News Sega Announces new Jet Set Radio, Streets of Rage, Crazy Taxi, Golden Axe, and Shinobi; More to be announced

[Thunder84]

This... there is a specific audience that has nostalgia for those properties, but those are not the marketable mascot properties nintendo has, and it is quite a while since they where really in the eye of the mainstream and not just in collections or games marketed at old fans.

I wish them good luck,. but they cant relly on their history. They really need to sell this to a new audience, to stand in this new landscape. And they need new ips that connect to their heritage but make it more mass market compatible. This seems to hinge to much onto their legacy.

If you had told anyone that a game like Hi-Fi Rush would be a hit in 2023, this would’ve been the same sentiment. If the games are good, they’ll attract sales and positive attention, and you build the IPs from there. There’s always a market for high quality games.

As long as Sega doesn’t function under the assumption that these will be mega hits, I don’t see how this can be spun as a bad thing at all. Sega’s got more than enough going on with their other IPs right now to say they’re relying entirely on their history. It’s the perfect time to bring these games back, while their other premiere franchises continue to flourish (or try to, in Sonic’s case).

 

[ItWasMeantToBe19]

Hi-Fi was a near 90 Metacritic game that was free on a subscription service.

These games... are the subscription service... or something? And they're from Sega.

 

[ILikeFeet]

By "The Beast" do you mean profit expectations due to them being publicly traded and with large shareholders they are beholden to?

I've always been curious what RoI is deemed acceptable for a company like Sega, much less Nintendo. I def respect that they have limits to their resources, both internal manpower as well as annual development budget overall.

Looking at Street's of Rage 4 sales I was surprised to see it hit 2.5+ million units. Surely a massive success by any of their estimated sales scenarios? While at a lower sales price, that figure heartens me as to what a well-executed Golden Axe could do, the title I had the lowest expectation for out of what was revealed.

We have already seen strong market support for really good 2D action-adventure games, at least in the $20-30 pricing range (if you are not Nintendo). I suspect Shinobi will be priced higher than that tho.

Crazy Taxi is the one with the highest ceiling from the trailer, in my opinion. If its awesome, and touts a strong online multiplayer component, look out

One more thought just occurred to me, I wonder if the Microsoft GamePass also helps encourage publishers like Sega by mitigating risk with the promise of an upfront sum? Maybe the trailer games have already been locked in for day one GP?

yea, I mean the company at large. it's kinda why "smaller" games are getting fewer and more far in-between for some companies

Streets of Rage 4 isn't Sega's game, which is why you don't hear about it from them. they licensed the IP out, as they've been doing with other IPs. their successes is probably what helped make this push

funny you bring up Gamepass because that's getting close to being an albatross around Phil Spencer's neck

 

[Aether]

If you had told anyone that a game like Hi-Fi Rush would be a hit in 2023, this would’ve been the same sentiment. If the games are good, they’ll attract sales and positive attention, and you build the IPs from there. There’s always a market for high quality games.

Sure but even as much as a hit hifi rush was, it was not that huge of a mwgahit.
A quick Google search shows steam stats of 600k, an article of 2M plays and "Microsoft not being happy", that seems to me like a "moderate" 1+M sales?
Is sega is aiming for that, then I totally can see that with good promotion and gameplay. If the are aiming for AAA numbers...then I see dark.

As long as Sega doesn’t function under the assumption that these will be mega hits, I don’t see how this can be spun as a bad thing at all. Sega’s got more than enough going on with their other IPs right now to say they’re relying entirely on their history. It’s the perfect time to bring these games back, while their other premiere franchises continue to flourish (or try to, in Sonic’s case).

Yeah. As long as they have the right assumptions about the reach/audience.

I see long-term huge growth potential for sega with theyr style in today's landscape, but only with a reasonable "slow" start. And I hope it works.

 

[ItWasMeantToBe19]

I'm pretty sure Sega believes these games are a "Super Game" that they're basing their entire future on.

Jet Set and Crazy Taxi were specifically rumored to be "Super Games" when it seems like they're actually just part of one "Super Game"

It's probably a Sega metaverse thing where the new content are these games.

 

[batfax]

Sounds like a lot of speculation that hinges on negative things being true with no basis on anything that's actually been said. Even the speculation on "Super Game" is entirely based on stuff that SEGA's never actually used to describe them and where the hell is this talk of a metaverse or app or some shit coming from? I dunno how the idea of just releasing multiple games that range from repeating previous successes (Shinobi probably being another Lizardcube joint) and big budget in-house games like JSR needs a lot of weird new theories.

