SEGA News

Relic Entertainment plans long term support for Company of Heroes 2

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It is no secret that PC gamers loved the first Company of Heroes, the game had a loyal fanbase a decade after release. Since Relic Entertainment got bought by SEGA and they helped them released Company of Heroes 2, they have had 20 updates to the base game (compared to 8 updates in COH1 at the same time frame.)

SEGA and Relic already launched the first expansion pack for Company of Heroes 2, the multiplayer only ‘The Western Front Armies“.  It doesn’t mean that single player fans are going to be ignored.

“We’ve got a great tool set now to build campaign content more effectively than we have in the past, and give the campaign players some really cool stuff. So it’s definitely part of our plans.

I love the vibe at the studio right now and the feeling. We’re pushing boundaries in how we do things. It’s really exciting. Marrying that enthusiasm with the long-term plan with Sega’s backing… it’s been great” –  Quinn Duffy, Relic Entertainment Director. 

One of the biggest criticisms about SEGA was their bad support for online games and supporting titles long term. I hope that other non-PC focused studios can learn that long term support isn’t a bad thing!

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Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN- coming to North America this Fall, courtesy of Aksys Games

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On May 29th IGN reported that Aksys Games will be bringing Guilty Gear Xrd to North America on Playstation 3 and Playstation 4 sometime this fall. Aksys Games is a Western localization company and has been the company localizing Arc System Works’ Blazblue and Guilty Gear titles for North America, but they have brought a variety of games outside of Japan. It’s worth noting that the confirmation promises 15 playable characters, while the current updated arcade version only accounts for 14. The release window being presented is far sooner than most fans anticipated

Curiously, there is neither word on console versions of the game for both Europe and Japan as of now! It’s likely that the announcement confirming a release window just hasn’t made its way out yet as far as Japan is concerned, but hopefully Europe’s release will keep pace with other regions.

The latest activity in Japan regarding Guilty Gear was a SEGA-sponsored tournament on May 25th, this past Sunday. It took place at Game Corner Eastern, which was also host to a separate tournament for Dengeki Bunko Fighting Climax on the same day.

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Simon Jeffery, former SEGA of America CEO (2004-2009), moves to Myo Armband creator Thalmic Labs

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Many of you may be familiar with Simon Jeffery. For those unaware, Simon Jeffery was the CEO of SEGA of America from 2004 to 2009, who would be followed by Mike Hayes. Jeffery also worked at LucasArts prior to his arrival at SEGA and and more recently he worked at mobile game publisher ngmoco within the past couple of years. As far as SEGA is concerned, he is perhaps well-known for his public statement confirming SEGA not moving forward with a re-entry to the console market at E3 2008, alongside his philosophy on SEGA of America as an autonomous arm and with regards to the company’s direction during his tenure (which can be seen at this Gamasutra interview.)

MarketWatch is reporting that Canadian company Thalmic Labs has hired Simon Jeffery as its chief “gaming evangelist,” where his primary responsibilities will be to forge relationships with game developers, a sort of outreach work that should be familiar to him considering his career. Thalmic Labs is the producer of the Myo armband, a piece of hardware that allows for digital interaction through motion-sensing technology. It can be used for video games, computers, entertainment devices and probably as a means of interaction with smart home systems. Wearable tech is a market that consumers and tech companies alike will be watching closely, from smartwatches and Google Glass to the buzzed-about Oculus Rift. It will be interesting to see what sort of work Simon Jeffery does for Thalmic Labs

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New Sonic Boom character revealed – presenting Sticks the Badger

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For several months, concept art for Sonic Boom has been making the rounds on social networks, and one photo featured a character that looked very much like Sonic Rush Adventure‘s Marine. The importance of this unnamed character became apparent when what appeared to be leaked tradeshow signage featured this new character standing amongst the four main character. Today, SEGA has revealed that this new character is named Sticks the Badger. After the break, check out SEGA’s official announcement as well as a reveal video!

