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SEGA Tunes SEGAbits community spotlight: Brian Corey’s cover of Splash Garden

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This week we’re bringing you a special Tuesday Tunes, as we’re featuring the music of a SEGAbits community member! Ungibbed, aka Brian Corey, put together this cover of the NiGHTS into Dreams tune Splash Garden from memory. Pretty impressive if you ask us! Of course, we don’t blame him for getting the tune stuck in his head, as Splash Garden is a stage that Saturn fans have surely played again and again.

Great job, Brian, on this awesome cover! We look forward to hearing more tunes from you in the future. Share your comments for Brian below, or in our dedicated topic in the SEGAbits forums.

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Panzer Dragoon creator talks about his time at SEGA

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Eurogamer is running a pretty neat piece on Yukio Futatsugi, the creator of the Panzer Dragoon franchise. Like every great piece they go into detail on how he grew up, the schools he went to and how he ended up at SEGA. One of the neat pieces of information was that at age 23 he took over Team Andromeda. Think about it, this dude was in charge of many people older than him at the age of 23. He was 25 when Panzer Dragoon came out. Crazy!

“I handed in several proposals, one of which was Panzer Dragoon,” says Futatsugi. “I’d only been there about two years, but they accepted my proposal and put me in charge of the project. Just like that I was making Panzer Dragoon for the Saturn launch. It was a difficult project. All the programmers and designers were above me in the company but I had to tell them what to do, which was tricky. But I was young, so I could be stubborn.”– Yukio Futatsugi

The piece goes on and talks about his work after leaving SEGA, working at Microsoft Studios and releasing Phantom Dust (a great Xbox game, if you haven’t played it). He also confirms that Crimson Dragon is still in the works!

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Wii U version of Aliens: Colonial Marines officially cancelled

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Though it shouldn’t come as such an unexpected move given the universally negative reception Gearbox’s Aliens effort has received thusfar, there’s still something fairly surprising about SEGA, through a vague statement to IGN, announcing the Wii U version’s cancellation after all this time.

SEGA can confirm that the Wii U sku of Aliens: Colonial Marines is no longer in development.”

Maybe it’s because this was, as some of you may remember, said by Randy Pitchford on multiple occasions to be the definitive console version of the title, though its quiet cancellation lends far more credibility to recent rumors that it was actually the worst. Maybe it’s because it’s rare to see a game that’s spent this long in development being given the axe, for any reason.

We may never fully know why the Wii U version won’t be seeing the light of day, though I suppose it isn’t too hard to speculate. Regardless, it’s been a game that’s played such a major role in SEGA’s identity throughout its protracted development, and if nothing else, this cancellation serves as a final and symbolic closing chapter in the Aliens: Colonial Marines saga.

Here’s hoping that better decisions are made in the future, from all parties involved in this project.

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Shirt Punch: Celebrate being a 16-bit war veteran with a shirt

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April 8-Nathan Davis, Console Wars

The guys over at Shirt Punch have another Sonic the Hedgehog related shirt going up tomorrow. The site sells 3 shirts everyday, but only for 24 hours and then after that they are gone forever. So if you want to get yours, make sure you go to Shirt Punch tomorrow, they are only $10!

This shirt is called Console Wars and is by Nathan Davis. The shirt should be up by midnight EST or 9PM PST. Tell us what you think of the design!

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SEGA says they have exciting plans for Sonic in the near future

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Sometimes people at SEGA just love to tease and those teases sometime excite us. Its almost going to be two years since Sonic Generations came out and that seems like a long time for Sonic games (which used to have almost yearly releases). So Sonic fans ask, where is the next one? VentureBeat spoke to senior director of digital marketing Mike Evans and director of online operations Ethan Einhorn, this is what they teased:

“We’re taking, on the console side, more of a pillar approach. We’re doing some very exciting things with Sonic as a brand in the near future. We’re also very heavily focused on strategy, as you’ve seen with our pickup of [Company of Heroes developer] Relic, as well as what we’re doing with [Total War developer] Creative Assembly. Of course, we’re continuing to do core titles like Aliens: Colonial Marines.”– Ethan Einhorn, Director of Online Operations

Are we shocked that SEGA has big plans for their #1 brand? No, but its exciting to see if this new game will be on a next generation system. If you want to see the full interview head over to VentureBeat.

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Segakawaii: SEGA’s cute clothing line aimed at girls

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Hey boys, didn’t you know that being nerdy is like so in. It seems that way. SEGA has launched Segawaii facebook to promote their new clothing brand that is suppose to design clothing and asscessories for young women. Their first product is the Dreamcast backpack, which is rather large. Maybe its normal size but the woman is… actually never mind that started sounding a bit racist.

