The Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown Pre-Launch Event was a hit! The event was held on May 19th in Los Angeles and gave over 150 people a chance to get some early access to the game and some play time with some Sega star players – Fuudo (EVO 2011, SSF4 SA Edition Champ) and Chibita (Kakutou Shinseiki VI Winner, EVO 2003 VF4 Tournament Champ). Huge thanks to everyone who came out to play and help make the event such a huge success!

For those that didn’t get a chance to attend – don’t worry, we have you covered! We have a fantastic recap video that shows off the event and has interviews with attendees, including Fuudo and Chibita, as well as an awesome couple that met while playing the game.

For those looking for a more in depth video showing off the game, the fighters, and the commentary – look no further than TwitchTV! The stream ran live at the event (filled with over 250,000 fans) and have an archive of the stream running for all to see – grab it here!

Check out some of the monsters that you’ll encounter in Hell Yeah!. Hell Yeah! will be playable at E3 next week, and will be coming to XBLA, PSN, and PC Digital Download this summer.

It’s here! The Collector’s edition and pre-order information for Aliens: Colonial Marines! Launching February 12, 2013, the Collector’s edition features some amazing goods that any Alien fan will want to get their hands on.

Pre-order Content for Competitive Multiplayer

Four Playable Movie Characters – Players will be able to fight for their squad’s survival and confront hordes of enemies as the original ALIENS film icons Private Hudson, Corporal Hicks, Private Drake and Sergeant Apone.

Additional Marines Character Customization Options

Ripley’s Flamethrower

Pre-order the Collector’s Edition from Gamestop (in North America) or at your preferred retailer in Europe!

Aliens: Colonial Marines Collector’s Edition

The Aliens: Colonial Marines Collector’s Edition (US $99.99) is set to bring the ultimate ALIENS experience in one box.

High Quality Resin Powerloader Figurine: Includes Limited Edition Xeno Hive Box

Four Playable Movie Characters: Players will be able to fight for their squad’s survival and confront hordes of enemies as the original ALIENS film icons Private Hudson, Corporal Hicks, Private Drake and Sergeant Apone.

Additional Marines Character Customization Options

Ripley’s Flamethrower

Exclusive Multiplayer Weapons: Including Sonic Electronic Ball Breakers & Phase Plasma Rifle

Exclusive Game Level: USCM Academy Firing Range

USCM Dossier
o Mission Brief
o USS Sephora Schematic
o Recruitment Card
o LV-426 Recon Photo
o USCM Iron-on Badges
o USCM Graduation Certificate

Pre-order the Collector’s Edition from Gamestop (in North America) or at your preferred retailer in Europe!

*While supplies last. Internet connection required to access downloadable bonus content.

On the Block

1. Sonic Super Special – Issue 1 – A full-color book of Sonic comics from Archie Comics.

2. Virtua Fighter 5 Final Showdown Limited Edition T-Shirt – Given out at our pre-launch event in Los Angeles, these shirts are pretty rare. Winner chooses from size M, L, or XL.

3. Jet Set Radio Pack – Limited edition set of 4 buttons, along with limited edition spray pain can-style cocktail shaker with Jet Set Radio graphics on it.

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, a word or phrase, 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!) We only accept one direct message per person per prize!

Example:

We tweet “GIVEAWAY: Sonic T-shirt, size L. Be the 15th person to DM “Sonic Adventure” to win!”

You see this, and want to win it, so you send us a direct message that says “Sonic Adventure”. If you are the 15th person to do so, you are the winner!

Quotation marks do not matter, capitalization does not matter, but spelling does matter!

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.

Other Assorted Information:

• Free Stuff Friday duties alternate between the London and San Francisco offices and are done during business hours (usually mid-morning) in our respective time zones.
• No, you can’t know what number message you were – so please don’t ask! We will tell you that the information is classified!
• If you have questions during the giveaway, please contact us with an @reply. As you can imagine, we get a whole lot of direct messages during the contests and there  is a very good chance we will miss your question if it is sent as a DM.

