Sega Europe talks frankly about the Sega brand

[Ben]

Regarding Shenmue 3's KS, you didn't post the numbers. It raised only $6.3 million & had only 69,000 backers, outside of a fan crowdfunder, that's not very impressive. Its a vocal minority.

But why look at it "outside of a crowdfunder"? It is a crowdfunder and it's one of the must successful crowdfunding efforts in this industry. Were you expecting 23 million? Kickstarter gaming projects don't amass those type of funds, ever...they're developing a game, not curing cancer.

The fact is, the success of the Kickstarter indicates interest among gamers for the series and that's the only reason why (I feel) we're seeing Sega discussing revisiting Shenmue in any capacity. (Though it turns out that they now weren't "specifically referring to Shenmue.")

As mentioned, marketing is where SEGA seriously needs to step things up. They simply cannot and should not (but sadly, likely will again in the near future) announce a game a week before it is quietly released to digital services. They need to properly reveal it, build up to release, get fansites and YouTubers involved, preview and speak to gaming journalists, and make the release a proper event.

The reason I'm so skeptical about Sega's latest comments/their new leadership is because while they say they're going to be making an effort to go back to their glory days and releasing console titles, etc....they then majorly downsize their branch in North America, which is the largest gaming market...just doesn't make sense to me. Moving a few of them into Atlus' offices doesn't exactly seem like they're positioning them for growth.

Sega of Europe doesn't do very well at marketing games in North America, we've seen that. They're two very different markets. If Sega wants to again become a key player in the West then they need a stronger Sega of America, not a smaller one. If Atlus is going to now be the promoter of Sega games in North America then I don't have much high hopes that we'll see an improvement on the marketing side, as Atlus will be far more focused on the marketing of their own games. They're not a huge company. Sega was always much bigger than Atlus.

[Trippled]

Staying small while offering more niche offerings is maybe a better way to operate however. I heard that Atlus USA is really small, like 10 employees or something. The interview isn't translated sadly, but from what I can tell they dont go for million sellers anymore, just 500.000 across the whole thing. They said that Atlus USA way off capturing US fans is "really huge".

Sonic is it's own office it seems, there I think they want to make million sellers...


To be honest, Ben, I actually agree with you that it is a shame for Sega to not be major, and be XSeed/NIS esque publisher. You rarely hear that opinion however in the current climate.

[Ben]

Nahh I'm pretty sure they're bigger than 10....I'd hope, anyway lol. But yeah, they're a small branch of a not-so-big Japanese developer. They have enough on their plate with the marketing of their own games, and I'm not sure that they'll put that same enthusiasm into the marketing of Sega games, or that they even know how to.

I think too though by the way that smaller and more niche is better...it's sad, but it's better that they shoot for Atlus than for THQ, haha. But....if a game like Alien Isolation comes out (a game which evidently didn't do so well in North America partially because of its lack of marketing) we need a North American branch who knows how to market a game like that to an American audience.

Sega is a big company. Bigger than Atlus/NIS/Xseed, etc.

Of course they're not Bethesda, or something, lol.....but I still feel that shrinking down further in America is the opposite of what they should be doing.

[Moody]

I seem to remember a little Wii killer app called Nights Journey into Dreams.

I seem to recall it being marketed aggressively, but failing to sell adequately.

People didn't want a Wii NiGHTS. They wanted a next-gen NiGHTS. Not to mention they botched development on that hard, turning it into a Wii game despite being made for PS3/360. All of this forced the game to scale back considerably. Also, I don't remember seeing a lick of advertising here in America (though I believe it did better in Japan? I'm not sure).

Remember 2012's Transformed? Remember the Progressive Auto tie in, and NASCAR promo?

Still didn't sell.

Advertising to a crowd unlikely to play a lot of  that type of video game. That would make sense for a NASCAR game, or a Need for Speed game, but not a cutesy, fun, arcade-style kart racer.

Regarding Shenmue 3's KS, you didn't post the numbers. It raised only $6.3 million & had only 69,000 backers, outside of a fan crowdfunder, that's not very impressive. Its a vocal minority.

