SEGA News

Alien: Isolation developer interview highlights a new time challenge mode

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Game Trailers have uploaded an E3 developer interview featuring The Creative Assembly’s Alistair Hope answering questions during in-game footage of the upcoming Alien: Isolation. Hope highlights the game’s lonely atmosphere, the emphasis on survival and puzzles, and reveals a new time challenge mode. The game is looking great thus far, and those who fear another Aliens: Colonial Marines need only to watch the footage and remember that this is an internally developed SEGA title, not another Gearbox Software effort.

SEGAbits writers will be hitting the show floor of E3 today, playing Alien: Isolation and interviewing the developers, so expect our own impressions soon!

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Sonic Jump Fever releasing to iOS and Android soon – check out the announcement trailer!

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SEGA has released a trailer for Sonic Jump Fever, a sequel to Hardlight Studio’s Sonic Jump, which was in turn a remake of a 2005 mobile title. Sonic Jump Fever had received a soft launch in Canada this past April to test the game, and it appears all went to plan as the game is set to release to other territories soon! The game’s description is as follows: “Prepare to feel the FEVER in an explosive race against the clock! Join Sonic and friends in high-speed bursts of vertical jumping mayhem. Play for free and rack up huge combos to blast past your friends’ high scores. Use boosters, upgrades, unique character abilities and Chao pets to maximize your score. Then kick your game into overdrive with Fever Mode and hit the top of the Leaderboard! With brand new levels and leaderboards every week, the challenge never ends!”

SEGAbits will be attending a VIP mobile event this week which will showcase SEGA’s mobile offerings including Sonic Jump Fever, so expect hands-on impressions soon!

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SEGAbits at E3 2014 coverage begins – previews and interviews from the show floor coming soon

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Another Electronic Entertainment Expo is upon us, and once again SEGAbits is attending on location at the Los Angeles Convention center to bring you previews of the latest SEGA games and interviews with the people behind them! No secondhand reporting here. This year, SEGA has a small but highly unique assortment of games on display which we’ll be playing and talking about as the week goes on. At the SEGA booth are Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric (Wii U), Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal (3DS), Alien: Isolation (PS4, Xbox One, PS3, Xbox 360, PC), and Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA F 2nd (PS3, Vita, PSN). We’ll also be covering Bayonetta 2 (Wii U), which will likely be on display at the Nintendo booth.

SEGA’s recent acquisition Atlus will also be receiving coverage from us, with Atlus showing off Persona 4 Arena Ultimax (PS3/360), Persona Q (3DS), Persona 4: Dancing All Night (PS Vita), Abyss Odyssey (PC, PS3, 360), Citizens of Earth (3DS, Wii U, PC, PS Vita, PS4) and an unannounced Title (PC, PS Vita, PS4). In addition to all of that, we’ll be attending a VIP event held by SEGA’s mobile division where we’ll be playing and talking to the developers of the upcoming Sonic the Hedgehog, Crazy Taxi, and Super Monkey Ball mobile games.

You can view all of our E3 coverage here throughout the week, and you can find live updates on our Twitter and Facebook accounts. We also have a live from E3 podcast in the works, which we plan to release during the show. The countdown is over, welcome to E3 2014!

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SEGA and Atlus reveal their E3 line ups

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With E3 now only days away, companies are finally getting around to unveiling their E3 line-ups. Today, SEGA got around to unveiling what games they will be bringing to the show. The list isn’t exactly surprising:

Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric (Wii U)

Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal (3DS)

Alien: Isolation (PS4, Xbox One, PS3, Xbox 360, PC)

Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA F 2nd (PS3, Vita, PSN)

Though the list is rather paltry, it should be noted that SEGA has occasionally had some small surprises at E3. Back in 2010 the company used the show to unveil Sonic Free Riders and their line-up of Dreamcast titles. Also notably absent are SEGA’s mobile titles, despite the company working to increase its presence in the sector.

Even if these are the only games coming from SEGA itself, we at SEGAbits won’t be getting off so easily. Though not officially confirmed, Nintendo will likely have Bayonetta 2 on display. SEGA’s newest acquisition, Atlus, has their own slate of titles for the show, which we will also be providing coverage for.

