Rumor

Rumor: SEGA trademarks “Puyo Puyo Champions”, possibly hinting at Puyo Puyo eSports localization

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Puyo Puyo eSports has been available for awhile now for Japanese, Korean, and Chinese markets for both the Nintendo Switch and Playstation 4. The game has garnered quite a lot of success, notably being a top charting title on the Japanese eShop. However, it seems like SEGA is not yet finished with the game, as they have recently filed a new trademark possibly hinting at a renaming and global release. The new trademark is simply called “Puyo Puyo Champions”, not to be confused with SEGA’s periodic official tournaments of the same name.

The trademark in question was originally registered on October 24th 2018 and made public on November 6th 2018, with the trademark covering multiple aspects related to a video game, including formatting, hardware, music, and recording. While the trademark may be for SEGA’s Puyo Puyo Champion tournaments, what hints at a possible localization for Puyo Puyo eSports is the name being entirely written out in English, an oddity as the series traditionally uses hiragana and/or katakana for registering trademarks and titles. Whether or not this will be the case, or even if it will be used, remains to be seen. Though reminder SEGA was “seriously considering” a localization according to professional Puyo Puyo player Tom Nadja, so it’s a possibility the trademarks are just a first step.

[Source: J-Plat Pat]

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Sonic’s Chief Brand Officer ‘We don’t limit ourselves by genre’

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Sonic the Hedgehog‘s recent games have been pretty focused  by being “action games” or “action platformers”. Hard to pin down a genre for the boost gameplay, but they have been what we expect from the Blue Blur. Sonic the Hedgehog chief brand officer Ivo Gerscovich talked with comicbook.com about the upcoming Sonic the Hedgehog movie and a few other topics. The interview was rather short, only having about seven questions answered. One of the questions he got was what genre Sonic hasn’t covered yet and if they are planning to revisit the Sonic RPG concept that they tried with Sonic Chronicles on Nintendo DS (interview says 3DS. Wrong!):

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Rumor: Sonic Kart Racing Game Coming 2018, Won’t Include other SEGA IPs

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On this episode of the SEGA News Bits we look at the new rumor that SEGA is working on a Sonic Kart Racing game that won’t be part of the ‘All-Stars’ series or include many or if any SEGA brands (outside of Sonic). Check the out the video above for the evidence, at the end I give you my opinion about the rumor and if I think its in fact a reality. I guess we will find out soon, at SXSW panel, if these rumors turn out to be true.

If you enjoy our SEGA News Bits segments and want to support us: Give us a sub and give this video a thumbs up so it shows up on more like-minded fans YouTube recommendations. You know, how that YouTube algorithm is.

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Sumo Digital working on unannounced karting game – is Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing 3 in the works? [Update: Nope]

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Update: Sonic social media and PR man Aaron Webber said the following on Twitter: “Hi guys – saw rumors floating today about another SART game. Just wanted to confirm it’s not a thing!”

Developer Sumo Digital held a year end presentation and it appears there was a bit of a leak, as the presentation slides made their way online. The presentation details Sumo’s past, present and near future, and on the slide detailing current projects there is something that may be of interest to SEGA fans. Listed as being “in development” is an “unannounced karting game” which will feature “established global IP” and “original development”.

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What could SEGA’s “16th January” lightbulb tease mean? [Updated]

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Today, both SEGA and SEGA Europe Twitter accounts (why are they have separate accounts still is best left for another article) shared a teaser image of “16th January” and a lightbulb. What could this mean? While it could mean anything really, there are a few clues here. For starters, this image comes from SEGA Europe. The ordering of days before month is a dead giveaway. The lightbulb, meanwhile, is commonly used to evoke an idea. How does one get to an idea? By thinking. The SEGA Dreamcast had the well known slogan “It’s Thinking…”. Could the lightbulb be the idea that the years of thinking is leading to? Could this be SEGA’s tease for impending Dreamcast ports? It’s possible. [Update: Or not? Read on!]