As Ben said, that's a HUGE number for a crowdfunder.  Context is everything.

Regarding your question, SEGA has something Sony doesn't: A unique,ingenuity in hardware design and much better IPs. Why don't you sit down and play Saturn to see what I'm talking about.

I don't see your point. "A unique ingenuity in hardware design?" What does that even mean? Need I remind you the Saturn was a hardware disaster? And "much better IPs?" How so? If anything, I feel Sony and SEGA are on-par in terms of quality IPs.

Also, I own a Saturn. I still don't see your point.

SEGA needs to GROW and EXPAND as a company. And you don't want them to? I don't understand why.

Console game publishing doesn't really make very much revenue. Why should SEGA stay stagnated? Why should they just stay they way they are forever?This is why all of SEGA's brands outside of game publishing are doing well.

I never said I want them to stagnate. All I said was they need to market better. And saying console publishing doesn't make revenue is one hell of a lie. Sure, it's not as much as it used to be, but it's still a multi-billion dollar industry.

[EnternalHope]

People didn't want a Wii NiGHTS. They wanted a next-gen NiGHTS. Not to mention they botched development on that hard, turning it into a Wii game despite being made for PS3/360. All of this forced the game to scale back considerably. Also, I don't remember seeing a lick of advertising here in America (though I believe it did better in Japan? I'm not sure).

Advertising to a crowd unlikely to play a lot of  that type of video game. That would make sense for a NASCAR game, or a Need for Speed game, but not a cutesy, fun, arcade-style kart racer.

As Ben said, that's a HUGE number for a crowdfunder.  Context is everything.

I don't see your point. "A unique ingenuity in hardware design?" What does that even mean? Need I remind you the Saturn was a hardware disaster? And "much better IPs?" How so? If anything, I feel Sony and SEGA are on-par in terms of quality IPs.

Also, I own a Saturn. I still don't see your point.

I never said I want them to stagnate. All I said was they need to market better. And saying console publishing doesn't make revenue is one hell of a lie. Sure, it's not as much as it used to be, but it's still a multi-billion dollar industry.

A Next Gen Nights in 2007 would have budgeted for nearly $70-80 million. There's no need to complain about the platform chosen since it was cheaper and had a MUCH larger  userbase than PS3 and 360 at the time. And the claim that people wanted a next gen Nights is absolutely false. The first game on Saturn had underpeformed outside of Japan in 1996 and the 2005 PS2 port never made it stateside Nights was virtually unknown to consumers outside of the Sega fanbase. And you must have been asleep in 2007, there was frequent ads for JOD on Cartoon Network,Toon Disney and Nickelodeon.


Regarding Transformed, NASCAR is a family friendly franchise, and Progressive has mostly young twentysomething customers who thus are gamers. SEGA did exactly what they were supposed to do with its marketing.


I won't make the point regarding Saturn's ingenuity or SEGA console ingenuity, because you pretty much wouldn't even understand. Saturn was NOT very difficult to program. It was no more difficult to program than PS2,PS3 and Jaguar. N64 was MUCH more complex. Rather just repeating hyperbole you've heard and read, you'll find that PS1 fell short regarding age when it came to Saturn and N64.(It was weaker and extremely bottlenecked in CPU memory) due to its limited 1 MB RAM and slower, triangler geomterics, lots of PS1 games look horribly dated, suffer terrible slowdown, framerate drops and loss of polygon memory. Believe me, my baby brother and I had a PS1 during 1998-2001. His buyer's remorse came rather quickly.


No, you did imply stagnation. SEGA just publishing games is stagnation. Not expanding their business is stagnation.


No they don't. SEGA's IPs had passion,dedication and are still fondly remembered for changing the face of game design. Who still talks about Ape Escape,Parrapa The Rapper?(Twisted Metal is only talked about seldomly) Let's not even get into the mediocre,intentionally shallow tie in shovelware Sony used to put out on Nintendo and Sega platforms like Cliffhanger,Hook,Husdon Hawk e.t.c. as if to stick it to the both of them for not letting them have their way with "PSX"(Checks age, I see that your a youngin' and thus you would only remember the gaming in the 2000s.)




