The Future is Looking Bright for Sega Fans (by Aramonde)

[Original_Name]

Fantastic thoughts, Pierrot, always been a huge fan of your posts.

Interesting... I have to say that I completely agree with you -- I do dearly miss the Sega that so rarely condescended its fans; that as a creative collective offered a process moreso than individual products. At the same time, this is essentially a dead company that we're talking about. The former staff still present at Sega-Sammy can't be more than 15% at maximum, with likely all of them piled into Team Yakuza, AM2, and the Amusement Division.

What I think is significant, however, is that it's very standard in the industry to bring the original talent back into the fray when a license is being revisited. It was fascinating, for instance, to see Emiko Yamamoto brought back on as an executive producer for the Castle of Illusion remake. Anything could happen, y'know -- if Atlus truly is to be left alone as Sega has been insisting, yet they have access to Sega's IP, who's to say that former Sega staff won't be attracted to the company in order to get access to their old franchises back, and create a sort of quasi-Sega through the filter of Atlus.

Obviously this is a complete long-shot, and as I say, I agree that it seems like a slap in the face to have had to endure seeing a company calling itself Sega and utterly failing to live up to that name in every regard, but I'm not opposed to seeing some familiar faces again, both inside the games and behind the games. Still, it makes you wonder though, where would the old Sega be if they'd been able to stay around until today? Making a console based off of the 3D printer or something?

[Original_Name]

Honestly I have a harder time understanding fans that treat Sega as this godlike force that blessed gaming for a short period of time before reaching their inevitable crucifixion than the sequel beggars. I am a big Sega fan myself, but they have been the dicks of the industry and have consistently made really stupid decisions since day one, and still do to this day. I love a lot of their stuff and favor them over Nintendo, but as for the company itself, I have little to praise. It's a sinking ship for reasons greater than dumb fans.

They never had a sustainable business model and they had a ton of internal problems, but I don't see how they're the dicks of the industry at all. Being disorganized and suffering from intercultural politics was a downside that cost the company dearly, but out of the other major players in the industry, they barely register at all on the dick scale. Foolish scale, sure, but I wouldn't take it much further than that outside of a few isolated examples.

I mean, they never engaged in unconstitutional third party agreements. Never outright lied about their specs and went to ridiculous lengths to kill off dying competition in order to support a vertically-integrated monopoly effort. Never tried to put spy cameras in their game consoles. They were just really lousy at management, which didn't really hurt anyone but themselves.

And sure, the company is way over-mystified by certain people, but that's because A.) they've been unfairly discredited by most gamers despite being very influential and housing some fantastic talent and B.) there hasn't really been another company in gaming that was so large, yet legitimately seemed to be more interested in the craft than the business. This may be, of course, an illusion caused by the fact that they were flailing the entire time, yet its hard to argue that any other company would have the ability or desire to release a line-up as diverse as Shenmue, Jet Set Radio, Skies of Arcadia, and Sega Marine Fishing over the course of a single one-month period.

[brunoafh]

They never had a sustainable business model and they had a ton of internal problems, but I don't see how they're the dicks of the industry at all.

I failed to specify that I meant they have consistently been dicks to us, the Western gamers. I kind of assumed that was a given, but I guess it's not when thinking on a larger scale. But that's what I'm driving at and what pisses me off about them. They cared more in the Genesis/MD era, but since then it has been a steady decline, and now it's to the point where it's simple flagrant disregard. The market is here and vocal, and they don't care.

Even when we do get lucky and someone at HQ flipped a coin and decided to localize the game, the localizations are more than often plagued by horrible dubs, lack of licensed music, bad translations, and missing content.

It's going to be interesting to see what people have to say when we start seeing less Atlus developed games in the West. Sure, maybe Atlus will actually wind up making a new Shenmue installment or a big budget console Shining Force 4. That doesn't mean anyone but the Japanese and importers are going to play it though.

[Original_Name]

They never had a sustainable business model and they had a ton of internal problems, but I don't see how they're the dicks of the industry at all.

I failed to specify that I meant they have consistently been dicks to us, the Western gamers. I kind of assumed that was a given, but I guess it's not when thinking on a larger scale. But that's what I'm driving at and what pisses me off about them. They cared more in the Genesis/MD era, but since then it has been a steady decline, and now it's to the point where it's simple flagrant disregard. The market is here and vocal, and they don't care.

Ah, got'cha -- I probably should've picked up on your meaning there. Their localization was really of erratic when they were a first party, being the industry's best and worst interchangeably, but yeah, it's been pretty terrible lately.

[Erik_Twice]

It's hard for me to think Sega is evil because they don't release games in the west when they are one of the companies that do it most often and those vocal western gamers don't buy a single copy of them.

Or are we supposed to be angry because Sega brought Yakuza to the west only four times?

