Untitled Sega arcade project from the early-to-mid 2000s?

I can't find anything online, but I remember a team from Sega headed over to America (I think it was somewhere in in Illinois) to work on an "ambitious" arcade game. It might've involved ghosts or aliens.

Does this sound familiar to anyone? Did it turn into anything or was it quickly canceled and forgotten?

Thanks for your help.

I found something, though I guess it doesn't seem like it was an arcade game:

 

Lol they were making a game about Carbondale?

 

Sounds like it. I definitely remembered the suburban Illinois detail just because it sounded so outlandish at the time. I don't remember details about it taking place in mall or talk of any weapons when I read the original announcement. At the time, I thought it was going to be some kind of light gun game.

The game kind of sounds like Dead Rising with aliens. I wonder if there is a connection.

 

x

 

I'm fairly sure "Carbondale" wasn't Psy-Phi, as none of the articles I remember reading about this project mentioned the involvement of Yu Suzuki. On the other hand, I do recall it once being suggested that after being cancelled, elements from this game - possibly its engine technology and portions of field location studies - may have been recycled for Condemned or even some titles in development at Obsidian. I wish someone was able to find the other reports that I'd seen regarding Carbondale back in the day, since I could have sworn the Alien RPG team made use of this research, though I'm certainly not saying this came out of that preliminary work. Considering how expensive it must have been to fly a Japanese group out to Illinois, my guess is that it would be in Sega's best interest to make something from its initial and large financial investment, even if the end result wasn't the high profile arcade release as originally planned.

 

Anyone?

 

I remember this article as I lived in St. Louis at the time. Shinichi Ogasawara is Sega's arcade rail gun shooting guru, not sure what he would do on console, Pretty certain, he did the recent Sega Transformers arcade.

Psy-Phi is a totally different game which I've played on test in Shinjuku and at the Chicago Game Works. It is a touch screen fighter.

 

I guess this project disappeared without a trace. That's a shame. With all that research, Sega should've begun some sort of development cycle--even if we're just looking at concept art. I wonder if anyone out there knows more than what these old articles say. I remember being pretty excited for the project at the time. It sounded so mysterious.

 

thought about this again today

anyone out there have any info??

 

But condemned was made by Monolith, and the only Obsidian game that I recall to be published by sega is Alpha Protocol.

 

It was said to be Ghost Squad. Whether that's true, I don't know.

Moved to arcade forum.

 

It's not Ghost Squad. It's a survival horror game about aliens.

I'm guessing unless someone tracks down Shinichi Ogasawara,, I'm not getting answer.

The product manager mentioned in the article up-thread is on Twitter and seems willing to talk, but wants me to contact him through LinkedIn for more information on the game. I'm unfortunately not on LinkedIn. Is anyone here on LinkedIn?

 

Then sign up. Don't use a proxy. I think you may have to pay to use messaging on there, though? That said, they offer free trials of Premium.

Considering most of the Hitmaker team don't speak English, you'd be better off talking to the SOA or Carbondale City reps, unless your Japanese is strong. However, it was reported as unnamed at the time, so the Sega rep is probably the better bet.

http://dailyegyptian.com/28944/archives/aliens-invade-region-in-upcoming-sega-game/

 

Update: working with Unseen 64 to find out some more information. I will let you guys know if we find out anything interesting.

 

Apparently a prototype exists.

Going to get more info soon.