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Latest Shenmue III Update is a Developer Room Video

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The latest Shenmue III update that dropped this morning gave us a quick video of inside Ys Net’s Dev Room for the game.

In the video, we first see a developer animating a rather familiar QTE scene. The event in question, which features Ryu Hazuki hopping on stones to cross a stream, occurred in the epilogue of Shenmue II. It’s revealed that the team wanted to create the event for the third game, which brings us to a possibility of the entire last act of Shenmue II being playable again in the new engine.

The team member moves the scene’s camera around and discusses a future meeting with Yu Suzuki about cooler angles to use for the event.

The second part of the video takes us to another developer working on a scene situated on a mountain. An avalanche occurs and Ryu must run for his life as boulders of all sizes fly down towards him.

As the documentary ends, we see a few shots of devs at work and, finally, a quick glimpse of Yu Suzuki smiling.

The short film is titled Development Report Vol. 1, so hopefully this is the start of a new series of videos that Ys Net releases with some of the monthly Shenmue III updates moving forward.

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Peter Moore talks SEGA Dreamcast days in recent IGN Unfiltered Interview

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Peter Moore talked about the SEGA Dreamcast days in a Unfiltered interview posted up by IGN. The video is an hour and a half talk about the man’s career and what led him to be EA’s Chief Competition Officer. Some of the games that he said made him smile from the Dreamcast era included Seaman, Samba De Amigo and he even mentions Yu Suzuki’s SEGA-AM2 studio with Shenmue.

Peter Moore worked for the underdog brands which included Reebok, SEGA and later the Xbox division. Peter Moore is a interesting guy and this interview shows it with a few more bits like his son being a SEGA Saturn owner before he worked at SEGA, pitching his ideas to SEGA Japan and the mysteries behind his marketing TV spots. Really makes you miss the days of SEGA hardware, huh?

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Opinion: Why Puyo Puyo Chronicles is getting attention outside of Japan

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This article is from the opinion of the author only. None of the statements here are necessarily associated with SEGABits or SEGA as a whole.

Puyo Puyo Chronicles. This was a game that was expected to come out for the majority of the year, since it’s the 25th Anniversary of the franchise. Normally when it comes to anniversaries SEGA focuses their cards on Sonic, but people outside of Japan don’t know Puyo Puyo also gets attention with a sudden boom of merchandising and a new game. This also happened with Puyo Puyo’s 15th and 20th anniversary, where they got rather expansive games in the form of Puyo Puyo! 15th Anniversary and Puyo Puyo!! 20th Anniversary, respectively. The fact the franchise has endured for 25 years defying the “hiatus” problem many of SEGA’s franchises suffer from for one reason or another, should be a testament to it’s strength as an IP.

However, something is notably different this time around in contrast to the past.

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Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse is now backwards compatible on Xbox One

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It seems like everyone is paying attention to Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse since it was announced that the game is to be delisted on digital marketplaces on September 2nd. Despite the fact that the game will soon be leaving online stores, it is now available on another major platform! Via Major Nelson comes the news that the Xbox 360 version of Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse is now backwards compatible on the Xbox One.

The game is currently $14.99 on the Xbox Marketplace. If Xbox isn’t your thing, or you want the game for less on another platform the Humble Bundle PC version is only $2.24, discounted from $14.99, and the PS3 version is only $3.74. It you want to learn more about the game to help in your decision on whether to purchase the game or not, check out our review in which we awarded Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse an A- and called it “A fantastic platformer!”.

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SEGA 3D Archives 3 FINAL STAGE compilation announced for Nintendo 3DS

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It has just been announced that SEGA 3D Archives 3 FINAL STAGE, a physical collection of SEGA 3D Classics will be coming to Japan. In the West, we only got SEGA 3D Archives 2 as SEGA 3D Classics Collection earlier this year.