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Warhammer 40,000: Kill Team released on Steam while nobody was looking

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So this one flew under the radar. A PC port of Warhammer 40,000: Kill Team was suddenly released on Steam half a month ago for $9.99. Unlike other Warhammer 40k games, this is a top-down shooter originally released on XBLA and PC which was developed by the now defunct THQ Digital Studios UK. It also has a focus on co-op, though strangely it only has local multiplayer.

The new PC version was handled by Nomad Games, a small studio where people who worked on the original game work. This is also the first Warhammer 40k game published by SEGA.

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Phantasy Star Nova’s atmosphere is highly influenced by Phantasy Star Online

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If you guys remembered that SEGA announced Phantasy Star Nova for the Playstation Vita back in September of last year. During the announcement we found out that tri-Ace (Resonance of Fate and Star Ocean) would be developing the game.  Not much information about Phantasy Star Nova has been release, till now.

It is confirmed that Phantasy Star Nova will take place in the same world as Phantasy Star Online 2 and have its own story. Characters in the game include Lutina (Maaya Uchida), Seil (Yoshitsugu Matsuoka), Izuna (Ai Kayano), Fordia (Miyuki Sawashiro).

The developers state that the game will be closer to Phantasy Star Online when you compare it to the atmosphere. ‘Survival’ is one of the visual concepts the team want to show in the game and there will be features such as costume destruction, which hasn’t been applied to a Phantasy Star game before.

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Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed Soundtrack Available on iTunes and AmazonMP3

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SEGA and Sumo Digital have answered the demand for an official release of the soundtrack for Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed. While it has featured a physical release in Japan on two CDs, you can buy each CD digitally through your choice of Apple’s iTunes store or on AmazonMP3. Each CD is available for $9.99 USD, (Or $9.49 on Amazon at the time of this writing,) and£7.99 GBP, or you can purchase tracks individually.

  • iTunes (Disc 1) [US] [UK] (Disc 2) [US] [UK]
  • Amazon Mp3 (Disc 1) [US] [UK] (Disc 2) [US] [UK]

For someone like me that’s been listening to this soundtrack in the most cumbersome way possible, (Try hooking up your phone to your car stereo and hoping all four G’s of your data connection can play songs off of YouTube and not stop to buffer every so often,) this could not have come at a better time for me.

Thanks to Sumo Digital’s Steve Lycett and Sonic Retro Staff Member GerbilSoft for providing links to the soundtrack. If you’d like a complete listing of the songs, head over to VGMDB.

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SEGA confirms Sonic Boom for E3, reveals new details

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UPDATE: Some new game play footage has been released with an interview with Stephen Frost. I’ve included the video above.

SEGA has just confirmed via their blog that both versions of Sonic Boom will be available to play at E3 this year. Both games will effectively be their own individual titles, with their own completely unique game play style and mechanics.

The Wii U version has been subtitled Rise of Lyric. It’s a 3D action title that will focus on battle and exploration as Sonic and his friends work to stop a new villain, an ancient robotic snake creature called Lyric from awakening his robotic army and destroying the world. According to the press release, “an extremely tech-savvy mastermind who uses a sophisticated robotic body of armor to carry out his own nefarious deeds, he is a formidable enemy and a force to be reckoned with.” Rise of Lyric will feature new moves for Sonic and his friends, including something called an “enerbeam”, which some may remember from the Sonic Boom TV show teaser released back in February. Using the enerbeam, players can zip-line around levels, move heavy objects, disarm enemies, and throw them around.

The 3DS version has been called Shattered Crystal. We’ve got details of that game, as well as images of Lyric and both games below the fold!

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Sonic Boom Toys available for pre-order on Toy Wiz Website

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With Sonic Boom coming this fall on Cartoon Network, Sonic Boom merchandise seem to be available for pre-order. The Sonic Boom Launcher features our dashing hero, Sonic the Hedgehog, inside a blue wheel that can be triggered with a push of a button sending Sonic dashing in the air along with Dr. Eggman of course.

Another playset features Sonic in a blue wheel with Dr. Eggman’s Burn Bot as seen in the preview trailer of the show on the site. Both toy sets are manufactured by Tomy and are available for pre-order on Toy Wiz’s website for only $27.99 and $16.99. Release date for both products are set for August 2014.

Does this remind you of the Sonic the Hedgehog 3 toys from McDonalds by any chance? If so, tell us your thoughts on the comments below.

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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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