How to Send Direct Messages on Twitter

Due to a change in our account status with Twitter, you should be able to send us direct messages without us following you. However, third-party applications may not allow you to.

There are a few ways to send us a Direct Message on Twitter. The easiest way is:

1. Log in to your Twitter account.
2. Click on the person icon and select Direct messages from the drop down menu.
3. You’ll see a pop up showing your Direct message history. Click the New message button, highlighted below.
4. In the address box, type the name or username (SEGA) of the person you wish to send a message to.
5. Enter your message and click Send message.

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. If you still have questions on sending direct messages, please visit Twitter’s Help Section.

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. Please make sure your message says “test” somewhere.

We’ve already told you about some exciting special guests that will be at Sonic Boom 2012, including Jun Senoue from Crush 40, Steve Lycett from SUMO Digital, and Takashi Iizuka from Sonic Team. We’ve got some more exciting news – as part of the evening’s festivities, we’re going to have a Q&A session with these three fan favorites!

Even if you are not attending Sonic Boom, you can still submit a question. You can post your questions in the comments below, or email them to communityteam@sega.com with the subject line “Sonic Boom Question”. Make sure you include who your question is for! We’ll sort through the questions, pick our favorites, and ask them live on stage at Sonic Boom.

Crush 40 will be playing live at both Summer of Sonic and Sonic Boom events, and special guests Jean Paul and Alex Makhlouf from Cash Cash will also playing live at Sonic Boom. Get ready to rock out to your favorite Sonic song with your fellow fans!

Sonic Boom 2012 will be held on Friday, July 13^th, 2012 from 5:00 PM until 10:00 PM at the House of Blues in San Diego, CA (during San Diego Comic Con). Tickets are $20 each ($15 for the ticket and $5 for the TicketMaster fee) and include 2 drink tickets (for those 21 or older) and free food. You do not need a Comic Con badge to get into Sonic Boom. You must have a ticket to get in. Tickets are going quickly, so get yours today! You can purchase your tickets at http://bit.ly/IM9OoT

Summer of Sonic 2012 will take place in the Hove Centre, at Hove Town Hall, Brighton on Saturday, July 7^th 2012.  Tickets are available from the Summer of Sonic website: www.summerofsonic.com/

E3 is less than a few weeks away ( #SegaE3 ), and we’re excited to announce our roster of titles to be shown and other fun stuff happening at the show!

We’ll be posting lots of blogs, Facebook updates, and tweets during the show.  We want to hear what you think, so please use the hashtag #SegaE3 for tweets about all of our E3 activity, including our games and our booth.

What We’re Showing at E3

The list of titles in display at SEGA’s E3 booth (South Exhibit Hall, Booth 2023) includes:

Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed

Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, Nintendo 3DS, and PC Digital Download. Launch Date – Late 2012.

Aliens: Colonial Marines

Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii U, and PC. Launch Date – February 12, 2013 (Wii U Launch Date – 2013)

Super Monkey Ball Banana Splitz

PlayStation Vita. Launch Date – October 23, 2012

The Cave

Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC. Launch Date – Early 2013

Hell Yeah! Wrath of the Dead Rabbit

Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network, PC Digital Download. Launch Date – Summer 2012

Virtua Fighter 5 Final Showdown

Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network. Launch Date – June 5th & 6th, 2012

Jet Set Radio

Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network, PC Digital Download, PlayStation Vita. Launch Date – Summer 2012.

