Tetsuya Mizuguchi has a long history of making games at SEGA, he was one of the people behind hits like SEGA Rally, Space Channel 5 and Rez. He would leave SEGA to pave his own path with hot IPs like Lumines, Meteos and Child of Eden. After Child of Eden, Mizuguchi took a break from the video game industry. Now he is back with his new mysterious puzzle game called 18.
The game is suppose to blend a mixture of puzzle mechanics and battle RPG elements. The title will be coming exclusively to mobiles (as of right now). The game will be released worldwide by Mobcast.
Above is the trailer and below are the screenshots. If this game is giving you a Catherine vibe, your not the only one. It definitely looks artistically inspired by Atlus’ hit game.
Demiurge Studios is a small scale studio that has worked with a multitude of publishers on not only mobile games, but ports of their existing IPs. If you go to their listed games page, you will see how many franchises the studio has worked on, including ports for Bioshock Infinite, Borderlands and Mass Effect.
This opportunity to partner with SEGA Networks has come about in no small part from the success of Marvel Puzzle Quest.
According to them, the main reason for SEGA Networks interest in buying the team was the success they had with Marvel Puzzle Quest, which is a mobile game. This doesn’t mean that the studio won’t do ports or other console based work; but like we suspected, SEGA is interested in them for their mobile talent.
Sooner or later, we wanted to build a publishing organization. When we looked at the talent amassed and success accumulated within SEGA Networks, we couldn’t fathom doing it as well as SEGA had already done. Our new teammates are wildly successful in Japan not just financially but also creatively. Games like Chain Chronicles and Puyo Puyo Quest are a master-class in how to build great mobile, free-to-play experiences. The team we’re working with in San Francisco is an insane mix of talent: Part veteran game-makers from SEGA, part free-to-play pioneers from Three Rings and part entrepreneurial mobile start-up – all backed by this huge incredible team at SEGA Networks in Japan. It almost feels unfair to get to have this group working alongside us!
They sound like a great team and I think SEGA made a great decision adding them to their American branch of mobile studios. Did you see? They mentioned Puyo Puyo Quest, can’t wait to see what games they have in the works.
This was actually posted over at Gamasutra an hour ago and seems the article was taking down. The article was about how SEGA Networks has been investing money in Western mobile developers this month, some of the studios being ‘up and coming’. As you know, SEGA has been trying to focus on the ‘free-to-play’ market, even recently made a deal with Gumi so that they could bring their Japanese mobile games to America. They are the ones that have published the popular Chain Chronicles.
So what studios has SEGA Networks invested money in?
Demiurge Studios: A Boston based studio that made Marvel Puzzle Quest (and a ton of other games) is now owned by SEGA. Studio founder Albert Reed will take a executive role at SEGA and work on running the studio.
Space Ape Games: SEGA has a majority stake in a UK-based developer that created the F2P title Samurai Siege. The developer recently announced that it raised $7 million dollars in funding, is preparing for its second F2P title that SEGA Networks will release in Japan.
Ignited Artists: Is a new developers studio based in San Francisco. As of now they haven’t released a game.
Since SEGA Networks released Super Monkey Ball on the Apple app store in 2008, they have put out over 85 mobile games and if the way things are going forward mean anything, is that they will continue to grow the business. Their last mobile studio they purchased was Hardlight Studios that have delivered the massively successful Sonic Dash and Crazy Taxi: City Rush games. If anything in the story changes, we will keep you updated.
Sonic Runners is going to be Sonic Team’s big Sonic the Hedgehog mobile developed game and SEGA has finally released the first teaser trailer. You can watch it above. The trailer basically goes through the history of Sonic Team developed Sonic games and starts off with a counter, counting down the years to 2015…
Something to note: The trailer only shows off the retro series and Sonic the Hedgehog 4 (if you count that as part of the retro series). Could this game be more influenced by older retro style Sonic games instead of the recent games?
SEGA also launched a site for the game which revealed that the game will be released in 2015 in Japan for free with premium items available. The game will be available for iPhone 4S and above, iPad 2 or later running iOS 7.0 or above. If you are on Android, you will have to be running OS 2.3 or later (Which means almost any Android phone released can play it.)
The site features an image of Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles running through Sonic Lost World‘s Windy Hill with Chao and the Mother Wisp from Sonic Colors DS floating above. Could the classic clips and Sonic 4 indicate that Sonic Team sees Sonic Runners as a successor to the originals, or hint toward a gameplay style? What’s with the Chao and Wisps?
UPDATE: An interview between Iizuka and Famitsu lists a end of February release for the game in Japan. From what we can understand from the interview, characters will run forward on their own and Eggman will make appearances during stages which there appears to be 50 of at first (if we are reading the translation correctly). Tails and Knuckles are also playable, but Sonic is the only character initially available. Famitsu also went hands-on with the game, mentioning a cutscene featuring Sonic, Tails, and Eggman. Jumping appears to vary based on where you tap on the screen, possibly indicating that you tap on enemies to homing attack. The Eggman boss battle appears to have Sonic throwing or knocking back Eggman’s projectiles to defeat him.
It seems that Hardlight Studios has another hit on their hands with Crazy Taxi: City Rush, as it topped the most downloaded game lists on iOS for August. Even though most fans where disappointed that it wasn’t a full fledged arcade experience, SEGA and Hardlight did have the designer of the franchise (Kenji Kanno) was brought in to help in development. The new mobile take on the franchise seems to be a hit, we even gave it a good review.
Crazy Taxi franchise is 15 years old, so its nice to know that a new generation of gamers will know what Crazy Taxi is and hopefully the brand doing well on mobile will open doors for a brand new home console release. We can dream, can’t we?