Check out the pictures here of the backpack.

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Jazwares has a bunch of Sonic toys planned for this year

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Jazwares has been releasing action figures for SEGA and it seems that this year they are going to go to the extreme. They have a whole ton of figures planned for release, not only figures but stuff like cosplay masks and life-sized rings as well. I guess if it makes money…

Hit the jump to see all the new plushies, figures and cosplay accessories…

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Pre-order DLC for Company of Heroes 2 announced

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SEGA and Relic are teaming up with ‘participating retailers’ worldwide and offering up some pre-order bonus DLC. The DLC is titled ‘Theatre of War‘ episode, which will be a mini campaign of sorts. It will also come with multiplayer vehicle skins and two additional commanders for each multiplayer army.

Besides that, if you pre-order now you get access the the beta (which started on April 2nd). Hit the jump to read the full press release.

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Phantasy Star Online 2: Episode 2 footage to be shown April 9th

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We posted last month that SEGA announced the first expansion pack to Phantasy Star Online 2, titled Code Episode 2. Satoshi Sakai stated that they will show footage during their live Nico Nico broadcast on April 9th (which happens to be my birthday, thank you Sakai!).

He also talked about a new update that is hitting the Playstation Vita later this month. This update will allow players to customize the controls in the game and chat adjustments.

So what about us Phantasy Star fans in the west? Well, SEGA’s last update was that it was delayed and didn’t give a release date…

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Project X Zone hits American retailers in June

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It seems that Namco-Bandai is set to publish Project X Zone in America  and they plan on releasing on it June 25th. The game takes popular characters from Namco, Capcom and our dear blue SEGA . The idea is to combine them in a big RPG for the Nintendo 3DS.

Looking at all those characters in the header, I’m wondering who would win in a fight: Akira Yuki vs Ryu vs Jin Kazama? I will be biased and go with Akira, how about you?

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SEGA Studios Australia Shuts Down

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Things have not been too hot in the video game industry lately. Over the course of the last three months we’ve seen THQ close its doors, LucasArts shuttered by Disney, and Hell Yeah! developer Arkedo cease video game development. Today unfortunately brings another name to the list: SEGA Studios Australia. SEGA has announced that the studio will be shutting down later this year.

Formerly known as Creative Assembly Australia, they were responsible for the critically acclaimed Medieval II: Total War. Besides their Total War video game they created Stormrise and London 2012. 

We at SEGAbits wish the developers all the best in their future endeavors.

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Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse digital boxart leaks

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XBLA watchdog Lifelower has tweeted a leaked image of the digital cover art for Disney’s Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse. Castle of Illusion’s rerelease has been known of since early March, when the game was rated by a Brazilian ratings board. Interestingly, the digital cover art is brand new. Could we expect a remastering of the classic SEGA game? Or did Disney and SEGA simply opt for swanky new art for the original game? Given the recent DuckTales announcement from Capcom, it isn’t crazy to speculate the former. Castle of Illusion is expected to release to Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Wii U, and Playstation Vita. Release date is unknown at this time.

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Sonic Generations Lost CG Intro – now with clean footage!

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Back in January of 2012, I shared a video I had put together which featured all the existing Sonic Generations CG footage. As many Sonic fans know, the game lacked a proper post-title screen CG intro, instead only offering up the same modern and classic Sonic footage seen in the initial teaser trailer for the game. By sifting through various trailers, commercials and promotional event videos I put together the most complete collection of CG Sonic Generations clips. Following the Marza Animation Planet story posted yesterday, I checked out the Marza website and discovered a cool thirty second clip featuring both Sonics running through City Escape and Rooftop Run. Unlike past videos, the clip was crisp and uncut, so I worked the improved footage into my old compilation video and present the revised version to you. Enjoy!

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Marza Animation Planet’s Space Pirate Captain Harlock gets a new trailer

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Marza Animation Planet (the guys that did the awesome Night of the Werehog) and Toei Animation have released a new trailer for their upcoming film Space Pirate Captain Harlock. The film is being directed by Shinji Aramaki (Appleseed and Halo Legends) and has a pretty low budget of 30 million dollars, regardless of budget the trailer looks impressive. Also Anime News Network states that this is Toei Animation movie, yet Marza Animation Planet is still listing it on their site. Odd?

The film is set to come out in the west this fall, debuted in Japan last week. Excited yet?

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Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing coming to Mac tomorrow

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For those stuck on the Apple ecosystem and wanting to play Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing (not Transformed), the wait ends tomorrow. The game will come out exclusivly on the Mac App Store and will haveonline multiplayer using Apple’s own Game Center. The game will cost fans $24.99 (£17.49, €21.99).

Hit the jump for the press release and see you on the racing tracks!

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