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Wii U hardware sales officially surpass the Dreamcast

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WiiuDreamcast
The Wii U and Dreamcast have a lot of things in common, for one they both have secondary displays on the controller and the other is that they both didn’t sell as expected. The Wii U, in its third year on sale, has finally surpassed sales of the Dreamcast. The SEGA Dreamcast reached sales of 10.6 million units 18 months after release, Nintendo just announced that the Wii U reached sales of 10.73 million units recently.

While the Dreamcast did reach a higher number of sold units at a faster rate, it was also heavily discounted from its original MSRP launch price compared to Wii U, which has had a minor $50 re-configure bundle price drop. I remember after the Dreamcast got discontinued how you could get a bundle with a few games for around $50 dollars, as stores where trying to get rid of them.

[Source: NintendoLife]

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Sonic The Hedgehog 1 & 2 Virtual Console and XBLA to be delisted October 30th

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Via XBLA Watchdog Twitter user Lifelower comes news that SEGA Japan has announced that the Xbox Live Arcade and Wii Virtual Console versions of Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic the Hedgehog 2 will be pulled tomorrow, October 30th. The reason for the games being pulled is unknown, but there are two possibilities. The most likely reason is that the contract for the games’ music rights, which are held by the original composer Masato Nakamura, are expiring and these versions of the game are affected. Another possible reason is that the Taxman/Stealth remastered versions are finally making their way to consoles, but take that possibility with an Oil Ocean sized amount of salt.

If you haven’t bought these versions yet, you have less than a day to do so. However it should be noted that there are several other versions out there including the original cartridges, Sonic Jam for Saturn, Sonic Mega Collection (playable on both the Xbox 360 and Wii via backwards compatibility), Sonic’s Ultimate Genesis Collection, the aforementioned Taxman/Stealth remastered versions, and 3D Classics versions. I’m sure I missed a couple dozen others, but you get the point.

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Update: SEGA Europe marketing director says they are exploring opportunities for re-releases of legacy titles like Shenmue

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Marketing Week held an interesting interview with SEGA Europe marketing director Jon Rooke. The interview, which centers around the company’s recent changes and a shift in approach, also touches on the Shenmue series. SEGA allowing Yu Suzuki to use the license to make a third game and the Kickstarter campaign proving to be a success “shows that people love [SEGA’s] legacy”, said Rooke. The article adds that Rooke said SEGA is exploring ways to re-release the original two Shenmue titles.

Could it be that much like Valkyria Chronicles performing well on PC, it took the successful backing of Shenmue 3 for SEGA to rethink rereleases of classic titles? It has long been rumored that there are reasons for SEGA holding out on Shenmue and Shenmue II, chief among them being that there are rights issues standing in the way. Whatever the case, it’s good to hear somebody like Jon Rooke speaking publicly about a possibility of a re-release.

Update: The article’s author has shared the exact quote from Jon Rooke on Twitter:
When I asked about Shenmue being remade, I was told: “There are lots of opportunities for legacy titles. We are exploring. We know what fans want as they have a petition.” So it now appears that the quote wasn’t referring to Shenmue specifically, but legacy titles as a whole.

[Source: Marketing Week]

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SEGA hints Sonic 25th Anniversary game could be inspired by classic games

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ClassicSonicSEGA really has changed the way they handle PR for their Sonic the Hedgehog franchise, admitting to wrongs and promising a brighter future for the franchise. So far they are keeping that promise and recently went as far as delaying Sonic Boom: Fire & Ice into 2016 (shall see if its a better game for it).

The other day Marketing Week interviewed SEGA Europe’s marketing director Jon Rooke who also admitted to Sonic the Hedgehog‘s recent poor track record of games and suggested that the upcoming Sonic the Hedgehog game will be “more inspired by how it played in its heyday.”

“Sega has publicly apologised to the fans as the quality of console games in the Sonic franchise hasn’t been acceptable over recent years. It’s been tough translating that iconic side scrolling 2D experience from the 90s into 3D but Sonic is still huge for us so the new games will be more inspired by how it played in its heyday.” – Jon Rooke, SEGA Europe Marketing Director

Honestly this isn’t the first time I have been hearing call backs to Sonic’s heyday, they do it with marketing trailers all the time. I guess we shall see soon enough if this is all just talk.

[Via: TSSZNews]

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Tell us your top 25 SEGA games – submit your list today!

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Recently, a major gaming news site that will not be named (on account of their IGNorant actions) made a top 100 list of what they deemed were “The Top 100 Video Games of All Time”. While these sort of lists crop up online often, and they are never in any way definitive, SEGA fans were quick to notice that not a single SEGA title made this list. Seriously? This got us to talking in the SEGAbits Forums about just how many great SEGA games there are, which led to us attempting a list of the Top 50 SEGA Games as decided by the fans. We sorted out a way to formulate a list, but the one thing we desperately need are lists of your top 25 SEGA games! Yes, you!

