SEGA Memories: My First E3

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There is nothing quite like your first E3. Before I first went to E3 back in 2010, the event seemed like this wondrous and mythical place, like Narnia. A place that you read about and see pictures of, but never a place you actually go to. In 2010, thanks in part to some incredibly good luck, spurred on by a personal loss that made me decide to go out and see the world, I stepped through the wardrobe and raced off to something I had been dreaming about going to since middle school, but never in a million years thought I would be able to actually see.

It all started just a few weeks before the event. I had just lost someone dear to me and I was anxious to find something to do with myself. That’s when Sharky contacted me and told me that SEGA was interested in inviting SEGAbits to E3, but no one on the site would be able to attend. SEGAbits had caught my interest a few months after its debut, but I had decided not to apply for because I knew I wouldn’t be able to write for it regularly. After hearing  that they might be getting an invite to E3, I jumped at the chance and offered myself up as a part time writer and as someone who could cover E3 for them. I quickly wrote up a review of House of the Dead: Overkill, and kept my fingers crossed that it would pan out. Unfortunately, it didn’t. SEGA had sent out the industry passes to other people, and I resigned myself to being a faraway spectator of E3 again. No big deal, this was how these things normally worked out anyway.

Swingin’ Report Show #5: Pre-E3 Special


Welcome to the 5th SEGAbits Swingin’ Report Show. This is our Pre-E3 Special, where we talk about what we are excited to see at the upcoming expo. This episode features Sharky, Aki-at and our new writer Knuckles87.

[We have to update our RSS feed for iTunes, so that is down. Sorry]
[RSS] [MP3]

Yakuza 4 confirmed playable at E3

It has been confirmed that SEGA will have Yakuza 4 playable at E3 this year. If I’m correct, this is the first Yakuza game to appear at E3 outside the first one. Correct me if I’m wrong.

Regardless, if you really want to get some hands on time with Yakuza 4, you can always hit up the Japanese PSN and download the demo. Simple dimples.

[Source: Destructoid]

SEGA confirms E3 line-up

SEGA has confirmed what they will show at the show, at least on the show floor. Meaning playable in some form.

  • VANQUISH
  • Conduit 2
  • Sonic Colors
  • Shogun 2: Total War
  • Tournament of Legends
  • Phantasy Star Portable 2
  • Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Ep 1

Pretty solid show floor line-up, of course, they will have some surprises for the press. It should be a fun E3 and we will obviously update you on what they have. E3 starts on June 15th and ends on the 17th.

[Source: SEGA Blog]

Ex-SEGA and Microsoft Employee says Natal will fail


Scot Bayless knows a thing or two about failing, he was Senior Producer at SEGA of America when they came up with the brilliant idea for the SEGA 32x. He also served at Microsoft as Studio Manager. Seeing all those studios closing at Microsoft Games Studios, don’t think he did a great job there either. This is what he had to say about Microsoft’s add-on.

“When I met with Microsoft in 2008 to look at Natal I asked: ‘When will you integrate this into the 360? Their response was: ‘We’re probably going to wait and see on that.’ To which I said: Then you’re going to fail.'”

He makes a great point about splitting the user base apart. Game development is expensive as it is, HD consoles finally reached the “above 35 million units sold” area and now developers will have to risk doing games for a smaller market that owns Project Natal or Playstation Move? Will casuals buy them? If Natal is $150 as rumored, they won’t. Again, we don’t know if Microsoft has “integrated” Natal with a new SKU, but if the bundled rumor price of $300 for an arcade is correct, a bit tough to lure in “the casuals. ”

Why would they buy expensive add-ons and consoles when the Wii is integrated with motion control since day one, costs $200 dollars and has a slew of motion based games already?

[Source: Now Gamer]

Aliens vs. Predator coming to OnLive


OnLive is a ‘cloud computing’ service that will let you play any games (that are on the service), on a decent PC, as long as you have a internet connection. How does it do this? It streams the game online, so the game is never actually playing on your PC, its playing on a PC owned by OnLive. I don’t think the service will be that popular, but we shall see.

The title is suppose to be a launch line-up for OnLive. It is set to launch on June 17th at the E3 Expo. Hopefully you have a fast enough internet connection.

[Source GameIndustry.biz]

SEGA’s E3 booth


[Check out the other hall here.]

So where is SEGA’s E3 booth? Well, its right there, check the photo above. Seems like SEGA will be Microsoft’s wing man at E3. Natal project?  We shall see.

[Via Kotaku]