WTF Is Wrong With Sega?
Friday, March 19, 2010 at 5:48PM
Yakuza 3 and Resonance Of Fate are two games that have had a substantial amount of money and development time expended upon them. Both games were released, either around, or the same week as Final Fantasy XIII. Bayonetta was released after the holiday season and just before Mass Effect 2 during a time where gamers either had their interest occupied or had no money. To Sega's credit, the aforementioned games are interesting enough for critical debate and function as a window as to what the Japanese games market contributes to the community. However, when Sega isn't churning out a game featuring a rodent their larger more experimental titles are put in a no win scenario. Is it the market? Is it the game itself? Does the blame train begin and end with Sega's [mis]management structure?
We All Had High Hopes For Madworld Didn't We? A Mediocre Nugget Sega Barely Supported Post-Release
So when did big budget games all go to pot for Sega? Since making the transition from console and first-party studio producer, Sega has made a small fortune as a budget title developer and has seen moderate-to-good success on the Wii. Re-issuing classic 80's titles as downloadible games has proven lucrative on the PSN and Xbox Live services. Its only when a Viking or Madworld comes a long -- which seem to have a considerably larger budget and larger risk of failure -- when Sega completely balks on marketing strategies. Anyone whose played Madworld knows that game needed either more time or a third-person involved in the creative process.
Hmm...Okay I Can See Why The Hostess Clubs Would Be Cut, But Really? I Think Americans Would Let It Go
Fans of the Yakuza series are fully aware of the difficulties of bringing a game so niche over to the States. Anyone with half a salesman's brain is aware of how Yakuza 3 was going to sell, but further handicapping a game by releasing it on the same day as one of the biggest games of the year makes me think Sega could really give a damn. Think about how much time and money goes into producing a game like Yakuza 3 just for the Japanese fans. Now couple this effort with the localization and advertising efforts [if any] and scratch your head and wonder why Sega would throw all of that away. Divide that point by Sega enforcing cutting more than hostess clubs and a trivia show for the sake of dumb Americans digesting the game easier. Really guys? Really?
Asking for games to be of a better quality prior to release is a pointless and pretty darn pretentious question. Claiming the reason games published by Sega aren't well received by the gaming public solely based on the date of release is grasping at straws. Regardless of quality, Japanese games deserve a fair[er] shot than they've been getting by Sega. It's great that Sega cares about digital distribution -- though its rare to see a Sega game on Steam -- and the budget gaming market will continue being the company's automatic source of funds. Because of Sega's focus on the smaller titles, their talent for supporting larger titles has made me question the direction this once well respected Japanese game publishing powerhouse.
Know This Miscellaneous RPG Character? No, Well You're Not The Only One.
So what gives? Is Sega planning on releasing a new console? Are they throwing out titles with the hopes of being bought by a much larger gaming entity? Maybe Sega's Quality Assurance department knows these games aren't that high of a quality and refuse to treat them as such. Who knows, but it shouldn't be used as an excuse for treating the games their publishing like crap.
Reader Comments (11)
Bayonetta, Renaissance of fate, Alpha protocol, vanquish.
all 100 percent great games,....its the press who dont like them,..
I agree, Sega's management of non-sonic related titles has been abhorrent as of late. Hell, we finally got Yakuza 3, a cut up version at that, over here on March 9th, and Yakuza 4 came out this past Friday in Japan. On the plus side, Yakuza 3 has already moved 50,000 copies out of it's limited distribution here, so hopefully Sega will do the right thing and start localizing Yakuza 4 now.
"Is Sega planning on releasing a new console?"
No.
"Are they throwing out titles with the hopes of being bought by a much larger gaming entity?"
You wouldn't get much larger then the Sega Sammy holding group... seems unlikely.
" Maybe Sega's Quality Assurance department knows these games aren't that high of a quality and refuse to treat them as such."
Are you seriously suggesting that games like Bayonetta, Resonance of Fate, Yakuza 3, Phantasy Star Portable 2, Nepoleon Total War etc are not of a high quality?
Sure Sega sucks at marketing... but lets not start to underplay their output which is still pretty top notch... If you think about it. You know, if you are looking for hits for your site, taking pot shots at Sega isnt the way... Overlooking the good points of Sega has been done to death on just about every forum I've been on.
