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PtoPOnline Reveals Climax’s Prototype Footage of Unreleased Crazy Taxi Game

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If you haven’t been following the YouTube channel PtoPOnline run by Andrew Borman, you’re missing out on a channel that shows games that were cancelled, in-development or purely conceptual. As is the case for a video recently uploaded showcasing Climax’s development of a Crazy Taxi game, Crazy Taxi Twenty Four – Seven. The purpose of the video isn’t fully known nor how far the deal between Climax and SEGA proceeded, however the video was likely a demonstration to be shown to SEGA that outlines the general workflow of the game’s development had they decided to proceed with the project. Climax, now known as Climax Studios who are into VR development these days, are more famous for titles such as Sudeki on the original Xbox as well as the developer behind Silent Hill titles such as Silent Hill: Origins and Silent Hill: Shattered Memories.

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Sonic Unleashed preview build released

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Sonic Unleashed is seen as one of the biggest 3D entries in the history of Sonic. Whether you like the werehog or not, it brought a massive overhaul to the game design philosophy of Sonic working in the third dimension. The beautiful environments based on real-life locations, fast gameplay and a unique lighting engine all housed under the “Hedgehog Engine” helped achieve a major milestone for fast-paced 3D platformers. Fast forward towards the end of the downer year that is 2016, it has brought us one thing that can shed some meaningful insight on the development of Sonic Unleashed; the release of an Xbox 360 preview build.

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Valkyria Chronicles Remastered – Playstation 4 Trailer

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Take a gander at Valkyria Chronicles Remastered in this beautiful new trailer that’ll reminding you just how charming the first entry in this acclaimed series was.

Valkyria Chronicles Remastered was announced for the PS4 along side the newest edition to the Valkyria franchise, Valkyria: Azures Revolution, (PS4). Azure Revolution which takes the series in a new medieval meets steam-punk direction will exist parallel to the Chronicles series meaning Valkyria fans may have a lot to look forward too in 2016 and the years to come.

Personally I can’t wait to triple dip on Valkyria Chronicles or find out more about Valkyria: Azures Revolution.  If you didn’t already know, all first print copies of Valkyria Chronicles Remaster will come with a demo of Valkyria: Azures Revolution! Squad 7 Move Out!

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Could SEGA be planning to reveal a new Yakuza game on September 15th?

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The official Japanese Yakuza site (that’s the one for the SEGA games, not the official Japanese site for the yakuza) has updated with a banner teasing a September 15th reveal. The reveal is two days before Tokyo Game Show 2015, and the same date as the SCEJA Press Conference. So it is likely that this reveal will take place during the Sony press event. It is likely to be a game, but for what piece of hardware is unknown.

It’s important to note that the Yakuza series turned 10 this year, so perhaps it is an anniversary initiative or a boxed release of the entire series or a rerelease of earlier games or a new game. Earlier today we shared the reveal of a PS3 and PS4 title from SEGA named LEXUS, and while I speculated that this is a new non-Yakuza title from the Yakuza team, it could end up being that LEXUS is the code name for this reveal. Yakuza turns ten… the X in LEXUS could be the roman numeral for ten… who knows! All will be revealed on September 15th, and in the meantime we’ll share whatever news and rumors we come across.

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Playstation does a Yakuza 5 interview with Toshihiro Nagoshi and Masayoshi Yokoyama

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Its been a long journey for us Yakuza fans, I’m seriously surprised at the cult fanbase the franchise has garnered in the West. I have been pretty much into the Yakuza series since I heard about the first title, since it reminded me of a 3D Streets of Rage brawler mixed with RPG elements. After the sales failure that was Yakuza 1, I never thought we would really get a chance to play another entry in the west, guess what? We are literally in our 5th release (6th if you count Dead Souls) in the West and this one sets to conclude the journey.

The developers talk about their goals with the series, basically about how there weren’t many games that where aimed at an adult Japanese audience specifically and how that was the birth of the franchise. Check out the intereview and make sure to pick up Yakuza 5 this fall on Playstation 3.

