Japanese developers weigh in their thoughts and concerns about the upcoming Playstation 4. The interviews were part of an article for the Japanese magazine Famitsu. In the interview both Yakuza team members Toshihiro Nagoshi and Masayoshi Yokoyama gave their thoughts about the Playstation 4. To read what they said, hit the jump.
Ever since last year when SEGA West stated they will be reducing a lot of their boxed game output, we haven’t really gotten too many big new game announcements from the blue S, especially from their Japanese branch. But it looks like SEGA Japan is up to their teasing ways, opening up a site for a new unannounced game. The only clues we have on the page is a field of grass with dust falling, that it will be on PS3/Vita and the title ‘SEGA NEW PROJECT 0328’.
What could it be? I guess we will find out March 28th. But since we have a week to kill, what do you think it is?
[Download]
Sorry for the late post this week, I’ve been extremely busy. I mean, who’s gonna find and arrest Rex Fury in Lego City or hunt down the great Jaggi in Monster Hunter? Someone has to do it. But don’t worry, we got a great show this week.
It’s time for a 2-Man Scramble, where Mickey Mac makes me suffer through two of the absolute worst Genesis games I could find. First up, Universal Soldier from Accolade. This is what I get for making unsuspecting gamers play through such horrid titles as Wirehead….
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Kenji Eno, a composer who created soundtracks for a few SEGA published games, as well as his own original albums, passed away last month. I confess that I’ve never played any of the games he was involved in, so I’m afraid I am rather unfamiliar with his work. If it is anything like the above, then it seems like I’ve been missing out on some of the most beautiful and atmospheric soundtracks in SEGA’s library.
Expect to see more Kenji Eno tracks featured here as I continue to peruse his work. Until then, here’s another song from D2, “Morning Theme”. Be back next week when we finish off the SEGAbits staff spotlight with an entry from Kori Maru!
Sonic Generations already had one of the daytime levels from Sonic Unleashed (Rooftop Run), but what if you want more? Well, thanks to Sonic fans you can now play eight more redesigned stages in 60fps and any resolution your rig can handle!
* No console limitations. This means support for unlimited resolutions, high-quality texture filtering and 60 FPS gameplay as long as you have the hardware for it. Stages that had performance problems in the original game now work perfectly (with a proper setup). Just features you’d expect from a regular PC version!
* Eight Modern Sonic stages completely readapted from Sonic Unleashed. Lots of layout improvements, recreation of gimmicks, and fixing various bugs/glitches.
Want to know more and how to install it? Check out the Moddb page on it.
Yakuza Fan website has decided to take a lesson from the book of the blue S and launch a Facebook sharing/like campaign to see if there is enough interest in a Yakuza 5 western release.
Over a week ago SEGA launched their own campaign for Hatsune Miku: Project Diva F, stating if the image got enough shares/likes that they would bring the game over from Japan. That game is great and all, but we want Yakuza 5 and if you do too you should probably share/like the picture to help.
Go here, share and like the picture on your Facebook.
After five years with the company, SEGA’s Digital Brand Manager Ken Balough is moving on to join the team at Sony Playstation. The announcement was made in a statement at the SEGA forums:
After 5 absolutely amazing years, and a lot of great memories and games, it is with a heavy heart that I am announcing Friday March 22nd will be my final day at SEGA.
I can’t tell you all what an incredible experience this has been. Ever since I was a kid playing the SEGA Master System, I wanted to work at SEGA. I grew up on our games playing Wonder Boy, Sonic, Golden Axe, Streets of Rage, and so many more. When the chance to work on the Sonic franchise appeared – I never thought twice – it was a dream come true!
I am incredibly proud of how well the Sonic Franchise has grown; and it is poised to continue to grow into some amazing directions.
The Sonic fans are the best I’ve experienced – passionate, intelligent, with an unrivaled love of the franchise. I have been privileged to get to know you, and hear your thoughts, and talk to you personally when given the opportunity. There are so many of you I want to thank. You guys are really one of a kind. Continue to encourage everyone at SEGA to make better games – it’s really fuel for us when we see, or hear you guys excited.
As many of you know, I am very passionate about the Latin America side business, and I have been given a phenomenal opportunity to join the team at Sony PlayStation and do just that. I am very excited, and while I am VERY sad to be leaving my dear friends at SEGA, am looking forward to be working with a 1st party in an emerging market.
