An all new Daisy Fuentes Trailer is out today, showing off a bit of the exercises you’ll be doing in our upcoming game for the Nintendo Wii and features Daisy Fuentes herself! If you speak spanish or are bilingual, we also have a trailer for you that featues some additional footage of the upcoming game.  Take a look and let us know what you think across the blogs, or within our forums.

Just in time for next week’s release, the new website for Daisy Fuentes Pilates is now live! The site has tutorial videos, game information, screenshots and more. Check it out at http://www.daisyfuentespilates.com!

We’ve got a great new trailer for Aliens vs. Predator — this one from the Colonial Marine point of view. It’s up on our page at http://www.sega.com/avp, so go watch it and tell us what you think!

The Marvel Games panel happened on Sunday, the last day of Comic Con. The hall was full of eager Marvel fans, and there was much anticipation as the panel got started.

On the panel were:

Chris Baker, Manager of Licensed Games at Marvel

TQ Jefferson, Director of Licensed Games at Marvel

Evan Skolnick, Activision

Dan Tanguay, Activision

Kyle Brink, SEGA

Matt Fraction, co-writer of the Iron Man 2 game story

Lenny Brown, THQ

TQ started the discussion, describing his job. He works with developers and publishers through the entire process of making the games. He shared his triangle of success — respect the characters, respect the process, and respect the gamers.

He also shared his steps to improving games to keep them “suck-free”. First, they strive to improve the creative process. This means giving developers access to Marvel staff and Marvel talent. He cited Matt Fraction working on the Iron Man 2 game as an example of putting Marvel’s talent to use in their licensed games.

The second step is realizing that movie games don’t have to be “movie” games. They don’t have to be about the movie. It can be much more compelling to tell original and unique stories within the movie setting and universe. Because games take more time to make, and you can do things in games that you could never do in movies, this is quite beneficial.

The third step is to actively listen to fans. They read their blog comments, Twitter feeds, forums, and what’s published on the internet to gain insight into what the fans want and how they can improve.

Next, Activision showed a trailer for their new game (sorta… they had some technical difficulties, unfortunately) and talked a bit about it. THQ then did the same.

Kyle went last with Iron Man 2. He said that they received *lots* of feedback about the first game, so they started with the feedback that they got via fans, reviews, articles, etc to figure out what to do differently in the second game. What they heard loud and clear was that the controls and options needed a lot of work, so they started there.  Kyle described some of the ways that the game improves on the first one, and takes it to the next level.

Matt Fraction was particularly glad to not have to follow the movie storyline. Movie scripts can change dramatically and constantly, and not being beholden to that is very freeing. They also talked about being able to do things in the game that would be way too expensive to do in a movie, so being able to use a movie setting but divorce the storyline from the movie makes for an all-around better game.

The audience asked some Q&A, including a few young kids who wanted to know about which Marvel characters would be seen and would be dying in the different games. No big reveals here, but I guess that’s to be expected.

At the end of the panel, a rep from Sony came up to announce that Marvel characters would be coming to Little Big Planet.

Friday was Bayonetta Day, I’m calling it. Friday was the day we not only had the first appearances of the Bayonetta model at the Comic Con show, but also the PlatinumGames Panel, and our special community event for Bayonetta at the Hard Rock Café. And to top it off, Friday was easily the busiest day at Comic Con that I’ve seen yet.

Where to begin? I guess a good spot is with our real life Bayonetta, who dazzled the crowd at San Diego Comic Con throughout the day. The costume is really amazing, and for a show that has such great support for costumed attendees, many people took the time to admire the quality outfit. What really cinches it is the way our Bayonetta model looks against the game, she’s a perfect fit and there’s no question, she is Bayonetta. I was fortunate to take some photos with some of the other cosplayers at Comic Con who stopped by for a photo opportunity.

Comic Con is also the first time we are showing Bayonetta as a playable demo for consumers outside of E3 and the response has been fantastic. People have been lining up to play the demo the entire show and there really hasn’t been a time when a controller isn’t in the hands of new or returning Bayonetta fan. While the demo stations were pretty packed all day, we still saw people walking down the aisles and working their way into the booth to get a shot at the game.

