Binary Domain US/EU demo gets dated


If you have been waiting for an English demo of Binary Domain while all your friends gobbled up the Japanese demo on the first of the month, then your wait is almost over. You can expect the PS3 demo tomorrow (February 14) and the Xbox 360 one on Wednesday (February 15).

Binary Domain comes out in North America on February 28th, 2012. Are you ready?

European PSN members can get Sonic Generations and free Sonic CD theme

That is right, the downloadable version of Sonic Generations has hit the European PSN. For those Sonic games that refuse to go into a store and purchase the game, you will be able to pick it up now for £31.99/€39.99. The game is pretty big, weighing in at 8704MB.

But if you don’t have money, don’t get sad. SEGA has released a free Sonic CD XMB theme. The theme is basically Metal Sonic and Sonic racing through Stardust Speedway. The theme will change from good to bad versions. Pretty neat.

Looks like Yakuza of the End is coming west as Yakuza Dead Souls

We have seen SEGA talk about Yakuza of the End before, they have said if it comes over it would have a new control scheme and title. It seems that it might come over after all, at least in Europe. The European Trademark has been filed by SEGA for Yakuza: Dead Souls, the logo is above.

I assume the game will come out sometime in 2012, so that means that SEGA officially has the best line up for 2012. Feels good being a SEGA fan.

[Thanks: Deefy]

Operation G.H.O.S.T. arcade coming West

Operation G.H.O.S.T. is a sequel to SEGA’s hit arcade light gun shooter Ghost Squad, which happened to get a Wii port in 2007. Well Operation G.H.O.S.T. is coming to both America and Europe, making its debut at AAMA Gala 2011 in Illinois.

More information on the cabinet can be found on SEGA Amusement USA’s website.

“This deluxe, 2 player, 42” high definition cabinet contains 5 player selectable stages of incredible depth. This is enhance by the return of the popular challenge level including the classic sniper sections which really emerge the player in to the intense world of an Operation Ghost agent!”

Sounds like a good way to spend some hard earned coin, that is if you have a arcade near you that stocks up on the latest machines. Super rare, right?

[Source: ArcadeHeroes]

SEGA UK inks deal with Bowplex


Bowplex is basically a bowling place in the UK, but also has arcade and other fluff around to make extra cash. The place has inked a exclusive deal to get ‘Sega Active Zone’ machines in their place of establishment.

“We’re really excited about the partnership with SEGA. It’s such a prominent brand within the industry and we’re thrilled to be associated with the company on this level. We work hard to push the boundaries of family entertainment and strive to be the first to introduce new concepts and we believe working with SEGA to introduce SEGA Active Zone is testament to that.” -Tracy Standish, Managing Director of Bowlplex

The project has £2 million in investments for ‘state-of-the-art equipment’. Sega Sports Active will feature sports games with iconic SEGA characters, such as Sonic. No other names where mentioned in the press release.

Hit the jump for that.

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GAME details their Sonic Generations pre-order items


Gamestop has already showed what they are giving users away if they pre-order Sonic Generations from them, what about GAME? UK’s massive game retailer?

  • Casino Night’ Pinball Stage: Exclusive stage. Same one that US Gamestop will be giving users. Based off the level with the same name from Sonic the Hedgehog 2.
  • Super Sonic Costume: Xbox 360 exclusive. Gives your avatar the iconic Super Sonic Costume.
  • Exclusive theme: Deck out your dashboard with awesome looking theme, created exclusively for this promotion.

Now all users know what they will get if they pre-order the game at either Gamestop or GAME. So what are you waiting for?

[Source: Sonic Stadium]

Playstation Home gets Virtua Tennis 4 promotional mini game


When Home launched everyone thought it was a tad shit, because it was basically that. Now it has tons of spots and stuff to do. Sony has even said they will be streaming their E3 event from Home. Now SEGA is using Home to promote Virtua Tennis 4 with a free Home game.

The mini game they made to promote Virtua Tennis 4 isn’t a tennis game, it’s a galaga shooting game that takes place on a tennis court (with you taking control of the tennis ball machine). The spot and game are 100% free, and also look pretty fun. So log in and enjoy. This is a Europe announcement, so we might have to wait for the US home release.

[Source: SEGA.Blog UK]

SEGA: UK studios are ‘the bedrock of our business’

It’s no secret that Creative Assembly and Sports Interactive are successful studios, but they still seem to surprise SEGA.