 

[Aether]

i have never played any of these as i think they are pre-my generation for relevancy but they all looked great! especially shinobi and that medieval lookin game.

don't understand the crazy taxi hype, though. looks so... generic city driving sim?

Others have mentioned it. But to have it t mentioned again: it's an arcade game throug and through. Goody, not realistic, and huge potential to be a justvtun game with great streamer potential if they lean into the zany stuff. If it's just an arcade racer then yeah, to boring.

Step One: Make good-ass video games. Then worry about "IP strength", "mass market fit" or "social impressions".

Lots of criticism that established publishers have become too conservative, favoring only the proven money-makers. I applaud Sega for identifying opportunities for really fun video games that can piggy-back off classic IP and then going for it with the right partner devs and realistic expectations.

Proper expectations: The appetite for legacy-based new content is healthy, but obviously you are not expecting multi-platinum mega-hits. It doesn't always have to be home-runs to cultivate a successful portfolio.

Not long ago Streets of Rage was "old news bygone-IP". Then a good developer made a good-ass video game, and Streets of Rage was a smashing success for its relative scope.

Heck, even a maybe-not-so-good developer channeled some righteous passion into a Sega remake project, and tho results were mixed, it performed well enough that a sequel (remake) was subsequently green-lit. (We in the 2020s and Panzer Dragoon of all IPs lives y'all!)

I would give you 100% if it wasn't a publisher of the old times that hyped the announcement with it's legacy. It's investor money expectations. It's not just an cool develop wanting to make games. In this game, IP strength and mass market got are values and directly impact the budget and green lighting of games.

Still: if they focus on great games, there is a high chance that they will work. But the games they where known for (arcade hits) are kinda .. the "lightning in a bottle" formula, less so the "much work and hard but milkable" one. Meaning:
There are tons of games that work great for the first and second installments but where the mechanics can't keep it up for more instalments , just as the gimick / presentation.

Of the presented I see the potential as follows(without big formula change):
Cracy taxy for 1-3 more games,
Sinoby: continuous low to mid game sales (sub hollow knight)
Streets of range: no idea
Jet set radio: 2 more

 

[ItWasMeantToBe19]

Sounds like a lot of speculation that hinges on negative things being true with no basis on anything that's actually been said. Even the speculation on "Super Game" is entirely based on stuff that SEGA's never actually used to describe them and where the hell is this talk of a metaverse or app or some shit coming from? I dunno how the idea of just releasing multiple games that range from repeating previous successes (Shinobi probably being another Lizardcube joint) and big budget in-house games like JSR needs a lot of weird new theories.

Why would Sega enter and announce a large cloud contract with Microsoft Azure for "Super Game" if it wasn't a metaverse or app thing.

All the games bizarrely being announced at once with two of them being already reported as being part of the "Super Game" project makes me strongly suspicious that this is a Roblox competitor.

 

[ILikeFeet]

Why would Sega enter and announce a large cloud contract with Microsoft Azure for "Super Game" if it wasn't a metaverse or app thing.

because a lot of things rely on cloud services. Nintendo is using AWS for example.

looking back at the announcement, it's pretty vague. could be just basic online game services as well as cloud-based development environments. they also mentioned super game stuff, but it's more widely encompassing still

SEGA Corporation

News information regarding the SEGA Corporation can be found here.

www.sega.co.jp

 

[9-Volt]

Why would Sega enter and announce a large cloud contract with Microsoft Azure for "Super Game" if it wasn't a metaverse or app thing.

All the games bizarrely being announced at once with two of them being already reported as being part of the "Super Game" project makes me strongly suspicious that this is a Roblox competitor.

There's nothing bizarre about this reveal. That GaaS rumor about Crazy Taxi and JSR was baseless to begin with. Sega has already been licensing out their IP's for others to use (Switch got Panzer Dragoon, House of the Dead, SoR4, Alex Kidd and tons of Monster Boy games) and now they're much more aggressive about this.

 

[JazzyFuture]

Why would Sega enter and announce a large cloud contract with Microsoft Azure for "Super Game" if it wasn't a metaverse or app thing.

All the games bizarrely being announced at once with two of them being already reported as being part of the "Super Game" project makes me strongly suspicious that this is a Roblox competitor.

Microsoft Azure is used in PSO2 for networking stuff, I'm sure it'll be used in Crazy Taxi (and was probably planned for Hyenas) cause it's multiplayer, but Metaverse is just a shareholder buzzword that means nothing.
Even in Sega's financial briefing they basically just said "we don't really know what Metaverse means but we have some multiplayer service games planned so sure I guess we're doing that".

