Each new piece of Sammy/Sega news sounds more potentially devastating(to gamers, not necessarily Sega's finances) than before.
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Each new piece of Sammy/Sega news sounds more potentially devastating(to gamers, not necessarily Sega's finances) than before.
If Sammy doubles their stake in the company, will they acquire all the intellectual property or do individual development teams have a say? I'm not in the know when it comes to the business side of SEGA, I know development teams handle their own books and whatnot, but just how integrated is everything? If the worse happens and Sammy does go for an aggressive takeover, then slashes away at videogame development, I hope the development teams give them the finger and go out on their own.
Which would clearly state that sammy aquired absolutely nothing... :lol:Quote:
Originally Posted by Johnny
cept the right to plaster sonic all over pachinko machines. :cry:
Maybe I'm wrong, but does anyone see a positive side to these developments? I certainly don't. The more I think about it, the more I believe that Sega as we have known it is dying.
W E L C O
M E T O T
W O Y E A
R S A G O
Sega's been dying for quite awhile now...
Where did the Sammy guy say that Sega is going into the pachinko business? That was speculation by the Sega-biased author of the article.
Most of that article was speculation and propaganda, actually. Not very well researched or written. Yes, Sega may shy away from expensive machines like Outrun 2, but since when have you seen any of those in arcades? I certainly haven't. Most of America hasn't. I know their primary market for arcade stuff is in Japan, but I don't see how that can make them enough money in the long run without a good backup arcade market and console sales.
The truth here is Sega has mismanaged itself since before the Dreamcast. The DC days were alright, but I don't believe it had to die prematurely -- there were other strategies Sega could follow, but I can't really fault them for ditching it. Most of their decisions after that, though, have been rather stupid. Multi-console support is good if you really do multi-console support, which they haven't until Sonic Heroes. Their strategies for publishing games have been asinine (i.e. Sonic only on Gamecube, JSRF and Orta only on Xbox, anything Shenmue, etc.). Certain marquee titles have had design problems (SA2, JSRF). This sort of uneven development and crappy decision making are not good for a company trying to get back on its feet.
I am all for Sammy's plans for Sega, unless they go nuts and completely abandon the gaming market. Pachinko does not sell in the US market, and that really should weigh in their decisions more than prejudices toward their home turf. Big games do not sell aside from a limited number of arcades in Japan, so why make them? I like this idea of focusing on third-world markets with virtually no arcades, since most of them have never seen Sega games on a wide scale. The DC/AW hardware is powerful enough to provide for some flashy arcady stuff, so they ought to restrain themselves to that and make money while minimizing development costs. Sega's developers are experienced enough with DC hardware that they could probably write games quicker and more efficiently for it than things like Triforce or that Xbox arcade board, so this will help reduce costs quite a bit.
I don't think Sammy will abandon the home market. Keeping things to one platform in the arcades will hopefully reduce their porting costs to home consoles. Trying to manage multiple hardware architectures when you don't have to is stupid and creates situations like the Outrun 2 thing -- everyone knows the game could sell big, but since it was developed on hardware that won't provide a big-selling home version (only the Xbots at TNL and Gaming Age would buy it, that platform can't provide large sales numbers), it has to be scaled down to fit on inferior hardware. As a result, it's not as cool-looking as a possible Xbox version; however, Sega doesn't lose out on what could be a stinker on the Xbox, as opposed to at least a moderate hit on the PS2.
In other words, I like the direction this is going. It looks like this Satomi guy is going for a management purge, which is strongly needed. It's not really a question of if he can, but when -- he's got the money and the shareholder backing to do it. Hopefully he knows what he is doing and will allow Sega to continue making good games.
What do you mean dying? Nightshade, Shinobi, Panzer Dragoon Orta and Sonic Heroes rasied a decent amount of money for more Pachinko balls to be made.
U R TON SEGA
I'm doubting the first three games raised "a decent amount of money". PDO and Shinobi seem to be everyone's favorite bargain bin titles, and neither are platinum hits or greatest hits, so they haven't sold THAT much, at least.Quote:
Originally Posted by Will
And everyone seems to have forgotten about Nightshade, already. There also seem to be zero advertising for it.
Protip: I wasn't serious.Quote:
Originally Posted by Roufuss
Protip: You suck cock.Quote:
Originally Posted by Will