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Rumor: Atlus working on bringing back popular PlayStation 3 IP

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Catherine-HeaderThere where many reasons why SEGA picked up Atlus, personally think one of the reasons was how well they did during the last console generation, especially when you consider the size of the publisher. Its not surprising that Atlus is being rumored as to bringing back a popular title from the PlayStation 3 era.

According to the report, this would be a sequel and/or continuation of the franchise in some sort of way. According to the source, there is also a chance that this could be a port of that PlayStation 3 game with extra content (see Dragon Crown Pro). The source also mentions that this title isn’t a numbered title and didn’t receive any DLC when it came out. Another hint in this report was that the title was teased a few months back.

So, what would the most educated guess be? Catherine! Catherine was a important title for Atlus in the PlayStation 3 era, I remember it was one of their first titles that I actually saw being sold in a store like Walmart and was a massive hit even tho the game was very niche in gameplay. According to Siliconera, a new Catherine was hinted at months ago, the title was popular and it didn’t have DLC. I think its safe to say its Catherine related. But a new game or a port with extra content? What do you want?

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Rumor: Shenmue HD Remasters are real says Just Add Water CEO

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shenmueOver on the infamous video game messaging board, NeoGAF the CEO of Just Add Water confirmed  that the Shenmue HD Remasters of the first two titles are real. First you’d ask yourself who the development team ‘Just Add Water’ really is. Well, I did some journalistic google searching and found their wikipedia page:

Just Add Water (Development) Ltd., doing business as Just Add Water, is an independent video game developer based in Otley, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom. Founded by Stewart Gilray in 2006, Just Add Water has worked on different titles for the PlayStation 3 and PC, notably the Oddworld series. They have teamed up with Oddworld Inhabitants, to recreate the series in high definition as well as working on new installments in the series.

The Just Add Water CEO didn’t confirm anything outside of a short ‘Oh, it’s real… :-)’ message, so we made this a rumor considering that he could just be kidding with fellow board members. Though you’d think someone that is a CEO of a company that specifically ports old games wouldn’t be joking about Shenmue HD Remasters being the works. Considering Shenmue news is serious business to fans that have been waiting for SEGA to port the games since forever. Maybe Shenmue HD Remasters will be shown off in some form come E3 next month? What are your thoughts about SEGA possibly doing Shenmue HD Remasters of the first two games? Would you purchase them again? Let us know in the comments below.

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Rumor: Vanquish PC port hinted in latest Bayonetta PC update

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The PC port of Bayonetta has been released recently and quickly sold over 100k in it’s first week. Naturally with the success of the Bayonetta PC port, a question that comes up is what will the future hold for potential SEGA and PlatinumGames PC ports. Well we may or may not have an answer, and surprisingly it’s from a strange update.

Bayonetta on PC has been recently updated, with a mysteriously small update at only 22KB. Out of curiosity, some people have dug into the EXTRAS folder and found a new image. A lone picture of the character Sam Gideon from Vanquish, a third person shooter by Platinum Games and SEGA originally released in 2010 on the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. Why the image was quietly put into the Bayonetta folders is unknown, but it is possible that Vanquish will receive a port on PC in the future, with the image being a small teaser/easter egg. However it may also simply be a homage to another Platinum Games title published by SEGA.

Either way, the update does raise questions of a potential PC port of Vanquish, or at least something related to Vanquish. Stay tune for possible news of a PC port in the future until then.

[Source: NeoGAF]

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Amazon says Sonic Mania coming out April 25, 2017

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SonicManiaApril25SEGA hasn’t given a solid release date for Sonic Mania, outside that its set to come out this spring, but it seems that Amazon might have leaked the release date a tad earlier. According to their Sonic Mania product page, the game is set to release on April 25, 2017. Is that true? Who knows, Amazon has been known as being funky with their release dates. For example, the product pages for the PC and Nintendo Switch say its coming out May 31, 2017.

Honestly though, Sonic Mania coming out on April 25, 2017 seems to make sense, but I wouldn’t hold my breath until its officially announced. Thanks to Ghast06 on Twitter for the heads up. What is your opinion on the date change, you think Sonic Mania makes it to store shelves on April 25?

