UK

Yakuza 6 sold the same in the West as it did in Japan, a first for the franchise

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If you have been a massive Yakuza fan for awhile, you might have noticed that the franchise has been gaining steam since the release of Yakuza 0. My worse fear was that after Yakuza 0 and Yakuza Kiwami, that those new audiences would either set Yakuza 6 aside for later (after Kiwami 2 and the Yakuza 3-5 ports) or just stop buying the franchise altogether. I can safely say that isn’t the case, thankfully Yakuza 6 seems to have performed well enough that the game sold the same in West as it did in Japan. This is a first for the franchise, not bad for a title that was closing off a long running story.

“In the past, the Japanese market has generated the bulk of sales for these series, and although it has elements that are appealing to overseas. However, the game was not developed with European and U.S. markets in mind. Thanks to painstaking efforts to create a game that Japanese fans will appreciate, the title has become popular not only in Japan but also won over fans overseas who praise the refined game sense of the title. I believe this is why Yakuza 6: The Song of Life has become such a popular hit around the world.” – SEGA’s Kenji Matsubara

This also means that Yakuza 6 Western sales basically includes UK and US against Japan, I hope that in the near future Western audiences outnumber Japanese audiences for Yakuza sales. I mean, we are getting closer. But we might get that considering that a Yakuza 6 PC port is most likely around the corner. We also have learned that Yakuza franchise has sold over 11 million copies world wide.

[Source: SEGA Report]

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Persona 5 debuts at #1 on the UK software charts

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persona 5 famitsu interview“WOW! Looking cool Joker!” 

Persona 5 is celebrating the biggest launch in the franchises history, already claiming to have shipped over 1.5 million units world wide and now its also the best selling game in the UK in the latest UK software charts. check out the top ten games sold in the UK during the week, it was stiff competition but Persona 5 pulled through.

  1. Persona 5
  2. Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Wildlands
  3. LEGO Worlds
  4. Grand Theft Auto V
  5. Mass Effect: Andromeda
  6. FIFA 17
  7. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
  8. Lego City Undercover
  9. Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare
  10. Overwatch

Persona 5 is the only JRPG to hit the number one spot in the UK Software Charts since 2013’s Ni no Kuni on the PlayStation 3. Even the massively hyped Final Fantasy XV didn’t hit the top spot on the UK charts, it fell short at number #2. While The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild wasn’t a JRPG, that game also only hit #2 in the UK charts thanks to the massive success of PlayStation 4’s Horizon Zero Dawn. It would seem that SEGA buying Index holdings, owner of Atlus publishing, was the right move for the company.

How long do you think Persona 5 will chart in the UK software charts? Let us know in the comments below.

[via: Siliconera]

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Sonic Boom TV show heading to UK DVD with Volume 1: The Sidekick

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A listing has appeared on Amazon.uk for a DVD release of the Sonic Boom TV show. The DVD, due out February 15th, is being released through Universal Pictures UK and has the subtitle “Volume 1: The Sidekick”. With a runtime of 143 minutes, that translates to 13 eleven-minute episodes of the series. Meaning that the complete 52 episode season one would be completed in four volumes. No word yet on an American release or the possibility of special features yet.

It is possible, given that these are the first thirteen episodes in order, that the volume will include: “The Sidekick”, “Can an Evil Genius Crash on Your Couch for a Few Days?”, “Translate This”, “Buster”, “My Fair Sticksy”, “Fortress of Squalitude”, “Double Doomsday”, “Eggheads”, “Guilt Tripping”, “Dude, Where’s My Eggman?”, “Cowbot”, “Circus of Plunders”, “Unlucky Knuckles”. And if future volumes are being titled based on the first episode of the next thirteen then volumes 2-4 would be titled: “The Meteor”, “Chez Amy” and “Tails’ Crush”. It is more likely, however, that they will select an episode that has the best title for a DVD cover and not simply the first episode on the disc. Fingers crossed for a DVD titled “It Wasn’t Me, It Was the One-Armed Hedgehog”.

More news on the DVD as we hear it!

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SEGA Tunes: Wacky Races’ “Scarecrow Creek” and “Tombstone Pass” (SEGA Dreamcast)

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Today marks the 15th anniversary of SEGA’s Dreamcast console in Europe, and seeing as we’re in the midst of Halloween season, what better way to celebrate both than with some creepy music from a UK developed Dreamcast classic! Wacky Races is a kart racer based on the late 60s Hanna-Barbera cartoon of the same name. Developed by Infogrames Sheffield House, formerly known as Gremlin Interactive, Wacky Races could be seen as a precursor to Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing. Sumo Digital, developer of the All-Stars Racing titles, was formed in 2003 by the former management of Infogrames Sheffield following its closure. Sumo Digital even used lessons learned in Wacky Races when developing their SEGA racing titles as revealed in a 2012 interview held by Sonic Retro with Executive Producer at Sumo Digital Steve Lycett:

Sonic Retro: The announcer is an element that people really loved or hated. I personally felt it was a welcome element to give the game some personality. What was the decision to include the announcer?

