Posts Tagged Sonic

Well, well... looks like Sega is taking out the DC and is becoming a developer. Below is more on this breaking story.

Yahoo! Japan News has a report from the Jiji Tsushin (sort of like a Japanese version of the Associated Press) that confirms what many have been expecting: Sega, after battering losses and dwindling Dreamcast market support, will soon begin creating software on the PlayStation 2 platform. According to Jiji, this move is part of a massive company restructuring that will be officially announced before the end of the month. Development for Microsoft's Xbox will also reportedly come under consideration.

When asked for a comment, Heather Hawkins, Marketing Communications Manager for Sega of America, replied, "Our official stance is to not comment on rumors. These are just more of the same [rumors] that have been floating around for a while."

Rumors of imminent earth-shattering events at Sega have run wild for several weeks now -- Sega had to deny that Nintendo was going to buy them after a year-end New York Times report alleged that negotiations were underway. News of Sega's PS2 support had popped up on Japanese game-news sites early Monday, but Jiji is the first reliable source to divulge the info.

And then, later in the day, this was reported...

According to the Nikkei, Sega of Japan will not only make software for other systems, such as the PlayStation 2 and the Game Boy Advance, but also will cease all production of the Dreamcast console by the end of March. Sega will market the machine through fiscal 2001, but will stop once inventory is thoroughly depleted. Despite ceasing production, Sega still will support the system with software in 2001, and expects to release around 100 titles throughout the year (presumably first-and second-party titles). This report also provides more information on Sega's plans to develop for other consoles. The company is reported to have at least five titles in development for the PlayStation 2 and two titles for Nintendo's Game Boy Advance, which launches on March 21 in Japan.

Earlier today, Sega of America Marketing Communications Manager Heather Hawkins told us, "Our stance is to not comment on rumors. These are just more of the same [rumors] that have been floating around for a while." But with multiple reliable Japanese news sources (like Yahoo! Japan, Jiji, Nihon Keizai Shimbun and Nikkei), it seems irrefutable that Sega is indeed abandoning the hardware market and changing its strategy to a multiplatform software approach.

Sega of America will have a more official statement for the press later today. We'll keep you posted.

Well, this is big news, and will soon get much reaction after Sega releases their official statement...

Credit:Gamers.com

SOA representative Heather Hawkins has commented on the situation--that being whether the Sonic Team's PSO will officially support the broadband adapter or not.

Sega would love to offer official BroadBand Support for Phantasy Star Online if they could without compromising the release of the game and/or the quality of the game via BroadBand.

Reasons why we were not able to:

1) In the US, with the numerous companies offering BroadBand, for them to work officially with Phantasy Star Online would cost Sega at least a few months of development time (conservative estimate). Sonic Team wanted this game as a worldwide release, so imagine how this would look if Japan released in December, and the US version released in May. Granted, it's now mid-January, but our intention is to have as close a worldwide release as possible so people from Japan, the US, and Europe can meet online.

2) In Japan, it was simpler to support BroadBand, mostly because there are not many companies there that offer BroadBand support, making it a whole lot easier to test and have the ability to support it 100%. In the US, there are numerous companies that offer BroadBand support, and the time to insure that all the BroadBand specifications worked with the US version would delay the release of Phantasy Star Online (see above). If you can't deliver something, you better not to promise it. With that in mind, Sega of America does not want to promise something it feels it could not deliver 100%.

3) Quake III was developed to work with BroadBand support at the beginning of its development, Phantasy Star Online was not. It's a simplification, but ask a programmer how easy it would be to add a true 3D model to a 2D game, if it wasn't planned upon at the beginning of the project. It would be doable, but it would take time. That's the situation Phantasy Star Online was in. So yes, if you look at it, time was a consideration. Because Phantasy Star Online was not built upon supporting BroadBand in the beginning of its development, it would take time to completely support BroadBand officially that would not allow us to release the game in a timely fashion in the US (Time to add extra code, time to test the code, time to debug the code, time to test the code...).

If there are people out there that don't feel inclined to buy Phantasy Star Online because it does not offer BroadBand Support, that's their decision. I just wanted to make it clear that Sega of America is not trying to give any one the "runaround" that people seem to be talking about here. Sega of America wants to offer what it can without compromising quality. Should you settle for less?