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SEGA Europe releases the pilot episode of their new video series, SEGA Central

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SEGA Europe’s YouTube series SEGA Central, announced yesterday, has just released the pilot episode of the behind the scenes series. The first episode takes place at March’s EGX Rezzed event, and covers games that were on the show floor there including Alien: Isolation, Total War: Rome II, the Western Front Armies DLC released for Company of Heroes 2, and Football Manager 2014. Overall a decent first episode, though very much a Europe centric show. Here’s hoping future episodes take a look at SEGA games in other parts of the world and that they try and include a few exclusives. 30 seconds of Sonic Boom gameplay, for example, would have been epic.

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SEGA Europe introduces SEGA Central, a web series that takes you behind the scenes at SEGA

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SEGA Europe will be launching a web series titled “SEGA Central” on YouTube to show off news and inside media. Not only news on their upcoming titles but DLC and retrospective of classic SEGA titles as well.

The series will also include exclusive behind the scenes of SEGA events, developer interviews, tours within the company, let play guides, speed run attempts and more!

The date of the pilot episode is unknown at this time, but we will be sure to give more info on the series when it surfaces.

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Check out the overly exciting trailer for Sega-Sammy Creation, a casino machine manufacturing division

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Sega-Sammy Creation Inc. is a new group within Sega-Sammy devoted to the development, manufacturing, and selling of casino machines as well as the consigned development and offering of advice on game machines. The groups fist release, SICBO BONUS JACKPOT, is an elaborate casino game featuring digital screens and dice suspended by blowing air in tubes given the name D.F.S. (Dice Floatation System). Sega-Sammy Creation’s target appears to be Chinese speaking countries, as their games and website are translated to the language. Sega-Sammy Creation and SICBO BONUS JACKPOT received an overly dramatic announcement video, seen above, which feels like something straight out of Segagaga.

I’ll admit, as a SEGA fan the trailer got me a bit excited despite the fact that the whole thing is just promoting a casino game. Shots of modern SEGA arcade and console games coupled with the narrator proclaiming: “The two leading companies from Japan have come together and combined DNA! The ultimate gaming manufacturer that transcends gaming boundaries and revolutionizes entertainment”, what’s not to love?

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Marza Animation Planet’s “Harlock: Space Pirate” movie headed to Netflix August 1st

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IGN has revealed that “Harlock: Space Pirate”, an animated film from the SEGA owned Marza Animation Planet, will be releasing exclusively to Netflix in all territories beginning August 1st. The movie is a sci-fi action adventure based on the character from Leiji Matsumo’s Space Pirate Captain Harlock manga series. Marza Animation Planet is probably best known to SEGA fans as the group that animated the Sonic the Hedgehog “Night of the Werehog” short film, as well as animating cutscenes for SEGA games including Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA 2nd, Sonic Colors, and Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg.

We’ll keep you posted on any promotional materials that may release between then and now, and once the film releases I think a SEGA Cinema is in order!

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Sonic Boom heading to New York, no Summer of Sonic this year

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Start spreading the news! Sonic Boom will be heading to New York on October 4th. Along with this news from Sega comes the sad news that Summer of Sonic will be on hiatus for this year. This is very sad news for Sonic fans in the U.K. who’ve come in droves year after year to the event. One bit of good news is that Summer of Sonic has inspired other, smaller Sonic conventions to appear such as Weston Super Sonic (returning on January 17 2015) and Sonic Revolution in Buena Park (on June 15 2014). Read on for a statement from both Summer of Sonic and Sega.

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Rumor: SEGA renews the Shenmue trademark – could Shenmue HD be back on track?

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Via NeoGAF and hokanko-alt.com comes news that SEGA has renewed the trademark for Shenmue. Fans will probably remember that back in February we reported that SEGA had lost the trademark for Shenmue – specifically in reference to “computer game programs and prerecorded discs and ROMs for computer game programs” and “entertainment services, namely, providing an online computer game”. We speculated that these trademarks refer to the original Dreamcast releases and the cancelled Shenmue Online. While we don’t have the specifics on this new trademark filing, such as country of origin or the specific uses, it is possible that SEGA has gotten back on track with releasing the rumored Shenmue 1&2 HD rerelease. Both games have been rumored to be complete and ready for release for quite some time, and back in 2012 when asked what the next SEGA Heritage releases would be, SEGA responded with “it’s gonna be Shenmue and Skies of Arcadia as well”.

