SEGA console designer, engineer and former company president Hideki Sato has sadly passed away at the age of 75.
Sato was a SEGA veteran, joining the company in 1971 and working on the development of early SEGA arcade titles Monaco GP, Star Jacker and Turbo. He is most famous for being the designer and engineer on most of SEGA’s consoles, including the SG-1000, SEGA Mark III, Mega Drive, Saturn and Dreamcast. Sato would also become SEGA company president in 2001 following Isao Okawa’s death. He would step down as president in 2003 and leave SEGA altogether in 2008.
SEGADriven would like to extend our condolences to Hideki Sato’s friends, family and colleagues.
Hyperkin have revealed an update to its long in development Mega Drive handheld, the Mega95. The handheld is an unofficial modern clone of the Genesis Nomad that lets you play real Mega Drive cartridges on a dedicated handheld. It can interface with a dock that can also provide video output.
In a recent post on Twitter, Hyperkin have revealed they have overcome a big issue with its software and they are now readying demo units to be sent to “specialists in the community”. This likely means select retro gaming YouTubers. You can see the full text from Hyperkin below:
After a lot of testing, iteration, and late-night problem solving, we believe we’ve found a solution to the obstacles that were holding Mega95 back. Things are finally moving in the right direction, and we’re nearing the next big milestone.
Our next step is one we’re really excited about: sending out demo units to trusted retro specialists in the community. These are people who know the hardware, know the games, and won’t sugarcoat feedback. Their hands-on impressions will help us validate performance, catch any remaining issues, and make final refinements before we move into mass production.
We know the wait has been long, and we don’t take that lightly. Our goal has always been to make sure Mega95 launches the right way, not rushed, not compromised, but worthy of your collection and the games it’s meant to play.
More updates soon. We’re getting close.
Let’s Game. 🎮
If you’d like to see the Mega95 in action then Hyperkin have also showcased it playing Sonic 2. You can see that by clicking here.
A firm release date still appears to be a ways off, but hopefully this update means the machine might be coming sooner rather than later.
SEGA co-founder David Rosen has passed away at the age of 95 on December 25th 2025.
Rosen founded Rosen Enterprises, Ltd. in 1954, originally as a business to sell art created in Japan to the American market. In 1957 the company focus shifted to importing coin-operated amusement machines from Japan to America. In 1965 the company would merge with Nihon Goraku Bussan, Ltd. to create SEGA and Rosen would remain with the company until 1996.
Rosen is a hugely influential figure in the history of video games and without his contributions at SEGA so many legendary arcade machines and gaming platforms would not exist. SEGADriven extend our condolences to Rosen’s friends, family and colleagues. SEGADriven would also personally like to thank Rosen for being indirectly responsible for the existence of this website. We owe the man so much.
The Video Game History Foundation have released a huge amount of material related to the SEGA Channel – SEGA’s short-lived cable service for the Mega Drive. Thanks to the combined efforts of the SEGA Channel vice president of programming Michael Shorrock and independent preservationist The SEGA Channel Guy, you can now browse a huge archive of material that includes advertisements, fan art and ROM dumps of software like the legendary Garfield: Caught in the Act – The Lost Levels.
You can watch a full 58 minute video feature on everything The Video Game History Foundation have discovered via the embed below:
Click here to visit Gaming Alexandria and download all the new ROM files preserved by The Video Game History Foundation. Alongside Garfield: Caught in the Act – The Lost Levels, there is also a complete Mega Drive port of The Flintstones movie game by Ocean, Waterworld, Breakthru, Iron Hammer, and a Mega Drive port of the Berenstain Bears SEGA Pico game. There are also numerous prototypes like a port of the Amiga game Wrath of the Demon, and a near complete dump of an unreleased Popeye game.
