I want the old Sega back. Circa 90's/2000's. Minus the console shenanigans, of course.
You and me both. I still dream about how an Out Run 3 for PS4/Xbox One/PC could look and play, or any of their arcade and Genesis to Dreamcast games for that matter.
At this rate, with the Nintendo, Konami and Sega developments combined, we are quickly nearing the point at which meaty, deep, button-controlled console games from Japan (like Bloodborne, FFXV, Zelda, Mario, Metal Gear, Valkyria Chronicles, etc.) will be nostalgic gaming experiences that only a small handful of the - now exponentionally grown - gaming population will reminisce about fondly. Reality has caught up with us - we are now the weird minority that others scoff at instead of gaming's most stalwart defenders...
With nostalgic shows like Game Centre CX and nostalgia inducing retro collector's shops being so popular there, and with the continued en masse shift towards mobile gaming (which, as far as I can tell, is spurred on by a society working and commuting an unhealthy number of hours per day), Japan already seems to be nearing that point. This of course would leave no choice for Western fans of traditional Japanese output to either shift to Western non-mobile games (while they still exist that is), stick to retro gaming (which now almost automatically also includes PS4, Wii U and 3DS if you think about it) or to embrace mobile gaming as well.
I'm still very unsure if my love for gaming can survive all these changes. I'm not against change or mobile gaming per se, but why oh why do most of the changes in gaming nowadays seem to lead to more people playing and developing relative simple time waster type games that barely require player input (in the traditional sense) and that I simply burn out on quickly? Are people like us really in love with a gaming form that others simply can't appreciate (and in some cases, vice versa), or did the traditional game industry simply fail since the 70's and 80's (and despite console and arcade gaming's initial boom in popularity), to convince the larger public that playing games on a console with a controller is something everyone can enjoy to a degree (a barrier that seems far lower in the mobile market where people already have the devices in hand 24/7)?
And before people remind me: Yes, there is an interesting parallel between arcade games of old and many mobile games when it comes to delivering pick up and play experiences that focus on social aspects like score sharing and that require some kind of continued payment (money for lives, patience for bars to fill etc.), but even those arcade games usually had actual level design and tactile controls that was innovated upon over the years to come. Why throw that all aside now Japan (in many cases)? Why?
Shit, guys, over-reaction and panic mode aside, I really don't know how I should feel about all of this when taken together...