Rounding out the night our night was two very special events for the Bayonetta community. To kick it off we had a Bayonetta panel running with special guests from PlatinumGames to discuss Bayonetta’s design. I was only able to catch a few minutes of the presentation and handed out some passes to our Community event, which followed directly after the panel at the Hard Rock Café. The panel featured Bayonetta Producer Yosuke Hashimoto and Character Designer, Mari Shimazaki, as well as message from Hideki Kamiya taped prior to the show. G4TV was on hand to offer a live blog and GameTrailers was also in attendance to capture it in full. At the time of this posting, GameTrailers hasn’t yet posted their video, but we’ll update once it is added to their site.

While the panel was picking up and the tough questions were answered, I was off to help set up at the Hard Rock for the community event. The event was set to be one of the first community events I’ve been involved with and a chance for PlatinumGames to meet the fans directly and discuss the game they are creating. We also had some special things planned, including a raffle for our fabulous Bayonetta themed Xbox 360 and a score attack contest to award a special prize; one of the Scarborough Faire prop guns from the Bayonetta motion capture sessions.

In addition to the prizes, another brief presentation was made by PlatinumGames to show off some new areas within Bayonetta. First, another message was posted from Hideki Kamiya, welcoming the Bayonetta Community to the event, and wishing everyone a good time. Next, Yosuke Hashimoto and Mari Shimizaki spoke a bit more on Bayonetta and revealed the E3 behind closed doors demo that was previously only show to press. Hashimoto-san was guiding the controls and walked through a level surrounded by fire and molten lava, as Bayonetta navigated through the full 3d landscape across the floor and walls to reach a new boss encounter in a secluded courtyard. The encounter featured two fearsome, well, creatures, that required tactful dodging to enter witch time, or a slow motion state, to gain an advantage and deliver some punishing attacks. Mari Shimizaki then spoke about designing Bayonetta and showed off art from design concepts and renders. One interesting note was how Bayonetta’s hair was not always black, in the early concepts of the character, designs were made in a variety of colors.

After the presentation was completed, the score attack was announced to the crowd. The goal was to get as many halos from downed enemies as possible during a short playthrough on the Bayonetta demo. The rules were simple, players had a chance to log their score and would complete once the first boss was defeated, after 10 minutes were up, or if a death occurred. Since most players hadn’t considered the halos during the demo, the score attack offered a bit of a different strategy on how to be successful. After a few playthroughs and a handful of scores logged, some strategies were being devised and we even had some repeat players looking to update their scores. At the end of the 45 minute session, we had a clear winner with a score of 9300 halos, which is quite a feat indeed. Not only was the score better than anyone at the event, it was also better than the test runs performed at PlatinumGames prior to the event!

Rounding out the event was our raffle for the one and only Bayonetta Xbox 360. The Xbox is completely one of a kind and everyone in attendance had a shot at winning it! This was a big moment, as everyone in the room, myself included, was interested in picking the Xbox up (no, I was not eligible). The basket was revealed, a number pulled, and a Bayonetta fan picked up an awesome Xbox 360! And as you might expect, this was also the moment my camera memory card filled up, so I was not able to post shot of the winner for the blog. We did get some photos from others on the floor, so look for a follow up in the days to come once we’ve all had a chance to recuperate from the show.

Overall, the event and the day was a lot of fun and truly Bayonetta’s day at Comic Con 2009. PlatinumGames was fantastic throughout and I am very thankful that they came out in force to meet the Bayonetta community. We will have more photos from the event and show in another update, thanks to everyone who we met at the show and we hope you enjoy Bayonetta when it releases this January.

Our backs are stiff, our feet are sore, but nonetheless, Saturday at Comic Con pushes forward. There were lots of costumes, lots of SEGA fans, and  lots of fun.

Some of us, however, were skipping out to have fun in the sun with friends! Just kidding, Ruby was working very hard today, too.

Kori came back and, after answering some PSU/PSO trivia questions, got some Rappies for his knowledge.