Steve Lycett: Wacky Races also featured an announcer type system that would call out for each specific character. The announcer came about for two reasons. Trav had seen SEGA Race TV and loved the concept of an announcer who commented the race, plus we wanted to make the player feel like there was more going off than they could see.

So you get this chatter that someone at the back is making a move up the field, or someone just had a really bad crash, and although it was happening and you couldn’t see it, it made it feel like it mattered. Plus… we’d done a similar thing a long time before making Wacky Races on the Dreamcast and PS2 in our previous guise as Gremlin/Infogrames Sheffield House. So we knew it could be made to work…!

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Free tickets go live for the UK’s Weston Super Sonic 2015 Event

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Tickets for the upcoming Weston Super Sonic 2015 event based in Weston-Super-Mare, England, have officially gone live; and they’re going pretty fast!

Since ticket registrations opened yesterday, already over a quarter of the tickets have been sold, which is no easy feat for a fan convention to accomplish! The tickets are provided free of charge, and guarantee you access to the event – an event that sounds rather awesome, sporting guests such as Sonic the Comic artist Ferran Rodriguez, as well as other StC heavyweights Richard Elson and Nigel Kitching. If that wasn’t enough, Mike Pollock will also be providing a Skype Q&A at the event – and this isn’t even everything, with more events and guests planned than those listed here, such as tournaments and art contests with prizes available!

You can get tickets for the event by clicking here!

If that wasn’t enough, as we previously stated SEGABits will be there on the day, providing coverage to the great standards we strive for!

It’s certainly looking to be a incredibly promising and exciting event, and for those of you in the UK, we hope to see you there!

For those in the US, don’t forget about the upcoming Sonic & SEGA Fan Jam based in Savannah, Georgia coming later this year, hosted by us at SEGAbits!

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Sonic the Comic Artist Ferran Rodriguez is attending Weston Super Sonic 2015

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Upcoming UK Sonic convention Weston Super Sonic has announced that Spanish artist Ferran Rodriguez will be in attendance at the event.

Ferran’s art style was recurring throughout the UK Sonic the Comic’s run, and covered a wide variety of material throughout the series, such as covers, comic strips, and pin-ups. Ferran is flying in from his home in Barcelona just to be at the convention – now that’s dedication!

In addition to Sonic, Ferran has also done work for Disney, Nickelodeon the Angry Birds license, and other properties and brands – quite the resume.

This guest announcement is just one of quite a few that Weston Super Sonic has made; they previously announced that fellow Sonic the Comic legends Richard Elson and Nigel Kitching will also be in attendance, and that Mike Pollock, voice of the nefarious Doctor Eggman will be conducting a live Skype Q&A at the event. Exciting stuff for UK Sonic fans!

Also planned are speedrun tournaments for SA2, art contests, cosplay contests, and other events to keep fans entertained throughout the day. The convention takes place Saturday 17th January 2015 at The Grand Pier in Weston-Super-Mare, England, and SEGABits will be there to provide coverage! 

The official site for the convention can be found here. Currently donations are being accepted until September, and a mere £5 is all it takes to guarantee entry.

Will you be attending? Let us know in the comments!

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Football Manager 2014 breaks another PC record in the UK

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footballmanager
Its not secret that Football Manager is a highly successful series in the UK. Everyone knows that. What is shocking is that this yearly updated title has broken a new record. Maybe its that World Cup fever that has everyone wanting to manage a football team.

Football Manager 2014 has broken the record of most weeks spent at the number one spot in the UK PC game charts. It has spent a total of 22 weeks at number one – 18 of those being consecutive.

Football Manager 2014 hit PCs world wide last year on October 30th, but that isn’t stopping people from buying copies this last week, when it topped the full priced PC chart in the UK once again beating out new titles like Wildstar, Wolfenstien: The New Order and even EA’s cash crop The Sims 3.

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SEGA has some of the top selling games in UK for 2013

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Football-Manager-header

MCV UK has released a list of the top selling 100 games for 2013 in the UK. SEGA has got quite a few titles on the list. Looks like UK residents like them some Aliens Colonial Marines, Football Manager, and some Sonic 🙂

  • 26. Aliens: Colonial Marines (Sega)
  • 39. Football Manager 2014 (Sega)
  • 45. Sonic/All Stars Racing Transformed (Sega)
  • 51. Football Manager 2013 (Sega)
  • 72. Sonic Generations (Sega)
  • 87. Mario & Sonic London 2012 Olympic Games (Sega)

Thanks to Aki-at on the forums for sharing the news. Aki is quite intelligent and used to write up articles on financial reports for us. I’ve included what he thinks about the sales after the jump if you are interested in seeing what Aki thinks.

