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Sonic Unleashed and Aliens vs Predator now playable on Xbox One via backwards compatibility

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Microsoft has announced a few new Xbox 360 games that will be playable on the Xbox One thanks to backwards compatibility. Out of the three new games, two of them are published by SEGA. If you read the title you know they are Sonic Team’s Sonic Unleashed and Rebellion’s Alien vs Predator. Like always, if you already own the Xbox 360 discs or the game’s digitally, you canstart playing them today on Xbox One for free. If you don’t have the Xbox 360 games, you can buy them right now on the Xbox Live Marketplace.

While we can whine about what each console is doing right or wrong, I love that Microsoft really focused on backwards compatibility and even offered a avenue for publishers to make money on last generation software with no effort on their part. I don’t know if this is a huge system seller for Microsoft, but Its cool for fans that wanna go back and revisit games like Sonic Unleashed, which I know a lot of you might want to do.

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Shenmue I & II releases in Japan, selling over 30k units its debut week

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If you guys didn’t know, we actually got Shenmue I & II early in the West. Some folks say we got it early to bug test it for its Japanese release, who knows. What we do know is that Shenmue I & II hit Japanese store shelves on November 22, 2018 and charted number for on the Japanese Media Create charts. The top spot was given to Pokemon: Let’s Go Pikachu/Eevee! (which seems to track both games as one) but the impressive debut this week came from EA’s Battlefield V which garnered 110,653 sales in its debut week, really making Shenmue I & II’s 37,529 units seem rather weak. But at the end of the day, Shenmue I & II is a port and Battlefield V is a brand new game, so comparing them sales wise is useless.

You can check the full media create chart on Gematsu or after the break:

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‘Console Wars’ movie project shifts to the small screen with limited series

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Back in early 2014 we shared the news that the Blake J. Harris book CONSOLE WARS: Sega, Nintendo and the Battle that Defined a Generation would be releasing as a documentary and then a movie, produced by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg. Since then, the book released and we not only reviewed it, but we also had the honor of interviewing former SEGA of America president Tom Kalinske, former director of marketing Al Nilsen and the book’s author Blake J. Harris. We also covered the Console Wars Comic Con panel, providing exclusive video of the event. Suffice to say, we loved Console Wars.

Since then, however, Hollywood has been silent on the documentary and movie front… until now! Via Variety comes news that the book will no longer be adapted into a movie, but instead a limited series. Rogen and Goldberg will executive produce, and Jordan Vogt-Roberts (writer of Kong: Skull Island) will direct with Mike Rosolio set to write the pilot (the latter two will also serve as executive producers). We don’t know where the series will air yet, but recent Rogen and Goldberg projects premiered on Hulu and Amazon Prime.

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Happy 50th Birthday to Ryo Hazuki, star of the ongoing Shenmue franchise!

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Today is the 50th birthday of Ryo Hazuki, fictional star of SEGA and Yu Suzuki’s ongoing Shenmue series. Ryo’s birthdate is given as November 29th, 1968, making him 18 at the time of Shenmue. In fact, Ryo’s 18th birthday is the same day that Lan Di murdered his father. Oddly, this fact really isn’t mentioned in the game (to my knowledge) but knowing this really makes those fateful opening moments all the more heartbreaking for Ryo. Assuming Ryo survives the events of Shenmue III and potential future sequels, he would be 50 years old today, four years older than his father who was murdered at 46.

If you’d like to know what Ryo is currently up to, back in 2010 on The Saturn Junkyard blog I wrote a pretend interview with Ryo asking him about his SEGA Saturn to learn how he was able to own the console ten years before it was actually released. Ryo let slip a few details of his current situation.

Happy birthday, Ryo!

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SEGA teases Yakuza announcement at Kinda Funny Games Showcase on December 8, 2018

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It seems that SEGA has a announcement for the upcoming Kinda Funny Games Showcase that is taking place over on Twitch this upcoming September 10 AM PT, what it could be is just a guess.

So what do I think it is? Most likely the announcement for the Dragon Engine Yakuza games coming to PC which includes Yakuza Kiwami 2 and Yakuza 6. I wouldn’t expect a new game announcement or anything, just because Ryu Ga Gotoku Studios announces new games in Japan, not Western shows like Kinda Funny Showcase. It could also be the release dates for Yakuza 3, 4 and 5 in the West, which would make sense since Kinda Funny Games is ran by Greg ‘I love PlayStation’ Miller (not making a sly remark, the man loves PlayStation). It would also be nice to get a Western finalized name for Project JUDGE. What are your thoughts?

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SEGA trademarks ‘Romance: Seven-Colored Adventure Story’

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Looks like SEGA has some new IPs to show off in 2019 considering they just filed for a trademark in Japan for “Romance: Nanatsu Iro no Boukendan” which roughly translates to “Romance: Seven-Colored Adventure Story” While this news has brought some jokes that SEGA is finally making a Sonic the Hedgehog dating sim, I actually think this might be a cutesy mobile or arcade game aimed at the Japanese market. Its nothing new for SEGA since they have been at it since Oshare Majo: Love and Berry.

But maybe I’m wrong and this is a larger, more mainstream project. I guess we will find out soon since we don’t really know much more about the project outside of its name.

[Via: Gematsu]

 

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SEGA Dreamcast turns 20 years old in Japan, what are your favorite Japanese Dreamcast games?