As the day went on, we passed out more shirts, and more Rappies.

and more…

When Bayonetta came to the show floor, she attracted quite a crowd, as usual. Other cosplayers were especially interested in having photos with her.

And to cap it off, we found some Predators in the crowd for the AvP fans.

Tomorrow is the final day of Comic Con, and the SEGA team is heading back to San Francisco right after the show. We’ve got more blog entries coming up though, so it’s not over yet!

You can see all of our photos from Comic Con on our Flickr feed. There are lots that we haven’t posted here, so there’s plenty more to look at.

There’s something to be said about working a sixteen hour day. Those of you in the working class know that most of us generally just work half that each day – eight or so, and when busy can move up to nine, ten, or at most twelve hours. The reason for this, in most cases, is pretty simple: Working sixteen hour days is about as pleasant as jumping headfirst into a pit of boiling lava while covered in fireworks and soaked with gasoline. In short, it’s not extremely pleasant.

And yet, because we love you guys, we do it anyway. We do it because there are some of you out there who go above and beyond the call of a SEGA fan – those of you who would devote hours of your life to creating a costume, promoting your favorite game to your friends, to learning all the ins and outs of the characters you play as and portay. You bring this passion with you – and it alone is what makes days like yesterday completely worth it.

The Cosplay

In our morning session, we were stoked to see a girl come into the booth with what looked like… could it be? Yes – it is! A Rag Rappy from Phantasy Star! (And a modeled rare weapon item, to boot!) Her feathery-fanaticism won her the special PSZ Sarisa Figurine, inflatable rappies, and even more PSU Merch!

The first of many Sonic costumes that came by the booth! Note too that she made a custom hat, gloves, and even went so far as to get the golden buckles on the shoes right! Fantastic job!

Another female Sonic cosplayer (Interestingly, we’ve had just as many girls dressing up as Sonic as have guys!), this time with everyone’s favorite sidekick Tails in tow!

This kid was awesome. Let me emphasize, once more: Awesome. Not only is the entire costume (minus the hat) homemade, but he’s even got the personality down 110%, and a perfect photo stance to go with it. To the little Sonic: I think you should come apply to work at SEGA someday – people with your dedication have bright futures ahead of them. Hang onto that passion as you get older, and not even the worst (figurative) robots out there will stand in your way!

Phantasy Star Trivia and meet-up

During our morning Meet and Greet session, we had a ton of Phantasy Star fans swing by! The four you see here – including the rappy from above, all happened to drop by at once and got to meet each other in real life as opposed to the Gurhal system! Oh, and check out the shirt on Lock – the guy second from the left  – it’s a custom PSU T-shirt with his character on the front!

Sights like this were common throughout the day – tons of PS fans came by to answer some PSO / U Trivia!  Those who could answer the questions correctly got hooked up with this rare Phantasy Star Zero inflatable Rappy!

Valkyria Chronicles Trivia Competition

At about 4:00 PM we held a competition with some Valkyria Chronicles Trivia! Questions ranged from easy to medium to fairly difficult, and we had one guy who rocked almost all of them, winning the competition with 15 out of the 16 points! Our winner is pictured here in the middle – great job to you, sir! You’ve done Squad 7 proud – enjoy that Alicia Figurine! (If you look closely, you can see him holding it.) As a bonus, everyone who entered walked away with our new GAMER T-shirts, shown here.

Sonic Plushies

“Man, those SEGA employees have it rough! Good thing we’re on vacation!”

Meanwhile… back at the ra- er, hotel, Silver, Sonic, and Super Sonic were getting a relaxing sunbathing session in near the hot tub. These plushies can be found in the 500-600 Aisles at Comic-con, and will run you anywhere from $5 for the little ones to $40 for the big ones (like Super Sonic in this picture.) They were too cool to pass up once we saw some people walking around with them, so we bought a few ourselves for the office and potential free stuff friday giveaways. Now we just have to figure out how to get them home…

Note: You’ll soon be able to find many of these plushies in theme parks like Six Flags across the US! Keep an eye out next time you visit one!

