Hi everyone,

If you happen to live near San Francisco, and would like to see what SEGA’s offices look like – oh, and if you’d like a chance to play Phantasy Star Zero before anyone else, and win some prizes while doing so – then you might find this post to be full of win.

For the first time (ever, I think), SEGA of America is looking to hold a special event here in San Francisco to celebrate the upcoming release of Phantasy Star Zero in the US! We’d like to mix it up from simply press this time, and invite all Phantasy Star fans around the Bay area (or who can make it here) to join us for an early taste of PSZ, free swag, and a chance at winning some even bigger prizes! Everyone who attends goes home with a free Inflatable Rappy.

When everyone goes home with a Rappy, you know it’s a good event.

Right now we’re looking to get estimates on how many people think they can attend. The event would be in the evening and is tentatively planned for November 4th, so that you guys have some time to take off work or plan a day trip down.

So, we’d like to hear – are any of you guys interested or able to attend? We are going to limit this event to the first 20 or so people on the list, so even though we haven’t revealed all the details yet, you can post on this thread and reserve your spot ahead of time.

Thanks everyone – we hope you guys enjoy this special chance to check out both PSZ and SEGA! We’ll be posting full details about the event soon.

AiAi and his friends are all ready for Halloween! To help you get in the mood for the holidays, we’ve got some cute wallpapers for your computer. You can download them all from our Flickr site. There are 4 different resolutions, so you’re sure to find one that fits your screen.

If you’ve got a Super Monkey Ball related costume for next week, send us a photo!

Maxim.com has a contest to pick the real life model that most looks like Bayonetta and they want you to judge the final results based on overall hotness, however as a gamer, I’m much more looking for the girl that most resembles Bayonetta. Not to tip the results, but honestly, my personal sway is towards the contenders who took the time to look the part. The choice is yours, I’ve made my choice, you can vote as you see fit too .

Maxim has narrowed the pool down to a select few they feel best fit the part of Bayonetta, head on over and make the call!

One of the members on our SEGA Forums, Tjerkotten, posted this on our boards yesterday. He’s an artist from Holland, and he created his own Rez Fan Video – which I thought was seriously impressive. Check it out:

He mentions the inspiration for the video in the YouTube details:

This teaser is about us trying to hack into our own DNA creation systems. We create and develop many great tools, but what is inside our cells and how people can have dreams and develop creation is still a mystery.

This small story is about the ” Core”. The core is the main program that develops our dreams. It’s the god of our inner self. While humanity is trying to hack this program, the program resists and tries to regenerate in different ways while showing that this mystery should stay the way it is.

Life lesson for the weekend: Fear is the mind killer.

Hope you’re all enjoying your time with Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games! I’ve seen some comments here on the blog as well as our Facebook page that people are playing and enjoying it. I’m working on the DS version at the moment, trying to master the ski jumping. It’s challenging, but fun. I’m looking forward to playing the Wii version, too.

In case you haven’t gotten around to checking out all the cool stuff in the game, I wanted to let you in on a few things to check out — party games, and the weather settings. (I know that weather doesn’t sound that exciting, but it’s actually pretty cool.)

In addition to Olympic events and Dream events, the game also contains some party games to enjoy with your family and friends. On the DS, you can play a game of bingo in Bingo Bash, spin the wheel in Lucky Spin, or aim to get four matching cards in Wild Card. On the Wii, you can play Balloon Attack, where you can pop balloons for points. There’s also a Wheel Challenge where you try to get the most points, or try to get the most panels in Panel Flip.

If you’re looking for an authentic Vancouver experience while you play, you’re in luck! You can change the weather settings on both the Wii and the DS version. If you have your Wii hooked up to the internet, you can select the Vancouver weather to play through the events as if you were really in Vancouver right now! If it’s snowing in Vancouver, it will snow in your game. You can also set your Wii to home weather to replicate the weather in your town at the moment. If you are more into consistency, you can set the weather to always be sunny, snowy, or whatever you prefer.

Hope you’re enjoying the game!

Aliens vs Predator is going to be PLAYABLE at the upcoming Major League Gaming event in Anaheim this November 6th, 7th and 8th. This is not only the first time Aliens and Predators will spar publicly, but it’s also the first time Sega will be in attendance within the competition halls and we’re really excited to come out and show off the game for everyone!

We will be showing off two multiplayer modes and giving fans a chance to compete for top prizes, if you are interested in playing Aliens vs Predator early you should come out, head on over to the Major League Gaming website for details, hotel discounts, and information about the upcoming competition! See you in Anaheim!

Tl;dr version: AVP MP @ MLG -> OMG!

We work hard here at SEGA, but we also like to have a bit of fun at the office. (That’s our office building in that photo. Before anyone asks, no it’s not abandoned. One of the floors in the building is available for rent.) But for those times when someone goes away on an extended or especially fun vacation and we’re all left here to keep working… well, we like to have more than a bit of fun.

