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Sammy takes over Sega - Printable Version +- Tendo City (https://www.tendocity.net) +-- Forum: Tendo City: Metropolitan District (https://www.tendocity.net/forumdisplay.php?fid=4) +--- Forum: Tendo City (https://www.tendocity.net/forumdisplay.php?fid=42) +--- Thread: Sammy takes over Sega (/showthread.php?tid=1377) |
Sammy takes over Sega - A Black Falcon - 11th December 2003 This is about Sammy's first announcement after the stock purchase a few days ago. http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20031210/bs_nm/tech_japan_sammy_dc_1 Quote:Sammy CEO: Deal Adds to Muscle in Arcades Hmm... no so sure if this is good or bad... I don't know if Sammy's taking over and telling Sega to do more arcade games on the Atomiswave (which I believe is more designed for 2d than 3d) will be good for Sega... looks like it could hurt Sega's uniqueness and experimental games, for sure... :( Sammy takes over Sega - OB1 - 11th December 2003 I don't know what to think of this just yet. I'll wait until I hear whether or not Shenmue III is going to make it before I make up my mind. Sammy takes over Sega - The Former DMiller - 11th December 2003 It sounds pretty bad to me. Almost like a hostile takeover. From what I've heard a lot of Sega's teams don't like the management of Sammy, especially the Smilebit team. And the foucs of the arcade can only mean less console games. Sammy takes over Sega - A Black Falcon - 11th December 2003 Yeah, the tone of this article sounds pretty ugly. Sega might survive, but if this goes the way it looks like it might they'd lose their trademark 'we'll make what is cool at the expense of doing what would be most profitable' that has made them hardcore favorites, and well might have a big talent exodus... more focus on arcade games would go along with that since Sega has always done arcade games but never to the importance of its console games... we definitely need to learn more about this, but early indications are not good. Sammy takes over Sega - Great Rumbler - 11th December 2003 It certaintly doesn't sound like good news; it will probably mean less console games and not many unique ones. Not a good thing to happen. Sammy takes over Sega - A Black Falcon - 11th December 2003 Especially given how Sega is/was one of the most innovative console companies around, in the 'weird games' category... Sammy takes over Sega - The Former DMiller - 11th December 2003 I think Sega made a big mistake when they decided to spread their games across all platforms. I think they would have been better suited if they had put all of their games on PS2, maybe porting games like Sonic and Monkey Ball to GameCube. Sammy takes over Sega - A Black Falcon - 11th December 2003 Hmm... maybe, but then we wouldn't have gotten all those great Sega games on the Cube... Sammy takes over Sega - Great Rumbler - 11th December 2003 I think you're being sarcastic...but I'll answer as if you were being serious. Great Sega games? Like what? Let's see there was Super Monkey Ball and...well you know what? That's all there is!! Sammy takes over Sega - A Black Falcon - 11th December 2003 I was serious. Uhh... sure, they're Dreamcast ports, but Skies of Arcadia: Legends and Ikaruga are great games. The sports games are quite good too from what I've heard... and good games, like Sonic Adventure 2... and probably Sonic Adventure DX, and the Sonic Mega Collection... yes, and Monkey Ball 1 and 2, which are fun. Sammy takes over Sega - Great Rumbler - 11th December 2003 Ikaruga wasn't made by Sega. Ports. That's what we got. Ports. Except for a very, very few games. Like Monkey Ball, which IS a great game. But when you look at everything else about the best you can say is "good". Sammy takes over Sega - A Black Falcon - 11th December 2003 Yup, you're right, we got ports, and the PS2 and X-Box got their top tier new games. But my point is we wouldn't even have gotten that if they had stuck to one console... Sammy takes over Sega - The Former DMiller - 11th December 2003 Yeah, but what's good for us GameCube fans wasn't necessarily good for Sega. They needed to focus on PS2 because they were in a very delicate situation financially and the PS2 has by-far the largest userbase. Sega games sold like crap on Xbox and MS even bundled them trying to get rid of them. I still think they should have put Monkey Ball and the Sonic ports on both PS2 and GameCube, though, since those games sold pretty well for third-party GameCube games. If Sega had focused on one console, though, they wouldn't have split up their fans. Not every hardcore Sega fan can afford to buy all three consoles, so those who stuck with one console ended up not buying Sega's games on other consoles. Given the niche quality of many of Sega's titles it is not a good idea to split up your userbase. Sammy takes over Sega - A Black Falcon - 11th December 2003 True, given their financial situation breaking up their fanbase wasn't the best idea, but I'm sure they did it in the hopes of growing their fanbase into the users of those platforms... sticking to one platform would be best for Sega fans, but if you want to get the most new fans you'll have to support multiple platforms. The problem was that they released almost everything for just one platform, which is something that most third parties just don't do. I guess they didn't have the money to release them on all formats or something, but it probably would have been the best path, and one most all third parties take... or at least the two platforms you find most suited for the game. Their sports games are the one exception. Sammy takes over Sega - Great Rumbler - 12th December 2003 They would have done a lot better if they hadn't released all those Xbox games that sold horribly. Sammy takes over Sega - The Former DMiller - 12th December 2003 I don't think it's been reported anywhere yet, and it's just talk at this point, but it sounds like the first casualty of the Sammy takeover is going to be Visual Concepts. The