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Yu Suzuki issues a statement regarding Shenmue 3’s budget

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The Shenmue 3 kickstarter has now been updated to include a new statement made by Yu Suzuki regarding the funding and budget of the project. Lots of websites and  some YouTubers have been questioning if people should be donating to the KickStarter, some thinking that Sony is going to ‘fund the game anyway’. Most of these allegations are put to rest by Yu Suzuki himself, again, considering this isn’t the first time he has spoken about Sony’s involvement.

Sony and Shibuya Productions have been wonderful partners because they believe in Shenmue and want to see the best for the fans and the game. Their investment in (and support of) Shenmue have helped to realize a sequel that will stand proud with its predecessors. While it is not business practice to discuss the specific details of such arrangements, I can say that with their assistance on the production and marketing end, and in Sony’s case with some publishing support as well, Ys Net is able to use more of the money we collect through Kickstarter purely for Shenmue 3’s development. It is also important to note that your funds are going strictly to Ys Net for development of Shenmue 3 – Sony and Shibuya Productions are not seeing a cent of your Kickstarter dollars.

Like I stated in our podcast, this is basically what I assumed: KickStarter money goes into development of Shenmue 3 while Sony helps with marketing (announcing the KickStarter at their stage is a big advertisement push) and helps publish it on PlayStation 4. I would consider this to be fair, considering as fans we want all donated money to go towards a better Shenmue 3 video game and not advertising. Having this deal set up lifts the burdan of YS Net of trying to also fund a marketing budget. One more thing to note is that the whole statement didn’t mention SEGA once, making me think they licensed the name as they would stuff like the vinyl release of the Shenmue soundtrack. That means that SEGA will just make a cut on top of what the game sells.

Yu Suzuki stated in the update that he will try to be more transparent about Shenmue 3‘s development. What do you guys think of Yu Suzuki’s statement talking about the budget of Shenmue 3?

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Sony’s Shuhei Yoshida says Shenmue 3 IP deal was between SEGA and Yu Suzuki

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While Sony announced Shenmue 3 on stage and even admitted that they are involved with some funding for the project, fans are starting to wonder who owns the IP and what Sony had to do with getting the kickstarter going. If Sony’s involved why don’t they just fund the whole thing? According to Playstation President of Worldwide Studios’ Shuhei Yoshida, the deal for the Kickstarter was done by Yu Suzuki and SEGA.
During a interview with Engadget, they asked Yoshida-San the following: ” Why did Sony PlayStation decide to allow that crowdfunding announcement as opposed to funding it?”

“Ah, no, no, no. It’s a very exciting project and there are lots of PlayStation fans asking for it. But it’s a Sega IP and of course Suzuki Yu-san is the creator. So somehow Suzuki-san was able to work out with Sega to allow them to Kickstart the project. And because we liked the project, our third-party relations team struck a deal to help Kickstart the campaign at the E3 conference. That’s great PR.”

Sony has stated that they are willing to help promote the game and have shown that by allowing the Kickstarter to be announced on their stage at E3 in front of millions. Fans have been a bit angry with Sony’s involvement, in my opinion in the end of the day all the money funded by fans and Sony will go into Shenmue 3 to make it a better game, so in the end the consumer wins. No one is forcing anyone to donate to the Kickstarter, you can always wait for the released product. What are your thoughts?

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Segabits @ E3: Off-screen video and more details on Hatsune Miku Project: VR Tech Demo

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Shigs here. I’m at E3 and despite no Sega booth, I’m managing to find some Sega…bits of information here and there. As announced earlier, there is a Hatsune Miku VR demo at Sony’s Project Morpheus booth. In this virtual reality demo, you are at a Miku concert enjoying the music with the large, silhouetted crowd. They all have their glowsticks waving to the song “Viva, Viva, Happy” and you need to do the same (I think). Eventually, Miku brings you up on stage and it gets a little odd as words and random objects are seen all over her. You’re playing a rhythm game with the move controller and waving the stick at Miku and the crowd to the beat. The person playing seemed to be too interested in looking around and was obviously losing,  since X’s and storm clouds were appearing everywhere. Still, it looks like a fun game and I’ll try to get my hands on it Thursday when Project Morpheus demos are open to the public.