And the last statement is completely and totally inaccurate. 3rd Party publishers make less than $2 billion in revenue and have assets and market caps around $1 billion.(ActivisionBlizzard only has assets worth $2.8 billion) And no, that's NOT good for SEGA. A company that's supposed to have over $10 billion in Market Capital but since 2012 has only had $3-4 billion. The publishing industry is not a multibillion dollar market. It barely makes enough for market capital growth.




http://www.sega-entertainment.jp/company_profile/group.html

SEGA Holdings,Ltd needs to SPEND Cash Flow to grow. Pure and Simple and investors would even say that.

[Phantasos]

I seem to remember a little Wii killer app called Nights Journey into Dreams.

Speaking of Nights, you're obviously in a very special dream world. No one wanted the Nights sequel to be a tame Wii game, especially after the rumors that the original 360/PS3 versions were downsized to the version we got against the wishes of the development team.

And the game itself was not as good as the original since it had a lot of story baggage that grinded the game to a halt and it was very rough overall. It wasn't very well received by most people and it didn't seem like the game the team wanted to make since they didn't had proper time to finish it. Stop fantasizing and go visit a Night community one of these days to see what we actually want.

And Sonic All Stars Racing sold over a million copies with rave reviews and a faithful fanbase which actually contributed a lot after its release after the massive DLC character poll. The Nascar angle is irrelevant since no one that plays the game gives a fuck about Danica Patrick. How is this a failure in any way? Or am I supposed to be in suit mode and state that nothing below 2 million sales can be considered a success?

Sumo Digital still says they keep in touch with Sega and were thinking of a Sega related Smash clone. I fucking hope they go through with it.

Anyway, Sega's marketing outside Japan is crap. There's no other way around it. They don't put any effort in it and just essentially throw shit to the wall hoping some of it sticks. To claim their problem lies somewhere else in order to be more successful is just being blind to the way they're doing things. But then again, you seem to be stuck in the 90s or something with the NINTENDO AND SONY ARE SHOVELWARE COMPARED TO SEGA.

All of them make amazing games, that's not the point of this thread.

[Moody]

A Next Gen Nights in 2007 would have budgeted for nearly $70-80 million.

Eighty fucking million??? What world are you living in??? Hell no, it wouldn't have been that expensive. Most games don't even break forty million total. You're accusing me of false shit, and you pull that out of your ass? And man, I was glued to those channels in 2007, I didn't see a single ad the entire time. I don't doubt ads existed but I sure didn't see them.

Regarding Transformed, NASCAR is a family friendly franchise, and Progressive has mostly young twentysomething customers who thus are gamers. SEGA did exactly what they were supposed to do with its marketing.

An insurance company and a drag racing circuit. Yep, those sound like perfect fits for our mascot racer!


Also, the Saturn was a friggin' nightmare to develop for compared to the N64 and PS1. Again, accusing me of false info and you go and say that...

No, you did imply stagnation. SEGA just publishing games is stagnation. Not expanding their business is stagnation.

SEGA as a whole currently licenses and produces films, comics, anime, western cartoons, toys, pachinko, arcade machines, and those are just the ones off the top of my head. How much further do you want them to expand, exactly?

No they don't. SEGA's IPs had passion,dedication and are still fondly remembered for changing the face of game design. Who still talks about Ape Escape,Parrapa The Rapper?

Those are VERY fondly remembered franchises that still get talked about to this day. Parappa especially, people talk about that now more than ever.

Let's not even get into the mediocre,intentionally shallow tie in shovelware Sony used to put out on Nintendo and Sega platforms like Cliffhanger,Hook,Husdon Hawk e.t.c. as if to stick it to the both of them for not letting them have their way with "PSX"

Only one of the games you listed were developed by a Sony partner. Sony Imagesoft only seemed to develop ports for Hudson Hawk and I can't find anything relating to Cliffhanger. Again, claiming me of false info and then this...