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SegaSonic Popcorn Shop Dumped, Coming to MAME

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800px-Segasonic-pop-corn-shop3Recently, Waku Waku Sonic Patrol Car finally made its way onto MAME thanks to the work and funds of some pretty cool individuals. I ended the article with a little bit of a rib saying that SegaSonic Popcorn Shop should be the next game dumped.

Now that one can be marked off the list because it too has now been dumped and should be hitting MAME. The main notable note is that this game also operates on MegaDrive-type hardware named the SEGA C2. It also curiously comes with an English switch, meaning there is a possibility the game came to the West in limited numbers, or at least was planned to.

You won’t find much of a game here since this was more a little video demo that played as the “player” waited for the selected popcorn to be finished. The cabinet did have button and a crank to distract the player, but it didn’t particularly matter if you played or not. Naturally, emulating it won’t yield much unless you have a microwave near your general vicinity and some flavoring agents (salt, butter or curry, if you want to keep the authenticity of the machine.)

But this could make for a neat arcade board to setup at home for the more dedicated.

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Indie Dreamcast game Pier Solar now shipping!

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Pier Solar and the Great Architects is a game that has been a long time coming. Developed and published by Watermelon Games with work starting as far back as 2004, Pier Solar originally released to the Genesis/Mega Drive back in 2010. Since then, the team held a successful Kickstarter which lead to an HD remake of the game for a slew of modern handhelds and consoles, but SEGA fans were most interested in the proposed Dreamcast release. While modern platforms have since seen release of the game, Dreamcast fans had to wait a bit longer. Today, it seems that wait is over as backers from both the Kickstarter and Watermelon Games website have received notifications that the game is now shipping!

I’ll admit, after being disappointed by other indie developers I was hesitant to put my money towards the release until solid proof that it was going to release by the end of the year (the initial expected release was way back in December 2013). Luckily I was able to pre-order the game earlier this month, just days before they cut pre-orders off. Since then, the game has been relisted on the Watermelon store with a price increase of $6 (from the initial $50) and a “SOON AVAILABLE” notification of November 11th. So if you had a pre-order, be excited because the game is coming! And if you don’t, there should be additional copies available soon.

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Hatsune Miku: Project Mirai DX sold 24k copies in America on its debut month

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Hatsune Miku Project Mirai DXAccording to NeoGAF user creamsugar (who is NeoGAF famous for leaking NPD sale numbers), Hatsune Miku: Project Mirai DX sold a total 24,000 units (estimated, physical only) in all of September. The game came out on September 8th, this would mean that it would have had 22 days on store shelves. Is this good or bad? Well, seeing as how Hatsune Miku: Project Diva f  on Playstation Vita sold 16,000 units back in 2013 and that was good enough for SEGA to bring more after that, I would say its good enough.

One of the reasons that these games don’t have to sell more than, lets say, something like Yakuza is because of the cost of translation. The more words, the more money. Of course there is more factors but that’s another topic for another day. What do you guys think? Is 24k too low for a niche rhythm game?

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Play Shenmue on Dreamcast in widescreen

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ShenmueWidescreenHackWe know that Codebreaker codes change aspects of games, from infinite lives to instant unlockables. But did you know that you can use a code on games to get them to display in ‘anamorphic widescreen’? Assembler Games forum user S4pph4rad decided to release his anamorphic widescreen codes for Shenmue I & II and this lead to quite a few users contributing back.The idea is to have codes for most of the games, if possible.

“Similar to the codes for other platforms, this is anamorphic widescreen so you’re not getting higher resolution. Some additional changes could probably be made like shrinking the HUD too, but this is the simplest solution. Consider these version 1. There’s still some pop-in occasionally near the edges of the screen, but it’s not as bad as when you use an emulator to extend the visible area. That could probably be fixed with deeper analysis into how it decides when something goes out of range.” – S4pph4rad from Assembler Games

You can read all about the process of Anamorphic widescreen over here and if you want to check out more progress on codes for other games check out Assembler Games’ forum thread. This is all a work in progress, of course and the community is submitting codes to other Dreamcast classics.

Hit the jump for the Shenmue I & II widescreen codes!

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Phantasy Star Generation 2 gets full English fan translation

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PhantasyStarGenerationPart2The Phantasy Star fansite pscave.com has finished fully translating the Japanese only Phantasy Star Generation 2, which is a remake of the SEGA Genesis/Megadrive JRPG Phantasy Star II. This (and the first Generation game) was part of the Sega Ages 2500 series of remakes that got released on the Playstation 2.

