Another April Fools has come and gone, another day of ‘omg Dreamcast 2’ and lets not forget the classic ‘Shenmue 3 announced!’ topics filling up every videogame forum. Oh joy!
But amongst the endless drivel there are a few pretty good ‘pranks’ Join me as I list some of my favorites of 2010!
It is now official, SEGA Studios San Francisco is closing down today. Formerly known as Secret Level, they have brought us such timeless masterpieces such as Golden Axe: Beast Rider and Iron Man.
“SEGA of America is sad to announce the closure of SEGA Studios San Francisco. It is an immensely talented studio and we wish all the best to all of the staff in all their future endeavors. Moving forward, SEGA will continue to pursue external development opportunities all over the world and will continue to grow the renowned SEGA brand.”
They were working on Iron Man 2 and claiming it was going to be a ton better than the first game, but seeing all this drama; like being fired, I doubt it will be good at all.
[Source: IGN]
SEGA Entertainment’s restructuring plan sadly means they will have to shut down some GameWorks locations. SEGA hopes to open up some of the locations again, after the resturcturing is done.
“Long Beach, CA; Columbus, OH; Detroit, MI; Minneapolis, MN; Indianapolis, IN; Tampa, FL; and Miami, FL. The company has introduced potential new tenants to mall ownership, in hopes that some locations may be reopened in the future.
Hopefully SEGA finds a way to make their GameWorks business a bit more profitable. For the full press release hit the jump.
“It’s a 1986, don’t hate.”
Nothing really big, just two items confirmed if you happen to be a European PS3 owner, since it was revealed via the European Playstation blog. Death Egg Zone seems like a track and character… lets hope it makes it to the American update.
– Metal Sonic & Death Egg Zone (£4.79/€5.99)
– Ryu Forklift Character Pack (£3.99/€4.99)
Also, there is now price drops on both Outrun Arcade Online (£7.99/€9.99 now – £5.25/€6.59) and Gunstar Heroes (£3.99/€4.99 now – £2.39/€2.99). If you don’t own them, maybe its time to pick them up.
[Via TSS]
We promised an exciting future for SEGAbits and we are going to deliver. We have decided to team up with a Final Fantasy website and launch Square-Enix Bits; which we hope will be your number one source for Final Fantasy and Square-Enix related news.
As a way to celebrate our new venture, we have decided to theme our site in celebration of this event. Have fun and remember, blue skies in games.
Check out SEGA of Japan’s new April Fools video for Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown. They are showing the new gameplay, but does it remind you of another game?
Maybe it is a game called Super Street Fighter 4. Maybe? Just a bit? Pretty cool prank, lets hope they keep it up.
[Thanks: STORM!]
Anyone here can tell you that I love Goozex. It basically lets you trade in games you never play, for points that you use on Goozex to get other games. So you never really trade a game for a game. It has a 100% guarantee and no one rips you on shipping (like ebay).
“Since we launched our site in 2006, a frequently asked question has been about adding classic game system titles to our service. We’re happy to say that we are going to meet that demand. Our focus has been to become the best in online game trading and adding retro titles to our service helps maintain that vision. Like many of our members, we’re excited about trading classic games from the titles that started it all!” –Jonathan Dugan, COO and co-founder of Goozex
The site already had SEGA Dreamcast trading, so adding SEGA Genesis and SEGA CD is makes me very happy. All we need is SEGA Saturn. Since its my post, I can put a referral link to sign up.
It has long been said that PC gaming is in decline, much too many PC gamers dismay! In steps Sega Europe’s John Clark to defend PC gaming and throw in a little boast about Sega’s share of the market while he’s at it!
According to Clark chart tracking of PC gaming is being recorded wrong due to a large number of digital distributed not being recorded. With digital distribution a small, but growing market. It apparently makes up quite a large portion of Sega’ PC sale revenue.
Read some highlights from MCVUK after the jump!
After Burner Climax is set to hit XBLA on April 21st and on PSN April 22nd. The price for the complete game will be $10 USD (800 microsoft pts).
That is incredible deal for 20 levels and 3 planes to choose from. Not to mention the graphics look awesome and you save some quarters.
[Source: Kotaku]
[Screenshot for the first game, not part 2]
Who would have thought it? Before you start to cry, yes its confirmed that SEGA will be publishing the title and it will be a Wii exclusive. No release date yet. For more info hit the jump.
[Update: Members at NeoGAF have said this is fake. We will have to wait a few days to confirm 100%. But the guy has posted fake entries before. So take this post with a grain of salt till its 100%]
Mikami (father of Resident Evil, director of the upcoming Vanquish) has announced a new title with his own game studio. The new game will be called Krieg, a German word that means “war, conflict and confrontation.” The game will be a Playstation 3 exclusive. Stated in the Famitsu scans, German metal bands will make up the soundtrack for the game (Nazaroth ist krieg?).
The game is about nature vs. man, after a long time of us using nature, it has decided to fight back. The result is total chaos, some of the examples is snow storms and that sort of stuff. Mikami stated that many of the planet’s animals have ‘mutated’. Protagonist doesn’t have a name yet, but in the artwork its a boy that apparently woke up with no memory in a destroyed laboratory, searching for clues and having no real goal.
Hit the jump for more information and scans…
This is something I always wanted to do on a Sunday, this will be a weekly feature where I post links to stories in gaming for the week that I liked or seen around. This means it won’t be SEGA related, most likely.
So what stories did you guys read this week that you guys liked?
GameStop is having their yearly “Game Days” sale, where you can get brand spanking new titles for cheaper than they usually go. Some of the SEGA deals are hit and miss, especially the Wii titles.
– Sonic Unleashed (360, PS3, Wii) – $14.99
– Sonic’s Ultimate Genesis Collection (360) – $17.99 – (PS3) $14.99
SEGA promised to release an app called “SEGA Ultimate Genesis Collection” which would let you download and play other SEGA Genesis games. It was suppose to be out February. What happen?
SEGA has canceled the app, stating SEGA is changing its iPhone and iPod Touch strategy. Hopefully this means more quality control, because the last Genesis games they released ran like crap. How about a Space Channel 5 port? That should work well.
[Source: PocketGamer]
Microsoft has launched their Game Room, with mixed views; but after trying it myself it is rather good (could use better selection of games). Seems that the developers have sprinkled some clues of what will coming, one of the teasers is Mega Drive/Genesis titles?
I mean, there is only one console that has a controller like SEGA’s Mega Drive/Genesis, it had a very unique look. Also, its not like SEGA does not like releasing Genesis/Mega Drive games over and over again. I can see this happening, now give us Toe Jam & Earl!
[Thanks for the picture SEGA Uranus]