Also, the hell does that have to do with Sony's IP's? You think people remember Rare for developing Nightmare on Elm Street for NES? No! They remember them for Banjo-Kazooie and they like. Plus, after Sony Imagesoft became Sony Computer Entertainment America, they didn't really make games anymore. They acquired first-party devs to make games and published them, almost like, gasp!, SEGA got devs to make first party games for the Genesis!

And the last statement is completely and totally inaccurate. 3rd Party publishers make less than $2 billion in revenue and have assets and market caps around $1 billion.(ActivisionBlizzard only has assets worth $2.8 billion) And no, that's NOT good for SEGA. A company that's supposed to have over $10 billion in Market Capital but since 2012 has only had $3-4 billion. The publishing industry is not a multibillion dollar market. It barely makes enough for market capital growth.

You just gave five examples of companies making over a billion and then say it is not a multi-billion industry.

[Barry the Nomad]

Danica Patrick and Progressive are examples of marketing, but the issue is they weren't the right kind of marketing. I'll admit, I defended the Danica thing and still will... to an extent. It wasn't the greatest marketing decision, but it was on the right track. I think a Sonic branded Nascar was a cool idea, issue was it was only in one race (guess thats all SEGA could afford). I'm not a Nascar follower, but from what I've read, Danica was a pretty great racer but her switch to Nascar lead to a decline in her career and a rise in her celebrity: http://jalopnik.com/is-danica-patrick-good-or-terrible-an-explainer-1524468266

So SEGA hitched their wagon to a well known racer, but not a very great one in the world of Nascar.

The Progressive ad... really didn't feel like an ad for All-Stars Racing. It aired 3 months after the game's release and aside from Sonic being in an insurance commercial (Progressive is more than auto insurance) it really didn't promote the game in any way. Honestly, I don't think it was an ad for the game so much as an ad for the Sonic franchise in general.

I'm not a marketing expert, but had I any say in how All-Stars Racing Transformed was promoted, I'd have pushed aggressively for video game guest characters just as they tried to do for the original. The original game attempted to have a Sony and Nintendo guest racers, but deals fell through and in the end it was just Banjo-Kazooie. Banjo-Kazooie + Mario + Ratchet & Clank (or whoever) would have been really cool, but with just Banjo-Kazooie it felt very odd. Transformed should have remedied that. Instead we had a YouTube star guest racer and Danica Patrick.

Also, SEGA should have played up their racing legacy in advertisements. Play up OutRun, Daytona USA, Hang-On, and others. Appealing to nostalgia can go a long way, as evidenced by Smash Bros.

They also should have gotten involved with fan sites, rather than YouTube streamers known for Minecraft. I mean, I'm not asking for George to be a guest racer, but getting fan sites such as ourselves and Sonic sites involved would have been free advertising on their end. I know they invited us to the game's reveal in California, which was really cool, but they should have continued the the communication.

[EnternalHope]

Speaking of Nights, you're obviously in a very special dream world. No one wanted the Nights sequel to be a tame Wii game, especially after the rumors that the original 360/PS3 versions were downsized to the version we got against the wishes of the development team.

And the game itself was not as good as the original since it had a lot of story baggage that grinded the game to a halt and it was very rough overall. It wasn't very well received by most people and it didn't seem like the game the team wanted to make since they didn't had proper time to finish it. Stop fantasizing and go visit a Night community one of these days to see what we actually want.

And Sonic All Stars Racing sold over a million copies with rave reviews and a faithful fanbase which actually contributed a lot after its release after the massive DLC character poll. The Nascar angle is irrelevant since no one that plays the game gives a fuck about Danica Patrick. How is this a failure in any way? Or am I supposed to be in suit mode and state that nothing below 2 million sales can be considered a success?

Sumo Digital still says they keep in touch with Sega and were thinking of a Sega related Smash clone. I fucking hope they go through with it.