Thank you all again for… well…. Everything! And maybe I’ll stop by and make a visit in a future Sonic event
Your ever-grateful Sonic 4 Brand Manager
Ken Balough
We wish Ken all the best in his new venture, and hope that his time with SEGA was as he truly imagined it. Okay, kidding aside, we here at SEGAbits want to thank Ken for his service to SEGA and for all the good times. From joining us for a Sonic 4 Episode 2 after party, to helping us with all things Sonic 4 and more. Ken, this one is for you.
File this one under “where is the Western release, SEGA?”. Following the release of 3D Space Harrier, SEGA of Japan has revealed the next title in their line of 3DS rereleases: 3D Super Hang-On. Set to release next week on March 27th for 600 yen, 3D Super Hang-On will feature true 3D graphics, gyro sensor controls, a widescreen mode, a virtual arcade machine mode, the ability to save at any time, and more! Players can also change the difficulty, time limit, handling, and screen size.
The SEGA of Japan page appears to hint at two more 3D releases, as four slots are shown and only two are filled with 3D Space Harrier and 3D Super Hang-On. If I had to guess, I’d say 3D OutRun and 3D After Burner are on the way. No word yet on a Western release, but hopefully we hear something soon. Perhaps SEGA West are waiting for all four to release, and then we’ll get a SEGA 3D Classics boxed release? After the break, a slew of 3D Super Hang-On images.
Hardlight Studio‘s Chris Southall and James Booth both took the time out to give us a short interview about their newly released mobile game, Sonic Dash. The addictive score based game has been draining the battery on our phones here at SEGAbits, so naturally we had burning questions that needed answering!
Last year a 24-year-old Total War fan named James was the first to play Creative Assembly’s Total War: Rome 2. He was given interviews, tours and even had his suggestions for the title. James is now being immortalized in the upcoming Rome 2, turning into a Roman solider in the full game when it comes out later this year.
Sadly after the visit James lost his battle with liver cancer and died. James’ trip to Creative Assembly was organized by the charity organization known as Willow as part of its Special Day initiative. It is basically a sort of ‘make a wish’ in the US where people with terminally illness get a day to do what they always wanted. You can check out more of James’ story over at Eurogamer’s article. Good read.
SEGA will be celebrating Phantasy Star‘s 25th anniversary on March 30th, they will be holding a one night symphonic tribute to the franchise and promises big special guest and music pieces from most major Phantasy Star titles. The event will be hosted by voice actress Atsuko Enomoto and legendary SEGA developer Yuji Naka. The Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra will be doing the music and will be conducted by Masamichi Amano. In a play on words, SEGA will call the event ‘Sympathy‘.
One of the big special guess is our boy Takenobu Mitsuyoshi who will do the vocals for ‘Go Infinity‘.
SEGA will be advertising and sell a lot of exclusive music item codes at the event that will unlock in Phantasy Star Online 2. Sounds like a fun time. No news on streams or if it will be released after.
Welcome to our review of Aliens: Colonial Marines. See that YouTube video embedded above? It is our very first SEGAbits Video Review! We’re trying to sort out a way to get these video reviews put up for all upcoming games. Seeing as how this is our first one, there is always room to improve. So positive criticism is definitely welcomed. Let us know what you think in the comments section. After the break, an old school written review.
We usually don’t post much NPD numbers here because SEGA really never charts. Well, I guess the Aliens license does make quite a bit of cash. In the UK it hit number one the week it released and in America it came in sixth for its release month. Only to be beat by heavy hitters like Dead Space 3, Crysis 3 and Metal Gear Rising.
Want to see the full top ten chart? Hit the jump.
We have reported many times on SEGA picking up the IP license to Warhammer, but today Games Workshop announced that Slitherine, a video game publisher, is creating a real-time strategy game based on the Warhammer 40k universe.
So who else is making Warhammer titles?
Apparently Games Workshop is open to new ideas and said they will be going to trade shows to meet potential developers for games. With quite the list of developers already having Warhammer games in the works, even our blue and true SEGA, and the licensee looking for more games means that he market is going to be filled with Warhammer based games. Is this good? All I hope is that the games are great. The Warhammer universe is expansive and if they can cover different parts in different style games, they got my money.