Japan gets crystal white PS Vita with Hatsune Miku bundle


Sony announced at E3 earlier today that they will be releasing a white Playstation Vita bundle with Assassins Creed 3: Liberation. In Japan the bundle for the “crystal white” Vita comes with Hatsune Miku: Project Diva f instead of the US Assassins Creed 3: Liberation bundle. Unlike the US, in Japan there will also be a stand alone unit, for those that don’t enjoy rhythm type games.

The Hatsune Miku Vita bundle is limited edition package that includes specially designed Hatsune Miku Playstation Vita, a copy of Hatsune Miku: Project Diva f, a 4GB memory card, screen protector, and lastly a AR card.

PSN Plus Subscribers get Virtua Fighter 5 for free

Starting later today, PSN Plus members will receive a plethora of free games. One of them appears to be Virtua fighter 5! Is it the new Final Showdown? I doubt Sega would allow the old one up when they could make money off the DLC of the characters, so I’m 99.9% sure it is. If you’re not already a PSN+ member, now’s the best time!

Rumor: All-Stars Racing Transformed announcement tomorrow, celebrity appearance

According to gonintendo, an email from SEGA arrived stating the following:

This Tuesday at the SEGA E3 Booth, SEGA will be making a major announcement for their upcoming title Sonic & All-stars Racing Transformed. There will be a large reveal, celebrity appearance and photo/video opportunities. We hope you or someone from your team can make it to cover the big news and please let us know if you have any questions.

Some speculate that the celebrity will be a fictional character, such as a man in a Mario suit announcing the Wii U version and Mario as a guest character. But I think otherwise. Mario isn’t a celebrity, he’s a fictional character. But you know who is a celebrity, has a connection to SEGA and has been mentioned in the past as being a possible racer in the first All-Stars Racing title? That’s right, Hiroshi Fujioka also known as Segata Sanshiro. If SEGA pulls a Segata reveal tomorrow, they will have won E3 without even holding a press briefing. Another possibility is Toshihiro Nagoshi, who is heading to E3. Could Nagoshi be revealing Kazuma Kiryu as a racer?

SEGA Memories: SEGA’s amazing E3 2000 floor show

I’ll come right out and say it: I’m not too excited for this year’s E3. Why? Well, for starters, no SEGA press show. Of course, there has been no SEGA press show for many years so that’s an old complaint. But as the years have passed, it feels like SEGA has done less and less in terms of spectacle at E3. No press shows, as mentioned, no big reveals and most importantly: no awesome floor shows. That’s why this week’s Monday Memories article exists, to take you back to 2000 when SEGA had a floor show worthy of Disneyland.

New Anarchy Reigns trailer appears at Canada’s EB Games stores

SEGAbits forum member and EB Games employee Randroid reported a bit of good news in our forums regarding the elusive Anarchy Reigns. While SEGA West has said nothing of the game since April’s restructuring, Randroid says that the latest DVD containing the trailers that play non-stop on the store’s televisions arrived and on that disc is an English trailer for Anarchy Reigns! Randroid says that these in-store trailers advertise games coming out within the next two months, and buying a spot on the EB Games in-store televisions does not come cheap and that SEGA probably made the buy recently. Our tipster says that the store’s computers still list the early July release date, which as we know has been changed to “TBC” on most sites, so nothing new on that. But the fact that an ad has popped up is a good sign, and possibly means that we’ll be seeing the game later in July or early August if the original release date is to be changed. Fingers crossed!

Thanks for the tip, Randroid.

*UPDATE* Rumor: SEGA shutting down SEGA Europe, last console game to be shown at E3

UPDATE: Community Manager at Sega of America Clumsyorchild and Studio director at Sports Interactive Miles Jacobson are tweeting that these rumors are false.

Wow. It’s that time of year; E3 is around the corner, and that means it’s time to see some  rumors. This one doesn’t sound too outrageous due to all the lay offs that happened a few months back. Not only that, SEGA Europe doesn’t have community managers. Does this mean SEGA Europe will be shutting down and that SEGA will stop making retail games? The rumor states that SEGA will focus on mobile and tablet games. It also says their last big AAA title will be announced at E3, and will be the Creative Assembly’s unannounced Alien game.

Rumor: Sonic & All Stars Racing Transformed Confirmed for Wii U?

