On July 15, 2026, Nvidia's Jensen Huang stood in a Tokyo arcade and thanked Sega for the $5 million that saved his company in the 1990s. The story ran everywhere. What almost nobody mentioned: the executive being thanked had helped pick the technology that failed.
M2, the studio beloved by retro shoot 'em up fans, has cancelled Ubusuna, a shmup it spent 12 years building. The reason: the departure of Hiroshi Iuchi, the creator of Ikaruga and Radiant Silvergun. Here is what the cancellation means, and what it says about Japan's shrinking shmup scene.
Blaze Entertainment has confirmed that Evercade's NEOGEO support will continue into 2027, sharpening the contrast with PLAION's faithful-recreation NEOGEO AES+. With six games per cartridge at roughly $5 per title versus AES+ cartridges at $89.99 each, the two officially-licensed approaches to SNK's legendary console couldn't be more different — and Japanese media is calling it the 'Reiwa NEOGEO War.'
SEGA launched SEGA UNIVERSE on April 24, 2026, a new project dedicated to reviving its legacy IPs. SEGA's official "2026 Selected" names nine anniversary titles; this piece focuses on OutRun (40th), Streets of Rage (35th), NiGHTS into dreams... (30th), and Sakura Wars (30th). Concept: NO OLD, STAY GOLD.