Atlus address, as well as an address in Burbank, California at 250 East Olive Avenue. These offices house Marza Animation Planet, but we have heard from some fans that this office now doubles as the Sonic brand office. Burbank would be a fitting location for Sonic, given the upcoming Hollywood film from Sony Pictures.

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SEGA releases new 3D Power Drift screenshots

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SEGA has released some screenshots for 3D Power Drift, which was released as part of the SEGA Reprint Archives 2 collection, a physical collection piling up all the digital SEGA 3D Classic releases. So far these physical releases have been exclusive to Japan.

The exclusive games in the physical version are suppose to eventually make it to the digital store. As far as those exclusives coming over to America, we don’t know. I hope so, its not like there is a whole lot to translate in Power Drift, Puyo Puyo 2 and/or Maze Walker!

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Joseph Kim to lead SEGA West’s mobile efforts

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Yesterday SEGA announced that Joseph Kim, formerly of the studio FunPlus, has been named SEGA’s vice president of product. Kim is being tasked with managing the mobile product strategy in Western markets. Sega Networks COO Chris Olson said “This position is instrumental in pulling all three of our wholly owned studios and two studio investments together to drive Sega’s success on mobile. Kim’s rich background in successfully bringing games to market along with his experience in consulting and analytics makes him the best candidate for the job, and we look forward to seeing him work his magic.” Kim had this to say regarding his role: “In mobile gaming, the best is yet to come. I look forward to working with the teams at Sega to help deliver awesome game experiences to existing and future Sega customers.”

Of course, what really matters are Kim’s results, so it will be interesting to see if there is any major shifts in SEGA’s mobile output moving forward. Hey, Joseph, if you are reading this: bring some of those Puyo Puyo’s sitting with you to the West!

[Via: GameIndustry.biz]

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SEGA trademarks Valkyria: Azure Revolution and V-Gaje

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That’s right folks, SEGA has trademarked ANOTHER name related to its Valkyria Chronicles franchise (Valkyria of the Battlefield in Japan). First we had Valkyria of the Blue Revolution last month and now we have Valkyria: Azure Revolution. According to Gematsu this could be the official English title for the game but it would be weird if they drop ‘Chronicles‘ from the game’s name. Wouldn’t Valkyria Chronicles: Blue Revolution work out better?

SEGA also trademarked ‘V-Gaje’ which is mean’t to be a abbreviation of “V-Gadjet”? Not much is known regardless. It seems that SEGA has some announcements to make come 2016, maybe we should be just a tiny bit excited. Just a tiny bit.

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SEGA posts sales profits despite having fewer sales

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SEGA-Sammy has posted their detailed financial report for the last six months, spanning from April to September 2015. If you guys didn’t know, April 1st is when SEGA’s massive restructure happen and around June is when SEGA of America did their big move. Not only that but the company hasn’t been releasing as much software as they used to, but they still manage to make profit even with a decrease in sales.

SEGA-Sammy reports 1.2 billion in net sales, which happens to be a decrease of 2.5% over the same six month period in 2014, where they reported over 1.3 billion. Yet SEGA-Sammy posted a profit of $7.9 million, compared to losing $23 million in 2014.

SEGA-Sammy said that digital games just happen to be one of the big money makers for the company which happen to them get out of the red. What games did good? Lets look.

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Yakuza 5 screens shows off side-activities and play spots

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Yakuza-5_2015_10-30-15_015SEGA’s Yakuza series has been well known for its side-activities and play spots sprinkled throughout the game.  But no game takes it further than Yakuza 5!

The game has activities like rhythm dancing, hunting bears, drinking, gambling, trying to get SEGA swag from a UFO catcher, playing Taiko Drum Master in arcades, and even driving taxis! So much to do, so little time.

Check out the screenshots after the jump. Yakuza 5 will hit PSN in Europe and North America sometime this month.

[Via: Gemastu]

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Ys Net releases Shenmue 3 progress report on the game’s development, featuring new screens

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As Shenmue 3 enters the third month of post-Kickstarter development, a much welcomed progress report has been posted detailing what the team has been up to and what they plan to work on in the coming months. Most exciting are four screens of the game in-progress showcasing battle tests, a cutscene, and an environment which you can see after the break or at the above link.

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Wii U hardware sales officially surpass the Dreamcast

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The Wii U and Dreamcast have a lot of things in common, for one they both have secondary displays on the controller and the other is that they both didn’t sell as expected. The Wii U, in its third year on sale, has finally surpassed sales of the Dreamcast. The SEGA Dreamcast reached sales of 10.6 million units 18 months after release, Nintendo just announced that the Wii U reached sales of 10.73 million units recently.