 Follow us on Instagram

We’re excited to make our debut on Instagram just in time for E3! We’ll be updating with photos from the show, including some behind-the-scenes photos. (You can also expect some food pictures.)  Once E3 is over, we’ll continue updating with photos from our office and other shows we attend, and special events like Summer of Sonic and Sonic Boom. Our Instagram username is SEGA (shocking, I know), so follow us for all kinds of picture goodness. Posting pictures from our booth at E3? Our hashtag on Instagram is the same as Twitter — #SegaE3

SEGA’s Favorite Places in Los Angeles – The LA/E3 Foursquare List

Here at SEGA, we love to eat. We’ve even got a whole blog category dedicated to food.  We travel a lot, and we’re all from different parts of the world. All of that adds up to us knowing some pretty spectacular places to eat, drink, and be merry. We launched our Foursquare account earlier this year, and we’ve loved adding our tips and seeing people using our recommendations to find great stuff. As many of us are veterans of E3 and/or Los Angeles, we’ve compiled all of our LA-based tips onto this handy Foursquare list.

TL;DR

Games at E3:

• Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed
• Aliens: Colonial  Marines
• Super Monkey Ball Banana Splitz
• The Cave
• Hell Yeah!
• Virtua Fighter 5 Final Showdown
• Jet Set Radio

Please use the hashtag #SegaE3 when tweeting about our E3 stuff, or posting Instagram photos of our E3 stuff.

We’re on Instagram! Our username is SEGA.

We compiled a Foursquare list of awesome places to go in LA.

More to come – stay tuned!

Jet Set Radio returns to Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network, PC this summer!

This weekend, we have an Energy Boost sale available for Spiral Knights!

Get a bonus 15% more Energy with any Energy package purchase! Offer valid through May 28th.

Please note: Gift-able energy packs such as the Party Pack WILL NOT have a 15% bonus. However, the purchaser of these packs gets the bonus for their purchased pack.

And don’t forget, we have new Lockdown levels for you to enjoy, and in which you may pulverize your fellow Knights!

The much-loved Dreamcast classic Jet Set Radio will be coming to PlayStation Vita Systems this summer, and will be playable for the first time at this year’s E3 show!

Jet Set Radio is an updated version of the celebrated SEGA Dreamcast original, featuring upgraded HD visuals paired with the original funky soundtrack that rocked the ears of gamers worldwide in 2000. The PlayStation Vita’s unique features provide new ways for gamers to interact with the environments of Tokyo-to, from touch functionality that makes spraying graffiti more natural to Vita camera integration. Jet Set Radio for PlayStation Vita is a handheld version that loses nothing in the way of content or experience in comparison with its console and PC brethren.

“The fan reaction to our recent reveal of Jet Set Radio has been incredible!” said Haruki Satomi, Senior Vice President of Digital Business at SEGA. “As Jet Set Radio is focused on creativity, the touch capabilities of the PlayStation VITA are proving to be a perfect fit.”

Jet Set Radio will also be released on Xbox LIVE Arcade for the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, PlayStation Network, and Windows PC Digital Download this summer.

SEGA’s iconic blue mascot can be found as part of the extended interactive content for the new Nike promotional campaign.  “My Time is Now” debuted on Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and nikefootball.com for the first time on May 18^th, and has already had over an incredible 10 million views.  The film features many of the elite players who will battle it out in Poland and Ukraine, and in the UK later this summer including Cristiano Ronaldo, Neymar, Andres Iniesta, Wesley Sneijder, Franck Ribery, Mario Götze, Mesut Özil, Yann M’Vila, Javier Hernandez and Danny Welbeck.

As the action unfolds, viewers can experience content in a unique interactive way through hidden tunnels designed to share athlete insights about their hunger to succeed and inspire young athletes to be better footballers.  This content will be accessible via the online version of the film at youtube.com/nikefootball and Sonic x Vapor can be found in one such tunnel.

Sonic x Vapor features Sonic the Hedgehog in a pair of Nike Mercurial Vapor football boots and the challenge is for Sonic to go as fast as he can and as far as he can, whilst kicking Nike footballs to defeat the opposition.  The inspiration behind the gameplay for Sonic x Vapor was the original Sonic The Hedgehog game, and since the Nike Mercurial Vapor boots have been specifically created to deliver explosive speed, who better is there to help promote them than the fastest hedgehog of them all?!