Jet Set Radio from the very little we've seen of it has not a single hint of it being multiplayer so personally I doubt it being a super game, even if maybe it was possibly planned as one. Just looks like a single player game from probably RGG Studio considering Sega mentioned original team members would be working on it (which we could have guessed by Ueda joining Sega again).

 

[ItWasMeantToBe19]

Microsoft Azure is used in PSO2 for networking stuff, I'm sure it'll be used in Crazy Taxi (and was probably planned for Hyenas) cause it's multiplayer, but Metaverse is just a shareholder buzzword that means nothing.
Even in Sega's financial briefing they basically just said "we don't really know what Metaverse means but we have some multiplayer service games planned so sure I guess we're doing that".

Jet Set Radio from the very little we've seen of it has not a single hint of it being more than multiplayer so personally I doubt it being a super game, even if maybe it was possibly planned as one. Just looks like a single player game from probably RGG Studio considering Sega mentioned original team members would be working on it (which we could have guessed by Ueda joining Sega again).

No, the idea isn't the games being multiplayer themselves, but it being a multiplayer thing like Playstation Home where you can access these various games from the Playstation Home thing.

 

[RealUncleNintendo]

Golden Axe!

 

[batfax]

A lot of regular-ass games rely on cloud services for online features. Granted, it's very possible that one or two could be GaaS or something, but the whole line-up doesn't need to be. Nothing about Shinobi screams "I'm part of a special, exclusive service supported by The Cloud." It says "You liked SoR4 and WonderBoy? Then get ready as Lizardcube does it again!"

The idea of a PlayStation Home-like thing is the wildest nonsense of a stretch I've heard. Why on earth would they do that? Why would anyone? The biggest companies in the world are loudly failing at that concept.

 

[JazzyFuture]

No, the idea isn't the games being multiplayer themselves, but it being a multiplayer thing like Playstation Home where you can access these various games from the Playstation Home thing.

Yeah, can't see that.
Even with something like that happening recently with Fortnite, Rocket Racing, Lego Fortnite and Fortnite Festival with a company more vocal about metaverse stuff, I don't think the games look similar enough to be under one umbrella. Even with one of the "Super Games" it was on it's own from every other Sega series before it was cancelled. I don't think it'll be a hub for Golden Axe and Streets of Rage 5 and Crazy Taxi just cause they're all multiplayer, and I can see Crazy Taxi definitely being F2P with like battle passes and stuff.

Then you have stuff like Jet Set Radio and Shinobi that definitely look like standalone releases, Shinobi especially, that's gonna be like 25 bucks on it's own like Streets of Rage 4. JSR will probably be 60/70 dollars on it's own too.

 

[Krvavi Abadas]

this reminded me of the failed "SEGA Reborn" project that ended up killing SEGA Studios Australia.

Seems that the studio pitched for a series of remakes, most notably ‘Golden Axe’ and all to be in a new label called ‘SEGA Reborn’. That’s not all though, the company thought that all these classics should take place in the same universe. Yes, we are talking about Marvel movie treatment with retro games. That would mean that a game like Out Run takes place hundreds of years after Golden Axe.

Much like its remake of Castle of Illusion, they where open to going in and adding new content and fixing issues the originals had. Some of the other games they talked about remaking included Streets of Rage and Shinobi.

i'd imagine a few of the titles (particularly the 2D Shinobi game) will make it out, but not all of them are going to survive outside of SEGA randomly publicly sharing their prototypes several years after they get canned.

 

[Lugia667]

please no more fucking sub services..

 

[ngpdrew]

please no more fucking sub services..

I agree, but the idea that these are apart of a service seems like a reach.

 

[switchum]

I’m happy for SEGA fans; really cool announcement! Does this mean a new Monkey Ball could be on the horizon?

 

[Jahranimo]

I’m happy for SEGA fans; really cool announcement! Does this mean a new Monkey Ball could be on the horizon?

Yes! Heck to me the SMB Banana Mania release two years ago shows that Sega has a good number of folks there from the OG games that still have an interest.

 

[chocolate_supra]

cmon Sega

he's out there waiting

he obviously wants to make more entries in some of the old series, look what he's been doing lately

he just needs some help and a good team behind him

you aughta do it

call Yu Suzuki

 

[N75]

There's nothing bizarre about this reveal. That GaaS rumor about Crazy Taxi and JSR was baseless to begin with. Sega has already been licensing out their IP's for others to use (Switch got Panzer Dragoon, House of the Dead, SoR4, Alex Kidd and tons of Monster Boy games) and now they're much more aggressive about this.