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The SEGA Dreamcast is one of my favorite consoles released, while we got the console in North America with the iconic release day of September 9th, 1999; over in Japan they got the Dreamcast almost a year earlier on November 27, 1998! While it isn’t the 27th quite yet in North America, it is in Japan where the anniversary takes place. This anniversary got me thinking about what I would consider my favorite Dreamcast Japanese only release and I think I narrowed it down…

My favorite Dreamcast import is Napple Tale: Arsia in Daydream, a fun little 2.5D platformer developed by Chime and published by SEGA only in Japan. The game was notable for trying to cultivate a ‘feminine sensibility’ by hiring a staff of mostly females which really gives the game a very unique feel to it. One of the bese aspects of the game is also the soundtrack which was composed by Yoko Kanno which featured a ton of great tracks.

But what I really want to know is what is your favorite SEGA Dreamcast import and why? Let me know in the comments below!

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SEGA Ages Out Run hits Nintendo Switch in 2019, first details on new content

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SEGA has now launched the official site for the SEGA Ages release of Out Run on the Nintendo Switch. We also have confirmed that the game will hit English speaking countries in 2019, confirmed SEGA to Eurogamer.

So what will this version of Out Run come with? SEGA has confirmed that the game will support 60fps widescreen, which was also featured in the Nintendo 3DS version of the game. Unsurprisingly the new songs ‘Cruising Line’ and ‘Camino a Mi Amor’ from the 3DS version will return in this release. But this version of the game will get ‘Step on Beat’ from the Mega Drive/Genesis release, ‘Radiation’ from OutRun 2 SP, and more will be rearranged within the game.

now lets talk about new controller options:

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Idola Phantasy Star Saga launches November 27th in Japan

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If you are excited about the upcoming Idola Phantasy Star Saga mobile game on iOS and Android, I have good news for you. You can begin playing it on November 27, 2018 in Japan (or in Japanese, if you know how to download it outside of Japan). As for my opinions on this title, you can read those here.

If you are a Phantasy Star fan hoping for a lot of cute references to some of your favorite past games, you might want to skip out since SEGA already confirmed this entry takes place in a completely different universe from the past games. They are basing the game on a two faction system of Law and/or Chaos. You can look at some of the gameplay in the video above and see if this is the sort of mobile game you want to spend your time on.

So, what do you guys think about Idola Phantasy Star Saga now that its a few days away from launch?

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SEGA News Bits: What We’re Thankful For As SEGA Fans

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Happy Thanksgiving! On this SEGA News Bits we’re mixing things up by looking back on the past year and talking about what we’re thankful for as SEGA fans and what we’re looking forward to for the future of the company. We hope all our viewers (even the thumbs down guys) have a safe and happy turkey day.

If you want to support this type of content, you can check out our Patreon!

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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SEGA AGES Phantasy Star releasing west on December 13 for Nintendo Switch

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While the SEGA AGES release of Phantasy Star for the Nintendo Switch has been released, we have patiently been waiting for the western release. October came and went and we thought maybe November would see the release. But no, it appears we will have to wait until mid-December, December 13th to be exact, for the localized release. Via a SEGA and ATLUS European PR employee, we learned of the date and the £5.99 price point.

Past SEGA AGES releases sold at this price, so it is probable that the US and the rest of Europe will see price points of $7.99 and €7,99 respectively.

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Project Judge’s prosecution team revealed

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SEGA’s upcoming Project Judge is set to hit Japanese, Asian and South Korean retail shelves next month, so SEGA is pulling out all the reveals before then. Today SEGA have revealed the game’s prosecution team, which includes Yagami’s (the main game protagonist) former girlfriend Mafuyu Fujii and a couple more main characters that will be vital to the in-game story.

The following was translated for this 4Gamer article by Siliconera.

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SEGA Heroes now available for iOS and Android – thoughts and reaction

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Way back in early 2015 we reported that SEGA Networks has acquired Demiurge Studios. Demiurge was known for their work in porting games, creating multiplayer maps and developing mobile games. Since their acquisition by SEGA, the studio released Puzzle & Glory and Crazy Taxi Tycoon (formerly titled Crazy Taxi Gazillionaire). The studio’s latest release, SEGA Heroes, is a match three puzzle RPG game combining various SEGA franchises. Free to play and available now, the game can be found on the App Store and Google Play and is available globally (though we have heard some regions are still waiting).

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New Sakura Wars will be shown soon, in “surprisingly good quality” according to Toshihiro Nagoshi

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For a while, New Sakura Wars (aka Shin Sakura Taisen) has been in limbo since it’s initial April announcement back at SEGA Fes 2018. Since then, there’s been nothing concrete over what the game is about, with only rumors such as a planned Q1 2019 release date and possibly appearing on Playstation 4 and Xbox One being the closest things to concrete information. But it seems like a proper reveal will happen soon. According to SEGA’s Toshihiro Nagoshi, development on New Sakura Wars has been positive so far, specifically noting how the staff have been “fired up” over the project and how the game is in “surprisingly good quality”. Because of this, it won’t be long until something is announced in the future.

While the reassurance is always welcome, nothing specific has been dropped at this time. So we’ll still need to wait just a tad longer for what New Sakura Wars will be about.

[Source: SEGA Nama, Gamestalk]

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