Anyway, Sega's marketing outside Japan is crap. There's no other way around it. They don't put any effort in it and just essentially throw shit to the wall hoping some of it sticks. To claim their problem lies somewhere else in order to be more successful is just being blind to the way they're doing things. But then again, you seem to be stuck in the 90s or something with the NINTENDO AND SONY ARE SHOVELWARE COMPARED TO SEGA.

All of them make amazing games, that's not the point of this thread.

Rumors can just be hearsay. Journey Into Dreams was NOT developed for 360/PS3. It was ALWAYS a Wii title and was one of the earliest projects on Nintendo Revolution.


1 million in SEGA's eyes is not adequate. The game only broke even. They expected 3 million for the Holiday season.


So you've decided to be black and white and start ranting on obvious issues regarding Sega of America's notoriously poor management.


Nothing is really going make anything better for SEGA's console game publishing division. It's stymied and has been stymied since 2005.


Nintendo? The Yamuachi era Nintendo made legendary titles with a brand and nostalgic value. The Iwata era Nintendo repackaged the same franchises over and over again with hit or miss results.


Sony? No, they don't make amazing games in my experience. Majority of their 1st party IPs lack replayablity and aren't games worth collecting or recollecting. They sell based on brand image alone, not on quality, not on ingenuity. Not on passion. It's "Invest in us because of who we are" just basic adequacy that gets blown WAY out of proportion.


I don't consider Killzone AMAZING. I consider Twisted Metal a good franchise, but not an AMAZING one.

Danica Patrick and Progressive are examples of marketing, but the issue is they weren't the right kind of marketing. I'll admit, I defended the Danica thing and still will... to an extent. It wasn't the greatest marketing decision, but it was on the right track. I think a Sonic branded Nascar was a cool idea, issue was it was only in one race (guess thats all SEGA could afford). I'm not a Nascar follower, but from what I've read, Danica was a pretty great racer but her switch to Nascar lead to a decline in her career and a rise in her celebrity: http://jalopnik.com/is-danica-patrick-good-or-terrible-an-explainer-1524468266So SEGA hitched their wagon to a well known racer, but not a very great one in the world of Nascar. The Progressive ad... really didn't feel like an ad for All-Stars Racing. It aired 3 months after the game's release and aside from Sonic being in an insurance commercial (Progressive is more than auto insurance) it really didn't promote the game in any way. Honestly, I don't think it was an ad for the game so much as an ad for the Sonic franchise in general.I'm not a marketing expert, but had I any say in how All-Stars Racing Transformed was promoted, I'd have pushed aggressively for video game guest characters just as they tried to do for the original. The original game attempted to have a Sony and Nintendo guest racers, but deals fell through and in the end it was just Banjo-Kazooie. Banjo-Kazooie + Mario + Ratchet & Clank (or whoever) would have been really cool, but with just Banjo-Kazooie it felt very odd. Transformed should have remedied that. Instead we had a YouTube star guest racer and Danica Patrick.Also, SEGA should have played up their racing legacy in advertisements. Play up OutRun, Daytona USA, Hang-On, and others. Appealing to nostalgia can go a long way, as evidenced by Smash Bros.They also should have gotten involved with fan sites, rather than YouTube streamers known for Minecraft. I mean, I'm not asking for George to be a guest racer, but getting fan sites such as ourselves and Sonic sites involved would have been free advertising on their end. I know they invited us to the game's reveal in California, which was really cool, but they should have continued the the communication.

I don't think marketing was why Transformed underperformed, it was the overall market environment. Gamers DEMANDED SEGA to rush into making a Generations sequel even though they had overlooked Generations for Modern Warfare. They got so desperate that people started making up Sonic Wii U rumors about a Generations sequel exclusive. When Transformed was announced, they used every excuse to ignore the title. EVERY excuse.

[crackdude]

Danica Patrick marketing pissed me off because this existed:


The best racer in the best racing sport emerging as number 1 and lifting a Sonic trophy on a Sega podium.