While the Dreamcast did reach a higher number of sold units at a faster rate, it was also heavily discounted from its original MSRP launch price compared to Wii U, which has had a minor $50 re-configure bundle price drop. I remember after the Dreamcast got discontinued how you could get a bundle with a few games for around $50 dollars, as stores where trying to get rid of them.

[Source: NintendoLife]

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Sonic The Hedgehog 1 & 2 Virtual Console and XBLA to be delisted October 30th

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Via XBLA Watchdog Twitter user Lifelower comes news that SEGA Japan has announced that the Xbox Live Arcade and Wii Virtual Console versions of Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic the Hedgehog 2 will be pulled tomorrow, October 30th. The reason for the games being pulled is unknown, but there are two possibilities. The most likely reason is that the contract for the games’ music rights, which are held by the original composer Masato Nakamura, are expiring and these versions of the game are affected. Another possible reason is that the Taxman/Stealth remastered versions are finally making their way to consoles, but take that possibility with an Oil Ocean sized amount of salt.

If you haven’t bought these versions yet, you have less than a day to do so. However it should be noted that there are several other versions out there including the original cartridges, Sonic Jam for Saturn, Sonic Mega Collection (playable on both the Xbox 360 and Wii via backwards compatibility), Sonic’s Ultimate Genesis Collection, the aforementioned Taxman/Stealth remastered versions, and 3D Classics versions. I’m sure I missed a couple dozen others, but you get the point.

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Update: SEGA Europe marketing director says they are exploring opportunities for re-releases of legacy titles like Shenmue

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Marketing Week held an interesting interview with SEGA Europe marketing director Jon Rooke. The interview, which centers around the company’s recent changes and a shift in approach, also touches on the Shenmue series. SEGA allowing Yu Suzuki to use the license to make a third game and the Kickstarter campaign proving to be a success “shows that people love [SEGA’s] legacy”, said Rooke. The article adds that Rooke said SEGA is exploring ways to re-release the original two Shenmue titles.

Could it be that much like Valkyria Chronicles performing well on PC, it took the successful backing of Shenmue 3 for SEGA to rethink rereleases of classic titles? It has long been rumored that there are reasons for SEGA holding out on Shenmue and Shenmue II, chief among them being that there are rights issues standing in the way. Whatever the case, it’s good to hear somebody like Jon Rooke speaking publicly about a possibility of a re-release.

Update: The article’s author has shared the exact quote from Jon Rooke on Twitter:
When I asked about Shenmue being remade, I was told: “There are lots of opportunities for legacy titles. We are exploring. We know what fans want as they have a petition.” So it now appears that the quote wasn’t referring to Shenmue specifically, but legacy titles as a whole.

[Source: Marketing Week]

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SEGA hints Sonic 25th Anniversary game could be inspired by classic games

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ClassicSonicSEGA really has changed the way they handle PR for their Sonic the Hedgehog franchise, admitting to wrongs and promising a brighter future for the franchise. So far they are keeping that promise and recently went as far as delaying Sonic Boom: Fire & Ice into 2016 (shall see if its a better game for it).

The other day Marketing Week interviewed SEGA Europe’s marketing director Jon Rooke who also admitted to Sonic the Hedgehog‘s recent poor track record of games and suggested that the upcoming Sonic the Hedgehog game will be “more inspired by how it played in its heyday.”

“Sega has publicly apologised to the fans as the quality of console games in the Sonic franchise hasn’t been acceptable over recent years. It’s been tough translating that iconic side scrolling 2D experience from the 90s into 3D but Sonic is still huge for us so the new games will be more inspired by how it played in its heyday.” – Jon Rooke, SEGA Europe Marketing Director

Honestly this isn’t the first time I have been hearing call backs to Sonic’s heyday, they do it with marketing trailers all the time. I guess we shall see soon enough if this is all just talk.

[Via: TSSZNews]

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Hatsune Miku: Project Mirai DX sold 24k copies in America on its debut month

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Hatsune Miku Project Mirai DXAccording to NeoGAF user creamsugar (who is NeoGAF famous for leaking NPD sale numbers), Hatsune Miku: Project Mirai DX sold a total 24,000 units (estimated, physical only) in all of September. The game came out on September 8th, this would mean that it would have had 22 days on store shelves. Is this good or bad? Well, seeing as how Hatsune Miku: Project Diva f  on Playstation Vita sold 16,000 units back in 2013 and that was good enough for SEGA to bring more after that, I would say its good enough.

One of the reasons that these games don’t have to sell more than, lets say, something like Yakuza is because of the cost of translation. The more words, the more money. Of course there is more factors but that’s another topic for another day. What do you guys think? Is 24k too low for a niche rhythm game?

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