Version notes: 

“This version is an open beta. Many pieces of equipment and techniques have had their names revised from their previous incarnations. Namely, many appeared to be German words spelled phonetically in Japanese (i.e., “Nish” is was actually spelled in Japanese as “Harnisch” which is German for “Armor.” Thus, it was decided many techniques will not be seen as they were in previous games like PSO or earlier. This was a collaborative effort with the members of the PSCave forum. A document noting specific changes for reference will be provided with the translated ISO (CRC32: C10FD10C) and the patch.”

You can always download the full English translated ISO of the game here. According to PSCave, the original game was distributed on CD and not DVD, so if you’re going to burn it to play on a modded Playstation 2 then burn it on CD. You can always play it on PCSX2 emulator, which is a lot less of a hassle.

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Hatsune Miku: Project Diva X’s Quest Mode adds RPG like loot drops

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hatsunemikuprojectx1SEGA is hard at work with their new Hatsune Miku: Project Diva X video game, which is set to add a bit of a RPG touch to its new Quest Mode evolving various attributes and some looting system. Live Quest Mode consist of different elemental areas such as: Neutral Area, Cute Area, Cool Area, Beauty Area, and Chaos Area.

The game happens to use Modules and accessories that have their own elements, so if you happen to use them with the element on the stage it will boost your voltage rating (see featured image above) and will earn items more effectively.

Modules will also give you skills that will help you out. For example there is a “Recover” type skill that helps you cover missed inputs and a “Rate Up” skills that add more to your voltage gain. There is even module skills that affect module drop rates. Hit the jump to see some tracks and modules used in the upcoming game.

[Via: Siliconera]

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The History of Sega Japan R&D, Part 3: Innovative Heights and the End of an Era

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REUNIFICATION AND TWELVE INNOVATIVE R&D STUDIOS

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Playing up an executive managing director and joking about the state of the Dreamcast at the time, says a lot about Sega’s attitude at the time.

In Part 2 we covered Sega’s golden age, but great heights inevitably can bring great lows. Sega had lots of up and downs throughout their history. They also had great games, lots of them! But ultimately Sega did not make that much money from the Saturn. However, in the arcades they did absolute gangbusters. Sega needed to change their approach in regards to development and also their hardware. The solution was to make the Dreamcast and NAOMI arcade hardware the same and have all of the internal studios make games for it,in turn allowing them further grow and prosper. Twelve R&D studios in total were established, and the nine software studios were not split into arcade and console divisions – they made games for everything. Hisashi Suzuki and Yu Suzuki would manage the arcade business, with Hisashi putting in his final stretch at Sega before retirement.

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These are Yakuza 5’s fab five protagonists

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Yakuza5promoTry to say the title of this article five times fast in a Japanese accent! SEGA has released the following recap for Yakuza gamers that have waited too long for Yakuza 5 to actually release in the West. How long has it been? Three years? No problem, SEGA has you covered with their latest recap, so you don’t miss a beat.

Troubling is that SEGA still has no concrete release date, which is odd considering how close November is (a little over a week away). Lets look at the five characters you’ll play as after the break.

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Yu Suzuki says convincing SEGA to let him do Shenmue III was easy

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Shenmue3Yu Suzuki has done a couple of interviews about Shenmue III the other day, one of the more interesting ones was with Dual Shockers one in which they asked him about how hard it was to get the rights for the project which Yu Suzuki said:

” It’s difficult to explain. I am the one who created Shenmue, so Sega allows me to take decisions for the game. They trust me because I know more about the workings of the game more than anyone else. There were no problems. Sega is very helpful and collaborative with me. They hope the best for Shenmue III. I actually still work for Sega as an adviser, so we have a very good relationship.”

Dualshockers also posted a video of Yu Suzuki explaining the “AI Battling” which was a goal during their Kickstarter. Check out that video here. If you’re a big Yu Suzuki fan, I’d suggest you give the interview a read and if you’re Yu Suzuki and you are reading this, how about you answer our emails, bro?

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7th Dragon III debuts in Japan, reaches #1 on sales chart

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7thDragon1inJapanThis wasn’t the best week overall for game sales in Japan, with SEGA’s 7th Dragon III Code: VFD taking the number one spot and pushing Yo-Kai Watch Busters: Red Cat Team/White Dog Squad to second place. The SEGA published SRPG on 3DS did 72,477 units on its debut week and was good enough to top all other games for said week.

Check out the top 20 software chart for Japan, which includes total numbers. This chart takes place between October 12th – the 18th, 7th Dragon III came out on the 15th, so it had about 3 days on sale.

[Via: NintendoLife]

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