News July

July 31, 1996

Legend of Oasis has been Released

Legend of Oasis has arrived in stores, today July 31, 1996.

More News on Pepsi Man

Expanding their Pepsi theme in the Japanese incarnation of Fighting Vipers, Sega is including a new character in the Saturn version: Pepsiman. Pepsiman is Pepsi of Japan’s new metallic mascot who appears in several recent TV commercials produced by Skywalker Ranch-based Industrial Light & Magic. No screen shots have been shown, but AM2 has stated that most, if not all, of Pepsiman’s attacks and motions will be “borrowed” from other Fighting Vipers characters. In other Sega product-placement news, Tokio will apparently wear a watch popular with Japanese teenagers called the “Albaspoon” in the game’s intro. Note: News of Pepsi Man was first broke on Eidolon Gamer’s Society in it’s Nippon! section.
from Game Fan Online

Daytona CCE News

Daytona CCE is due to be unveiled to the press in the next month or so. Improvements on the original Daytona are said to include a higher graphical resolution as a result of using the latest in Sega’s graphics library. Perhaps more impressive is the game’s supposed speed – up to 30 frames per second. Three more tracks have been added as well as the ability to create your own. Plus there’s a two-player split-screen option and, as widely predicted, X-Band compatibility.
from Next Generation Online

July 30, 1996

Sega Soft Announces New Brand

SegaSoft, Inc., the independent interactive entertainment developer, today announced the launch of a new brand, Jack Hammer, and three initial action titles: Three Dirty Dwarves, MetalWerks and Emperor of the Fading Suns.

Enix Saturn Game

Quintet, the developers of seminal Super Famicom/SNES titles such as Soul Blazer, ActRaiser, and Illusion of Gaia, have announced that they are working on a Saturn Action RPG with a theme of “Creative Action.” This sounds similar to their last effort, an SFC ARPG (which will be released this year in Europe by Nintendo, where it will be titled Terranigma) called Tenchi Sozo. It is currently unclear whether the game will be published by Enix, Sega, or Quintet themselves.
from Game Fan Online

July 29, 1996

Tetris Announced for the Saturn

Tetris Plus has been announced for the Sega Saturn for a 3rd Quarter ’96 release. It will have an estimated retail price of $49.99. Tetris Plus will feature four modes of play, includes four modes of play, including “Classic Tetris,” the version of the game that skyrocketed its Russian inventor, Alexey Pajitnov, to fame. “Tetris Plus” also comes with two puzzle modes.

July 27, 1996

Sega and Capcom Pinball Merger

Sega and Capcom, yesterday, announced that they intend to merge the pinball business of Sega Pinball, Inc. and Capcom Coin-op, Inc. There are no details as to the time the deal will begin, or the structure of the deal. The merger should benefit both parties involved, by giving the new company a stronger market position, with the combination of both companies facilities and staff.
from Game Fan Online

July 26, 1996

Sega Rally Plus

Sega is working on a network version of Sega Rally for it’s upcoming Net Link peripheral. The game will be named Sega Rally Plus.
from NG Online

July 25, 1996

Marvel Super Heroes use of 8mbit Cart Not official

There has been NO confirmation on MSH using the 8MB RAM cart whatsoever. It is understandable that there could have been some confusion (in the Saturn Fan) because there is a picture of Marvel Super Heroes under the section talking about the 8MB RAM cart. It clearly stated that Capcom was just thinking about it. Although, it does seem very likely, if the cart does penetrate a lot of homes.
from JAMMA

Sega Looking To MidEast

Sega Enterprises Ltd., said Thursday that it has contracted with a Dubai-based company in a bid to sharply increase sales in the Middle East. Sega said it hopes in the first year to boost annual sales in the region about 10 times to around 500 million yen, or about $4.6 million. It is shooting for annual sales of 5 billion yen by the year 2000.

July 24, 1996

Miscellaneous Saturn News and Rumors

Mech Warrior 2 has been announced for the Saturn, by Activision. ID4 the Game has been announced for the Saturn by Fox Interactive. ID4 is, of course, based on the hit summer movie Independance Day starring ‘great special fx’. The Saturn translation of Virtua Fighter 3 will use the 8 mbit RAM cart (the VF3 info is from Dustin’s Page).

July 23, 1996

Japanese Saturn Releases

The following titles have been recently released in Japan: Virtua Fighter Kids 7/20, Tokimeki Special 7/20. Langrisser 3 should arrive around the 30th of July in Japan.

Vectorman Movie License

Sega of America Inc. Monday announced that it has entered into a deal with Los Angeles-based Ideal Entertainment Inc. for the motion- picture, television and merchandising rights to the top-selling Sega video game “VectorMan.”

Ideal Entertainment will initially produce a computer-animated sci-fi/action film for theatrical release in late ’97 in association with Tribaltek, a team of acclaimed digital-effects producers on the current blockbuster hit “Independence Day” who are overseeing the

Toy Story”-like 3-D rendering of characters and environments based on the popular Sega Genesis video game.

We’re excited that Ideal and the digital wizards from `Independence Day’ are taking `VectorMan’ from the Genesis to the silver screen and beyond,” Shinobu Toyoda, general manager of licensing for Sega of America, said. “ `VectorMan’s’ characters, story line and visual imagery are the perfect foundation for an action-packed entertainment franchise.”

Sega PICO School Bus

The colorful interactive PICO School Bus, which travels the roads of America each year, will stop and visit the Carnegie Science Center and Three Rivers Regatta/Point State Park. Shuttling loads of award-winning PICO systems and new storyware, the roving edutainment center showcases creative high-tech approaches to teaching 3-7 year olds how to count, spell, solve problems, match and use hand-eye coordination skills.

