Sonic R released on this day back in 1997 over the pond, and to commemorate it, SEGA Forever have pulled off something very special – a brand new piece of artwork based on the game, from Sonic the Comic’s Richard Elson!
It’s a beautiful tribute; no surprise, as Elson’s stuff is always gorgeous. The art has a sort-of blend of his own Sonic the Comic style and the more style-guide accurate Classic Sonic art, to make something really special! It’s lovely to see something for the Sonic the Comic fans in audience, and hopefully this acknowledgment could lead to more down the road, as we’d be very much down for reprints!
When Tracker isn’t playing SEGA games, he’s talking about SEGA games. Or drawing about SEGA games. Or all of the above. You can also catch him over on Twitter.
There’s been a lot of celebration around SEGA lately, what with their 60th Anniversary and all; but sadly, it’s not all been cause for partying. SEGA has published extraordinary losses from its amusements division (thanks to COVID-19), leading them to outright sell off the majority of their arcade business to Genda Inc (formerly Midas Entertainment). SEGA will still be producing arcade games, and their arcade centres will still be plastered with the SEGA logo, but those centres are Genda’s now.
That’s not all though, as it’s now emerged that SEGA have asked 650 employees to “voluntarily retire”. Supposedly those who accept the offer to retire by February 2021 will receive a “payment of extraordinary retirement allowances and reemployment support”. SEGA’s executives are also getting hit by the changes, though not nearly as severely as those losing their jobs; instead, the company’s Senior Executive Vice President and Senior Vice President will have 20% and 10% taken out of their monthly salaries respectively… which isn’t exactly much for the salaries they’re probably on. The Representative Director will see a slightly more substantial cut of 30%.
It’s been a rough year for businesses across the world this year, and given their presence in Japan’s arcade scene, it’s not surprising that SEGA got hit hard; but the layoffs are disappointing news all the same. It’s also very likely that SEGA’s mooted ‘Fog Gaming’ concept may not be going ahead anymore, but time will tell if Genda choose to adopt that instead.
When Tracker isn’t playing SEGA games, he’s talking about SEGA games. Or drawing about SEGA games. Or all of the above. You can also catch him over on Twitter.
Tags: arcade, japan, Layoffs Posted in News | Comments Off on SEGA Request 650 Employees To Retire “Voluntarily”, Cut Salaries of Executives By Up To 30%
Just like Crazy Taxi a few weeks ago, SEGA has published another retrospective for its 60th Anniversary; this time covering the beloved (that might be an understatement) Dreamcast IP Jet Set Radio.
As always there’s some cool facts sprinkled throughout the video, such as how the Game Boy Advance version of JSR later had its engine repurposed for other games. There’s even a short section on De La Jet Set Radio, the second Japanese release that served as an ‘international’ edition, as was common at the time. And there is of course a section on Jet Set Radio Future, the Xbox sequel; as always, it leaves us hoping for a port down the road. Perhaps someday…
On the whole, it’s a great watch as usual; we can’t wait to see what series is up next on the retrospective block!
When Tracker isn’t playing SEGA games, he’s talking about SEGA games. Or drawing about SEGA games. Or all of the above. You can also catch him over on Twitter.
SEGA has launched two new combo packs for the Nintendo Switch in North America, both including a selection of Sonic games – or at the very least, games featuring Sonic.
One pack gives you the sublime Sonic Mania (seemingly without the Plus DLC, oddly) and Team Sonic Racing. There’s also a pack that pairs up Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz HD (which featured Classic Sonic as an unlockable character) and Sonic Forces.
The packs are available for $39.99 each. The PR we received doesn’t mention a European release (seeing as this comes straight from SEGA of America’s Sonic PR), but given previous packs have released on our shores we’d expect these will be showing up too.
When Tracker isn’t playing SEGA games, he’s talking about SEGA games. Or drawing about SEGA games. Or all of the above. You can also catch him over on Twitter.
Previously revealed for the deluxe version of Darius Cozmic Revelation, a new Extra Version of the previously Mega Drive Mini port of Darius will release on a Mega Drive cartridge thanks to the good people at Columbus Circle.
Columbus Circle have been responsible for a string of new Mega Drive releases that include 16 Bit Rhythm Land, Advanced Busterhawk Gley Lancer, Ultracore and Mad Stalker: Full Metal Forth.
According to lead animator Tim Dawson, the upcoming release of Golden Axed is a complete surprise to him and the team responsible for it.
Originally coded in 2012, the project was created off the back of the team’s Castle of Illusion prototype which successfully kept the company afloat. Development then proceeded under the concept that it would be a “darker, bloodier Golden Axe” and the team went ahead with combining those ideas with the concept of the original game.
What followed was 2 weeks of 14 hour days and several disputes with management, who wanted the game to be something else. Tim recounts, “much less luckily we also had the lead designer who thought he was designing it, and sometimes Sanatana Mishra would have to physically block him from reaching my workstation or he’d start explaining insights he’d received playing the mobile port on the train on the way to work.”
