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[frAntic_Frog]

i hope sony sends the new Sega Europe a Vita dev kit so that the Vita can get in on the new Sega apps/games.....

would be a nice differentiator between the Vita and 3DS

 

[jacobs34]

 

[ULTROS!]

So wouldn't it be great if Nintendo bought them? I mean they could save whatever series they wanted, plus fix anything Sega messed up.

PLUS! Nintendo could have a mobile games department and just use the Sega name for it.

I am a genius, Nintendo, please hire me.

I don't want Sega to go back to one platform (Nintendo). The fanbase is pretty spread out.

I'd rather see Sega be bought by Activision, Namco Bandai, Square Enix, or Ubisoft.

 

[Graphics Horse]

Does this mean no Sega Racing Transformed?

..no. But it means less work for Sumo Digital in the future, maybe.

 

[RobotHaus]

There's no value in buying a floundering company. Maybe buying the rights to a franchise, like Sonic, and putting their own team on it.

Yeah, but they could also use them as a face or figure head. Nintendo says they won't do mobile platforms or tablet/etc, so why not buy a company and use them for it? That way Nintendo is true to their word and the stockholders are happy.

Plus they will fix and restore some great franchises in the process(hopefully).

 

[TheNatural]

That's pretty much the idea behind it. It's not like Sega is filled with incompetent programmers or anything, either. They just need better direction and creative decision makers, which Nintendo would definitely provide.

Mergers or acquisitions of unsuccessful companies almost always lose money for the acquirer. Hell even successful ones, all mergers and acquisitions fail about 90% of the time. Look what a massive non factor Rare has been for Microsoft.

If Sega gets bad enough to be liquidated, Nintendo would probably be at the top of the list for the Sonic IP. But I would think Sonic would literally be the last thing Sega would ever give up, because if they give that up they're literally ceasing to exist as a videogame company ever again.

 

[PeakPointMatrix]

It should have been Capcom. IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN CAPCOMMM!!

 

[Nirolak]

I don't want Sega to go back to one platform (Nintendo). The fanbase is pretty spread out.

I'd rather see Sega be bought by Activision, Namco Bandai, Square Enix, or Ubisoft.

Don't worry, Nintendo isn't going to buy a $5 billion Pachinko company for that hot Sonic IP.

 

[MThanded]

thisis all your guys fault for buying stupid playstation 2because of dumb hype and rubber ducky bull shit The Dreamcast had everything gaf saysthey want original titles and non sequals and this is how you return the favor. have fun with your go of war and the next uncharted that with still crud shooting and have fun with psn going down again over and over.

Amazing. Would read again. If I ever stop laughing.

 

[John Harker]

They recently laid off/reshuffled a lot of the US marketing debt, too

 

[Graphics Horse]

It should have been Capcom. It should have been Capcom!!

Their time shall capcome.

 

[neoanarch]

I don't want Sega to go back to one platform (Nintendo). The fanbase is pretty spread out.

I'd rather see Sega be bought by Activision or Ubisoft.

Monster


Too much trouble for Nintendo to buy them out. They would have to untangle Sammy from Sega. Hopefully they just scale down to Japanese development for a while at least.

 

[Troll]

As much as I hate to see this, SEGA hasn't exactly been releasing great games lately. With the exception being Virtura Fighter, they kind of suck now.

 

[Eusis]

Monster


Too much trouble for Nintendo to buy them out. They would have to untangle Sammy from Sega. Hopefully they just scale down to Japanese development for a while at least.

Yeah, if Sammy removes Sega from themselves to sell of it's a real possibility. And man, screw the idea of Activision (and to a lesser extent Ubisoft) buying them, Nintendo would treat them well, SE might actually give them a decent amount of freedom or at least give us better chances of seeing the Valkyria games come out here again maybe, and Namco Bandai would just be amusingly ironic in more ways than one.