Sega of America offers families in Pittsburgh a hands-on look at PICO, their highly acclaimed learning edutainment system for children. Up to 14 PICO Interactives will be displayed around the colorful PICO bus, featuring fun storyware such as Disney’s “101 Dalmatians,” “Smart Alex and Smart Alice” and Sonic the Hedgehog’s first Pico appearance in “Sonic’s Game World” plus costumed Pico characters.

July 21, 1996

Capcom Saturn News

According to the latest issue of Saturn Fan, the Japanese release date for Street Fighter Zero 2 is August 26th. Also mentioned was that Capcom’s first game to make use of the 8 megabit memory cart by SNK, will be Marvel Super Heroes.
from Michael Lit

July 18, 1996

Saturn New Releases

Decathlete arrived in stores, yesterday, July 17, 1996. (correction: earlier I today I had World Series Baseball listed as a release for the Saturn, but that was actually for the Genesis, sorry).

July 16, 1996

Sega Appoints New Boss

Sega of America Inc. Monday announced that Shoichiro Irimajiri has been appointed chairman and chief executive officer.

In addition, Sega announced that Bernard Stolar, previously of Sony Computer Entertainment America, has joined the company as executive vice president, responsible for product development and third-party business. Stolar will also sit on the board of directors of SOA.

These appointments complete SOA’s seasoned executive management team, which with Irimajiri at the head, is responsible for Sega’s business in North America.

In addition to Irimajiri and Stolar, the executive management team includes recently promoted Ted Hoff, executive vice president, sales and marketing, Katsufumi Miyazawa, chief financial officer, and Makoto Kaneshiro, vice president, business planning and operations.

As chief executive officer, Irimajiri replaces Tom Kalinske, formerly president and chief executive officer, who has announced he is leaving Sega after six years to join Education Technology LLC. Kalinske will remain at Sega until Sept. 30, 1996, and will remain a member of SOA’s board of directors.

Sega also announced that Hayao Nakayama and David Rosen have resigned as chairman and co-chairman of Sega of America, respectively. Nakayama, Sega Enterprises Ltd.’s president and chief executive officer, remains as chairman of the board of directors for Sega Holdings USA Inc. Rosen retains his directorship in Sega Enterprises and Sega Holdings.

Irimajiri, who retains his position as representative director and executive vice president of Sega Enterprises, Sega of America’s parent company, has been actively involved in the company’s North American business since he joined Sega in 1993.

“We are sorry to see Tom leave Sega, but he has left us in a strong position in the marketplace,” said Irimajiri. “I am excited to be taking a more active role at Sega of America now. We’re looking forward to an extremely favorable holiday season.”

Prior to joining Sega Enterprises, Irimajiri served almost 30 years at Honda Motor Corp.; serving more than four years as president and chief executive officer of Honda of America, where he led the way for Japanese car makers into U.S. manufacturing.

Stolar, with more than 18 years of industry experience, joins Sega from Sony Computer Entertainment America, where he served as executive vice president and was one of the key executives responsible for the launch of the Sony Playstation videogame system.

In addition to his position at Sega of America, Stolar will also serve as executive vice president and chief operating officer of Sega Entertainment Inc., the joint-venture company of Sega of America and SOFTBANK Holdings Inc., formed to develop PC CD-ROM software based on Sega properties.

In a related move, Sega announced that Shinobu Toyoda will devote more time to Sega Entertainment in his capacity as president and chief executive officer in order to help grow the PC business. Toyoda will serve as executive advisor to the chairman and general manager of licensing for Sega of America.

Sega also announced that Ted Hoff has been promoted to executive vice president of sales and marketing for Sega of America. Hoff had held the titles of senior vice president of sales and marketing since joining the company in March 1996.

Sega of America is the arm of Tokyo-based Sega Enterprises Ltd. responsible for the development, marketing and distribution of Sega videogames in the Americas. Sega Enterprises is a nearly $3.6 billion company recognized as the industry leader in interactive digital entertainment media, and is the only company that offers interactive entertainment experiences both inside and outside the home.

Enix for Saturn

Rumors of Enix joining the Saturn camp have a long history. Most recently, Enix has claimed that they’d consider supporting any system that has sold 3,000,000 units in Japan, a mark Sega is within a few hundred thousand of reaching. Insiders have also theorized that Sega’s sudden decision to forbid porn titles from being released on the Saturn (after opening the doors to them less than six months earlier) was part of a deal to lure Enix over.

Now, the deal seems finally to have happened. The 7/26 issue of Saturn Magazine includes a carefully worded statement on the topic. They claim that a “certain E company” (and I don’t think they’re talking about Electrobrain), is expected to announce the newest sequel to a “certain famous title,” which will reportedly be released this summer. Speculation is centering around a new Actraiser title.

Furthermore, they suggest another rumor, that a very familiar “E company” RPG series may appear on the Saturn. This could be a new game in Quintet’s Soulblazer/Illusion of Gaia/Tenchi Sozo series, or Produce’s Elnard [7th Saga]/Mystic Ark series, but speculation is, of course, currently centering on Dragon Quest. The first and possibly the second title will be announced in the next issue of Saturn Magazine, due out in less than 2 weeks.
from GF Online

Sega and Compaq deal

-Sega Entertainment Inc., a leading publisher of arcade-style software for the PC, and Compaq Computer Corporation today announced a multilevel partnership that will bring stunning arcade- quality 3D game titles to Compaq home personal computers. This marks the first partnership between world leaders in the gaming, entertainment and home computing industries.