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Today marks 20 years since SEGA left the home console business

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Back in 2018, SEGA hit a milestone as a company when on December 18 they had been in the third party business for as long as they were in the first party home console business. The first party period spanned 6,470 days (a little under 18 years) and ended officially on March 31, 2001. As such, today marks 20 years since SEGA left the first party home console business, a period which eclipses the time from SEGA’s debut of the SG-1000 in Japan on July 15, 1983 to that fateful day of March 21, 2001.

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SEGA’s Daisuke Sato would like to remaster Binary Domain, Yakuza Kenzan and Ishin

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In an interview with French website GameBlog, Yakuza series producer Daisuke Sato spoke about his desire to remaster 2012’s Binary Domain. Sato, who directed the game, said he personally would like to see it remastered and in doing so he would “make a few changes” and “redo some parts”.

Sato also cited the success of Ghost of Tsushima as a good reason for releasing remastered versions of the samurai era Yakuza Kenzan and Ishin in the West. Sato said that he had wanted to remaster the two games long before Ghost of Tsushima, but remastering Yakuza 2-5 was the priority and they missed the opportunity. However, Sato added “if anything, Ghost of Tsushima has helped Western gamers become more interested in samurai, so I should think of it as now is a more opportune time to release these titles.”

Sato ended the interview expressing a willingness to explore more genres in the future after the success of the JRPG-themed Yakuza: Like A Dragon.

[Source: GameBlog via Video Games Chronicle]

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SEGA #1 on Metacritic’s Annual Game Publisher Rankings List

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Metacritic has released their list of the publishers with the highest average metascore for games released in 2020, and it comes at no surprise that SEGA is NUMBER ONE. While other gaming news sites have shared this story and acted like it’s insane to even thing SEGA is number one, no doubt because of some nonsense about how Sonic ’06 was bad 15 years ago or something, we here at SEGAbits have seen SEGA’s 2020 output and can easily see why they’d take the top spot. Release good games, get good results!

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Shenmue Anime could release as early as November 2021 [Update]

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According to Shenmue Dojo, we could be getting a release of the Shenmue Anime, which was announced last year, as early as November 2021. So how do we know this? Well, some keen eye Shenmue fans noticed a tweet by @TMSent_jp which is the studio animating the project

It sadly looks like the original tweet has been taken down by the studio. Maybe they had a upcoming announcement? Since we haven’t even seen a frame of animation, I assume this is a leaked announcement. We do know its suppose to be a 13 episode series that covers all of the first game and a part of the second.

What are your thoughts on the whole Shenmue Anime project?

Update: According to Adult Swim/Cartoon Network’s Creative Director @Clarknova1, Shenmue: The Animation “will definitely NOT release in 2021.” Meaning that TMS tweet was probably deleted for the obvious mistake. /Update

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Shadow Man: Remastered coming to PC on April 15th

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Do you guys remember the game Shadow Man? This action-adventure game by Acclaim launched on almost all platforms back in the day including Windows PC, Nintendo 64, PlayStation and of course the SEGA Dreamcast.

Well the game is coming back as Shadow Man Remastered, while we know its coming to PC on April 15th, its also coming to Nintendo Switch, Xbox One and PlayStation 4 (no dates set yet). Also did you know the game had a sequel called Shadow Man: 2econd Coming on PlayStation 2? Wow.

Check out the press release and screenshots:

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SEGA trademarks Lost Judgment

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News has dropped that SEGA has recently trademarked a intellectual property name for “Lost Judgment” on the Chizai Watch website. So far, we are not sure if it’s a sequel to Judgment (aka Judge Eyes: Shinigami no Yuigon in Japan), a Yakuza spin-off action game developed by Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio which involves a lawyer-turned-detective, Takayuki Yagami, as he and his allies explore a case involving corpses whose eyes have been removed, or possibly a brand new title?

We’ll keep everyone posted as we get more news on “Lost Judgment” from SEGA soon. What do you all think this new trademark IP could be?

[Sources: Chizai Watch, Yakuza Fan]

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Limited Run Games releasing an English package version of the SEGA Astro City Mini

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The guys at Limited Run Games announced this morning that they will be selling a English package version of SEGA Toys’ Astro City Mini, Astro Mini Style Kit and the Astro City controller starting on March 26th! Above you can see the difference between the English and Japanese packaging.

You can also see the Limited Run Games product pages with more information here:
Astro City Mini – Astro City Mini Style Kit – Astro City Mini Gamepad

The Limited Run version of the SEGA Astro City Mini will only be limited to 3,500 units, which will probably make this version sought after in the collectors market compared to the regular Japanese version. As far as I know, the SEGA Astro City Mini unit included inside the English packaging is exactly the same as the Japanese retail unit. The Limited Run Games version will retail for $129.99, so get your F5 key fixed and get ready to refresh your browser!