I want Sega associated with this


Not this

[poeticrat]

I encountered Transformed by playing a random demo. So I went from "oh another crappy Sonic game" to "OMFG this is amazing" by playing the demo! So I hope Sega does continue what Altus does and that's promote video games the old fashioned way. By videos, streams, demos, and no silly gimmicks. Honestly, the only way you know you want a game is by playing it. Simple as that. I was really happy when they streamed Yakuza 5. Now that builds hype when people see great gameplay. Hardlight doing vlogs on periscope is also very cool. The players have a real connection to the makers and showing what Hardlight can do using a Unity engine is amazing. Having a Lost World community party to hype a game lunch is another neat marketing ploy. I used to harp on Sega's marketing a bucket ton but they have hired some smart people to show how it's done. Dan Sheridan and Aaron Webber FTW.
I love hearing people say they want to take Sega's image and move it beyond a Japanese company that makes Sonic. It makes me want to take those words and rub it all over my body. This makes me hype for the future.
Concerning Sega and their releases. It's just the markets they are in. Sega makes very Japanese games. Only their most Americanized products like Sonic can complete in the console market. Americans on consoles like Western games for the most part. Nothing wrong with that. Japanese people like very Japanese games. People like what is relate-able to them personally. Console markets have shown only the mainstream can succeed.
Thankfully, steam and other digital outlets have shown all genres can succeed on their platforms because their install base is big enough to support them. Plus steam players buys lots of games to boot. So I see Sega doing well on PC shows they found a market that can support their brand of Japanese games if they also do well to maintain proper quality.
I hate seeing players yell at each other over not being "true" fans when markets are moving targets. Sega had a hard time adapting to the market. This happens to every company bar none. I'm glad they realized rushing games have made it worst. And pushed a lot of what they had to next year. It annoys me but I love that they have no firm date for Yakuza 5. Until they can promise proper quality, they are not making any promises. Good on you Sega.
BUT what makes me hype beyond hype is them rebuilding their arcades. Such an epic step in the right direction. The kings of the arcades are coming back to rule the land once more. Sonic and Mario at the Rio Olympics Arcade!? :D They also have two secret arcade games for Iaapa 2015 in November and I can't wait to see them. House of The Dead 5 plz.

[crackdude]

I love hearing people say they want to take Sega's image and move it beyond a Japanese company that makes Sonic. It makes me want to take those words and rub it all over my body. This makes me hype for the future.

Welcome to the forums! You'll fit right in.

[George]

This whole thread just makes me think that people aren't grasping the real issue. Its not that SEGA needs a console for their games to sell, that isn't the issue and its surprising that people are going and discussing a handful of failures from almost a decade again (NiGHTS) and not seeing the real issue here is that SEGA is the king of bad choices. They really are.

Nothing said on this thread makes much sense considering that SEGA has more opportunities now to grow their software but haven't, stating that going back to making consoles (that didn't sell) is the answer is wrong on many levels. Basic business goes that if there are more consumers, the higher potential costumers. So a game (that is good) not selling, where did it go wrong?

Marketing. Notice that SEGA's 'they are doing amazing' all picked up when their ads became legendary. For example the SEGA Genesis in America with their epic campaign of 'SEGA does what Nintendon't' and various other taglines. The SEGA Saturn in Japan (which is the highest selling SEGA console in the region) with Segata Sanshiro ads and lastly the Dreamcast in America (which as far as I know is where it sold best) with its 9.9.99/It's thinking campaign. We are sadly a minority, gamers that look into games and have niche wants that are pure Japanese. The majority of people really buy games because... well their told to on TV and SEGA's software sales really do have to do with the fact that them pushing games in America is virtually nonexistent for Japanese games.

This also has to do with SEGA's inner struggles where they promote their own branches creation and allocate money to promote something they worked on oppose to what is good for the company. Even tho Alien Colonial Marines was a piece of shit, since it was SoA it had more ads ran compared to the superior Isolation (which was done by SOE). Even tho we hate it there is a reason Colonial Marines outsold Vanquish and Binary Domain in America.

