SEGA News

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!

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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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Toshihiro Nagoshi’s New Studio To Be Named ‘Nagoshi Studio’ Leaks European IP Office

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Toshihiro Nagoshi has been a big figure at SEGA ever since he worked on the massively popular Daytona USA with SEGA-AM2. Ever since then he has had his own studio, first with Amusement Vision with creating hit games like Super Monkey Ball and later to creating the massively popular Yakuza series and the Ryu Go Gotaku Studios! Nagoshi would announce him leaving SEGA this past October to work with Chinese developer NetEase.

The story has always been that Nagoshi would set to create his own new team over at NetEase and create new games for the company. Sadly the Nagoshi Studios trademark has now been removed from the EU IP Office entry, but the representative company ‘Ingenias’ has also filed a ton of IP trademarks including “Abyss Rush”.

Looking at the trademarked logo, it seems like most likely, the new studio will be barring Toshihiro Nagoshi’s family name. Nagoshi Studio makes sense and the logo having a film strip as part of its design makes sense considering RGG Studios’ games have always been highly cinematic.

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Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown Akira Yuki Action Figure now up for pre-order

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SEGA x Storm Collectibles have added another action figure to their SEGA line, this time its Virtua Fighter mascot Akira Yuki, but Akira sporting his new look from the latest Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown (e-sports in Japan). The figure is even up to pre-order internationally on Amiami. Sadly the Akira Yuki figure won’t begin shipping all the way until September 2022, so keep that in mind when placing orders.

Its also going to cost you about $119.00 USD (14,300 yen)!

But you are getting a really impressive looking action figure that is 1/10th scale and comes in at 18cm (7in) in height. The action figure also includes alternative hand parts, and interchangeable faces showing different expressions. Oh yeah, also the punch special effect for maximum posing action.

[Via: Siliconera]

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Shenmue: The Animation to premiere February 5 on Crunchyroll & Adult Swim

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The upcoming Shenmue Th Animation is set to premiere next month! February 5th, it has been announced by Adult Swim and Crunchyroll. The series will run for 13 episodes that follows our hero Ryo Hazuki through the story of the first game and part of the sequel.

The new trailer also seems to show that the anime will be fleshing out more of Ryo’s regular life before the tragic events that set him on his new path. Should be a interesting show.

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Yakuza and Judgment series localization producer Scott Strichart steps down

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For all the wonderful writing that is in the Yakuza and Judgment franchise, it isn’t hard to notice that it comes straight from a Japanese company, mainly for a Japanese audience. And sometimes the transition is rocky when providing it for different languages. The team of RGG’s English localization team doesn’t give enough credit for the way they provide and translate the stories, characters, and events of the games and Scott Strichart (senior localization producer) has stepped down.

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Rumor: Judgment TV Show in the works starring Takuya Kimura

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According to Japanese website Nikkan Gendai, who has pushed the rumor that Japanese Network TV Asahi is in talks with Takuya Kimura to star as his video game character Takayuki Yagami for a real life Judgment TV series. The Japanese network had tried to get Takuya Kimura back for another season of the popular BG: Personal Bodyguard but refused, saying he wanted to do something new.

The project is sitting with a tentative title of 裁かれざるもの (Things That Cannot Be Judged) with no release date as of now. According to the description, it looks like the idea is to adapt the second game, Lost Judgment:

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SEGASonic Railway in Japan closes down

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Another SEGA attraction is now closed down after about 7 years of service. The Sonic Railway in the Lalaport Fujimi City shopping center in Saitama, Japan is no more after January 10. The train station had a miniature sized train cart (fully operational with buttons and lights for kids), affixed with blue and yellow and had Sonic pictured on all sides (with the front and back doing the pose from Sonic 1). It also showcases a small track with crossings, make-shift bridges, and a garage which houses additional carts. Some additional carts were used as collaborations as well, such as Gautama and Hello Kitty. The attraction (also loosely named “Sonic Station”) was for all ages and gives you a small introduction on how train carts and stations operate on a basic level in Japan.

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SEGA News Bits Live: Happy NFT Year!

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New year, same nonsense! On this SEGA News Bits Live, Barry looks back on the week of news including SEGA’s stance on NFTs, Sonic 1 on Tesla vehicles and Ken Penders sharing his list of characters and concepts he owns.

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SEGA Announces Partnership With JAKKS Pacific For Netflix Series Sonic Prime

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SEGA announced a partnership with JAKKS Pacific, Inc. for the animated Sonic Prime Netflix series, continuing a long history of collaboration between the two companies. This new Sonic Prime line will bring action figures, playsets, vehicles, plush and other collectibles to life inspired by the Blue Blur’s next adventure, along with accessories produced in tandem with Disguise, Inc., available in 2023.

Hit the jump to read the full press.

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LEGO Ideas Sonic the Hedgehog set now available to purchase

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The long awaited Sonic Mania inspired LEGO Ideas Sonic the Hedgehog set has both been revealed and released! The set has changed quite a bit from the original pitch. Gone are the Hard Boiled Heavies, Flicky birds and Death Egg Robot. As such, the Sonic Mania presence is pretty much gone, making this a Sonic 1 set. The set is available now at the LEGO online shop as well as in physical LEGO stores, and retails for $69.99.

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