Despite a delay of around two weeks, highly successful fan-comic Other-M launches its 7th issue today. As a bonus for its late arrival time, a new feature is added to the end of the issue.

Other-M

SonicTeam have released info and pictures of 4 new applications. NiGHTS into Dreams, Chu Chu Rocket Puzzle, Chu Chu Edit, and Samba De Amigo. Although hard to determin exactly WHAT these Sonic Cafe games are for (NTT DoCoMo Co.... 503i series.. sounds like a colour mobile phone, is it related to the making of Motorola phone Sonic Games?) They look darn cool. now if only VMU versions were released ^__^.

NiGHTS Into Dreams game seems to be a take on the classic "Snake" game found in most mobile phones. you collect the gems, and you seem to be able to circle around the NiGHTMaren. The Growing "Snake" is the row of light that follows NiGHTS. Chu Chu Rocket Puzzle and Edit seem to be your basic Normal Puzzle game of Chu Chu. Where you must get all Chu Chu (mice) into the rockets without getting hurt by Kapu Kapus (Cats). Edit would be to create your own Puzzles. Samba De Amigo is.. well Samba De Amigo. you listen to music, and push in the correct button for when the blue balls go into their rings. Downloadable Songs are also downloadable after.

At the moment, they seem to be free-to-download on your 503i phone (doesn't seem to show where, and it's a Japanese Phone), and when it turns 4th of Feburary you'll have to pay 300 yen to keep it (3 bucks) per month. They'll be downloadable January 26th.

Source: Sonic Team.com

View E-lingo translation here

SonicTeam.com have release their latest Wallpaper offering! Much like the original Sonic Adventure game, he also has a new "phrase" about him

A Quick bolt of lightning, and Sonic's his name,
He helps the needdy- thats Sonic's game!
Speed is his glory, it's what he does best,
Sonic's the fastest north, south, east & west.

1280x1024 BMP (333KB)

800x600 BMP (553KB)

Long has it been promised and well before Sony has made its broadband a reality, SEGA has released its broadband adapter for the Dreamcast. The following is a quote from the Gaming Intellegence Agency:

After months of anticipation, the Dreamcast Broadband Adapter is finally available at Sega's online store. The adapter allows gamers to connect with any existing Ethernet, DSL, or Cable network. Though only a few of the system's networkable games are supported, the highly anticipated Phantasy Star Online will be one of the first marquee titles to take advantage of the Adapter's broadband capabilities.

Source: The Gaming Intellegence Agency

Now HERE'S something to see. A "behind the scenes" video footage of Sonic Team's trip to South America that was found on the video of the unveiling of Sonic Adventure that Mr. Naka had sent me last year. I'm planning on re-recording this video to include footage at the beginning of the segment that I missed. (I had recorded in AVI and had cut out the beginning in fear of memory problems, but now I KNOW I can record the whole segment), so look for news on that soon. BTW, the video is in Real, so you'll need RealPlayer 8 to play it, which you can get here .

Right Click to Download 2.60 MB

From Zophar's Domain comes news that yes, a System 32 emulator is being built-- and progressing too! I repeat from Zophar's news page:

"17:08: Well, the Impact site is back up wityh news of a Linux port of Impact and Modeler. As far as Modeler goes, it was updated to version 0.0.5. Here's what's new and changed: New in this release is preliminary Sega Model 1 emulation with support for Virtua Fighter, Virtua Racing and Star Wars but none of them are playable yet since the 3d graphics isn't emulated. Screenshots are available in the modeler section. Note: The System 32 emulation is disabled in this release. Please read the requests listed at the end of textfile included and see if you can help. You can download both the new vesrsion of Modeler and the old System 32 version of it from the Multiple Arcade Emulators section. Thanks to bwb for the awesome news."

What does this mean? Well, obviously one is progressing, but the folks working on it need help! If you think you can give some help, please check out the Modeler Website and see what you can do!

Source: Zophar's Domain

A new video was taken from SA2 demo. It's one that IGN did NOT post (nor anyone else for that matter), but it shows more on the mysterious dark Sonic. The file is a MPEG zipped up at 13.8 megs.

Click here to download

SOURCE: Atlantiscity.net Sonic Fan Website Hosting

Gosh, Sonic Team must be busy. Now theres talk of SA3. Apparently, Sega let slip. Find out more at Sonic Sages At this rate, we'll be playing Sonic Adventure 4 in, oh, a year's time!