After a controversial decision by SEGA to remove certain Shining Force-related videos from YouTube, SEGA have back-pedalled on their decision.
Brand manager Aaron “RubyEclipse” Webber has released the following statement:
“Thank you to all of our fans for waiting while we worked hard to get this issue solved. While SEGA may need to remove videos in rare cases, we’re happy to confirm that there are no further plans to remove Shining Force videos uploaded to Youtube by users living in North American and European territories. Additionally, if you live in these territories and your video was removed, please get in touch with us at communityteam@sega.com so that we can look into it for you.”
Yakuza director and chief creative officer of SEGA Toshihiro Nagoshi has sat down for a fascinating interview with Famitsu to discuss SEGA’s future, the success of Phantasy Star Online 2’s Japanese launch and the company’s purchase of Relic Entertainment.
Key points include:
– Regarding SEGA’s future; “To be honest, we still need to solidify our footing and our performance as a company, but given the frenetic cycles we deal with nowadays, if we worried solely about that right now, we wouldn’t have a stable future in three or five years.”
– Regarding the success of PSO2’s Japanese launch; “I think it comes down to the talents of the PSO2 team, and how they convinced the company to go that way. I see possibilities with F2P across the industry; it all depends on what you do with it, but it took this team to show us what we could accomplish with this property.”
– Regarding the purchase of Relic Entertainment; “Sega already has The Creative Assembly, which is great at making RTS’, and so we’re becoming one of the best in the world at this genre now. So this purchase was part of our strategy for tackling this genre as well.”
SEGA of Japan have teamed up with ebten to launch a range of SEGA NOTE PCs. The laptops are themed around 3 SEGA consoles with an additional SEGA-themed laptop. The 3 consoles are Mega Drive, Saturn and Dreamcast which you can see in the above image.
As the laptops are Japan exclusive they will probably be very expensive to import. Regardless, here’s the Japanese retail prices:
SEGA: 99,750 yen or £680.26 Mega Drive: 131,250 yen or £894.96 Saturn: 162,750 yen or £1,109.75 Dreamcast: 194,250 yen or £1,324.47
Ex Microsoft executive Joachim Kempin has revealed that at one point Microsoft considered buying out SEGA before licensing out Windows CE for use in SEGA’s Dreamcast:
“There was always talk maybe we buy Sega or something like that. That never materialised, but we were actually able to license them what they call Windows CE, the younger brother of Windows, to run on their system and make that their platform.”
Ultimately, Bill Gates pushed to launch a console of his own and the original X-Box was born:
“For Bill this wasn’t enough, he didn’t think that Sega had enough muscle to eventually stop Sony so we did our own Xbox thing. There were some talks but it never materialised because Sega was a very different bird. It was always Sony and Nintendo, right? And Nintendo had some financial trouble at that point in time, so Sony came out with the PlayStation and bang! They took off, and everyone else was left behind.”
SEGA AM2’s fantastic After Burner reboot ‘After Burner Climax’ is making its’ way to iOS devices. No release date has been set at this time but SEGA have revealed a screenshot of the game in action which you can see below:
SEGA have officially announced the acquisition of Relic Entertainment. The company was previously owned by THQ and were responsible for the Warhammer 40K games Dawn of War and Space Marine.
John Cheng, CEO of SEGA of America said, “We are thrilled to have Relic Entertainment join the SEGA family. The acquisition is a strategic fit and a critical step in growing our business. They are a well-respected studio with a pedigree for making creative and innovative games and we look forward to seeing what great things we can create together over the coming years.”
You can read the full announcement at the SEGA Blog by clicking here.
SEGA has successfully won Relic Entertainment (developers of Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War and Space Marine) meaning it now has control of both the Warhammer license and Warhammer 40K license. SEGA paid a whopping $26.6 million.
In other news, Platinum Games has shown an interest in buying the Vigil studio who own the rights to the Darksiders franchise. This is an interesting move in that Platinum Games’ Bayonetta was released the same week as the original Darksiders.
Platinum Games head honcho Atsushi Inaba tweeted: “In THQ studio and IP selling off auction, Darksiders is unsold? [We] wanna buy it…on the cheap…”
The Vigil studio was not put up for auction with the other THQ franchises which could mean that Platinum Games make a deal with THQ out of auction for the lower price that Inaba-san is talking about.
Remember recently when SEGA acquired the Warhammer license? That deal does not include the license to all Warhammer properties. This includes the Warhammer 40K license.
However, after THQ recently declared bankrupcy, the publisher are now selling of its’ properities one by one. Guess who might be in the run to get their hands on the Warhammer 40K license and Relic Entertainment (developers of Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War)? That’s right; SEGA.
Indie developer Tim Lewinson recently tweeted; “Hearing that the high bid for @Relicgames at the @THQ IP auction is *drumroll* @Sega.”
If this is true then SEGA will be home to all Warhammer licensed games for the foreseeable future. More on this as we get it.
Project X Zone, the 3DS crossover RPG featuring characters from Namco Bandai, Capcom and SEGA franchises is being released in the West! Namco Bandai will take on publishing duties for the game and it’s expected to release this Summer.
The only other information about the Western release of Project X Zone is that it will only feature the Japanese voice work. English subtitles will be used as an alternative.
Project X Zone was released in Japan on October 12th 2012. It was developed by Banpresto in co-operation with Monolith Soft.
How can you not like Japanese game development when they make games like this?
Osharemajo: Love and Berry Tsuushin is a Japanese arcade game that works with a series of trading cards. The game is aimed at girls between the ages of 6 and 12 and your first play gives you a card with a barcode which stores all your characters outfits, accessories and hairstyles. Once the characters are dressed the game then proceeds to a rhythm game where you tap a button in time with the tambourine on the screen.
SEGA of Japan have uploaded 2 gameplay trailers to their channel which show the rhythm segment in action:
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