 

[Shaheed79]

Can you blame them? Most of the developers/publishers who barely survived this generation aren't prepared for development costs to rise yet again and reinvest into next generation.

If your company could not even turn a profit on PS3 or 360, then the chances of your company making a profit on more powerful consoles like PS4/720 are dismal. The fact that we must first lose developers like Sega, before we stop a take a good look at the direction console game development is taking, is simply saddening and depressing.

But it's ok because we have 2000 new developers who make smartphone and ipad games right?

 

[ProtoCents]

But seriously, what of Skies of Arcadia 2????

 

[Y2Kev]

it burns

 

[Kaizer]

Atlus, please, please, PLEASE pick-up the Yakuza series if Sega is really down for the count. If I don't get to play Yakuza 5, I'm gonna punch a tiger.

 

[Dark Schala]

I don't want Sega to go back to one platform (Nintendo). The fanbase is pretty spread out.

I'd rather see Sega be bought by Activision, Namco Bandai, Square Enix, or Ubisoft.

NO.

Yeah, I'm SERIOUSLY hoping it's just stating things in regards to European development rather than Sega development on a whole, because it'd REALLY suck if they retreated to mobile/tablet near exclusively.

... That, and honestly it doesn't make sense to me for them to abandon the 3DS at the least. Though I guess that's a mobile platform in the sense it's a self contained device you carry with you to play games on.

Downloadable games for 3DS/Vita/PSN/XBLA/Whatever WiiU has would make sense.

But yeah, I hope it's specific to European development. I feel bad for everyone who'll lose their jobs, though. Really sucks, because I've liked Sega's output this generation. I've recently realized that I have bought more stuff from them than the previous generation.

 

[MThanded]

So there is no chance of a Sega Nomad rerelease? I thought for sure this was the year.

 

[bjork]

So there is no chance of a Sega Nomad rerelease?

They're quite available on the goodwill auction site.

 

[Data West]

it burns

This is all Jet Set's fault.

 

[Boss1337]

even though it would never happen as it would make to much sense, I would love Nintendo to purchase Sega/ip's, it would give them a more adult division of titles to win back people who perceive Nintendo as kiddy, they would gain genres that are severely lacking in-house with Nintendo , they would get good pedigree "Racing" , "Sports" series of ip's, a range of mascot games that suit younger crowds plus the legion of fans that grew up in the Sega Vs Nintendo era, a hell of a lot of mature and arcade titles that are lacking with Nintendo not to mention the back catalogue to compete better with xbla and psn.

With the range of ip's they wouldn't have to be so reliant on cranking out Mario and Zelda and eliminate black hole periods of no releases of new games to get people using their consoles daily and no longer just the "Party/Mario/Zelda" machine you dust off every few months.

 

[PepsimanVsJoe]

I'd rather see Sega be bought by Activision, Namco Bandai, Square Enix, or Ubisoft.

All fates worse than death.

Same with Nintendo for that matter.

 

[Roo]

It's really sad watching Sega and THQ going through this situation =/
wonder how many companies will be out if business when the Wii U/PS4/Next Xbox gen is all said and done

 

[MThanded]

They're quite available on the goodwill auction site.

Awwww snap

 

[Sinatar]

The only bad news about Sega going down is that they'll take Creative Assembly down with them. Sega's been producing almost nothing but garbage for the last 10+ years.

 

[subversus]

*reads the thread*
*can't understand why people are freaking out*
*goes back to playing Golden Axe*

 

[TheNatural]

It's really sad watching Sega and THQ going through this situation =/
wonder how many companies will be out if business when the Wii U/PS4/Next Xbox gen is all said and done

Sad, but its more sad how bad the management is of these companies. You have to question the sanity of some of the decisions they make on what they do and don't green light.

