SEGA News

Sonic 4 Episode 2 XBOX avatar items now available!

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Face it, your avatar looks like crap. It needs something, like a Tails hoodie or a miniature Snowy the Polar Bear. Well SEGA and Microsoft want you to look your best for when Sonic 4 Episode 2 releases, so they’ve released a ton of new avatar items for you to play with! The new items include: An item monitor hooked up to a SEGA Genesis, complete with a Sonic 4 Episode 2 game case and cartridge for you to play, male and female logo shirts, male and female Sonic and Tails branded hoodies complete with ears and spikes on the hood, a half-pipe special stage for your avatar to run in, Tails and Metal Sonic plush dolls, a badnik buddy two pack, a Metal Sonic mask, a Flicky capsule toy and a full body Tails suit. If you have an XBOX account, you can head on over to the online store now to see samples of these items in action. The item monitor and Genesis console item has an especially funny animation. After the break, a gallery of all the goodies!

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New Alex Kidd and Monster World Collection Screens Show Off Slick Menus!

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A little over a week back, we featured screens of two new SEGA Vintage Collection releases. One bundles together three Monster World games, including the newly translated Monster World IV. The second collection brings together three SEGA classics: Alex Kidd in Miracle World, The Revenge of Shinobi and Super Hang On. Thanks to Siliconera, we have even more screens to show of the collections. The coolest of these screens shows off the Alex Kidd menu, which confirms that Hang On will be the arcade version, thus making the collection a sampler of Master System, Genesis and arcade SEGA classics. After the break, take a look at even more screens including more menu shots!

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Shining Force Cross: Elysion gets opening and tutorial

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SEGA’s ongoing Shining Force Cross have been given it’s third update in the form of Shining Force Cross: Elysion. Originally announced back in 2009, Shining Force Cross has gone to be one of SEGA’s strongest earners from sales and revenue generated from their own amusement centres and this latest expansion promises new character types for the player, new stages and of course, bosses and enermies. Unfortunately like many of SEGA’s arcade titles, the title has been left to stay in Japan and would be another in the long line of arcade titles people would like ported to consoles. Click after the break to see a video tutorial of the new features added to the title.

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Aliens: Colonial Marines on Wii U “has much more to offer”

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Seems that Gearbox Software CEO Randy Pitchford is going to pimp the Wii U version of their long awaited shooter Aliens: Colonial Marines. Pitchford told Vox Games that the Alien shooter will take advantage of the system’s ‘innovative’ tablet controller.

“The Wii U version has so much more to offer. No other platform can do what the Wii U can do. If you love [Xbox] 360 games, you are not used to being in a world where you have this new interface. But once you get used to that, you imagine the possibilities. There are some opportunities that are just not possible on any platform that does not have that device. I don’t want to give spoilers away on some of the things we are thinking of or thing we have actually implemented already, but there are a lot of cool opportunities with that device that are going to make a very unique and compelling experience on that platform,”  – Randy Pitchford, CEO of Gearbox Studios

What do I think about this? I think it is a bit of nonsense. Don’t get me wrong, the Wii U might be a good system, but selling me the same game from the Playstation 3/Xbox 360/PC on a Nintendo console with a new ‘second screen’ on my hands isn’t innovative. How is this better for me? Not only that, the game is coming this autumn to PC, Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. The Wii U version is set to come out sometime ‘by the end of the year.‘

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SEGA of America’s official statement regarding changes

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There have been a ton of questions flying around, people asking what went wrong. There is quite a bit that sadly went wrong, who is to blame? Probably not the people that got fired, but that isn’t the issue right now. The issue is what SEGA is going to be like in the future. The community has had lots of rumors flowing around. Some are saying SEGA is shutting down SEGA America, which isn’t true.

Now there are questions like, who gave the order? If you guess SEGA-Sammy, you are correct. Check out SEGA of America’s official statement after the jump.

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Check out these awesome SEGA Master System shirts

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SMS Power! forum member thoja has spotted  two SEGA Master System related shirts in his local mall. He said he found them in Bershka, a chain of Spanish stores from Spain. I have to say, I like the ideas but I don’t like white shirts all that much. I searched their site and only found a page for the Master System one, not the Alex Kidd one.

So what do you guys think of the shirts? Do you like in Europe? Maybe you should go out and check them out.

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Valkyria Duel gets trademarked by SEGA

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Looks like we may have more games in the Valkyria universe coming, if a recent trademark filing by Sega of Japan is any indication. Though the series of strategic RPGs has gained a fairly strong following in Japan, it never managed to attain more than cult status in the West, in part due to its move to the PSP after the first (incredibly well-received) installment on the PS3.

We’ll of course keep you posted on any updates should this trademark actually become a game, though whether it would come to the West, especially given SEGA West’s current financial hardships, would be another matter entirely.

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SEGA West Restructuring, Downsizing and Canceling Certain Games

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Ah, it’s Friday. Let’s check the news. Wonder if we’ll see a Sonic 4 trailer today… wait. What the fuck is this?! Pardon my language, but some breaking news!

SEGA Sammy announced today that it will carry out “structural reform” of consumer business. SEGA Sammy also said it will “streamline” video game operations in the west to “create a smaller company positioned for sustained profitability”. Part of this streamlining will include cutting the number of SEGA games produced and canceling some titles already in development.

The statement read as follows:

The Sega consumer business is expected to post operating loss due to the challenging economic climate and significant changes in the home video game software market environment in the US and Europe.

It is essential to streamline [our] organisation in the field of home video game software, while shifting to a structure that corresponds to a change in environment, including strengthening development in the field of digital content.