The Creative Assembly have revealed another Total War game during The Game Awards 2025. Total War: Warhammer 40,000 is the 4th entry in the Total War: Warhammer series of strategy games. You can check out the announcement trailer below:
There is currently no firm release date for Total War: Warhammer 40,000, but you can wishlist it on Steam if that’s your thing. Seeing how the trailer features in-game action and the announcement trailer for Total War: Medieval III doesn’t, I think it’s more likely Warhammer 40k will release first.
Total War: Warhammer 40,000 is a strategy game currently in development at The Creative Assembly.
The Creative Assembly have revealed that work on Total War: Medieval III is now underway.
The 3rd entry in the Total War: Medieval series has been a long time coming, with Medieval II first releasing back in November 2006. You can check out the live action reveal trailer via the embed below:
Total War: Medieval III currently has no set release date. As it is currently in early development it may be some time before we hear more on the title. The game is being developed by The Creative Assembly.
The Immortal Empires DLC from Total War: Warhammer III is becoming backwards compatible for owners of either Total War: Warhammer and Total War: Warhammer II.
This expansion was already aimed at fans of the first two games, offering players a massive campaign map to play on using every faction from every game. Now the Immortal Empires experience is freely available to anyone who owns the first two Total War: Warhammer games. It will appear in your library as Total War: Warhammer III – Immortal Empires regardless of which Total War: Warhammer game you own.
You can check out the announcement trailer below:
Immortal Empires for Total War: Warhammer 1&2 is now available for free to owners of either game on PC.
The Creative Assembly have revealed a brand new expansion for Total War: Warhammer III is due to launch in Summer 2026 called Lords of the End Times. You can watch the cinematic reveal trailer below:
A more detailed in-game look at the Lords of the End Times campaign has also been uploaded in a separate ‘Campaign Fly Over’ video which you can view here:
Total War: Warhammer III is out now for PCs, originally releasing in February 2022. The Lords of the End Times expansion will be added in Summer 2026.
During a recent Q&A session, SEGA executives have admitted that they will use AI to assist game development but only in ‘appropriate use cases’.
SEGA execs have said, “rather than fully following the trend toward the large-scale development, we will also pursue efficiency improvements, such as leveraging AI. However, as AI adoption can face strong resistance in creative areas such as character creation, we will proceed by carefully assessing appropriate use cases, such as streamlining development processes.”
This is incredibly disappointing news as the use of generative AI is essentially admitting to art theft. Generative AI models are trained on existing artwork created by human beings and as a result it is an extremely abusive method of repurposing the work of others. AI is also harmful to the environment as it requires enormous amounts of electricity and water to cool the systems.
SEGADriven supports all human craft that goes into creative endeavours and firmly objects to the use of AI in creative spaces. Steam currently makes developers declare whether their games have made use of AI in its development which allows consumers to make informed purchasing decisions. Epic Games’s CEO Tim Sweeney has argued that developers should not need to disclose their use of AI as Steam’s system encourages “cancel campaigns” and “review bombing”. This is true, but it also disregards the fact that generative AI models are built on the theft of artwork from human artists. Real people make games; not machines. It is insulting that CEOs continue to lay off development staff in favour of using environmentally destructive methods that put talented people out of work and destroy their livelihoods. This all happens while generative AI models filter all human creative endeavours through an ugly, soulless meat-grinder that will inevitably make all games look and sound the same. Generative AI has no use in creative spaces other than to make human art redundant, which is a gross misunderstanding of what art is.
SEGADriven will continue to highlight any use of generative AI that SEGA use in their games to allow our readers to make informed decisions about the software they purchase. This will continue until SEGA reverse their decision to use generative AI in assisting game development.
The Sonic the Hedgehog collaboration DLC for Pac-Man World 2: Re-Pac is now available. The DLC pack includes a 3 act stage based on Green Hill Zone, a Sonic costume for Pac-Man to wear, and 20 in-game Sonic figurines that can be obtained through virtual capsule toys. You can check out the launch trailer below:
Pac-Man World 2: Re-Pac is an enhanced remake of Pac-Man World 2 developed by Now Production. It is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Switch and Switch 2.
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