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Aliens: Colonial Marines lawsuit dismisses Gearbox Software

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The Alien: Colonial Marines lawsuit has been on going for two years now and it seems that SEGA will be the only one paying money out of their pocket when all is said and done, while Gearbox Software will walk away scot-free (minus courts and lawyers). SEGA previously agreed to pay $1.25 million back in August of last year, while Gearbox decided it would fight the charges stating it was a contractor and that SEGA had final approval. SEGA even made claims that marketing was also done by Gearbox in court filings which showed SEGA America’s displeasure with Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford.

In May 12th, US District Judge James Donato actually denied the original motion for class certification of the suite and also denied dismissing Gearbox Software from the case. But just yesterday it seems that the plaintiff’s attorney agreed to dismiss Gearbox with prejudice (meaning they can’t file another suit against them concerning Aliens: Colonial Marines) and in return Gearbox won’t be seeking legal fees. Of course there have been no explanation why the plaintiffs all of a sudden dropped the charges against Gearbox Software, after 2 years of fighting in court.

This also means that they will have a renewed settlement discussions with SEGA, these will go on until June 3rd. What are your thoughts on Gearbox Software being dismissed and SEGA still being charged with the suit?

[Via: NeoGAF]

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SEGA teases its new spiritual successor to Chain Chronicles, Chaos Dragon

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SEGA Networks has just teased a new mobile game going under the name of ‘Chaos Dragon‘, this game seems to be using mechanics that seem straight out of Chain Chronicles. I guess this game is aimed for people that have already explored the world of that game and want a new story with a fresh set of new characters.

This teaser does tease the new art style and characters that you will meet on your journey. Of course this game has only been confirmed for a Japanese release. We shall see if SEGA will publish it in the West, seeing as Chain Chronicles was actually published by Gumi.

The game will also have a anime, which also got a trailer. You can click here to view it and will also get a board game. SEGA is aiming at making this a major new IP.

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Check out Relic Entertainment’s Humble Weekly Bundle

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HumbleWeeklyRelic

It seems that Humble Bundle has teamed up with SEGA once again, this time to do a Relic Entertainment specific Humble Weekly Bundle. If you have been living under a rock and didn’t know that SEGA purchased Relic Entertainment after THQ went under, thus acquiring all their past games in their game catalog, now you know!

Here are the tiers

Pay at least $1:

  • Company of Heroes 2 – The Western Front Armies: Oberkommmando West
  • Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II
  • Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War
  • Company of Heroes: Complete Edition
  • Company of Heroes 2 Soundtrack
  • Bonus Digital Extras

Beat the average:

  • Company of Heroes 2
  • Company of Heroes 2  The Western Front Armies: US Forces
  • Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II: Retribution
  • Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 

Pay $15 or more:

  • Company of Heroes 2 – Ardennes Assault 

Pay $30 or more:

  • A Relic T-Shirt

I would suggest to at least ‘beat the average’ if you are looking for the best ‘gaming for your buck’. Company of Heroes 2 still retails for around $40 dollars (when not on sale) and not to mention Space Marine is a great 3rd person shooter with a lengthy single player campaign. Also remember its all to support charity, so its for a worthy cause.

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Rumor: Takashi Iizuka says Sonic Team not developing rumored ‘Sonic Mach 2’ game

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Oh boy, it seems the rumors posted about a new Sonic game in development being titled ‘Sonic Mach 2‘ are coming true. The Sonic Mach 2 rumors started when Orbot’s German voice actor listed the unannounced project on his online portfolio. Since the Sonic fanbase its an excited bunch, instead of waiting for its eventual reveal, Sonic Stadium forum members started messaging Takashi Iizuka on his personal Facebook account. Here is the conversation he had with one user:

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Thanks for spilling some of the beans Mr. Iizuka, I’m sure your going to get a stern talking to (unless he is trolling users of course). So let’s say the game does exist but isn’t being developed by Sonic Team. What does that mean? Probably means its not the next big Sonic the Hedgehog game. It might even be a new game developed by SEGA’s newly acquired mobile developer Demiurge Studios or even another mobile title by Hardlight. But is it a little too early for another Sonic mobile game, seeing as Sonic Runners hasn’t even been released world wide?

What do you guys think? Tell us in the comments, you think Iizuka is trolling?

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SEGA-Sammy casino gaming video takes bragging to a new level

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Ever wonder what type of videos a investor gets from big Japanese companies? Me too and it will most likely be exactly like the video above. Oddly enough its even translated and fully voiced in English. The video isn’t humble at all talking about the greatness of SEGA-Sammy from owning ‘top leading’ animation studios like Marza and TMS Entertainment to SEGA’s ability to ‘drive Japan’s gaming scene forward with their superior game development capabilities‘.