Given the source, think of the rumor designation as more of a formality then anything. Earlier today, Sonic Wrecks uploaded an alternate version of yesterday’s trailer that confirmed a Wii U version of SEGA’s upcoming racer. This confirms speculation that the game was headed to the Wii U, started when Sonic Stadium first reported a Sumo Digital racing title heading to the system back in January.

The trailer has since been removed from Sonic Wreck’s Youtube channel, thus this will be considered a rumor until the game is formally announced for the Wii U this week at E3. If the game is playable, you can expect hands on previews from both SEGAbits and Sonic Stadium when the show opens on Tuesday.

Introducing SEGAbits’ first YouTube series: My Life With SEGA

[Fancy new logo too!]

Hello everyone, I’m proud to announce that “My Life with SEGA” is going to be the first YouTube series for us here at SEGAbits. Some of you guys might have already seen the show, if you have then you know it’s excellent. All new episodes of the series will now appear on the SEGAbits YouTube channel.

So what is the premise of the series? Looking at all those SEGA games we all grew up with and love. This is an ongoing thing here at SEGAbits, we are trying to get more retro content. Next week will be part 2 of A.J’s Stallion series. Hit the jump to see the first episode, which includes a review for Rambo III and Cliffhanger!

Toshihiro Nagoshi is headed to E3

SEGA’s Chief Creative Officer and head of Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio’s Toshihiro Nagoshi is headed for E3 as he is set to leave Japan for a week. In a blog post today he said that E3 is the time when game industry people all leave Japan for a week. He will be taking the late night flight out of Haneda. Not one to come off as being lazy, Nagoshi is already started to get worried about the work he will leave building up in his office once he returns to Japan. Wither he is there on official business or just enjoying E3 is not known, but the Yakuza fan in me hopes that Yakuza 5 would be announced for Western release. Unlikely but hey, it’s nice to dream from time to time.

The Mystery Science Theater guys briefly rip on Sonic ’06

Leave Sonic alone! Oh wait, it’s Sonic ’06 you’re kicking in the ribs? Please, continue.

Former Mystery Science Theater 3000 stars and current RiffTrax riffers Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett applied their brand of making witty comments while watching movies to a slew of video game cutscenes over at Joystiq. One of their subjects was none other than 2006’s Sonic the Hedgehog. Just what nice things do the guys have to say about Sonic getting some love from Princess Elise? Well, see for yourself here. Sonic’s scene starts at the 1:11 mark, but you might as well watch the full thing.

Jet Set Radio HD track list revealed, and it is very pleasing to the ears

Since the announcement of Jet Set Radio’s HD rerelease, the biggest gray area has been the game’s soundtrack. Like most games filled with licensed tunes, getting a complete or near complete track list is very difficult. Hell, look at Crazy Taxi. Great game, but just not the same with the entire soundtrack ripped out and replaced with new music. Thankfully, SEGA done good. Real good. After the break, check the full track list as well as learn which two tunes did not make the cut.

All-Stars Transformed: Joe Musashi races through Adder’s Lair

Leave it to IGN to spoil SEGA’s fun. A recent post over at the site revealed a hell of a lot of new Sonic and All-Stars Racing Transformed details. The BIGGEST is that, yes Shinobi fans, Joe Musashi himself is a confirmed racer! IGN has also revealed that Adder’s Lair from Golden Axe is a new track. Also appearing is Jet Set Radio’s Tokyo-to which features a gang war playing out in the background which affects the racers. Previously revealed Gilius Thunderhead finally gets his public showing, and the expected return of Shadow is confirmed. After the break, another tasty screen and the trailer!

The Weekly Five: SEGA Vintage Collection wish list

SEGA’s latest wave of Vintage Collection titles have arrived, and they have deservingly been very well received by fans. Initially, the collections were nothing more than single titles released to XBLA and PSN. Nothing more than ports of Genesis and SEGA arcade titles with the same basic menus for each release. Not to say that they weren’t good fun, but there was no real personality to the titles aside from the games themselves. Thankfully, SEGA and developer M2 made the latest Vintage Collections as true “collections” filled with the fun expected from classic SEGA titles. On XBLA, each collection touts three games and features a fully 3D menu with recreations of arcade cabinets and game consoles. Other features include a juke box where every sound and song can be played as well as a bevy of screen settings. This week’s Weekly Five will look ahead to future waves and what we hope to see from future Vintage Collections.