"Anyone with half a salesman's brain is aware of how Yakuza 3 was going to sell, but further handicapping a game by r" If you are referring it to American sales...you are wrong because the game will receive the same amount of sales Yakuza 2 did.
Another who played up to or started from Yakuza 2 will be looking forward to Yakuza 3. Some don't even like Yakuza and will stick to GTA franchises.
And RoF is a trash game already!
Good old SEGA, I loved the 80's with only 2 game companies to choose from. and 2 mascots to really worry about. But have to agree. They cater for the japanese market and really don't care or just rely on word of mouth anywhere outside of Japan.
Reasons why the Best console ever released basically failed (The Dreamcast) While it met with success in japan and a mild success in the USA. Marketing for the console elsewhere , especially here in Australia was null and void.
A few of their latest raleases have done reasonably well , but just look at them. They aren't bad just rely on pure smut...lol. I am a huge fan of SEGA, some of the best titles ever have been produced by this once huge powerhouse in the videogame world, but I haven't bought a title of theirs in a long time, If they ever release another console (rumours have circulated: Ringuard) I will be one of the first inline.But I highly doubt it. If they won't spend money on their titles I doubt their next console will even succeed
THE END
I just hope that theory I've read about SEGA Of Japan would give ATLUS USA rights of Yakuza series is true...
I love Yakuza series, but the way SEGA of America handling this series is a joke.
@ The 1st commenter Alex c
Good god man! Not to damage your credibility, but its RESONANCE of fate (sound and frequencies)
not RENAISSANCE of fate (as in 14th century)
Surely someone who played the game (or at least read the article) would know the name of it.
I agree 100%. Only a few years ago did I approach the gaming scene with compelling curiosity, and I've been hooked ever since. Because I've started gaming so late in its cycle I have made an attempt to go back and play those "must have" titles of previous generations as well as some of the more niche titles, like Yakuza 1 and 2 (assuming they ARE niche). After putting in a little over five hours into Yakuza2 I had fallen in love with the series and could not wait for 3! When Sega announced they were bringing Yakuza3 to the US I nearly fell off my rocker! Not only was the whole game coming to a Gamestop near me but the team working on the localization weren't going to include English voice-overs, knowing good and well that Yakuza needed to stay burrowed in its roots with Japanese voice acting along with the English subtitles.
I waited day after day, wanting to hear more news, see more video previews, and read more reviews on Yakuza3. When the game finally released and I saw it's fairly good but not great reviews I was not disappointed. I had thought Yakuza3 needed a little more polish in the gameplay department, but realising this had been released over a year ago in Japan motivated me, as a fan, to overlook these minor (although, substantial to some) flaws. Then hearing that this new iteration in the Japanese-brawler series had had content cut from the US version, and hearing of how much content had been cut, I became angry. I do not know why Sega would choose to drop a wall between fans of the Yakuza series living in the US and all this great content.
Thus I agree with you and would absolutely love to hear from Sega why they would do something so preposterous as cutting a considerable amount of desired, quality content from our version of Yakuza3!
"Maybe Sega's Quality Assurance department knows these games aren't that high of a quality and refuse to treat them as such."
The QA department is only responsible for finding and reporting bugs in games. The producers and development company are responsible for the design quality of the games. QA can only test what's given to them and unfortunately some companies only give crap.
Really awesome comments! Even those who disagreed with the article.
-I just want you guys to know that I am still a fan of Sega [otherwise I wouldn't have spent an afternoon formulating thoughts as to where I feel the company is going wrong].
-There is a nasty rumor going around that Sega could be bought by the company making it the most money [so don't be surprised if you see Sonic and Mario in a lot more games together].
-I'd like to think that I wasn't taking potshots at Sega seeing as the article talks about games that a fair amount of people were looking forward to [myself included]. As a publishing company it looks like Sega still has an eye for talent. And I will agree that it takes both Sega [Japan] and Sega America to be on the same page for this minor disaster to get better.
And yes...I'm holding out hope for A Dreamcast 2. lol
Sidenote: doesn't it cost more money to slice content out of a game? Couldn't they have let Yakuza 3 be confusing for the American audience and just let the smart fans figure it out?