SEGA news (you might be interested)

SEGA
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When the return of the Outrun franchise was announced SEGA Europe instantly contacted SEGA-AM2 for a home version. Although SEGA-AM2 had serious reservations about the popularity of renting games in the western hemisphere, Kats Sato, producer at SEGA Europe had concrete plans for an extended Xbox version that would have so much more longevity than the original from the arcades.

  • In a recent interview with Adam Doree of KIKIZO Games, SEGA president Oguchi confirmed that SEGA would bring back several key franchises to the market. He stated that SEGA Rally 2005 was just the beginning.

Sources indicate that we can look forward to the following titles.
Some haven’t been announced yet though.

The Matrix Online
SEGA Rally 2005
Phantasy Star Universe
Skies of Arcadia 2
Spikeout Xbox Live
Altered Beast
Rez Re-Invention (unconfirmed)
Virtua Fighter Final Tuned (unconfirmed)
New Daytona USA (unconfirmed)
Shining Force (tentative name)
Shining Tears
Super Monkey Ball Deluxe
Shenmue Online
ChuChu Rocket! 2 (unconfirmed)
New Panzer Dragoon (unconfirmed)
New Space Harrier (unconfirmed)
New Guardian Heroes
New Ecco the Dolphin

There is no word about a possible Shenmue 3 or the Sonic franchise. But as SEGA confirmed that the next lineup will contain SEGA’s key franchises we can expect the little hedgehog and Ryo to experience new adventures

  • “We haven’t got enough developers” : SEGA is ready for major aquisitions and mergers in Europe.

Sega to build facility in Yokohama

Ambitious project leads Sega to consider transferring its headquarters from Tokyo.
TOKYO–According to Sega and Kyodo News, Sega will establish a 30 billion yen ($273 million) amusement facility in Yokohama’s Minato Mirai 21 district. The complex is designed to be completed by March 2009. The facility will consist of a nine-story building totaling 63,000 square meters. In addition to its indoor amusement machines and game arcade, Sega also plans to open a movie theater in the facility. The announcement was made today after Yokohama’s municipal government agreed to sell Sega a considerable chunk of city-owned real estate. Reports also state that Sega is considering moving its headquarters to the new building.

Seems that the new SEGA needs more space.
Finally good to see that the company regains strength. And I am relieved that the name “Sammy” will vanish over the time and be replaced by the SEGA brand.

If you want to see SEGA’s Future Plans go here

sega.co.jp/IR/en/cr/pdf/20040917.pdf

If it doesnt work its because you havent got a programme
called “Adobe Reader” installed on their system.

If you cant read it,Here is a Summary

it basicly says
how they plan to become the leader in all feild’s of
there buisnes by 2006
thats
Home Software
Arcades
&
Pachinko michines

they are planning to open more arcades
and have more commercials globaly
and become a big part of online games
Also

All
Arcade’s and Arcade games
will be run under the name SEGA
as will all the home console games

Sammy will run the Pachinko michines side of things
where alot of money comes from.

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Intriguing news. Let’s keep our fingers crossed.

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[quote=“sharky”]New Guardian Heroes
New Ecco the Dolphin[/quote]

hmm…

i remember treasure stating that they would never make a sequel, and so far they have not… maybe this is just a port of GH to one of the new handhelds or something.

i’ve been a long time fan of the ecco series, so it’s good to see that the title hasn’t been completely forgotten at least. i tried to contact appaloosa a while ago to ask what was up with their new title “sole predator” (which had been indefinitely postponed. later i found out they were just securing the jaws license and that it is indeed coming out. anyway, hopefully they’ll set to work on a follow up to defender of the future, or maybe go back to an older styling of ecco.

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Various previews and what not on websites (which have also been linked to in these forums but I can’t bother finding the threads) show that there’s a new set of (3) playable characters so it’s not just a port. Apparently the characters of the old GH make guest appearances (I think as bosses even) as well.

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Advance Gardian Heroes - GBA
Dev - Treause
Pub - UBI Soft

The franchise is SEGA property though

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Ecco the Dolphin was class.

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Hurray ^_^!
(Not gonna get excited over “unconfirmed” things myself :slight_smile:
Ofcourse Phantasy Star Universe, Advance Guardian Heroes and a couple others sound just great too :slight_smile:

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::crosses fingers::

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I loathed Ecco. It was just so annoying when you were progressing really well, then you got squashed, or you ran out of oxygen because you weren’t paying attention, or something like that.

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A new Skies of Arcadia would be great. With less random battles it woul be perfect. Let’s hope.

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Yeah Arcie I remember it was a hella hard game… this was when there was little help in FAQ’s for games, and I don’t think there were any cheats.