The most harrowing story Tim recounts is showing the latest build to management:
“but the biggest gut punch came a week and a half in – combat was working, it was all on track! I was called for a meeting in the big room, so I put the latest build on the network and went to see what was up. All of management was sitting around the big table
I showed the game. grave faces
There was a pause
“where’s the wow factor” someone asked
The lead designer once again complained it wasn’t a God of War-like 3D brawler like he wanted
Someone said maybe it’d have been better to have made a prerendered video where the barbarian fought a monster.”
The full thread of Tim’s experiences making the prototype can be read on Twitter. It’s not a particularly pleasant read but it highlights some important truths about game development that cannot be ignored and it’s unfair of SEGA to promote this title as a “janky”, “buggy artifact of its time” [UPDATE: These terms have fortunately now been removed from games Steam’s description]
Starting today (October 14th 2020) and lasting for 60 days, SEGA are celebrating their 60th anniversary with a huge swathe of discounts, competitions and interviews.Go ahead and check out what https://www.headphonage.com/ has for you to become a professional gamer.
An official SEGA 60th website has launched and it details what the various SEGA teams are sharing each week, and the most interesting exclusive that is coming from these celebrations is a selection of brand new PC mini games.
4 have been teased already and they are as follows (Steam pages for each game are linked as well):
– Streets of Kamurocho (a Yakuza-themed Streets of Rage-style beat em up, releasing 17/10/2020)
– Armor of Heroes (inspired by Company of Heroes, releasing 15/10/2020)
– Endless Zone (inspired by Endless Space, releasing 16/10/2020)
– Golden Axed (a prototype of an unreleased Golden Axe game, releasing 18/10/2020)
The mini games will launch one-a-day starting October 15th and will be available via Steam for a limited time only. You can also register on the SEGA 60th website to redeem a free copy of NiGHTS into dreams… Click here to be taken to the registration page.
You can also watch the reveal trailer for the SEGA 60th celebrations below:
Sonic has found his way into yet another game, and this time it’s the summer’s smash-hit battle royale – Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout, from British studio Mediatonic.
Revealed via a Mediatonic vs SEGA Europe livestream to mark SEGA’s 60th Anniversary, from this Wednesday you’ll be able to buy a costume of Sonic for your adorable Fall Guy bean. It doesn’t come in cheap though; you need 10 crowns for both halves of the costume (5 crowns for each half), and the main way of getting crowns is by being the last Fall Guy standing in a set of matches – which is far, far easier said than done. Fortunately Fall Guys’s recent Season 2 update has made it easier to accrue crowns by just playing the game, regardless of your victory tally, so any Sonic fans after this should probably get started on levelling up sooner rather than later.
The official PR is as follows:
Get ready for a supersonic brawl! SEGA® has teamed up with Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout developer Mediatonic to bring a Sonic the Hedgehog-inspired costume to the highly popular battle royale platformer’s Season 2 content.
Available starting Wednesday, October 14, Sonic fans can get their Fall Guys beans prepared for battle with a look modeled after the iconic hedgehog himself. The Sonic the Hedgehog costume is available for purchase in Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout Season 2 for 10 crowns.
Fall Guys is currently available on PC via Steam and Playstation 4.
When Tracker isn’t playing SEGA games, he’s talking about SEGA games. Or drawing about SEGA games. Or all of the above. You can also catch him over on Twitter.
Taito have revealed the various editions of the upcoming Darius: Cozmic Revelation bundle, which includes G-Darius HD and Darius Burst Another Chronicle EX+ for Playstation 4 and Nintendo Switch. It wouldn’t be a modern Taito re-release if there weren’t a bunch of extremely confusing differences across each version though, and none are more important here than the ‘Famitsu DX Pack’.
The ebten store version of the Famitsu DX Pack will include a physical cartridge version of ‘Darius Extra Version’, a Mega Drive port of Darius. If that sounds familiar, it’s because said port was actually included on the Mega Drive Mini!
Meanwhile, anyone who pre-orders the game from midnight October 13th to midnight October 15th (a 48 hour period) via Amazon will get a special ‘Prime Day’ bonus – a download code for the Mega Drive version of Darius that you can use on Nintendo Switch or Playstation 4. It’s currently not clear whether this will be released separately down the road, but looking at Taito’s history of locking entire games within collections behind pre-orders bonuses, we wouldn’t exactly hold our breath.
Sadly, Strictly Limited’s Western physical release makes no mention of the Mega Drive version in either download code or physical form; but we’ll update if this suddenly changes.
Darius Cozmic Revelation will be released February 25th 2021 in Japan. Strictly Limited’s version is expected to ship in June or July.
When Tracker isn’t playing SEGA games, he’s talking about SEGA games. Or drawing about SEGA games. Or all of the above. You can also catch him over on Twitter.
Previewed back in January at CES, Arcade1Up’s Golden Axe arcade cabinet is now available to pre-order in the US and Canada. This cabinet features Golden Axe: The Revenge of Death Adder, Wrestle War, Shinobi, Altered Beast and the original Golden Axe and will set you back $399.
It’s a pretty feature-rich package with a 17″ display, 4 player joystick setup, light-up marquee, volume control and a riser. You can check out a trailer for the cabinet below:
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