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Rumor: Sonic Mania to get a physical release [update]

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Up to this point, we knew that the anticipated Sonic Mania was coming to the PS4, Xbox One, PC, and more recently Nintendo Switch as a digital download. However, recent images suggest that Sonic Mania may also get a physical release, at least for the Nintendo Switch version. @SuperAj3 on Twitter recently posted an image of mockup cases for Sonic Mania, originally from EBGames Australia. According to him, he asked the people behind the counter about the game, and it was in their database. Later, another Twitter post from the official EBGames Australia account claims that they are “expecting” a physical release for Sonic Mania at this stage.

Together, this hints at Sonic Mania getting a physical release, at least for the Nintendo Switch version in Australia. However as of this writing, nothing from SEGA has been officially confirmed. It’s also unknown if a physical release will be available in other regions or if there will be physical releases for the other versions such as for the PS4 and Xbox One.

[Update] Sonic the Hedgehog social media manager, Aaron Webber, has taken to Twitter to set the record straight. According to him, there isn’t ‘currently’ news on the physical release.

“Hi guys – there’s currently no news on a physical release for Sonic Mania, sorry. We’ll let you know if anything changes. Thanks!” – Aaron Webber

Weird choice of using ‘no news on a physical release’ instead of ‘no plans’, but we shall see what happens in the near future. [/update]

 

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Rumor: Archie Comics cancelling Sonic the Hedgehog comic series

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Over the past week there has been rumors circulating that Archie Comics would be losing the license to Sonic the Hedgehog, effectively cancelling the long running series. The rumors began when fans noticed that the Archie store was deeply discounting back issues and trade paperbacks by 75% and both Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic Universe were dropped from the subscriptions page. The deep discounts are no sign for alarm, Archie has discounted sales all the time, but the missing subscription pages are a big red flag.

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Rumor: Miiverse hints at SEGA 3D Classics Collection 2

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SEGA 3D Archives 3: Final Stage, the third and final title in the SEGA 3D Archives trilogy, has recently been released in Japan on December 22nd. Naturally when a new game is released on a Nintendo console, it will gain a complimentary Miiverse community in order to distribute comments or images. But the most interesting aspect about the Miiverse community is the English page, which calls the game “SEGA 3D Classics Collection 2”.

If the name is to be believed, this would mean that SEGA is planning a global release for the 3rd game, similar to how they localized the 2nd game as SEGA 3D Classics Collection in North America and later Europe. This would also mean that the first title would be the only title that remains Japan exclusive. As for the bonus games Girl’s Garden and Champion Boxing that require the previous games to be unlocked, it’s unknown how that would be handled.

However, as of this writing, no official word from SEGA has been given.

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Superdimension Neptunia VS SEGA Hard Girls gets ESRB rating for a PC version

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Superdimension Neptunia VS SEGA Hard Girls is a crossover game for the PSVita, that as the name implies combines the Superdimension Neptuna franchise by Compile Hearts and the SEGA Hard Girls franchise by SEGA, both franchises being known for their satire on video game tropes with moe anthropomorphic consoles as the lead. As previously announced, Superdimension Neptunia VS SEGA Hard Girls for the PSVita will receive a western release by the usual international publisher Idea Factory International.

But recently, an ESRB rating has popped up that suggests there may also be a PC version in the works too. Though nothing has been announced, it would make sense since previous games from the Neptunia series have appeared on Steam. It would also make sense from a business point since the PC has a far larger install base then the PSVita could ever hope for.

The rating itself describes the game as such:

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SEGA News Bits: Crossover SRPG “SEGA Blast Heroes” Leaked

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Earlier in July, a mobile game called SEGA Blast Heroes was seemingly leaked via Facebook ads. In this SEGA News Bits, George and Barry discuss this rumored new game that sets out to assemble an all-star cast of SEGA characters in a SRPG setting. Could SEGA Blast Heroes be the real deal, or is SEGA simply testing the waters and the game is nothing more than some mocked up screenshots?

If you enjoyed this episode of the SEGA News Bits, make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel and never miss an episode!

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