[brunoafh]

they are one of the companies that do it most often

Are you actually serious? I don't even know how to respond. This is a company that is so screwed up that it can't even release games that the developers localized themselves on time (Anarchy Reigns delay). Compared to Nintendo and Sony their first party localization track record is pathetic.

Or are we supposed to be angry because Sega brought Yakuza to the west only four times?

Five times actually, and I acknowledge this and am grateful (even though the localizations were consistently bad, lazy, and missing content until Yakuza 4). I don't know if I'm supposed to be angry that they have basically given a middle finger to the Western Yakuza fanbase recently by shutting the forums down and saying they have thrown in the towel (in spite of the major installments meeting sales goals), but I am certainly a bit irked.

And I don't think Sega is evil, I just think they are really stupid and for some reason like to ignore the Western market, which if utilized properly can pull in incredible numbers due to its size (Final Fantasy).

[Sload Soap]

Sega generally served us european's better than Nintendo did, especially during the Master System years. That might be what General Norris is getting at.

My personal opinion on this matter is that while I understand the various teams and individuals who made Sega what it was in its heyday, I don't see why a project like Streets of Rage 4 is beyond them. At the very least it could be farmed out to a developer like Wayforward or Klei. And doesn't this deal with Atlus lead to the possibility of a Phantasy Star made by the Persona team? That seems like a pretty exciting prospect.

I don't feel that I am owed more installments in any Sega franchise, but I would like to see a Sega that has the confidence to produce something other than mobile stuff and Sonic games.

[pierrot]

What I think is significant, however, is that it's very standard in the industry to bring the original talent back into the fray when a license is being revisited. It was fascinating, for instance, to see Emiko Yamamoto brought back on as an executive producer for the Castle of Illusion remake. Anything could happen, y'know -- if Atlus truly is to be left alone as Sega has been insisting, yet they have access to Sega's IP, who's to say that former Sega staff won't be attracted to the company in order to get access to their old franchises back, and create a sort of quasi-Sega through the filter of Atlus.

Obviously this is a complete long-shot, and as I say, I agree that it seems like a slap in the face to have had to endure seeing a company calling itself Sega and utterly failing to live up to that name in every regard, but I'm not opposed to seeing some familiar faces again, both inside the games and behind the games. Still, it makes you wonder though, where would the old Sega be if they'd been able to stay around until today? Making a console based off of the 3D printer or something?

I was going to basically post what you posted below this quotation, but then I also came to understand what bruno meant by "dicks."

I suppose it would be interesting to see some former employees at least temporarily brought into the fold again to work on franchises they worked on in the past, but I feel like that's a lot more work than any company these days would ever really invest. (Outside of the odd cameo.) I also don''t have much interest in speculating about the possibility that Sega might do something cool with some vintage IPs. I'd rather just be pleasantly surprised by something actually happening, after the fact; personally, anyway. Mainly because:

Unless it's a continuation of an existing / unfinished story Like Shenmue of course. Right?...

Yeah. I think I may have given up on a sequel to Shenmue a couple years ago. At this point, I have no expectations, and probably don't care much either way if it happened or not. I might rather just find the time to play through 1 and 2 again.

My personal opinion on this matter is that while I understand the various teams and individuals who made Sega what it was in its heyday, I don't see why a project like Streets of Rage 4 is beyond them. At the very least it could be farmed out to a developer like Wayforward or Klei. And doesn't this deal with Atlus lead to the possibility of a Phantasy Star made by the Persona team? That seems like a pretty exciting prospect.

It feels, to me, as if something like these examples would be a sequel in name only. Reboots can be kind of fun, and good games in their own right, but with series like Streets of Rage and Phantasy Star, where releases were never really seen outside of one console generation, I don't really see what the appeal would be over something like a fan-hack or fan made game. It feels like a placard from Sega individually acknowledging fans' enjoyment of a particular series/game would be interchangeable. I guess I just have trouble understanding what a sequel would offer that the first three or four don't already. Maybe something slightly less familiar, that hasn't been played to death, but is that really something that's necessary?

[RyaNtheSlayA]

I have much love to give to the early Sega, especially in their Genesis years. However, they have never been a smart company. In this modern era, I find I can't really care less what Sega is or does. They occasionally pump out a good game, as a publisher. They rarely give us something to care about as a developer these days which is a shame. I am, however, very happy to hear that they may entertain letting Atlus have some fun with their IP. The real question is, does Atlus even want to touch that IP in the first place? I can see them doing something great with Shining Force but that isn't a dormant IP (in Japan) and I'm not sure Sega could handle letting them make a good Shining game for the first time in 15 years.

As with many people here, I will be cautiously optimistic.

[bacardipr05]

It's hard for me to think Sega is evil because they don't release games in the west when they are one of the companies that do it most often and those vocal western gamers don't buy a single copy of them.

Or are we supposed to be angry because Sega brought Yakuza to the west only four times?

This is true