SEGA has finally revealed their line-up publicly for next week Tokyo Game Show this will include SEGA published games, Atlus and even titles by other publishers that will be shown at their booth. Some of them are big western publishers without enough Japanese presence like Electronic Arts and Warner Bros. and others are just small Japanese companies without means like Silver Star Japan and Compile Heart.
SEGA is set to hold a number of stage events including one on Septermber 18th when the company will announce a new Hatsune Miku game, Atlus will get their own stage show on September 20th and Yakuza 0 will get a variety of stage shows planned throughout TGS.
Famitsu reveals that SEGA has a new free-to-play ‘online theater RPG’ video game as they describe it. It will be launched this winter in Japan on the Playstation Vita, mobile and PC. Save data is said to carry over to all three platforms, online servers are also shared meaning cross-platform online play is a possibility.
The game seems to be online only and will have simplified RTS like elements that let you build, explore and fight. Battles are said to be mostly automated with ‘fast-forward and pause buttons’. I can see this be SEGA’s take on the ever popular Clash of Clans franchise.
Want to play Crazy Taxi: City Rush on your iPhone and/or iPad? No problem, SEGA has announced that the game will be releasing globally tomorrow to the App Store. Soon fans can experience their new mobile, free-to-play revised take on the Crazy Taxi franchise.
Even though the new game borrows heavily from popular mobile games like Temple Run, don’t think that this entry has disregarded the Japanese team that created the originals. Kenji Kanno, creator of Crazy Taxi, has been overseeing development and lately been doing quite a bit of interviews on the web speaking about the game. The game is developed by Hardlight Studios who developed Sonic Dash, another title that was highly influenced by Temple Run (and Sonic Jump that takes notes from the popular mobile game Doodle Jump, though it should be noted that an earlier version of Sonic Jump released that pre-dates Doodle Jump).
This game is also supposed to be released on Android, but like always Android users must wait.
SEGA Networks and gumi had recently made an announcement today to form a partnership by bringing SEGA Networks’ Japanese game titles in North America, Europe, South Asia and other territories. Gamers can expect the first batch later this year starting with the launch of the popular Japanese RPG mobile game, Chain Chronicle.
For those who are unfamiliar with Chain Chronicle, Chain Chronicle is a popular Japanese mobile game that allows players to become a soldier who builds an army and fights to protect the imaginary land of “Yugdo” from the menacing Black Army. As the game advances, players begin to unravel each member’s story to create a long chain of chronicles where all are connected.
Both companies are collaborating in order to provide localized support for player preferences, languages and gameplay environments. Hit the jump to view the press release of the game and footage.
SEGA has announced a new Super Monkey Ball game for mobile platforms entitled Super Monkey Ball Bounce. Slated to release soon to the App Store and Google Play, the game features Aiai and his friends in a pachinko-inspired aim-and-shoot game which touts over 120 levels and 8 playable characters. After the break, check out the full press release.
Previously released in Japan, Dragon Coins is now available in western territories on the iTunes and Google Play store for free. The game also supports in-app purchases where players can purchase bags of coins for $6.99 or $2.99.
SEGA has stated that the game is a combination of role playing game battles and a party management system with a pick-up and play arcade coin-dozer fun. Here is a description of the title taken from the iTunes and Google Play stores. Also for more information on features in the game, be sure to hit the jump.
Phantasy Star Online 2es is already out for Android in Japan, but it will soon hit Apple devices in May. The Android version has broke 100,000 downloads since it was released on April 7th. That is pretty impressive.
As of right now, SEGA West hasn’t made any more statements about Phantasy Star Online 2 or Phantasy Star Online 2es coming to the West. But if you are on Android and want to play PSO2es, there is already an English patch. To see the English patch in action, check out our hands-on video above.
The Sonic Stadium have uncovered an interesting mobile game entitled The Search for Sonic’s Sidekick. Proposed as a collaboration between SEGA and Google’s Street View, the game was discovered in slides from DDB Tribal ad agency artist Michael Nagy’s website. The game appears to be a word wide competition in which fans create an anthropomorphic avatar and race their character around Google Street Views of twelve cities. Players log their best times to a leaderboard and the fastest player would win the chance to see their character in the next Sonic game. The competition is said to visit a new city each month.
The official description is as follows:
We have created an online game using Google Street view where you compete to become Sonic’s sidekick. Your online avatar will be in the next game that is produced for Sonic. The competition will run for 11 months and move to a different city every month across the globe. The cities include Tokyo, Hong Kong, Berlin, Paris, London, Cape Town, Toronto, New York, San Francisco, Rio De Janeiro and Sydney.
It is unknown if this is a leak of an upcoming competition, perhaps in time for Sonic’s anniversary, or if it is simply a proposal by DDB Tribal that SEGA passed on. Once we learn more, we’ll be sure to share it!
Got extra cash and want six Android games including the SEGA published ‘The Cave‘? What if I told you that your cash would help charity? Now its your time to help people out and pocket a few good mobile games while you are at it. Humble Mobile Bundle 5 has been announced and as of today it includes:
Back in September of last year, SEGA announced an ambitious cross-promotional network for Japan called “Noah Pass” to help its fellow developers undercut the cost of advertising on networks such as GREE and DeNA. After initially launching with thirty developers, SEGA has revealed that fifty-one companies are now participating and that it reaches over 33 million users, numbers which no doubt pleases SEGA.
The main benefits of using Noah Pass include reducing advertising costs by eighty percent and not requiring gamers to register like other networks do. This helps to drive traffic from one game to another and keeps players downloading games from Noah Pass publishers. Currently SEGA, Capcom and Sqaure Enix (In the form of Taito) are all part of Noah Pass, and there no restriction on the number of publishers that can join the network.