 

[Eusis]

A thought: I wonder if the salvation for the industry budget-wise is for the notion of cinematic, set piece gaming to die with the mainstream and core audiences? That definitely isn't the sole cause of rising costs, but I'd think games meant to be gamey with only the barest pretension of telling a story might be a lot cheaper, or at least cut out a chunk of the motion capturing and VA budget.

 

[Guri]

Well, let's just hope that Sonic isn't considered an AAA franchise

Spoiler

and anything else made by them

 

[subversus]

A thought: I wonder if the salvation for the industry budget-wise is for the notion of cinematic, set piece gaming to die with the mainstream and core audiences? That definitely isn't the sole cause of rising costs, but I'd think games meant to be gamey with only the barest pretension of telling a story might be a lot cheaper, or at least cut out a chunk of the motion capturing and VA budget.

You can do gamey games on mobile just fine. That is why I can't understand why people are freaking out.

 

[AniHawk]

Which major franchises does this happen with?

i'm not sure, but companies with major franchises are usually in a better position than sega apparently is. what i'm talking about happens among smaller companies. although nintendo had xseed bring the european release of the last story to the us for a similar example.

 

[Eusis]

You can do gamey games on mobile just fine. That is why I can't understand why people are freaking out.

I'm not that interested in being stuck with pure touch screen controls unless they're games actually made with that in mind. And going purely to that WOULD mean a few games that should be on standard controls would end up that way.

Unless mobile is as far reaching as I'd hope (including Vita/3DS), then I'd mind less if straight up not care at all.

EDIT: Nevermind moving this to a new post.

 

[Onion_Relish]

Sega does what nintendont

 

[Para bailar La Bomba]

I was saddened by the news but then i read this...holy shit i can't stop laughing ^ ^



Oh trust me he means it. Just go through his post history.

I want to play "Go of War" - sounds like a fun SRPG.

 

[TheNatural]

A funny thought. The Humble Bundle is at 2.6 million in sales already with 4 relatively minor indie games.

What if SEGA called up the organizers, made a "Save SEGA" bundle with ports and Steam keys of the co-op Arcade collections they just released, put two as the standard bundle, and another as a "beat the average" bonus.

SEGA could make a cool $10 mil off that alone I think LOL.

 

[Reuenthal]

What does this mean for Total Wars series?

If that means Creative Assembly will go down then HOLY SHIT WORST NEWS EVER, I am pissed. But Total War series and Football Manager are too successful for those series to stop existing, right? I remember a thread about this in gaf some weeks ago that said that they would still keep those franchises.

 

[subversus]

I'm not that interested in being stuck with pure touch screen controls unless they're games actually made with that in mind. And going purely to that WOULD mean a few games that should be on standard controls would end up that way.

Unless mobile is as far reaching as I'd hope (including Vita/3DS), then I'd mind less.

You can do a good platformer with touch controls. I enoyed Mirror's Edge on iPad even more than its original version.

 

[Kazerei]

I will note though that something is very wrong when your major figurehead leaves out of the blue and your E3 retail line-up is basically non-existent.

After re-reading their E3 line-up, I noticed three out of seven were PSN/XBLA/PC DD games. I think I might want to amend that translation ...

At the same time, Sega will also announce, according to these sources, they will no longer develop AAA games on consoles, but will focus on digital games, notably for cell phones and tablets.

It's not actually clear if "notably" applied to "tablets" or "cell phones and tablets", because grammatically the word comes at the end of the sentence, and there's no punctuation to help clarify (I added that comma). But this would suggest that Sega will still develop PSN/XBLA-type games.

Hope that makes people feel better.

EDIT: Wow, basically what you said in post #42. Focus will be on digital titles, for more than just phones/tablets.

 

[Eusis]

You can do a good platformer with touch controls. I enoyed Mirror's Edge on iPad even more than its original version.

And that's an example of a platformer geared more to touch controls, the likes of Mario and Mega Man would not fare as well, Mega Man definitely didn't.