We decided to narrow down sales titles to strong IPs such as Sonic the Hedgehog, Football Manager, Total War and Aliens which are expected to continue posting solid earnings. In accordance with this, we are cancelling the development of some game software titles.

SEGA will still post profits of £152m for the 12 months ending March 2012. However, it will see a one-off “extraordinary loss” of £54m. This money will be spent on cutting back and restructuring. No word on what games are being cancelled or just who will be laid-off. Is this the end of crazy unique SEGA games? Or are the more risky games being relegated to digital services, and only the big IPs will get disc releases? Freak out in the comments section.

Update: According to IGN, with information said to come from sources within SEGA, all non-franchise titles will be dropped:

Earlier today, four franchises were overtly announced as being safe: Sonic, Football Manager, Total War, and Aliens. Our sources have revealed that any currently announced game that isn’t included on that list will not be published by SEGA, leaving a decent amount of the publisher’s upcoming publishing roster in jeopardy.

What does this mean for upcoming games like Rhythm Thief? At this point, it’s anybody’s guess. The source goes onto report that North America’s QA team has been axed entirely, with staff cuts also being made in the following departments: marketing, social, design, and development.

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Japanese Charts: Yakuza on PSP debuts at #2, Shining Blade still charting

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The weekly Japanese charts came in and have Black Panther 2: Yakuza Ashura Chapter debuting at number 2. The Black Panther series is a spin-off of the Yakuza series on the PSP. This is the second title. Unlike console versions of Yakuza, the handheld version features its own playable main character and not Kazuma Kiryu. The game sold 104,937 units. The game came out March 22nd and since the chart ended on the 25th, the game only got 3 days of sales counted. We should be seeing it next week.

The second SEGA title to chart this week was another PSP game, this one Shining Blade. It’s funny actually, Shining Blade came out a week ago and charted at number 2 when it was out selling 122,257 units. So yeah, Shining Blade debuted better than Black Panther 2. This week Shining Blade dropped to number 10 and pushed an additional 19,032 units. So far Shining Blade has sold  141,289 units.

Not bad at all. I guess SEGA was in the right when they decided to still release PSP games in Japan instead of moving development to Playstation Vita.

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Samurai & Dragons is probably one of Vita’s best free games

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There was some confusion when Samurai & Dragons was first revealed, hype was built up thanks to the fact that none other than Jet Set Radio’s director Masayoshi Kikuchi was announced to be working on a Vita game. Soon after however hype died down when the graphics left much to be desired. Somewhere lost in translation was that Samurai & Dragons will be free to download off PSN (With a boxed version being released with extra items) and when you take that into account, the title is looking like it could be an enjoyable ride.

Inspired from SEGA’s iOS title Kingdom Conquest, Samurai & Dragons promises to have a multiplayer aspect that would no doubt entice people who are looking for a free co-op game. The title is releasing in retail on 29th March for Japan and 26th April for Japanese PSN. A Western release date is yet to be confirmed.

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XBLA Monster World and Alex Kidd Vintage Collections Revealed

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Thanks to the spoileriffic xbox360achievements.org, two XBLA SEGA Vintage Collections have been revealed! Unlike past Vintage Collection releases, these bundle three games in one. The first collection is Alex Kidd & Company. A weird collection, the release combines Alex Kidd in Miracle World, Revenge of Shinobi and Super Hang-On. Because, you know, those all go well together. Thankfully, this odd assortment will have some cool features: an option to turn on the original Japanese dialogue in Alex Kidd, a 3D mode for Super Hang-On and in-game juke boxes.

The second collection is really exciting: Wonder Boy’s Monster World trilogy! The Monster World collection has Wonder Boy in Monster Land, Wonder Boy in Monster World and the long awaited english version of Monster World IV. Screens reveal an awesome 3D menu of a Monster World themed room, complete with an arcade machine and two Genesis consoles. Both collections will have leaderboards, achievements, recordable and downloadable game sessions and new trial modes. SEGA has not officially announced the titles, nor have they mentioned a release date, but they’re sure to soon. After the break, check out the many screens!

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Rumor: Two More Virtua Fighters to Cameo in Dead or Alive 5

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Akira isn’t the only SEGA fighter looking to kick some Tecmo ass. A NeoGAF member claims to have hacked into the Dead or Alive 5 demo code and discovered alternate costume data. This data, in turn, revealed what very well could be the final roster. Given that we’re a SEGA fan site, I’ll skip the Dead or Alive characters and get to the characters we really care about, the Virtua Fighters! Sarah Bryant and Pai Chan will be joining Akira Yuki as crossover guests. Very exciting, if it proves to be true. What do you all think?

Akira and SEGA All-Stars Fighters with Dead or Alive releases September, 2012.

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Virtua Tennis Challenge gets gameplay trailer, out now for Xperia Play users

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Virtua Tennis Challenge is SEGA’s newest Virtua Tennis game, only this one is for mobile devices.  The game will allow you to play 18 stadiums world wide, face up to 50 players and some console quality graphics? Looks really nice.

If you have an Xperia Play Android device, you can now download the game via Google Play (aka Android Market). Yep, its getting good ratings. Now i’ll wait till this exclusivity is done so I can buy it.

 

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Anarchy Reigns – Bayonetta Trailer!

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Good news everyone. We begged, we pleaded and it finally happened! Bayonetta joins Jack of Mad World fame and a host of other off the wall characters as a playable fighter in Sega and Platinum Games’ 16 player online beat-em-up Anarchy Reigns!

Which begs the question, who could possibly be next? I’m holding out hope for Sam Gideon from VANQUISH, which is probably my all time favourite 3rd person shooter. (Go buy it!) But I would also LOVE to see Shinobi make an appearance, am I asking for too much? I don’t think so!

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