Vancouver 2010 cover athletes revealed

SEGA of America is partnering with top American and Canadian gold medal contenders Lindsey Vonn (USA; alpine skiing), Seth Wescott (USA; snowboard cross), Kristina Groves (Canada; speed skating) and Matthew Morison (Canada; snowboard) to appear on the cover of the upcoming video game Vancouver 2010 - The Official Video Game of the Olympic Winter Games.

The game will be available for purchase at North American retailers on January 12th, 2010 for the Xbox 360, the PS3 and the PC via digital download.

The games are being developed by Eurocom Entertainment Software. Find out more at www.olympicvideogames.com.

Thor and Captain America game development continues

As part of this week’s financial results Marvel Entertainment confirmed that games based on the upcoming Thor and Captain America movies are in the works at Sega. While this is not particularly fresh news it does show that development - in whatever stage it is in at this points - continues to push forward. A formal announcement about the games was made in April of 2007 by Sega.

The Captain America game is tentatively set for release in July 2011, while the Thor game will be released at right around the same period in the summer. We’ll see.

Sega has not had the best track record with the Marvel license. See our Iron Man review for an example of this. I’ll give you a hint: it might be a blood bath.

Alpha Protocol ‘officially’ pushed to 2010

Here’s a bit of a non shocker - SEGA of America and SEGA Europe Ltd. officially announced that Alpha Protocol, Obsidian Entertainment’s much anticipated and first original RPG (an espionage thriller) will be moving to a spring 2010 release date for the Xbox 360, the PlayStation 3 and the PC. Didn’t we already know this and was there any doubt about that fact? Online retailers pushed the date into 2010 awhile ago. Anyway, here’s Obsidian sounding absolutely delighted about the delay - shouldn’t the tone be a little bit somber?

“We’re very happy that SEGA has made the decision to hold back the shipment of the game in order to give it the best chance at becoming the publishing success that we at Obsidian and our partners at SEGA are striving for.“

“We’ve worked in conjunction with Obsidian Entertainment in making the decision to move Alpha Protocol’s ship date to spring 2010 to ensure that we have the best game possible at launch,” said Masanao Maeda, President and COO, SEGA of America.”

And there you have it and it’s official: no Alpha Protocol in 2009.

Sega of America names new VP of sales

SEGA of America has named Brad Wildes Senior Vice President of Sales. Wildes brings more than 15 years of management experience in the interactive entertainment industry. In the past he has developed results-driven consumer campaigns for several North American companies including Microsoft Corporation, Mattel, Midway Home Entertainment, and Konami of America.

Wildes will join the senior management team to oversee sales, sales administration and channel marketing for the US, Canada, and Latin America. He will report directly to Mike Hayes, CEO of SEGA Europe and America, and will continue to build on SEGA’s brands such as Sonic and new SEGA IP.
SEGA partnered with Scott Bretschneider and David Musgrove of International Search Partners in La Mesa, California to bring Wildes on board.

Mad Catz secures Sonic license for new peripherals

Mad Catz Interactive has secured a license from Sega of America to produce branded videogame accessories based on Sonic the Hedgehog. The agreement gives Mad Catz North American rights to a range of accessories for all current videogame platforms.

“Sonic is one of the videogame industry’s most popular and enduring characters and we are thrilled to initiate this relationship with Sega to create Sonic-branded videogame accessories,” said Darren Richardson, President and Chief Executive Officer of Mad Catz. “We look forward to offering unique and exciting accessories to fans of this truly iconic videogame and popular culture character.”

Further details on the deal, like what kinds of accessories we can expect feature Sonic, are forthcoming.

Third time’s the charm with Bleach

SEGA of America has shipped BLEACH: The 3rd Phantom for Nintendo DS to retailers in North America. BLEACH: The 3rd Phantom delivers an anime experience with a deep story and tactical RPG gameplay based on the popular anime series. The game features a cast of over 50 characters and is voiced by the actors from VIZ Media’s BLEACH animated series.

In BLEACH: The 3rd Phantom players can choose what skills and abilities they want their team of Soul Reapers to have. Experience is gained during each battle and from there players can choose what and how they want their characters to level up. When players engage in combat, the DS screen changes perspective and displays a perspective reminiscent of the BLEACH DS fighting games. In this view, players can watch characters engage in battle with stylized animation that looks almost identical to the anime. Once players complete the single player campaign, a new mode called “BLEACH Tower” is unlocked. Gamers can then continue leveling up their party as well as unlock special characters and team up Soul Reapers, Hollows and Arrancar on the same side.

BLEACH: The 3rd Phantom is rated T for Teen.

Sega’s double dose of Bayonetta contests

SEGA of America has launched “Bayonetta Re-Envisioned,” a user-generated art contest at WizardUniverse.com centered on the heroine of SEGA’s upcoming Bayonetta video game. After a month and more than 100 submissions, Wizard and SEGA selected their favorite entries which are now posted at wizarduniverse.com for fans to vote on. While the final decision will be determined by PlatinumGames, the developers of the game, the votes will be used to assist the judges in determining the Grand Prize winner, as well as the top 10 runners-up, who will each be awarded with an autographed copy of the game. The winners will be announced in October, 2009.

Sega also announced that Men’s lifestyle magazine and many people’s favorite form of softcore porn, Maxim, is also hosting a contest. The point of the contest is to find a real life version of the game’s star on Maxim.com, the digital counterpart to Maxim. SEGA is looking for the one girl who best captures the style and attitude of the heroine of PlatinumGames’ upcoming action game. The winning contestant will be spotlighted on Maxim.com and receive a Xbox 360, a 50 inch Panasonic TC-P50X1 HDTV Plasma TV and a copy of Bayonetta for the Xbox 360. Find out more about the contest by visiting www.maxim.com

Bayonetta is slated for release in January 2010 for Xbox 360 and PS3.