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Aliens: Colonial Marines still charting in the UK

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We already reported that Aliens: Colonial Marines had a fantastic first week, coming in at number one in the charts. The second week it came in at number 5 and now in its third week it came in at number seven. That means that the game is dropping down slower than expected. Well, I guess SEGA made some nice change from the title.

If you want to see the 20 sold games in the UK from February 23rd – March 2nd.

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Aliens: Colonial Marines still doing great in UK this week, drops to #5 spot

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Even with big budget new titles like Crysis 3 and Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, Aliens: Colonial Marines still takes up a spot on the UK charts coming in #5. Frankly, the game doesn’t deserve to chart at all, but I guess in a perfect world most of these titles wouldn’t chart.

Last week Aliens: Colonial Marines took the #1 spot, beating out Dead Space 3 which took #2. This week it beats that game at the same pace, since Dead Space 3 is #6 on the charts this week. So, at least in the UK, Aliens: Colonial Marines is more successful than the higher rated Dead Space 3. So, in the end, do reviews matter?

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Aliens: Colonial Marines enters the UK at #1 on the charts

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Say what you want about Aliens: Colonial Marines, just to allow some people from the UK to overhear you. Aliens: Colonial Marines debuted at number one in the UK charts, beating out Dead Space 3. This is one of the rare moments that SEGA gets number one on charts, I just wish it was a game that was actually good or that I wanted to see more of. Like Binary Domain or Rhythm Thief.

This isn’t surprising since Aliens vs Predator (the SEGA published one) also did really well. Actually it did better than this one and is the most successful Aliens game in UK history. Now imagine if SEGA released an actual triple A Aliens game? Well, might happen since Creative Assembly (Total War franchise) has been working on an Aliens game for awhile. Hit the jump to see the UK charts ending on February 16th.

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SEGA comes in at sixth place in UK for 2012 video game publishers

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So how does this list work? How does a publisher move up and down in ranking? Well, it’s simple. Basically they have to sell a butt-load of games. SEGA came in sixth, barely being bested by Microsoft and beating publishers like Warner Bros. and Take Two. EA got number one publisher of the year due to releases like Fifa 13, Mass Effect 3 and Need for Speed: Most Wanted. SEGA had a weird 2012, with the company shifting its focus from retail titles to a more digital array with the release of ports like NiGHTS, Jet Set Radio and even original titles like Hell Yeah! . Not to mention, their titles that did get released in retail didn’t do so hot like Binary Domain and Yakuza: Dead Souls. But hey, there’s always the Football Manager titles.

Hit the jump to see the top 10 list of publishers in the UK.

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Rhythm Thief bombs in the UK (News/Rant)

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The good news? Rhythm Thief was not one of the cancellations reportedly occuring in the wake of SEGA’s recent financial woes; the game saw release in Europe earlier this month. The bad news? Nobody bought it. Though exact numbers are not currently known, SEGA’s forray back into Samba De Amigo-styled rhythm games failed to make the UK top 40 in its debut week, and its chart position remained missing in action in week 2.

I apologise in advance if this comes off as a rant; my intention is certainly not to upset anybody, but it’s hard for me to respond in any other way to what I find to be such an incredibly shocking turn of events. How is it that even with the fan outcry for more quirky, Japanese-style fare from SEGA, that with the good reviews and the lack of competition on the system, that with an ad campaign and Nintendo as a distributor…how is it that this didn’t sell? If niche Japanese beat-em-up Pandora’s Tower (on the Wii of all systems) can make this same chart (debuted last week at 38) then is it a stretch to expect a game being billed as one of the best rhythm games in years to find at least similar success?

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Sonic Heroes hits PSN in Europe

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Sonic Heroes is now available to purchase via PSN as part of the Playstation 2 classics re-releases. This means that it’s emulating the PS2 version of the game, which some say is the worst of the lot. But hey, its only £7.99/€9.99. I assume that it’s going to come out for the US PSN very soon as well.

What other SEGA PS2 classics do you want to see re-released through PSN?

 

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SEGA promoting Sonic Generations via The Simpsons

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SEGA is going to put in some big money for Sonic Generations advertisement. Starting October 1st through December 31st you will be able to catch Sonic Generation adverts when the Simpsons go to ad breaks. Yes, SEGA & Sonic Generation are sponsoring new Simpson episodes.

“It’s on air every single day of the week and at a perfect time of day for dads and sons to watch TV.40 per cent of boys will see the idents over 60 times, an incredible frequency.” – SEGA’s UK marketing director Amanda Far

 
It seems that this is only confirmed for the UK at least. They will air the adverts across SKY 1, SKY HD and SKY Anytime. As for US marketing, they haven’t played their cards right. Don’t think they will be spending big bucks like in the UK, where Sonic is more popular.

[Source: MCV]

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