I think there's a difference between those licensing deals you mentioned and the games shown in this trailer. Sega had virtually nothing to do with the former, where in this case it's pretty clear that the titles are being published/funded by them.

Bloomberg already reported on Crazy Taxi and Jet Set Radio returning almost two years ago and you can even see someone playing as a cop in the Crazy Taxi footage, so those two being "super games" wouldn't surprise me.

I do think they're all separate projects though and not something like the new Fortnite games.

 

[JazzyFuture]

I think there's a difference between those licensing deals you mentioned and the games shown in this trailer. Sega had virtually nothing to do with the former, where in this case it's pretty clear that the titles are being published/funded by them.

I dunno I think Lizardcube making a new Shinobi game is pretty fair to be compared to Lizardcube making a new Streets of Rage (and making a design for Axel that is also seen in this trailer cause there's Streets of Rage 5)

 

[N75]

I dunno I think Lizardcube making a new Shinobi game is pretty fair to be compared to Lizardcube making a new Streets of Rage (and making a design for Axel that is also seen in this trailer cause there's Streets of Rage 5)

Difference is that Sega just licensed Streets of Rage to DotEmu/Lizardcube and more or less left them to it. Streets of Rage 4 did well, so it makes sense to keep certain aspects of it.

I would be surprised if Sega isn't publishing Shinobi.

 

[Lugia667]

sooooooooooooo is all of this in-house by the way?

 

[ILikeFeet]

sooooooooooooo is all of this in-house by the way?

JSR and Crazy Taxi are most in-house as far as we know

Shinobi looks like Lizardcube

Golden Axe and Streets of Rage are unknown

 

[9-Volt]

sooooooooooooo is all of this in-house by the way?

Streets of Rage and Shinobi seem to be Lizardcube, people who made Streets of Rage 4.

We'll find out what are the devs of the rest but I don't think any of these in-house. Forever said they would reveal more Sega remakes before the year ends, some of these could be from them. Though Crazy Taxi doesn't look like a remake at all.

 

[ILovethegameAC]

This is very cool. I personally don't like to get excited on game announcements until they give enough details, at least since the release our good old friend Star Fox Zero which dissapointed me, but I hope these games are all good.

 

[chocolate_supra]

sooooooooooooo is all of this in-house by the way?

I say this as a lifelong unabashed Sega fan:

I sorta hope not.

 

[Harpoon]

Streets of Rage and Shinobi seem to be Lizardcube, people who made Streets of Rage 4.

We'll find out what are the devs of the rest but I don't think any of these in-house. Forever said they would reveal more Sega remakes before the year ends, some of these could be from them. Though Crazy Taxi doesn't look like a remake at all.

I don't think Lizardcube's involved with Streets of Rage, their focus is on 2D games (to the point that their official website explicitly says this) and their teasing about their third game over the past few years suggests they're only working on one thing right now (AKA Shinobi). I don't think they even have the staff to be working on more than one game. Guard Crush Games, one of SoR4's other devs, might be working on it though.

 

[Tyrien]

Games don't even have websites up yet

 

[Party Sklar]

Streets of Rage and Shinobi seem to be Lizardcube, people who made Streets of Rage 4.

 

[Krvavi Abadas]

* Hidden text: cannot be quoted. *

 

[chocolate_supra]

Sega confirmed "the original creators" of JSR are involved in the new game:

Jet Set Radio's Original Creators Are "Involved" In The Reboot, Says Sega Of America CEO

"its time is now"

www.nintendolife.com

The exact quote is extremely PR-ish, but is as follows:

The concept of games like ‘Jet Set Radio’ is advanced. The original creators are involved again, and its time is now. It’s a good time where people can appreciate all kinds of concepts.

But it's something at least! And there may be a lot more info in the WaPo article that NintendoLife is referencing but it's paywalled so

 

[chocolate_supra]

 

[ITSMILNER]

I played Christmas NIGHTS last night on my Series X and it gave me warm and fuzzy SEGA feelings, makes me even more excited for these games and what’s to come!

 

[Dardan Sandiego]

Sega confirmed "the original creators" of JSR are involved in the new game:

Jet Set Radio's Original Creators Are "Involved" In The Reboot, Says Sega Of America CEO

"its time is now"

www.nintendolife.com

The exact quote is extremely PR-ish, but is as follows:

But it's something at least! And there may be a lot more info in the WaPo article that NintendoLife is referencing but it's paywalled so

Why does that sentence read like it was written/translated by AI lol

 

[Adulfzen]

Shinobi looks so damn wonderful.