I don't think Danica Patrick move was bad at all. I think it was BAD that she was a racer. I think she should have just been the advertising front and had some announcement stuff and they should have hired a famous racer from Japan/UK to do those regions. Big dropped ball as in, having a famous racer sponsor your game isn't stupid, but no one really wants to play as them. Not to mention it really broke what Sumo was striving for and preserving this cartoon like wonder of the franchises with matching styles.

SEGA has no marketing and haven't had a effective marketing campaign in the western regions for a very long time. I think the only 'Japanese' companies to have pulled off the advertising stuff effectively from Japan has been Sony and Nintendo; but honestly Nintendo is just mid-tier now when it comes to ads in America and have gone soft.

Western developers on the other hand are investing much more money in advertising than in development. Did you guys miss all those damn Assassins Creed Syndicate adverts? When was the last time that SEGA had that much advertising for a game? How about Watchdogs? Issue is, Japanese companies can't adapt to this and can't advertise and hype people for their titles anymore since the western publishers started throwing millions and millions in advertising. Its like EA in the 90's only like 10 publishers marching down the airwaves.

I mean freaking Mortal Kombat X DLC had more ads than Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing.

[EnternalHope]

This whole thread just makes me think that people aren't grasping the real issue. Its not that SEGA needs a console for their games to sell, that isn't the issue and its surprising that people are going and discussing a handful of failures from almost a decade again (NiGHTS) and not seeing the real issue here is that SEGA is the king of bad choices. They really are.

Nothing said on this thread makes much sense considering that SEGA has more opportunities now to grow their software but haven't, stating that going back to making consoles (that didn't sell) is the answer is wrong on many levels. Basic business goes that if there are more consumers, the higher potential costumers. So a game (that is good) not selling, where did it go wrong?

Marketing. Notice that SEGA's 'they are doing amazing' all picked up when their ads became legendary. For example the SEGA Genesis in America with their epic campaign of 'SEGA does what Nintendon't' and various other taglines. The SEGA Saturn in Japan (which is the highest selling SEGA console in the region) with Segata Sanshiro ads and lastly the Dreamcast in America (which as far as I know is where it sold best) with its 9.9.99/It's thinking campaign. We are sadly a minority, gamers that look into games and have niche wants that are pure Japanese. The majority of people really buy games because... well their told to on TV and SEGA's software sales really do have to do with the fact that them pushing games in America is virtually nonexistent for Japanese games.

This also has to do with SEGA's inner struggles where they promote their own branches creation and allocate money to promote something they worked on oppose to what is good for the company. Even tho Alien Colonial Marines was a piece of shit, since it was SoA it had more ads ran compared to the superior Isolation (which was done by SOE). Even tho we hate it there is a reason Colonial Marines outsold Vanquish and Binary Domain in America.

I don't think Danica Patrick move was bad at all. I think it was BAD that she was a racer. I think she should have just been the advertising front and had some announcement stuff and they should have hired a famous racer from Japan/UK to do those regions. Big dropped ball as in, having a famous racer sponsor your game isn't stupid, but no one really wants to play as them. Not to mention it really broke what Sumo was striving for and preserving this cartoon like wonder of the franchises with matching styles.

SEGA has no marketing and haven't had a effective marketing campaign in the western regions for a very long time. I think the only 'Japanese' companies to have pulled off the advertising stuff effectively from Japan has been Sony and Nintendo; but honestly Nintendo is just mid-tier now when it comes to ads in America and have gone soft.

Western developers on the other hand are investing much more money in advertising than in development. Did you guys miss all those damn Assassins Creed Syndicate adverts? When was the last time that SEGA had that much advertising for a game? How about Watchdogs? Issue is, Japanese companies can't adapt to this and can't advertise and hype people for their titles anymore since the western publishers started throwing millions and millions in advertising. Its like EA in the 90's only like 10 publishers marching down the airwaves.

