SEGA Japan are officially teasing a Sonic the Hedgehog collaboration with LOM BABY – a company that basically exists to grift NFTs, cryptocurrency and generative AI slop.
While there is no official word on what this collaboration will entail, the fact that SEGA are happy to associate their franchise all about fighting back against an evil dictator who is looking to pollute the enivornment with a company that thrives on producing “transmedia” based around cryptocurrency, NFTs and AI generated imagery seems misjudged on a massive scale.
Regardless of what becomes of this collaboration, I think SEGA need to try harder to work with companies that don’t work in speculative markets like crypto and NFTs, or generative AI which is proving to be massively damaging to the environment. It’s also a technology that steals the work of human creatives and regurgitates it into something soulless and wasteful.
I know that SEGADriven is a fan site and we normally don’t highlight subjects we aren’t passionate about, but to ignore collaborations like this and not call it out is to betray the thing we love. If you can’t criticse something you love then it will never improve, and this is a prime example of that. SEGADriven will not support this endeavour and we urge SEGA to withdraw their involvement with LOM BABY urgently.
SEGA Japan have entered a deal with New One Studio to publish it’s FMV game The Rise of the Empire: The Road to Empress II on PC and Switch in Japan later in 2026.
Described as a “court adventure”, The Rise of the Empire: The Road to Empress II sees you navigating a highly volatile period environment as you try to work your way to becoming a Chinese Empress. The game features extensive 4K live action video sequences starring a cast of famous C-drama talent. You can watch the first trailer for the game below:
The Rise of the Empire: The Road to Empress I released in September 2025, selling over a million copies within 2 weeks of being on sale. The first game is available in English on Steam and was published by New One Studio and Ariel in Western territories. This arrangement will continue for The Rise of the Empire: The Road to Empress II, but only in Western territories. SEGA will only publish the sequel in Japan and certain Asian territories. A bundle of the first 2 games will be made available too.
You can wishlist The Rise of the Empire: The Road to Empress II on Steam right now.
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.
SEGA have decided to jump on the Labubu craze by releasing their own line of plush dolls based on characters from their own franchises. These new dolls are called SEGA Labbies and are due to be released at SEGA Store Tokyo and SEGA Store Shanghai on the 19th of December 2025. Of course there’s a Sonic one, but more interestingly there’s a Kiryu Kazuma doll, and also a Joker from Persona 5 doll. This suggests they’re marketing to a wider market than just children.
SEGA have collaborated with Dwarf Studios who have animated this adorable stop-motion trailer to showcase the SEGA Labbies. Check it out:
SEGA Labbies will only be available to purchase from SEGA Store Tokyo and SEGA Store Shanghai from the 19th of December 2025. There is currently no word on if these will receive a wider release after that.
SEGA Japan have revealed they will publish the upcoming Shadow of the Ninja Reborn in Japan only. Now known as Kage: Shadow of the Ninja, this remake of the original NES game is being lead by Natsume Atari in the same style as Wild Guns Reloaded, The Ninja Saviors: Return of the Warriors and Pocky & Rocky Reshrined. This means we get entirely new artwork and a widescreen resolution. The game’s original composer Iku Mizutani also returns with a remixed soundtrack.
The game is due for release on PS4, PS5 and Nintendo Switch on the 29th of August 2024. The game will also release in Western territories on Xbox Series X|S consoles, and the PC via Steam. You can check out SEGA Japan’s announcement trailer below:
Thanks to our wonderful friend and contributor Mark Hughes, we now have a large selection of Segaworld memorabilia to browse in our merchandise section. In addition, Mark has also provided us with scans of some Joypolis, Project Sonic and SEGA Park memorabilia. Please see the list below for every new item added to the website as well as direct links to the various subsections they are hosted on:
Former Sonic Team lead programmer Yuji Naka has revealed that former SEGA managing director Akira Nagai has passed away. He died on November 15th 2022 aged 79.
Nagai started his career at Nihon Goraku Bussan in 1963 where he worked in sales and distribution, directly selling to SEGA when they were producing electro-mechanical arcade games. Nihon Goraku Bussan was absolved into SEGA in the CSK buyout of Gulf+Western in 1984 and Nagai stayed with the company until 2004 when he retired after SEGA’s merger with Sammy.
Nagai is digitally immortalised in Shenmue as a yakuza boss. SEGADriven would like to send our deepest condolences to Akira Nagai’s friends, families and colleagues.
SEGA have confirmed that long time artist, director and producer Rieko Kodama has passed away. Kodama passed much earlier in the year, back in May 2022.
News of Kodama’s passing came to light when Retro Gamer writer Nick Thorpe spotted a tribute to her in the credits for the Mega Drive Mini 2. This was then confirmed by SEGA producer Yosuke Okunari.
Rieko Kodama had been working at SEGA since 1984 and has produced art for many classic games that include Alex Kidd in Miracle World, Quartet, Phantasy Star, Altered Beast, Shadow Dancer and the first 2 Sonic the Hedgehog games. Kodama personally directed Phantasy Star IV and Magic Knight Rayearth for the SEGA Saturn, while producing a number of titles including Skies of Arcadia and the largely Japan exclusive 7th Dragon games.
SEGADriven would like to extend our condolences to Rieko Kodama’s family, friends and colleagues. She was 58 years old.
SEGA Japan have revealed the Mega Drive 2 Mini which expands the focus of the original Mega Drive Mini with the inclusion of “Mega CD games, arcade ports, unreleased games and a mysterious new game” according to GSK. 11 games have been revealed so far. See below for the full list:
– Silpheed (Mega-CD)
– Shining Force CD (Mega-CD)
– Sonic CD (Mega-CD)
– Yumemi Mystery Mansion (Mega-CD)
– Popful Mail (Mega-CD)
– Virtua Racing (Mega Drive)
– Bonanza Bros (Mega Drive)
– Shining in the Darkness (Mega Drive)
– Thunder Force IV (Mega Drive)
– Magical Tarurūto-kun (Mega Drive)
– Fantasy Zone (New Mega Drive Port)
The final release is promising 50 games in total and is due to release in Japan on October 27th 2022. The mini console is bundled with a 6 button controller. Also revealed during the stream is an entirely cosmetic Mega-CD 2 for the Mega Drive 2 Mini to lock onto, as well as a miniature Sonic CD CD-ROM and a Virtua Racing cart to pop into the cartridge slot. The Mega Drive Tower Mini 2 even has an expander so you can use it with the original Mega Drive Mini and a spacer for the 32X mini included in the original Mega Drive Tower Mini. Both are entirely non functional.
There is currently no word of a Western release for the new mini console.
Bloomberg have reported that SEGA Sammy Holdings Inc. are working on new entries in the Crazy Taxi and Jet Set Radio franchises, but they are being made as live service games in order to compete with Fortnite.
The games are supposedly a part of SEGA’s ‘Super Game’ initiative which was launched last year as a way to build online communities around its games. The new Crazy Taxi game has supposedly been in development for a year and is aiming to launch in the next 2-3 years. There is currently no word on how far along in development the new Jet Set Radio game is.
Bloomberg have received this information from an unknown Tokyo-based entertainment group so take this information with a grain of salt. There are already words saying that it is possible these games may end up being cancelled behind closed doors and SEGA are refusing to comment on the story directly. More on this story as it develops.
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