Games confirmed in SEGA 3D Archives 3 FINAL STAGE:

  • After Burner II
  • Super Hang-On
  • Streets of Rage 2
  • Sonic the Hedgehog 2
  • Gunstar Heroes 
  • More to come

According to SEGA’s questionnaire that Japanese fans filled out lots of people want to see titles like Wing War, Gain Ground, Outrunners, and Virtua Racing to join the SEGA 3D Classics line-up. Famitsu didn’t reveal which was the number one requested game, you will have to wait for September 15 to find out since that’s when their magazine comes out. But let me spoil it for you, I bet you it was Virtua Fighter. SEGA 3D Archives 3 FINAL STAGE could get new timed exclusive titles, just like the last volume had Puyo Puyo 2 and Drift Stage as timed exclusives. SEGA 3D Archives 3 FINAL STAGE is set to hit Japan on December 22, 2016. No idea if SEGA West will plan on bringing it over.

[Source: Famitsu]

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Mobile strategy game War Pirates is now available in select countries

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Last week we reported that SEGA’s free-to-play mobile game War Pirates had opened pre-registration, and now the game is releasing in select countries. If you live in Australia, Canada, the U.K., the Philippines or Singapore you can hop on the App Store right now to download the game! There is also mention of an Android marketplace having the game available, but the link provided lead to a 404.

Created by Jet Set Radio director Masayoshi Kikuchi, War Pirates is a turn based naval combat game mixed with city building and stars, get this, pirates. The game has had positive early impressions, and we look forward to the eventual U.S. release. Live in any of the above countries and playing the game? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below, or on our forums!

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Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse likely to be delisted on September 2nd

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If you ever wondered why people get so grumpy over digital-only releases, here’s one big reason: we’ve heard that the 2013 remake of Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse will be delisted from XBLA, PSN, Steam and mobile platforms on September 2nd. The news arrived via an email from an email sent out by indiegala, which claimed the game would be “retired” on that date. The reason for the delisting is likely because SEGA is not renewing the license with Disney, which has been a sad ongoing trend with the company that has also contributed to the delisting of OutRun Online Arcade and After Burner Climax. So if you have yet to pick the game up, and really want to own it and play it, now is the time!

Thankfully, some great sales are going on right now. The Humble Bundle PC version is only $2.24, discounted from $14.99, and the PS3 version is only $3.74. If you are still on the fence, check out our review of the game in which we awarded it an A- and called it “A fantastic platformer!”.

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CEDEC 2016 highlights the technology behind Yakuza 6’s special effects

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Yakuza 6 is the latest installment in the Yakuza franchise for the PS4, set for a December 8th, 2016 release in Japan. However while you’re waiting for another trip into the brutal life of a yakuza member, we’re given a behind the scenes look as to how several special effects are handled courtesy of the CEDEC (Computer Entertainment Developers Conference) 2016 stream on NicoNico. These videos highlight specific effects throughout Yakuza 6, including how water is rendered and handles floating objects, how the game renders clouds, and the “dust particle” effects during combat.

The emphasis on water in particular makes sense, since one of the major locations in the game takes place in a real-world town called Onomichi in Hiroshima, which is a fishing town, and it does look impressive all things considered.

[Source: NicoNico / Dual Shockers]

To see these tech demos in action, click below. Be warned however, as they were hastily recorded from a NicoNico stream so have noticeably low quality.

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The SEGA Five: PlayStation 3 & Xbox 360 Games That Need PC Ports

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SEGAPCPortsFiveThe seventh console generation was SEGA’s big test as a 3rd party publisher, while they were still a 3rd party during most of the sixth generation, the seventh was the first time they didn’t have home console hardware to sell from the very start. Who knows how game history will see the once big console manufacture turned 3rd party during this time and while not all the games they released that generation were considered great, they did release quite a bit of overlooked gems that fans think deserve second chances. Like always this is a personal opinion list of games, if one of your favorite SEGA published games on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 didn’t make the list, let us know in the comments below.

Note: We didn’t include the Nintendo Wii games that deserve PC ports because the Wii was a really unique console, but we might have a list dedicated just for the Nintendo Wii in the near future. Also titles that already had PC releases but got delisted aren’t included (aka OutRun 2). 