I mean freaking Mortal Kombat X DLC had more ads than Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing.

George, thank you so much for this post. People here need to understand that SEGA doesn't have a mass 3rd party market or enough Western style games to have broad appeal among console gamers.


And you are absolutely correct. Western Publishers don't care about quality,consumers or making great games. They only care about profit and rhetoric. Majority of the Game Sites like GS and IGN are paid by publishers to spread positive word of mouth and advertising and then are bribed to give rehashed shit like Call of Duty and Destiny high scores.


Regarding marketing, the Dreamcast was the last time SEGA had any marketing muscle in the states. Hence why I feel they should take another risk at launching a new home consumer product AIMED completely at PC gamers,Casuals and Hispters like me. They DON'T need the hardcore console gamers because HCGs have stated they don't need SEGA. SEGA should pull a "Wii",only use their Arcade and PC prowess to create something unique and out of this world and channel its game making talent into it from their Arcades and Steam/PC games.


Sure others are going to make excuses and game journalists are going to predict failure, but remember, iPhone was predicted to be a commercial failure back when it was announced in 2006. Tech sites had NOTHING positive to say about it. But Apple proved them wrong. They had a magic weapon SELDOM used "Test Marketing" that paid off big. SEGA can and should do exactly the same.











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I encountered Transformed by playing a random demo. So I went from "oh another crappy Sonic game" to "OMFG this is amazing" by playing the demo! So I hope Sega does continue what Altus does and that's promote video games the old fashioned way. By videos, streams, demos, and no silly gimmicks. Honestly, the only way you know you want a game is by playing it. Simple as that. I was really happy when they streamed Yakuza 5. Now that builds hype when people see great gameplay. Hardlight doing vlogs on periscope is also very cool. The players have a real connection to the makers and showing what Hardlight can do using a Unity engine is amazing. Having a Lost World community party to hype a game lunch is another neat marketing ploy. I used to harp on Sega's marketing a bucket ton but they have hired some smart people to show how it's done. Dan Sheridan and Aaron Webber FTW. I love hearing people say they want to take Sega's image and move it beyond a Japanese company that makes Sonic. It makes me want to take those words and rub it all over my body. This makes me hype for the future.Concerning Sega and their releases. It's just the markets they are in. Sega makes very Japanese games. Only their most Americanized products like Sonic can complete in the console market. Americans on consoles like Western games for the most part. Nothing wrong with that. Japanese people like very Japanese games. People like what is relate-able to them personally. Console markets have shown only the mainstream can succeed. Thankfully, steam and other digital outlets have shown all genres can succeed on their platforms because their install base is big enough to support them. Plus steam players buys lots of games to boot. So I see Sega doing well on PC shows they found a market that can support their brand of Japanese games if they also do well to maintain proper quality.I hate seeing players yell at each other over not being "true" fans when markets are moving targets. Sega had a hard time adapting to the market. This happens to every company bar none. I'm glad they realized rushing games have made it worst. And pushed a lot of what they had to next year. It annoys me but I love that they have no firm date for Yakuza 5. Until they can promise proper quality, they are not making any promises. Good on you Sega.BUT what makes me hype beyond hype is them rebuilding their arcades. Such an epic step in the right direction. The kings of the arcades are coming back to rule the land once more. Sonic and Mario at the Rio Olympics Arcade!? :D They also have two secret arcade games for Iaapa 2015 in November and I can't wait to see them. House of The Dead 5 plz.

(Applauds Loudly) Welcome, fellow SEGA comrade. You are definitely a sincere SEGA fan.[/font]


I agree with everything you typed 100%[/font]



Steam is a perfect home for SEGA, VC's re-issue last year proved that and Lost World's Steam port will too.Also, YES SEGA's direction with the Arcade and Amusement business is EXCITING and tremendous. I too and VERY hyped for it and for IAAPA.

[Team Andromeda]

I mean freaking Mortal Kombat X DLC had more ads than Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing.

Spot on .. This has been a issue for SEGA in the west for decades...