*Various sources report that Toshihiro Nagoshi (the man behind Super Monkey Ball and the Yakuza series) has been promoted to ‘Chief Creative Officer’.
*The head of Arkedo Studios Camille Guermonprez gives the lowdown on
Hell Yeah! - ‘a game made by gamers for gamers’ (and published by SEGA).
*Famitsu magazine reviewed Hatsune Miku and Future Stars: Project Mirai (Nintendo 3DS) and awarded it ratings of 9/8/9 and 7.
*Three Game Gear titles will be added to the Nintendo 3DS e-shop next month: Dragon Crystal, Shinobi and Sonic Triple Trouble.
*Also soon available from the e-shop: a playable (Nintendo 3DS) demo of Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games.
*Binary Domain lost nine positions and dropped to the 11th position in the Japanese all-format chart. Hmm, not good.
*Sonic the Hedgehog merchandise, on the other hand, is ‘in hot demand’.
Both Virtua Tennis 4: World Tour Edition and Binary Domain make their
chart debut, while Sonic Generations goes budget.
This week’s entries in the Full price Top 40:
[#5](-1) Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games
[#29](NEW) Virtua Tennis 4: World Tour Edition
[#34](NEW) Binary Domain
This week’s entries in the Budget price Top 40:
[#26](NEW) Sonic Generations
[#38](-11) Sonic and SEGA All-Stars Racing
SEGA posted seven new screenshots of Sonic the Hedgehog 4 -episode II.
MCV reports:
‘One of the most successful Japanese console game developers has predicted that the console market will continue to shrink and in its place will rise a stronger, dominant portable games market.
“Consoles – PS3, PS4, Xbox 360-2 – the market for those will get smaller, and the main market will become portable games,” Super Monkey Ball and Yakuza creator Toshihiro Nagoshi told PSM3, as reported by CVG.
“I don’t think consoles will disappear, but more and more people will use home PCs for gaming, and a long time in the future it will just be PCs and mobile phones, and eventually mobiles will become just as powerful as games consoles.”
SEGA Europe added the second part of their ‘Reveal’ trailer to their Youtube channel. The Creative Assembly staff tell you all about their upcoming game.
Binary Domain (XBOX 360 / PlayStation 3)
- 7.5/10 (IGN)
- 8/10 (VideoGamer)
- 8/10 (Eurogamer)
- 7/10 (Metro.co.uk)
- 7/10 (Official PlayStation Magazine UK)
Virtua Tennis 4: World Tour Edition (PlayStation VITA)
- 8/10 (DarkZero)
- 7/10 (PlayStation LifeStyle)
- 7.5/10 (IGN)
- 7.6/10 (Computer and VideoGames)
- 8.1/10 (NowGamer)
The classic Dreamcast skate & tag ‘em up game is back! Jet Set Radio
(or: Jet Grind Radio for our American readers) is heading for XBLA & PSN.
Wired reports:
‘Japanese game publishers Capcom, Namco Bandai and SEGA are currently working together on a brand new Nintendo 3DS project, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata said during a “Nintendo Direct” live video presentation on the company’s website Wednesday morning.
While it is unknown what exactly this collaboration is all about or what it means for gamers, it’s likely the three game companies are working on a new videogame that combines various franchises from the key publishers.’
*More pellet dropping action awaits us, as that ker-azy Dreamcast voice-controlled Dreamcast game Seaman is heading for the Nintendo 3DS.
*SEGA posted a launch trailer of Virtua Tennis 4: World Tour Edition.
Sony announced the game will be for sale in their PlayStation Store for €39,99.
*Got a soft spot for SEGA’s mushroom shaped add-on? What about DOOM? $285 of spare change lying around? See ‘Prototypes’ and scoop it up.
*Bionic Commando developer GRIN had a Streets of Rage remake planned.
CRUSH3D (Nintendo 3DS)
- 7/10 (Cubed3)
- 6.8/10 (Games Master UK)
- 7.8/10 (ImpulseGamer)
Virtua Tennis 4: World Tour Edition (PlayStation VITA)
- 7/10 (PlayStation Official Magazine UK)
- 7.6/10 (PSM3 Magazine UK)
- 8/10 (Metro.co.uk)
Another good week for Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games.
This week’s entries in the Full price Top 40:
[#4](+6) Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games
[#27](+6) Sonic Generations
[#29](-9) Football Manager 2012
This week’s entries in the Budget price Top 40:
[#27](-8) Sonic and SEGA All-Stars Racing
DroidGamers reports:
‘Part of SEGA’s Valentine’s Day sale was a game that currently looks to be location and carrier specific. Called Super Monkey Ball 2, this is a classic SEGA game that appears to be heading to the Xperia Play soon thanks to information posted in Sony’s VIP Portal.
Currently available for iOS, which also happens to have all the extra party features like Monkey fight, Monkey Tennis, and Monkey Bowling, we can expect this to be probably a direct port of the iOS version with the exception
of being optimized for the Xperia Play.’
Gamasutra reports:
‘SEGA announced today that it has signed a deal with Index Holdings subsidiary Atlus, that will see SEGA distributing the company’s games in Japan in the near future.
Atlus, best known for its Persona series and the recent, critically acclaimed Catherine, is looking to expands its sales via SEGA’s domestic distribution network. The deal is due to take effect from April 2012 onwards’.
*A playable Binary Domain demo is now available from XBOX Live and PSN.
*Also now available from PSN: The House of the Dead III (game and theme).
*TSSZNews reports: ‘Online COOP confirmed for Sonic 4: episode II‘.
*Sonic CD was the fifth best selling (American) PSN game in January.
*Famitsu Magazine reviewed CRUSH3D and awarded it ratings of 7/7/7 and 6.
*SEGA to debut Guilty Gear XX ^ Core Plus at the AOU later this week.
*Got an Android-operated piece of hardware? Check out Fallen Realms.
*Plastikitty updates us on the latest (SEGAPrize) figurines by SEGA Toys.
VG24/7 posted the first screenshots of Sonic the Hedgehog 4 episode II.
Vendingtimes reports:
‘TOKYO — SEGA Sammy Holdings said its revenues and profits, representing all divisions, were down slightly for the first nine months of the current fiscal year (April 2011 through December 2011). Compared with the same period in 2010, companywide revenues stood at $4 billion, down half a percent, while profit fell 6% to $449 million.
Sales of slot-type machines such as pachinko remained steady, as did domestic Japanese sales of amusement equipment and home videogames. The company’s weak spot remains videogame sales (both coin-op and consumer) in the U.S. and Europe.
Although company officials termed the amusements market “solid,” they also reported net sales down 11.3% and operating income down 40.2% compared with the first nine months of 2010.’