This video is mostly to promote a new business within’ SEGA-Sammy called ‘SEGA-Sammy Creation’ which will be making casino machines. The president and CEO of the company oddly enough is Hisao Oguchi who has been at SEGA for over 30 years who is known for leading the highly successful SEGA-AM3 arcade team that created Crazy Taxi and Virtua Tennis series.

The video makes me question if the company understands that their IPs aren’t as strong as they used to be, since the video seems overly positive. But at least the company is recognizing console games as a division within the company.

I’ll just leave this here: 

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Yoshi’s Woolly World has unlockable Sonic the Hedgehog skin pattern

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Nintendo has showed the latest Yoshi’s Wooly World trailer, this one focusing on older Amiibo figure support. Each figure will unlock a pattern that you can dress up your Yoshi with, including a Sonic the Hedgehog pattern if you use your Sonic the Hedgehog Amiibo. The trailer sadly doesn’t show the what the Sonic the Hedgehog pattern will look like, but it does show Mario, Donkey Kong and Link; giving you an idea of what to expect when the game launches later this year.

It is pretty interesting that Nintendo is will support past Amiibos in new titles, considering they announced their own line of Yoshi’s Woolly World Amiibo figures. I wonder what other Amiibo support future Nintendo titles will get. Who knows, maybe even SEGA developed games will support Amiibo functionality.

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New SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive game Papi Cammando gets official demo

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A new and upcoming SEGA Gensis/Mega Drive game known as Papi Commando has not gotten a official demo release by the independent developers behind the project. The game takes ques from classics like SEGA’s Alien Syndrome and Lucas Art’s Zombies Ate My Neighbors by delivering a run and gun game with a unlikely protagonist.

The game promises to have 2 player mode, up to 11 zones, with varied units including soldiers and zombies. So if you want to see what the independent SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive indie scene is up to, give the demo a try below.

You can download the bin file of the demo here. Have fun shooting.

[Source: The Forums]

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Classic SEGA Ads: “Open New Sense” with Rez on the Playstation 2

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It’s unfortunate that a game like United Game Artists’ Rez, the third and final title from the developer, ended up releasing at the time it did. One one hand it could be said that it was one of the Dreamcast’s final great games from an in-house developer, but on the other hand due to the time in which it was released over in Japan, US and European releases were at the time up in the air. While the United States missed out on Shenmue II, Headhunter, and Rez, those in Europe were lucky enough to end up with all three titles for their blue swirl emblazoned console. When it comes to digging up english language commercials for Rez, prepare to be disappointed. Due to SEGA’s shifting interests, english Dreamcast ads for the game are non-existent. In fact, when digging for UGA game ads, I didn’t even come across a Japanese Dreamcast ad for the game.

Thankfully, not all is lost! Rez saw worldwide release on Sony’s Playstation 2, and while english ads still seemingly never materialized, we did get a collection of corny Japanese ads for the game. The first, seen above, features a man on a toilet who gets into a wall pounding contest with a man who really has to go. They end up pounding the wall in rhythm, and in turn they “Open New Sense” before the man outside punches straight through the wall.

Continue Reading ➜

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Streets of Rage and Shenmue soundtracks are getting a vinyl release [update]

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I got to say I love records, I have quite the collection and I’m so excited that SEGA has teamed up with a new record label called ‘Data Discs’ to release both the Streets of Rage and Shenmue soundtracks.

Data Discs is calling itself the first record label dedicated to releasing video game soundtracks and its fitting that its first two releases would be two of the most iconic soundtracks of their time. The Streets of Rage soundtrack will be fully remastered with the help of Yuzo Koshiro . Both releases will be pressed on 180 gram vinyl and include a lithographic print with each title.

If you want to pre-order yourself a copy (like I do), you’ll have to wait until May 30th when Data Discs opens its website. The records won’t ship until September and there will be extras for early pre-orders.

[update]

Found out that each release will come in three different colored vinyls, one of the colors will be exclusive to Data Disc website!

Streets of Rage: 

  • 180g translucent red vinyl with black splatter (exclusive to the Data Discs website)
  • 180g translucent red vinyl
  • 180g black virgin vinyl

The Streets of Rage soundtrack will come with traditional OBI strip and 2x lithographs featuring artwork from both the western and Japanese release. Early bird orders will come with five playing cards featuring original character art, and packed with hand-stamped envelope.

Shenmue: 

  • 180g translucent blue vinyl with ‘colour in colour’ effect (exclusive to the Data Discs website)
  • 180g translucent blue vinyl
  • 180g black virgin vinyl

The Shenmue soundtrack will feature one lithograph, spot varnished cover and a OBI strip. You can hear samples of the Shenmue remaster on Data Disc’s soundcloud. I’ve been told they will be priced at £20 (roughly $30 USD), but can’t 100% confirm that.