ESPN games haven't been selling too well even though many people think they are better than EA's games, so Sammy is thinking of just ending them. This would be a horrible, horrible shame because ESPN is the only major competition for EA right now. I don't want to see them getting lazy. What I'd love, but what will never happen, is if Nintendo bought VC to become an exclusive sports developer for the next Nintendo. It's too late to try to bring sports fans back to GameCube, so get one of the best sports developers around and make sure you have all the major sports covered next-gen. Sammy takes over Sega - A Black Falcon - 13th December 2003 I am sure they will not be the last... I mean, Sega is a much bigger than the average developer purchased by another company, but that doesn't seem to matter here because Sammy is in control... it seems like Sega's going through what so many companies have when they get bought. The end result (sometimes it takes a while, but it usually happens) usually seems to be a company nowhere near as good as it was and without any of its top talent. Sammy takes over Sega - A Black Falcon - 18th December 2003 http://www.gamespot.com/xbox/driving/segagtonline/news_6085901.html The first of many? Sammy takes over Sega - OB1 - 19th December 2003 Damn, this is Rare all over again. Sammy takes over Sega - The Former DMiller - 19th December 2003 I'd compare it more to the collapse of Atari than to Rare. Sammy takes over Sega - OB1 - 19th December 2003 It's too early to call it a collapse. Just a few key figures are leaving, just like what happened with Rare a few years back. Sammy takes over Sega - The Former DMiller - 19th December 2003 Yeah, but it is easy to see that this is just the beginning. There's talk that VC is gone, that a lot of Smilebit wants out, and even that a lot of the members of Sonic Team are thinking of leaving. I guess it is too early to say, but things look much worse than Rare's situation in my opinion. Sammy takes over Sega - A Black Falcon - 19th December 2003 Yeah, it definitely makes me think of Rare and/or Atari... or the numerous other companies that had troubles, had to be sold, and then bled talent... Need I mention the very recent case of Interplay? Sammy takes over Sega - OB1 - 19th December 2003 Yeah, this is pretty depressing. Well who knows? Maybe Yuji Naka and co. will start their own studio or move to Nintendo, and Yu Suzuki will move to Microsoft and get to working on Shenmue III. Sammy takes over Sega - A Black Falcon - 19th December 2003 Sure, you can console yourself by saying 'maybe they will go elsewhere and still work their magic and be great', and you know what? Sometimes that is true. Frequently it seems that other companies do step in to do something to replace them... but you just can't recreate the same magic, even if you can still make great games, I'd say... How about Sid Meier? By any standards, leaving Microprose was a good idea -- Microprose went steeply downhill from under Spectrum Holobyte to now owner Infogrames, and Firaxis has made some great games... but still... maybe it's with the dispersion of talent and stuff, but Civ 3 dissapointed me. SimGolf didn't look like a Firaxis title. I know they're still great, but compared to what he did under Microprose... you can never quite recreate that magic, even if you can still make great games. Something similar has been happening with Black Isle and the companies it influenced, Bioware, Troika, and Obsidian... all three are great, but are they as great as they were when their talent was all working together? Probably not... even if they are still really good. Now... is a big part of this nostalgia? Sure. But it's not 100% nostalgia, I'd say. But what does this say for Sega? Well for one thing it's a much bigger company. Oh, sure, Interplay once released like fifteen games a year, and Sierra in that same category at least (I think we've discussed that one enough to not have me have to repeat it all), but Sega is a huge, huge publisher. It's very sad to see them struggle. As I've said, they've been one of the big innovators... and like Looking Glass Studios, failed despite making some of the greatest games in the categories they have made games in. So sad. Of course Looking Glass is a more depressing topic... sure, one good team escaped (the guys who made Freedom Force and are now doing Tribes 3), and Warren Spector got Theif, but Theif isn't Looking Glass. Looking Glass was about some of the most innovative 3d games ever. I haven't seen anyone seriously try to step into their shoes and really change that genre like Looking Glass did with Ultima Underworld, System Shock, Terra Firma (uh, forget the exact name, but it had mechs or powersuits or something...), Theif, etc. did. Sammy takes over Sega - OB1 - 20th December 2003 Or look at Free Radical Design, who so far have released two solid FPS's and have the potential to become a AAA developer. If enough people move to the same company then it can end up well. Sammy takes over Sega - A Black Falcon - 20th December 2003 Of course as I said the problem usually is that these broken up companies spawn a whole group of offspring... Firaxis was lucky for a while, having all three of the big names there, but Brian Reynolds left a few years ago... oh, sure, he's been quite successful (Rise of Nations), but still, losing him had to hurt Firaxis. I'd say it defintely hurt Civilization -- Civ 2 and Alpha Centauri were both his, and were better than Sid's Civ 1 or Jeff Briggs' Civ 3, I'd say. Free Radical... Rare people, right? They aren't the only ex-Rare group, though... isn't ZooCube one too? But I don't know the details of who went where. Sammy takes over Sega - OB1 - 20th December 2003 Haha, it's Zoonami. They're working on stuff but have yet to show anything. Sammy takes over Sega - A Black Falcon - 20th December 2003 Yeah, I thought I had the name wrong but didn't remember what it was. :) And you're right, we have no idea what they are making, but they are definitely ex-Rare guys. |