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Review: Hatsune Miku: Project Diva X (PS4)

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SEGAbitsReviewMikuXSEGA’s Hatsune Miku: Project Diva X takes its popular IP based video game series to the PlayStation 4 for the first time, also available on PlayStation Vita. This review will be based on me playing Hatsune Miku: Project Diva X on the PlayStation 4 and it being the first game in the series for me all I ask is: please be gentle! What did I think? Is this a good starting point for people that have been sitting on the sidelines for the last few years?

Lights, camera, action because it’s time to review Hatsune Miku: Project Diva X.

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Pokémon GO releasing to the Dreamcast VMU in 2017

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The creator of Flappy Bird for the Dreamcast VMU, known as guacasaurus_mex on Instagram, has been hard at work on cool fan made VMU games since we last featured him. His Flappy Bird follow-up, Street Race, featured six OutRun-style tracks and a unique grayscale graphics trick which has to be seen to be believed. His latest project dives back into the smartphone remake world with a Dreamcast VMU version of Pokémon GO. Due to the time it takes to draw all the Pokémon, and laziness, the game won’t be ready until 2017. However guacasaurus_mex does promise a randomly generated map grid, in place of a GPS map, and a timing-based mini game to throw Pokéballs. More info on the game, including the release, as we hear it.

Note: Yeah yeah, I know. Any Pokémon GO article in gonna get us clicks, but to be fair we don’t make any money off of site traffic nor do we have ads. At least we didn’t try and tie No Man’s Sky into SEGA… yet.

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Valkyria: Azure Revolution gets Japanese release date and prequel story DLC announcement

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SEGA has now updated their official Valkyria: Azure Revolution webpage with a new release date and bonus details on what comes extra with first-print copies.

All first-print copies of Valkyria: Azure Revolution will come with a fully-voiced additional chapter called “Judgement Chapter: Vanargand Organization,” and it will be the prequel story for the game. Honestly don’t know how to feel about this whole thing, considering I’m not a big supporter of day one DLC but you can see a special video released by SEGA promoting the new announcements.

SEGA of Japan announced that Valkyria: Azure Revolution will hit Japanese store shelves on January 19, 2017 exclusively for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita. Valkyria: Azure Revolution‘s Battle Demo Ver. 2.0 will be playable at this year’s Tokyo Game Show which will start in mid-September. As for a Western release date, I suggest bothering SEGA about that on their social media accounts.

[Source: Siliconera]

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SEGA Retrospective: The Deeper Arcade game – An oxymoron that became one of SEGA’s pillars

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Arcade? When you ask the modern western gamer about such a concept, they will likely know about the genre of “arcade” in today’s market of downloadable games on console, PC and smartphone. Home and mobile ports of classic coin operated titles. But twenty years ago, people would visit actual venues to play games they could otherwise not to, offering considerable advantages in graphics, controls and cabinet designs.

Putting a coin into a machine should get you more enjoyment that you expect out of it. That has been the ethos of SEGA’s coin-up division for as long as existed. Immediate, visceral, thrilling; all of that should be encapsulated into the experience. One session should not go longer than 3 minutes. Often times games offer more depth as well, which is best summed up by the phrase “easy to learn hard to master” – which can be said of countless fighting games.

But different cultural perspectives can transform one concept considerably, and this can be applied to arcade games. Back in the glory days of arcades, westerners played in an arcade maybe once a month or even once a week at most. However in Japan, with its density of population, going to an arcade can become simply a part of your everyday routine, similar to how westerners play their games on home and mobile platforms. But what could one keep coming back to the arcade, time and again? Cards. Yes. Magnetic cards.

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Data Discs announces seventh SEGA vinyl release: Golden Axe I & II

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Data Discs has announced the seventh in their line of SEGA vinyls, the soundtrack to the iconic arcade games Golden Axe and Golden Axe II. Featuring awesome artwork on the sleeve as well as two lithographic prints, the records themselves will be pressed in a translucent gold or classic black vinyl. A third limited edition will feature a purple swatch effect, seen in the photo above. Fans of SEGA art should enjoy the albums cover, which is said to be rare artwork from the Japanese release of the game sourced from SEGA’s archives.

The records are completed and ready to ship, priced at £19.99, however Data Discs requires two weeks to fulfill all orders. Sales begin on Saturday, August 27th at the Data Discs website.

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