All in all, day three was busy, packed, and absolutely fun – and this blog is actually only about half of it! Keep an eye out for Clumsyorchid’s upcoming blog on the Bayonetta party that followed in the evening, and pictures of the winners of awesome prizes like that custom Bayonetta XBOX 360, and the actual Scarborough Fair gun prop used during the motion capture for the game!

It was great seeing and meeting so many SEGA fans there – special thanks to all of you who came by the booth to say hello!

You make our sixteen-hour-days a lot more bearable.

Almost 10 minutes of Iron Man 2 demo from the world premiere showing of the game in Marvel’s booth during Comic Con 2009.

Day 2 of Comic Con is behind us, and what a day it was!

After getting in some morning blogging and work time, the community team headed over to the SEGA booth to hand out T-shirts to cosplayers. It wasn’t long before we had a few people come by.

Although not technically a costume, we couldn’t resist handing out a t-shirt as a reward for this home-made Sonic Team shirt.

It wasn’t long before more people came by, including the winner of our trivia contest.

Here’s our winner, Kori-Maru as he’s known on the SEGA blogs & forums, with his Madworld prizes.

While we were chatting with Kori, a film crew from Gamespot TV came over to talk to one of our brand managers, Derrek, about Bleach.

We also had a visit from an enthusiastic young man named Steven. (That’s him in the photo at the top). His dad said that Steven’s whole life was Sonic, and he was very excited to play Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing. As he went over to play the game, the Gamespot crew finished filming Bleach and moved on to Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing.

Since he was doing such a fantastic job, Steven continued to play the game while the Gamespot crew filmed. He was a such a great sport for helping us out, that we’re going to send him a free copy of the game when it’s released.

After hanging out at the booth for a little longer, we went in search of food. The line was long, but the food was pretty good. Because there was nowhere to sit, we ended up on the floor.

As it turns out, our lunch seating was fortuitous. As we gazed to our left, we caught sight of some Sonic artwork in Artists’ Alley. When we walked up, we realized that it was Ken Penders, best known for illustrating the Sonic the Hedgehog comics. Ken had many items for sale, including some old Sonic comics.

Ken signed some comics for us, and we had a great conversation. We also picked up some original page layout illustrations from the comic books. Here’s one illustration, alongside the final page in the comic.

After seeing Ken, we walked down the show floor a but farther and found Sands of Destruction at the Funimation booth.

A little farther down the way, we came upon some limited edition Metal Sonic figurines. These are only for sale at Comic Con.

After a bit of a break and rest for our feet, we headed back to the SEGA booth for a while. We had someone in another great costume come by, and he got a free shirt!

As we left, the crowds were getting thicker outside the convention center. It was a busy, but great day, and I’m looking forward to seeing what tomorrow brings!

This Friday, we’re holding a special event with PlatinumGames to show off our upcoming game, Bayonetta. The event will feature some face time with the PlatinumGames crew, a chance to play some Bayonetta in an exclusive event, and potentially win one of the hottest Xbox 360′s I’ve ever seen. No kidding.

A machine almost as beautiful as Bayonetta herself, the Xbox 360 arrived in our offices a day before San Diego Comic-con and nearly everyone in the office stopped by to gaze at it. While checking out the event space yesterday, PlatinumGames had a chance to look at the Xbox and were in awe of how good it looked. The unit is fully functional and will be available to one lucky winner who attends the event, if you aren’t attending there is still hope!

If you are at Comic-con and want to attend the event and get your hands on Xbox, there two ways you can score a ticket to the event:
- Dress Like a Sega Character and attend one of our cosplay events. We should have at least two tickets to give out per meet up, so come prepared with expert knowledge of Bayonetta!

- Dress up like Bayonetta on Friday and come find us at the Booth! We’re rewarding the hardcore Bayonetta fan who is willing to go the extra mile. Tickets are not unlimited, so come early and check us out!

There you have it, be sure to come out and see us at the Show even if you aren’t in costume! Sega is located at marker 5200 on the show floor.

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Updated 7/23 – We will also have limited tickets available on a first come first serve basis to those attending the PlatinumGames Panel at San Diego Comic Con. Be there early to get in line and grab a pass to this exclusive event!