Actually, when I say going back to a simpler mindset I'm thinking... like, take the approach to Doom or Quake rather than CoD or Uncharted, and apply that to a game developed on consoles. Basically what core games were in the early to mid 90s, and to some extent the late 90s, but viewed through modern technology. Come to think of it, Demon's Souls/Dark Souls could possibly count as that sort of thing.

 

[starmud]

wha

...

what is sammy doing! ;_____;

please god, sony or nintendo, save sega from sammy. it hurts too much.

seriously, if this is the plan, why not just sell the division to someone. keep the arcade/toy operations. whats the value of sega to sammy anymore? the plan seems like it failed pretty hard.

how much is sega really going to bank on tablets/phones? that sounds like a death path. they need to acquire/develop IP for that type of marketplace, what do they own that will fit it well? outside of sonic and monkey ball, which don't seem like huge hits on the app store either.

 

[michaelius]

This would not exactly be in line with the new strategy they announced, so I suspect there's some level of exaggeration to this report.

I mean, they intended to pare down their console efforts *HEAVILY*, but they still expected things like Sonic to exist and certainly to make digital titles for more than phones and tablets.

They probably mean - no AAA game development outside of Japan since Yakuza 5 is in the making. And well honestly at this point of time if whole sega moves back to Japan only it would probably be better for us as we would have more competent and willing companies take care of localisations.

 

[thiscoldblack]

Will not believe.

 

[jonno394]

The only bad news about Sega going down is that they'll take Creative Assembly down with them. Sega's been producing almost nothing but garbage for the last 10+ years.

What does this mean for Total Wars series?

If that means Creative Assembly will go down then HOLY SHIT WORST NEWS EVER, I am pissed.

If Sega Europe dies does it automatically sound the death knell for companies they own like CA and the football manager guys??

 

[Nirolak]

After re-reading their E3 line-up, I noticed three out of seven were PSN/XBLA/PC DD games. I think I might want to amend that translation ...



It's not actually clear if "notably" applied to "tablets" or "cell phones and tablets", because grammatically the word comes at the end of the sentence, and there's no punctuation to help clarify (I added that comma). But this would suggest that Sega will still develop PSN/XBLA-type games.

Hope that makes people feel better.

Thanks, I'll update.

They probably mean - no AAA game development outside of Japan since Yakuza 5 is in the making. And well honestly at this point of time if whole sega moves back to Japan only it would probably be better for us as we would have more competent and willing companies take care of localisations.

I don't think Yakuza is considered AAA in budget. I mean, it makes money on like 400-500K sales in Japan.

If Sega Europe dies does it automatically sound the death knell for companies they own like CA and the football manager guys??

I would guess not actually, since they set up Sega Networks.

 

[Eusis]

They probably mean - no AAA game development outside of Japan since Yakuza 5 is in the making. And well honestly at this point of time if whole sega moves back to Japan only it would probably be better for us as we would have more competent and willing companies take care of localisations.

So long as we don't see some worst case scenario where the US division exists solely to cherry pick games to localize/publish and for Sega on a whole to not let anyone else touch those games.

I don't think Yakuza is considered AAA in budget. I mean, it makes money on like 400-500K sales in Japan.

With how much Japanese games cost I sort of wonder if that's like 2 million here, assuming that the profit between publisher/retailer is MUCH larger and the cost of production is the same or slightly higher. Still, even at 2 million that'd be relatively tame compared to what some western AAA games apparently need.

 

[qq more]

I don't want Sega to go back to one platform (Nintendo). The fanbase is pretty spread out.

I'd rather see Sega be bought by Activision, Namco Bandai, Square Enix, or Ubisoft.

GOOD GOD NO

WHATS WRONG WITH YOU

 

[Neuromancer]

You can't add digital titles to the Tower of Power. =(

 

[Chet Rippo]

GOOD GOD NO

WHATS WRONG WITH YOU

You wouldn't actually mind if Namco bought them?

Namco?

NAMCO?