“Our UK internal studios are probably the bedrock of our business. For the second year both Sports Interactive and Creative Assembly are outperforming their business plans from a profitability perspective. These guys are on top of the game, it’s a real testimony to the games they make.” – Gary Dunn, SEGA Europe VP of production

If only SEGA could emulate this and get a few good American developers under their belt. SEGA has said they will try to focus on improving SEGA America, we will have to see what they have planned.

[Source: GoNintendo]

SEGA trademarks “Samurai Blood Show” [updated]

[“The white waves, the red clouds.” is what the bottom says]

SEGA has filed this trademark for both Europe and US. The US version didn’t have an image, this one came from Europe. See, it’s French on the bottom.

Description from US trademark: “video game software; computer game programs; computer game software; video game discs and cartridges; game programs for mobile telephones etc.”

We could possibly be seeing this on consoles and not just some obscure arcade game. It could also be a name change for the western release of Chaos Code. Though that game doesn’t seem very “Samurai” oriented.

[updated] This is going to be the western release for this iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad game.

[Thanks: Deefy]

Max Anarchy being called Anarchy Reigns in the West

Platinum Games has just tweeted that they will be showing something about Max Anarchy online on their website. But one new piece of info is that the game is being called Anarchy Reigns in the west.

“@platinumgames: We announced ANARCHY REIGNS (MAX ANARCHY in Japan) for PS3 and 360 today. Look for info on our website soon.”

That sort of sucks, I was actually liking the sound of ‘Max Anarchy’, even though it did remind me of Max Payne.

Sonic Colors soundtrack comes West

The Sonic Colors soundtrack, titled Vivid Sound x Hybrid Colors, is heading to both North America and Europe. If you’re expecting a sexy CD package, though, I’m here to give you bad news: this is coming here digitally.
For North America, you can already buy the album via iTunes. Europe and Japan should have them up shortly. The soundtrack will feature all 82 tracks from the game, spanning 3 discs. You can buy each disc separate, since they will be labeled ‘Vol.1 through Vol. 3’.

Price? Per track: $1.29 / £0.99, Per Disc: $9.99 / £7.99. So about $30 dollars for the full soundtrack.

[Source: SEGA]

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Sonic Colours climbs up UK charts

Sonic Colours has jumped from its 36th place last week to a better standing at number 18. That it is right, cracked the top 20. As for Sonic Free Riders, that debuted last week right below Sonic Colours, it has dropped off the charts completely.

SEGA’s true and blue Football Manager series came in one spot lower than Sonic Colours for the week at number 19th. Still doing pretty solid and staying in the top 20.

[Source: GFK Charts]

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Crazy Taxi taking fares on PSN/XBLA


Today brought the release of Crazy Taxi on PSN for $9.99 and the game will most likely be out on XBLA (11/17) by the time you read this for 800 points. I have been playing it and the game looks great on widescreen. Plus the PSN version even supports custom soundtracks, comes useful if you want to load up the game’s original soundtrack. All 360 games have custom soundtracks, so that is a guaranteed for that version already.

So who is buying a digital copy of this craaaaaaaaaaazy title?

SEGA helps raise awareness of declining hedgehog population


Did you know there is a decline of hedgehogs? 300,000 less hedgehogs in Britain than there where 10 years ago. 50,000 of them are killed on roads every year. Now there is a charity, lead by David Wembridge to raise awareness about this issue. They are even teaming up with SEGA.

“The level of our concern about hedgehog numbers is growing because of the mounting evidence of decline in their population. All the indications are that something is going wrong and that in a few decades time, the hedgehog might be under threat as a species.” David Wembridge

SEGA set up a ‘hedgehog road crossing’ in Twickenham, which just happens to match up with the release of Sonic Colors. Can you mark ‘advertising’ as ‘charity’ off of tax forms? Wait, do Europeans pay taxes?

[Source: Dailymail]

Shogun 2: Total War coming out this March

If you are one of those guys that owns a variety of Samurai swords, then you have probably been waiting for a sequel for Shogun: Total War since the original came out in June 2000. Well, now you only have to wait till March 15th, 2011. That is the global release date for the latest installment.

SEGA is using really awesome hype words like “enhanced full 3D battles” to describe the game. This is stuff that you can copyright and slap it on the cover of a game or you can just slap “bonerific gameplay” . Either way, pretty awesome.

[Source: SEGAblog]