[Via: Polygon]

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Sonic Boom’s troubled Wii U development explained

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Unseen64’s Liam goes in-depth, talks to Big Red Button to get their side of the story and tries  to explain how a product like Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric could have turned out the way it turned out. Liam does a good job at looking as far back as the first trailer, which showed better graphics and animation which of course was not running on Wii U hardware.

Not to mention the game was first started as a multiplatform title, considering they where using Cryengine 3 which is hard to work with on Wii U. Its a great video that you guys should check out, especially if you want some understanding on what happen during the development of the title.

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Contest: Win a 3D Thunder Blade download code for Nintendo 3DS

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Thanks to our friends at SEGA, we’re giving away copies of 3D Thunder Blade for Nintendo 3DS to fans on all of our social networks! The contest is open to fans in the Americas and EU, and we are giving away codes on the following networks:

  • Twitter – Follow SEGAbits and retweet the dedicated contest tweet – 3 Americas and 3 EU codes will be awarded
  • Facebook – Like SEGAbits and share the dedicated contest post, remember to leave a comment on the dedicated contest post telling us your region – 3 Americas and 3 EU codes will be awarded
  • Instagram – Follow SEGAbits and leave a comment telling us your region – 2 Americas and 2 EU codes will be awarded
  • SEGAbits.com (you’re already here!) – Leave a comment below telling us your favorite game (so far) from SEGA’s 3D Classics series and tell us your region, use a valid email address when leaving your comment (fill in the email field, do not post your email in the comment field) – 2 Americas and 2 EU codes will be awarded

Fans can enter on any network, and there is no limit to how many networks you enter on. The more networks, the more chances you have to win! Contest ends Tuesday, May 26th

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Dengeki Bunko: Fighting Climax joins Animevo 2015 line-up

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A bunch of side tournaments involving anime based fighting games have been announced and they are going under the moniker of ‘AnimEvo’ which will include all the fighting games in the photograph above, One of those games in particular is Dengeki Bunko: Fighting Climax from SEGA (that comes out this fall in the West).

The tournament will be held in Las Vegas. As for the entry fees, prizes and rules for the tournament are still to be determined. Seems that its still to early for all those little details.

For more information as it emerges, head over to AnimeEvo’s official twitter.

[Via Shoryuken]

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Retro Review: Space Channel 5 (Sega Dreamcast/PS2)

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The Dreamcast era was a unique time for SEGA when it came to marketing their characters. While the Saturn’s launch made the error of shifting the spotlight away from Sonic the Hedgehog, the Dreamcast launch proved that there was more than enough room for established characters as well as new faces. Joining Sonic was a lineup of first party and third party faces, from Midway’s Afro Thunder of Ready 2 Rumble and Namco’s Soulcalibur fighters to SEGA’s own creations.

Space Channel 5’s Ulala was without a doubt the most heavily marketed of these new characters, with her face seen just about everywhere. Ulala appeared in a promotional stage show at Universal City Walk, she dominated SEGA’s booth at 2000’s E3, she was seen in print and on TV and even appeared as product placement in the 2001 movie Josie and the Pussycats. There was even talk of Ulala hosting her own TV show! Suffice to say, there came a point in Space Channel 5‘s promotion where Ulala nearly overshadowed her own game. There is no doubt that Ulala is a fantastic character (she is a favorite of the SEGAbits staff, so much so that we named our podcast after her report show), but has the original game stood the test of time? Let’s find out as we look back at the United Game Artists’ classic Space Channel 5!

Continue Reading ➜

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Hatsune Miku: Project Mirai DX delayed to September a week before release

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Hatsune Miku Project Mirai DX

I hope you weren’t looking forward to playing Hatsune Miku: Project Mirai DX, because SEGA has announced that they’ve delayed the game just a little over a week before it was originally supposed to be released. Instead of being in stores next week, the game will now release on September 8th in North America and September 11th in Europe. SEGA hasn’t announced a delay for the Japanese version of the game that was announced later on, so it will seemingly still be released there on May 28th.

SEGA also announced a special Launch Edition for North America, which includes “premium outer box packaging” and a wallet chain that’s based on Hatsune Miku’s belt. All physical copies will also include 19 double sided AR cards that let you see various dance moves and costumes. As for European stores getting this special edition: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

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NIS America interviews Yuji Naka to promote Rodea: The Sky Soldier

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NIS America just posted an interview with Rodea the Sky Soldier creator Yuji Naka (Sonic the Hedgehog, Chu Chu Rocket and NiGHTS) and director Zin Hasegawa (Fatal Frame series) on their Youtube channel. It’s a pretty interesting interview with Yuji Naka starting off by saying that it has been a long time and it really has, so it’s good to see him do these types of interviews for games again.

Yuji Naka even talks about how he has created games that have to do with speed like Sonic the Hedgehog and flying games like NiGHTS and whether that factored into creating Rodea the Sky Soldier since it has similarities. Listen in and I hope Prope and SEGA work on a project again in the near future.

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