Almost certainly by the same team/developers (LizardCube) who worked on Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap and Street of Rage 4 so this is highly promising as not only their games are beautiful but also highly responsive and nice to play.

Out of all the projects they showed, I have the most confidence in this one being a banger.

 

[Aostia82]

just call the Super Project: DREAMCAST 2.0 and I'm in.

 

[JazzyFuture]

Sega confirmed "the original creators" of JSR are involved in the new game:

Jet Set Radio's Original Creators Are "Involved" In The Reboot, Says Sega Of America CEO

"its time is now"

www.nintendolife.com

The exact quote is extremely PR-ish, but is as follows:

But it's something at least! And there may be a lot more info in the WaPo article that NintendoLife is referencing but it's paywalled so

There's even a full video (in Japanese with no translation sadly) about JSR3's team over here.
https://www.sega.co.jp/recruit/episode/episode12/

Ryuta Ueda is the art director, while Masayoshi Kikuchu is the director, just like with JSR and Future.

EDIT: Revealed in the video but not on the site, they also have Tomonori Sawada, lead composer of Sonic Riders and contributor to the JSR and JSRF soundtracks under the alias Toronto, working on the music for this game. Which is why they used Electric Tooth Brush for the entire video, I guess.

 

[chocolate_supra]

Why does that sentence read like it was written/translated by AI lol

I mean...
Are we confident Sega of America 's CEO isn't an AI?

There's even a full video (in Japanese with no translation sadly) about JSR3's team over here.
https://www.sega.co.jp/recruit/episode/episode12/

Ryuta Ueda is the art director, while Masayoshi Kikuchu is the director, just like with JSR and Future.

EDIT: Revealed in the video but not on the site, they also have Tomonori Sawada, lead composer of Sonic Riders and contributor to the JSR and JSRF soundtracks under the alias Toronto, working on the music for this game. Which is why they used Electric Tooth Brush for the entire video, I guess.

yeeesssssss

 

[Brofield]

Finally saw the trailer.

Yeah, Sega cooked. I'm hyped for all five and whatever else may be in the pipeline. I hope Crazy Taxi is sooner rather than later; Cruis'n Blast unlocked something feral in me for a goofy ass 90s arcade racer and seeing as that 90s Arcade Racer game from Kickstarter nearly ten years ago is still dead in the water, I could definitely use something like this to scratch that itch

 

[9-Volt]

Sega renewed trademark for 8 more series. Could be just routine renewals but it's worth nothing all 5 recently announced games are among the renewals. There are some interesting ones including Alex Kidd and Kid Chameleon...

 

[chocolate_supra]

Sega renewed trademark for 8 more series. Could be just routine renewals but it's worth nothing all 5 recently announced games are among the renewals. There are some interesting ones including Alex Kidd and Kid Chameleon...

A new Alex Kidd in the year of our Lorde 2024 would be nuts

 

[ceres15]

Sega renewed trademark for 8 more series. Could be just routine renewals but it's worth nothing all 5 recently announced games are among the renewals. There are some interesting ones including Alex Kidd and Kid Chameleon...

If they do another Monkey Ball, they had better figure out the physics better than the remake from a couple years ago. It just didn't feel as good to play compared to the GameCube versions.

 

[Harpoon]

Sega renewed trademark for 8 more series. Could be just routine renewals but it's worth nothing all 5 recently announced games are among the renewals. There are some interesting ones including Alex Kidd and Kid Chameleon...

Not getting my hopes up that all of these will come to anything, but I've always really dug the concept of Kid Chameleon. That's one SEGA property I'd quite like to see get a revival, especially after seeing that concept art the Lizardcube CEO did.

 

[9-Volt]

Not getting my hopes up that all of these will come to anything, but I've always really dug the concept of Kid Chameleon. That's one SEGA property I'd quite like to see get a revival, especially after seeing that concept art the Lizardcube CEO did.

Never seen this before but yes they look stunning, even as a "having fun" kind of art. Honestly I wouldn't mind if Sega gave every single 2D franchise they have to Lizardcube: Golden Axe, Ecco the Dolphin, Ristar, Comix Zone and Vectorman...

 

[chocolate_supra]

*ahem*

Skies of Arcadia plzkthx

 

[Jahranimo]

I do find it interesting they never did ANYTHING with Skies of Arcadia.

 

[BowserIsMyFather]

All of this has made me Jones bad for a new Sega console.