I apologize for the quality of the video, but it was taken offscreen.

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Shenmue 3’s Kickstarter has been funded

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Shenmue 3 is Real

No more waiting. No more false hope. Shenmue 3 is alive, it’s coming, and one day we’re all going to get to play it. As of a few moments ago, Shenmue 3 reached its $2 million goal on Kickstarter, breaking all sorts of records along the way.

Shenmue 3 has become the fastest game on Kickstarter to break $1 million dollar and the fastest to reach a $2 million funding goal, hitting it in less than hours with more than 24,000 funders. The game’s funding moved so quickly in its opening hours that it practically broke the kickstarter page, hitting prospective funders with errors.  It’s also currently on track to outpace Bloodstained, which recently became Kickstarter’s most funded game ever at $5.5 million. For comparison, Bloodstained required 24 hours to reach half of Shenmue 3’s initial funding goal.

Of course, this is just the beginning. With more than 30 days left in the campaign, the project as more than $2 million worth of stretch goals lined up, ranging from Shenmue 1 & 2 cinema shorts at $2.5 million to an expanded Baisha village and additional mini games at $4 million. According to the Kickstarter page, we’ll be hearing more about these stretch goals after initial funding. We’ll post more details as they come in!

Shenmue 3 is being developed by Yu Suzuki’s independent studio YsNet. It is currently unknown how (or if) SEGA is involved, and whether any outside parties are will be performing publish duties or providing outside funding. The game is currently scheduled for a December 2017 release. For additional information on the project and its developers, check out the official kickstarter page and the game’s website. For a look at a list of all the known stretch goals, check out the image below the break!

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SEGA and Sony team up to release a 10th anniversary Yakuza branded Walkman player

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SEGA and Sony have teamed up for the Yakuza franchise’s 10th anniversary to release a Walkman player sporting Yakuza branding. The Japanese exclusive Walkman, which unfortunately is not a throwback CD or cassette player, is planned to release on March 12th to coincide with the release of Yakuza 0 and will retail for 29,980 Yen (around $250 USD). As an added incentive for fans, the player is to come pre-loaded with twelve songs from the series including the new Yakuza 0 intro and outro tunes.

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SEGA among 3rd party publishers to support Playstation 4

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Even though SEGA wasn’t at the event with a game to show off, it is confirmed that they are working on Playstation 4 content. Whatever those games are, I’m excited. Then again it’s to be expected, SEGA supports all major consoles.

But want to see something not expected? How about Kazuma Kiryu at Sony’s press conference  He was there for a brief moment, hit the jump to see the screenshot.

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Hatsune Miku: Project Diva F for Vita shows up at Sony’s booth

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We finished telling you the other day that Hatsune Miku: Project Diva F was getting a white Playstation Vita bundle, seems that the vocaloid has more news up her sleeve for American gamers. It seems that the Vita game is being shown at Sony’s booth this year, but was re-titled to simply “Hatsune Miku” which makes sense. This is what SEGA Japan tweeted:

” A tech demo booth is set up with the game, but it’s still in Japanese. They’re excited to see the surprised reactions from fans touring the expo.”

It is sort of weird that SEGA West completely ignores the title, but SEGA Japan knows very well that its at E3 and at the Sony booth. No news if the game is actually going to come out in America or if Sony just wanted it on the show room floor to show off some of the Vita’s features. Maybe SEGA Japan is testing reaction from the public?

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ICO & Shadows of the Colossus creator tweets about being a SEGA fan

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Fumito Ueda is one of my favorite people in the industry and runs one of the best teams at Sony, Team ICO. They are working on the upcoming (and excellent looking) title, The Last Guardian.

Fumito Ueda talked on twitter about how he has been a massive SEGA fan since they released the Mark III in Japan. I have actually heard about him being a big SEGA fan and actually being friends with Ryuta Ueda (who worked on Jet Set Radio, Panzer Dragoon series and Yakuza series). They even have the same last name… weird?

Something about Team ICO’s games always reminded me of Panzer Dragoon… I could never put my finger on it.

[Source: AndriaSang]

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