UPDATE: Limited Run Games have clarified that some of the games are in English, some are in English and Japanese and some are completely in Japanese as denoted on their site. We compared to the Japanese unit and it lines up with the games on that model. So the unit itself is exactly the same as the Japanese unit, there are no new ROMs. The packaging is what has been updated.

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SEGA Talk #66: Valkyria Chronicles (2008)

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On this episode of SEGA Talk, Barry and George suit up and join the Gallian Revolutionary Army; exploring the 2008 SRPG classic Valkyria Chronicles. Sit down, grab some popcorn and let’s take a magical trip to Europa! Squad 7, move out!

Support us on Patreon! Get early access, tell us what games to cover, and have your SEGA memories read at the end and more!

[iTunes – Stitcher – YouTube – RSS – Download]

If you want to give us feedback, suggest a topic for the next podcast or want to ask a question for us to answer on the next episode you can add  them as a comment below or send theme directly to our email. Make sure you use subject line ‘SEGA Talk’ and as always, thanks for listening!

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Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne HD Remaster coming May 25, 2021 to the West

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It looks like Nintendo of Europe have issues a press release earlier today that listed Atlus’ Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne HD Remaster for release on May 25, 2021; as reported by Persona Central.

The press release also detailed what time pre-orders would open on the eShop. Pre-orders will open tomorrow on March 19, 2021 at 2:00 PM PDT / 5:00 PM EDT. The pre-order period will end on May 24, 2021 at 11:59 PM local time. While we got all this information due to Nintendo leaking it, Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne HD Remaster will not only be on Nintendo Switch but also PlayStation 4.

Any of you guys picking up this remaster before playing the upcoming Shin Megami Tensei V? Oh wait, is that suppose to come out sometime?

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Steamforged Games announces Sonic The Card Game, releasing 2021

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Steamforged Games, creators of tabletop games including several licensed video game board and card games, have announced Sonic The Card Game. From their website: “Sonic’s the name, and speed is the game—literally! Join the beloved blue blur in a competitive card racing game where you’ll collect power-ups and rings to win. It’s fast family fun you’ll race through again and again.”

Little else is known, but once we learn more about the game we’ll be sure to news it! Thanks for the tip, Berto!

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SEGA Amusements’ Roger Pennington leaves company after 31 years

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SEGA’s arcade division has been taking a lot of hits since Covid-19 with the company selling a majority of its Amusement management business in Japan and now the company has announced that a 31 year veteran Roger Pennington will be leaving the company. The website Global Amusements and Play has a good write up on Roger.

He began his career with Deith Leisure as a financial controller, Deith Leisure would then be taken over by SEGA. Roger and Bob Deith would grow the UK Amusement division branch to have a £100m turnover and 250 employees.

“It has been an enjoyable 20+ years working with Paul and building a new team which has become a second family. We have seen our own game development grow and no longer rely solely on Sega Japan for games. Rebranding the company to Sega Amusements International Ltd (SAI) a few years ago and focusing on becoming an international company selling machines all over the world to major operators and distributors. SAI has truly become a global company which not only manufactures and develops games but also distributes 3rd party product and operates games,” 

Roger Pennington will be replaced by Siraj Elkhawad moving forward. Welcome aboard and we hope 31 years of more arcade action!

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Yu Suzuki and Namco’s Katsuhiro Harada talk Virtua Fighter 6, cancelled Tekken Dreamcast title and Tekken x Virtua Fighter

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Yesterday the Japanese video game news site Denfaminico Gamer held an interview with SEGA-AM2 legendary arcade designer Yu Suzuki (Virtua Fighter), Tekken’s Katsuhiro Harada and Arc System Works’ Toshimichi Mori where they talked about the histories of their franchises that included Virtua Fighter, Tekken, Guilty Gear and Blazblue. There was also some talk about the possibility of creating Virtua Fighter 6!

The important bits of the interview were taken from @gosokkyu twitter account, who translates Japanese gaming news. If you like Japanese games, I suggest you give the account a follow.

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Unboxing: SEGA Astro City Mini DX Pack

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After two and a half months of waiting, my package from Japan containing the SEGA Astro City Mini DX Pack has arrived! Check out the full unboxing above for a close up look at all the cool bonus goodies SEGA included in this 60th Anniversary item.

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IDW announces Sonic the Hedgehog 30th Anniversary Celebration: The Deluxe Edition

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You hungry for some Sonic news? IDW has announced Sonic the Hedgehog 30th Anniversary Celebration: The Deluxe Edition, an anniversary collection featuring classic Sonic and friends in a new story from Ian Flynn as well as additional stories from “some of Sonic’s biggest fans” and bonus content. Who are these “biggest fans”? My hope are guest artists and writers from other IDW projects, but we’ll see!

The hardcover 96 page book is due to release October 5, 2021, and will be priced at $19.99. You can find pre-order links at Penguin Random House’s website.

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