Let’s set the scene. It’s Friday afternoon after a long work week. I’m sitting at my desk typing away, when I hear some loud voices behind me. We have a pretty open work environment of half-wall cubicles, and we can be a boisterous bunch, so it’s not all that unusual to hear people talking loudly or laughing about something. But this kept going on. And on. So I went to investigate.

Turns out that Jen was going to return from a 2-week vacation on the following Monday. And some people had gotten… restless. You might even say rowdy. And decided to fill her cubicle with crunched up magazine pages. A lot of them. We had lots of fun and laughs in the hour it took us to get it done. How did Jen react? Well, you’ll just have to watch the video.

I’m not sure any of us are planning an extended vacation any time soon!

We’re continuing on with our week-long celebration of all things Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games! Today I wanted to cover some stuff about unlockables and the dream events!

Unlockables

* As you advance in the each mode on the DS, archive a new record within the events or meet certain conditions, you will unlock emblems. Try to collect all of the emblems!

* If you win the battle with developer’s ghost on the Ghost Match on DS, there will be an even stronger ghost for you to challenge!

* In the Dream Events for the Wii, you will come across some special guests.

* There may even be the Secret Shop in the shopping village in the Wii version!

Dream Events
* Some Dream Events are available from the start, but there are plenty more to unlock!

* Ski, skate and more in worlds inspired by the Mario & Sonic universes!

* Collect items and avoid obstacles in a bid to become the winner!

* You can even have a Snowball fight with your friends for Wii™!

Halloween is incoming and we’ve got a costume idea that will ace your costume parties and work events – Bayonetta. Don’t get discouraged, creating a Bayonetta costume might be difficult, but we’ve got some handy tips about all the things that make Bayonetta costume a crowd pleaser. Everything from her hair, her attitude, and her signature weapons, the website gives you a deeper look into all the details of Bayonetta.

Another good source of information is in our media and of course from our events, featuring our Bayonetta model at E3 or Comicon. The costume is definitely one of the more difficult to pull off, but I’m sure after examining the photos we’ve taken, you’ll have a much better idea of what you’ll need to pull it off. Best of all, with a solid Bayonetta costume, you’ll surely turn some heads this halloween!  Check out the site, and do send us photos of your own Bayonetta costumes and ideas…

We’ve got some great stuff for you this week! A bunch of games, some cool Sonic gear, and accessories from your wrist to your shoulder. Let’s get on with the video!

On the Block

Item 1: 2 Nights Wristbands

Congrats to our winner, @dcevo!

Item 2: Bleach: The 3rd Phantom (Nintendo DS)

Item 3: 2 Phantasy Star Zero Inflatable Rappies

Item 4: Wacky World of Sports (Nintendo Wii)

(Only available to people in US, Canada, Mexico and Latin America)

Item 5: Virtua Tennis 2009 (Xbox 360)

(Only available to people in US, Canada, Mexico and Latin America)

Item 6: Virtua Tennis 2009 (PS3)

Item 7: Sonic the Hedgehog chain wallet

How it Works

1. You must be following us on Twitter to be eligible. (If you don’t have a Twitter account, you can create one by going to http://www.twitter.com and click the green “get started — join!” button in the center of the page.)
2. At random times on Friday, we will announce the prize we are giving away, and what number of response you need to be to win. Send us a direct message (DM) via Twitter and be that number to win the prize. (@ replies do not count as entries!)
3. All followers are eligible to win all prizes, unless a restriction is noted. Restrictions are usually due to the prize being region-locked. For example, US games that won’t work on UK gaming systems. There may also be age restrictions due to the rating of the game.
4. We will announce the winner on our Twitter feed once eligibility is confirmed.

Make Sure We’re Following You on Twitter

If you are currently following us on Twitter, please be sure that we are following you as well. You can do this by making sure that SEGA is in your “followers” list, or by going to DoesFollow and typing SEGA in the first blank, your Twitter username in the second, and pressing the “check” button. You can reverse this to be sure that you are following us. If you are following us, but we’re not following you, please send a message to @SEGA and we will follow you. This is important, because only people we follow can send us direct messages (DMs), and DMs are the only way to enter the giveaways.

How to Send Direct Messages on Twitter

There are a few ways to send us a Direct Message on Twitter. The easiest way is to go to our Twitter page and select “message” under the “Actions” heading in the side bar. If you do not see “message”, this means that we are not following you. Please send a message to @sega to let us know, and we will follow you. When you click “message” you will be taken to a window where you can type a message and press send.

You may also select the “direct messages” tab from your Twitter homepage, and select SEGA from the drop-down menu at the top of the page. Again, if you don’t see our name there, it’s probably because we’re not following you. Let us know, and we’ll follow you.

There are also many Twitter clients that you can use instead of using the website. These include TweetDeck, Twitteriffic, Tweetie, and Twhirl. Each of these programs works differently, so you’ll want to figure out how to send a direct message on the program you use. If you want to send us a test message, we’ll let you know if we received it or not.