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Crush 40 set to release a new “Ultimate Collection” album in July

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Johnny and Jun are doubling down this year with their own album: Driving Through Forever: The Ultimate Crush 40 Collection, listing all their best hits from the last 20 years. Unlike Maximum Overdrive, which lists multiple artists with Jun Senoue, this is all only Crush 40. There are multiple Internet listings, from Amazon UK to Tower Records JP, ranging for around $25-$30 depending on the seller. Four tracks are already confirmed with classics like: Open Your Heart, Live & Learn, Sonic Heroes, and Green Light Ride.

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Sonic Team’s Takashi Iizuka promises “The next big year for Sonic is 2021”

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Sonic Team’s Takashi Iizuka is making the news because he was asked at E3 when the next big year year for Sonic will be, considering that 2017 had us get not only Sonic Forces but Sonic Mania as well. He said:

“2017 was a big year for Sonic,” Iizuka says. “The next big year for Sonic is 2021. That’s the 30-year anniversary for Sonic. We are now preparing.”

When asked if 2021 will bring a game like Sonic Generations, that came out in 2011, Iizuka said “maybe”. What if he is throwing us a curve ball and is actually working on a Sonic Adventure remake? Or would you rather have Sonic Generations 2?

[via: Gamer Informer]

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Alpha Protocol removed from Steam by SEGA, rights to IP going to Obsidian?

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[Edit: It seems that SEGA has updated and said that the reason Alpha Protocol was pulled from Steam was because in-game music license had expired.]

After a decade of SEGA doing nothing with the Alpha Protocol IP, it finally did something. They removed it from digital sales on Steam. Not the type of move I was hoping for and according to SEGA it was due to the ‘rights expiring’.

We don’t know much about what the IP rights for Alpha Protocol where, maybe SEGA had a contract that if they didn’t use the IP after a certain amount of years it reverts back to the developer? Did Microsoft (who now owns Obsidian Software) make a deal with SEGA for the IP? According to PC Gamer, they say that SEGA’s statement about the license expiring aren’t accurate and that SEGA still owns the IP. I thought the original Alpha Protocol was a buggy game, but it had potential to be a big franchise if they followed up the sequels with a more solid made product. Outside of rumors that Microsoft/Obsidian might have made a deal with SEGA for the IP rights, there is also a pattern that when ‘remakes’ of games come out, the publisher pulls the old version of the games from sale (Dark Souls Remake, Darksiders Warmastered).

I also don’t know how I feel about SEGA being so liberal with other publishers making games for their in-house IPs they own including Bayonetta 3, Streets of Rage 4, Panzer Dragoon remakes, Shenmue III, and so on. As much as I like seeing these franchises continue, its bittersweet that it isn’t under SEGA’s publishing arm/funding.

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SEGA Talk #20: Comix Zone (1995)

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With all the buzz of the SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive Mini, we thought we’d discuss a game featured on the upcoming plug and play console! On this episode, George and Barry discuss the comic book inspired adventure game Comix Zone. We talk about the development history, the gameplay and the sequel that never was.

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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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Project Sakura Wars first gameplay to debut in official live stream on June 26

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SEGA will be hosting a series of ‘Sakura Wars: Imperial Theater Propaganda Department Report’ live streams, with the first official broadcast kicking off on June 26 from 20:00 JST to 21:30 JST (4am-5:30am PST) on YouTube and Periscope.

The stream will reveal new information and show off the first gameplay stream.

The stream will feature:

– Yohei Azakami (Mission Propaganda Department leader / Seijuurou Kamiyama voice actor)
– Misuzu Araki (assistant MC)
– Tetsu Katano (Project Sakura Wars producer)

If you don’t have time to watch the stream, just come here after the whole event and we will have a breakdown on all the new information!

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SEGAbits at E3 2019: SEGA Genesis Mini Hands On Preview

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In 1989, the SEGA Genesis was released in North America (in 1989 as the Mega Drive in Japan) bundled with the arcade classic Altered Beast and later Sonic the Hedgehog. The console was known for it’s blast processing capabilities and even rivaled the Super Nintendo during the console wars, a term by journalist & historians back in the day. Contributing to SEGA Genesis success were its library of arcade game ports, the popularity of Sega’s Sonic the Hedgehog series, iconic sports franchises, and marketing that positioned the system as the cool console for adolescents.

Fast forward towards today, the console had been replicated by AtGames with over 80 built in games but was met with negative reception by gaming enthusiast and SEGA fans who grew up with the console most being due to its frame rate drops and sound issues. In 2018, SEGA announced their very own replica console called the SEGA Genesis Mini at SEGA Fes 2018 with help from M2 known for doing numerous ports of classic SEGA video games on several consoles. At E3, we managed to get our hands-on preview on the Genesis Mini. Does it live up to it’s expectations? Find out our thoughts on the miniature console after the break.

