SEGA News

[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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Sonic the Hedgehog 4K Bonus Stage Edition Steelbook releasing in time for the sequel

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Paramount and SEGA’s 2020 Sonic the Hedgehog will be seeing a 4K + Blu-Ray + Digital re-release to coincide with the upcoming sequel. Dubbed the Bonus Stage Edition, the boxed set will include the previously released comic book, as well as mini posters, what appears to be a collector card, and an outer box and a mini CD sized Steelbook case. The set will release March 15th, 2022 and the sequel is due out April 8th, 2022. You can pre-order it now here.

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Official Sonic the Hedgehog HORI Switch Split Pad Pro revealed, available to pre-order now

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Revealed today is an officially branded Sonic the Hedgehog HORI Switch Split Pad Pro, and guess what… you can pre-order it now! While Mario and Pikachu seem to have all the fun when it comes to branded Nintendo controllers, it’s great to finally see SEGA and Sonic stepping into the ring. The split pad retails for $59.99 and is said to release at the end of January, 2022.

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SEGA Announces The SEGA Astro City Mini V

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In the past we talked about the SEGA Astro City Mini, a mini console designed to mimic SEGA’s Astro City line of arcade machines that comes packaged with 37 SEGA arcade games. Well it looks like SEGA is ready to release a new successor, named the SEGA Astro City Mini V. As the name implies, the main difference between the original mini arcade cabinet and the new one is that the SEGA Astro City Mini V system has a vertical (aka portrait) screen. Another major difference is the larger emphasis on third party games instead of SEGA’s own arcade titles, including games such as Raiden, Truxton (aka Tatsujin), and Gunbird. 22 games have been revealed for the SEGA Astro City Mini V, which can be viewed under the read more tag below.

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Five SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive Games Get Added to Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pass

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Five more SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive games are being added to the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack service. These five games are Altered Beast, Toejam & Earl, Sword of Vermilion, Thunder Force II, and Dynamite Headdy. Out of the five games, Thunder Force II is probably the most notable, as it was skipped over in favor of its two sequels Thunder Force III and Thunder Force IV with stuff like the SEGA Genesis Mini or the SEGA AGES series, until now. All five games are the same across every region, and are available now for anyone that uses the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack Service.

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Discotek Media announces Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog SD on Blu-Ray release, packed with bonus features

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Longtime readers of SEGAbits should know by now my love for Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog. I’ve written about it a lot, so much so that each one of those words is a different article. So it pleases me to write about it AGAIN to share that Discotek Media will be releasing an SD on Blu-Ray release of the series, meaning the full series in standard definition on two blu-ray discs. But that’s not all!

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