Of course, this is speculation on our part, but if SEGA truly has renewed the Shenmue trademark then they must be making some sort of use out of it. As soon as we learn more, we’ll be sure to share it! For now, we’re filing this as a rumor, even if the trademark renewal is legitimate.

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Lock your windows! Night Trap director promises that the infamous game “will come back”

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Big news for Night Trap fans – the game’s director James Riley has promised the game’s Facebook community that Night Trap will return on an unspecified platform. Fans have been pressuring Riley to rerelease the game, and Riley has replied “I appreciate your on-going interest, but please understand I do plan to re-release Night Trap and have been talking with a number of interested parties to do so. However, the specific platform(s) have not been confirmed (including online) and I will let you know once we have a definite plan and release schedule. Night Trap will come back, in better resolution and game play than before, we just want to be sure it’s the best strategy for all involved.”

The original Night Trap was a controversial video game developed by Digital Pictures for DOS and Macintosh computers, the 3DO and the Sega Mega-CD. It is also one of six Mega CD 32X games. It was notable for being one of the games that led to congressional hearings on violent video games, and the creation of the ESRB.

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Super Monkey Ball Bounce coming soon to mobile platforms

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SEGA has announced a new Super Monkey Ball game for mobile platforms entitled Super Monkey Ball Bounce. Slated to release soon to the App Store and Google Play, the game features Aiai and his friends in a pachinko-inspired aim-and-shoot game which touts over 120 levels and 8 playable characters. After the break, check out the full press release.

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Dynamite Deka gets light novel treatment titled “Dynamite Deka: Burning 2020”

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You all may remember Die Hard Arcade released in the arcade in 1996, which was originally titled Dynamite Deka in Japan and it’s sequel Dynamite Cop, developed by Golden Axe and Altered Beast creator, Makoto Uchida.

Announced a couple of weeks ago, Dynamite Deka will be returning in light novel form starring the main character Bruno Dillenger aka “Mr. Dynamite” retired from taking numerous cases and is on vacation in Tokyo, Japan as tourist in the year 2020 to later face a new threat. Tatsuro Iwamoto, a freelance illustrator who has worked on Capcom’s Ace Attorney series as art director, will be in charge of the illustration of the novel.

He has aged quite a bit since his last appearance but he still carries his signature items such as the broom and pepper to take down his enemies with. The book is now available in Japan for 760 yen plus tax and to purchase on Sakuranomori Books website here.

For more information on the story summary and pictures. Be sure to hit the jump without making an explosion!

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Ecco the Dolphin Fixed and Enhanced Edition for PC now available to play

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Ecco the Dolphin fan site Caverns of Hope have been hard at work on a fixed and enhanced version of Ecco the Dolphin for Windows PC. The original game, which was released for Windows 95, had become harder and harder to play thanks to the inevitable new versions of Windows over the years. You might say “well I can always emulate the SEGA CD or Genesis version of the game”, but then you’d be missing out on the many enhancements found in the PC version. Ecco the Dolphin for Windows PC features redrawn high resolution graphics, the CD Audio soundtrack from the MegaCD/SegaCD versions, the 3D rendered videos from Tides of Time, a save/restore system removing the need to use Passwords, a new difficulty system and translations to several languages.

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Phantasy Star Online 2es now playable on iOS devices

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We already know that the Android version of Phantasy Star Online 2es is out and we told you guys that the iOS version would be out this month. Now, it has officially been released.

Unlike the Android version that allows players to trade stuff with the PC and Vita versions, the iOS version will not allow that sadly. Phantasy Star Online 2es is compatible with iPhone 4s and up, iPad (3rd gen) and the iPad Mini. Check out our hands-on Phantasy Star Online 2es on Android with the Tweaker English patch.

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