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Shenmue III will only complete 40% of Ryo’s story

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If you funded Shenmue III assuming that we would be getting a closure to a story that we (at least most of us older fans) have been following since early 2000s, but that doesn’t seem the case. We all know that Shenmue was always mean’t to be 11 chapters, but considering budgets and restrains, a lot of us assumed that Yu Suzuki had planned a more condense version of his story. I guess not:

During a interview with USgamer, Yu Suzuki revealed that Shenmue III will be about 40% of Ryo’s story:

“Whole story of this bottle, about here [sic],” Suzuki said via translator. I asked if he meant halfway. “40 percent,”

About the game’s length, Yu Suzuki had this to say in a Reddit AMA:

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Phil Spencer says Phantasy Star Online 2 ‘Will End up on all Platforms’

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This actually happen and was said a few days ago but I was too busy to write it up. Microsoft’s Phil Spencer said while talking to the boys over at Giant Bomb that Phantasy Star Online 2 will end up on multiple platforms including the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4? Please note that there is no Phantasy Star Online 2 that runs native within the Switch, the one released in Japan was actually streaming.

It was so cool to have [Sega] on our stage and work with them. And yes, it’ll end up on all platforms. That’s not the point. To me, the point was to be able to have Sega back on our stage. It’s been a while.

Phil Spencer knows how to sweet talk us SEGA fans, its been awhile since SEGA has taken a big E3 stage especially with Microsoft. When was the last time they had a big presence? During the early Xbox 360 days? You can check out the Giant Bomb Phil Spencer interview above.

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SEGA News Bits: Shenmue III E3 Gameplay & Epic Store Exclusive Reaction

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While Shenmue III just got a delay into November, it doesn’t mean that E3 isn’t the biggest event for YS Net and Deep Silver to promote the upcoming kickstarter backed game. We got a ton of news at E3 2019 including a brand new trailer with facial animation, over 13 minutes of gameplay, a new Limited Run Games collector’s edition, and finally the game going Epic Store exclusive on PC. We share our thoughts on all the news, let us know what you think in the comments below.

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SEGA News Bits: Panzer Dragoon Remake Announced for Nintendo Switch

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While we broke the news back in 2018 that Forever Entertainment was developing a Panzer Dragoon Remake, most likely due to the fact that they had nothing to show at the time. But now we are back and we finally got some juicy information to talk about regarding this highly anticipated remake of a SEGA classic. We know its coming to Nintendo Switch and now we got the first glimpse of the in-game graphic. Do we like it or hate it? Let’s watch and find out.

If you want to support this type of content, you can check out our Patreon!

If you enjoy our SEGA News Bits segments and want to support us: Give us a sub and give this video a thumbs up so it shows up on more like-minded fans YouTube recommendations. You know, how that YouTube algorithm is.

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Swingin’ Report Show #94: Bitmap Books founder Sam Dyer – SEGA Master System: a visual compendium

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On this episode of the SEGAbits Swingin’ Report Show podcast, Barry is joined by Sam Dyer, the founder of Bitmap Books, to discuss SEGA Master System: a visual compendium which releases June 17th, 2019. You can buy a copy of the book for yourself right here!

If you want to support this type of content, you can check out our Patreon!

[Download] [RSS] [iTunes] [Archive]

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SEGAbits at E3 2019: Mario & Sonic at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games Hands-On Preview

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Dakota and Patrick: The 90’s all-star rivalry is back in this year’s version of the Olympic Games, based off the Tokyo 2020 one. The demo had 5 sports: Skateboarding, Surfing, 100 M hurdles, Karate, and Archery. I also would like to note that every game played had motion controls, though some I opted to use buttons only and vice versa. Each one as certainly a fun time, although I personally had a lot more fun than others. Be sure to hit the jump for more information about the game.

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SEGAbits at E3 2019: Judgment Hands-On Preview

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Out of every game at the SEGA booth, Judgment seems to be one of their biggest titles to come out this summer. Taking notes from the Yakuza series, Judgment takes it to another whole new level. Take a look at our hands on experience with the title as Dakota and I solve cases by fighting thugs, yakuza and playing wacky minigames. Be sure to hit the jump to read our hands on experience with Judgment.

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SEGAbits at E3 2019: Catherine Full Body Hands-On Preview

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E3 is going a little more risqué this year with Atlus’s new title: Catherine Full Body. It seems that Vincent’s love triangle isn’t enough, so this new game introduces new elements, new story and cutscenes, and even a new female to woo. With a lot on his plate, Vincent is going back to his nightmares, only this time there are some new tricks up its’ sleeve. To find out more on my hands-on experience with the game, be sure to click the jump.

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