I never completed it myself, I was too young for that skill level:

vgmuseum.com/end/genesis/b/ecco.htm

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Wow, I really hope this is true. I’d love a new Skies of Arcadia, Ecco, and Panzer Dragoon.

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Even tho no one really believes the new PD tidbit as any foundation I’m surprised to see no one happy about it to be mentioned!

Always good news even if it’s gossip (sp? :P) since it digs up memories in gamers all around the world; and other people too…

Anyways I would like someone to tell me how people got the unconfirmed names for that list?

How do the rumours start damnit??!

I never know!

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[quote=“GehnTheBerserker”]How do the rumours start damnit??!
I never know![/quote]

it all starts when someone mistakes www.gamedreamz.com for being something other than a compilation of exercises in fiction writing.

ecco was great if you weren’t a sissy >:O really visionary stuff there… really weird… remembers the dark futures in tides of time shudder

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I’d be much happier if some believable details started floating around about it; after all, “a new Panzer Dragoon game” has been rumoured all over the place in the past year, especially in that run-up to E3. There’s always a disappointing lack of real info though, which isn’t a promising sign. It’ll be great if some of the unconfirmed games on that list do turn out to be true, of course; a new PD game would be amazing news, and Sega’s current (confirmed) line-up doesn’t seem to be exciting many people at the moment.

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There is quite a few titles there that are making me grin…

Ecco the Dolphin?

Hell yeah!

That one has been a big favorite of mine, childhood series really. But ah, if only they put the Vortex back in instead of the Foe. The Foe were crappy when compared to Vortex.

David Brin is a good writer, I just did not like the idea of replacing the Asterite with the Guardian and the Vortex with the Foe.

Just thinking about it makes me nostalgic. =D

Megatherium: The dark future in ToT rocked! Although I enjoyed Trellia’s future a bit more. If they do make another game I HOPE it conclused to what happened at the end of ToT. A horrible but mysterious ending.

Arcy: Play it!!! The games are the hardest I have ever played, but now it wonderfully easy because I am so use to it… well except for the Tube of Medusa level in ToT. I still find it frustrating.

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i definitely agree about the guardian/asterite, but i thought the foe were quite similar to the vortex as in i could believe that it was mostly a name change. the queen was impressive though, right?

i think the issue was that the team didn’t think the term “vortex” could be taken seriously in a time other than the early 90s and that dark crystals are cooler than double helixes… helixi… sheep.

as corny as the “stealing dolphins noble traits” was (it’s cooler if you think of it metaphorically, but they actually showed the mystical orbs representing wisdom, compassion, and such…) i really liked how the futures were effected in a logical way by the dolphin’s traits. the first level of the first future was so tragic yet cool… with the sad music and them cool jellay fishes.

for some reason the alien architecture freaked me out when i was a kid; welcome to the machine from the first one made me go insane. trellia and her super-psychic-dolphin kin were cool and i really liked the sky tube levels- i was awestruck (and subsequently frustrated) when i got to the hanging water set of levels in dotf.

i also really liked ToT’s ending. it was so unique for me at the time. up until that point i had come from a schooling where dolphins obeyed the directions given to them by other dolphins, blue whales, and asterites… that ending was liberating. it could be theorized that dotf is actually a legitimate sequel to ToT since ecco could end up just about anywhere. i would still like a visit to the older themes; islands, arctic, atlantis, prehistory…

maybe you’ll appreciate this:

web10.orcaserver.de/ecco/music/dotf/index.php

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I have the first two Ecco games for Sega CD but I’ve never played the Dreamcast one.

They’re really cool though.

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[quote=“Megatherium”]

maybe you’ll appreciate this:

web10.orcaserver.de/ecco/music/dotf/index.php[/quote]

PsySonic runs a good site there. =D

And I really agree with you about Hanging Waters… Beautiful level until you accidently plunge to your death.

And the Man’s nightmare levels were a bit interesting and sad, although with levels with such characters like the Mutaclone were, I think, impressive.

About the Vortex, I think that they are way different than the Foe, the Vortex were eventually beaten for good at the end of ToT, as we know from the ending, the Queen could no longer do anything about the earth was thus was forced to evolve with it naturally.

I could dig even deeper about that but that could be for another discussion.

On a side note:

Sharky: Where did you exactly find this info? =D

Maybe I might have overlooked it?

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but just think of how that could effect history!

i think ecco could definitely stand to go back to the old vortex designs but i’d also like to see them do a three dimensional “the machine” type of level, make better use of metamorphosis, and maybe even some of those forward scrolling warp-hoop levels (a lot more could be done with them if the environments were more elaborate).

are you interested in appaloosa’s “sole predator” aka “jaws”? if you haven’t heard, you play as a shark that is driven mad by oil drilling equipment and then you eat humans. sounds great to me.