Lol... yeah that was a pretty bold statement. Those are all great names but i'm kind of worried about the future of those devs as well. Ex capcom member Inafune keiji still has alot to prove with the bold statements he has made, but I also feel that japanese developers are kind of losing their touch. During the time when there were still limitations in how a game's presentation could be, a game's greatest selling point had to be it's gameplay and longevity. Games back in those days needed an excellent core mechanic to build around otherwise people would write it off quick. While I didn't specifically mean Iizuka, I do think that sonicteam has been guilty of this. There's this new guy called Miyamoto(just the name alone) who was asigned to direct sonic generations, and his display is just hilarious. The next game will have to prove itself.
Sakai's PSO2 is another ambitious project from SEGA, but it also suffers from the same issue. Great presentation, good amount of content, but suffers from issues in the core. Not because there isn't enough time and money, but simply because of decisions that they make. But in this case it is more complicated because PSO2 has attracted alot of casuals, and they just have fun, but the harcore gamer apreciates it more when a game is well balanced and challenges the player enough to feel satisfied through the whole thing, which PSO2 really lacks at the moment. I do like Sakai alot though, he's offered alot of official oppurtunites for us to give our feedback, so this case just needs time for them to learn... depending on how many express about it, and i've seen quite a few.
Yakuza is a great franchise. As much I love the overall experience, I do think the core has aged a little bit. Yakuza 5 footages have shown new features, new environments and new ways to play, but all those new things won't matter if they haven't upgraded the core mechanics. Though the trailers werent too clear about how well the fighting is going to work, it is the thing i'm anticipating the most. I am not talking about new moves or more spectacal, but i'm talking about more fundemental things like the controls, the flow and balance in the movesets.
But my point as a whole is, that these teams exist of many people who build a game together. How is it that no one in the PSO2 staff has thought of this throughout the development of the game when its origin lay in this type of design in the first place? Why is it that sonicteam keeps being forgiven for any issue we regular people find? Not even one person that speaks up? I don't know how it works exactly but there defenitly seems to be some lack of quality control in the management. If there's one team I trust, it is the Yakuza team so i'll give you that one. Many other great individuals haven't gotten the treatment they deserved and left eventually. Now the same trend is happening with platinum games who almost seem to have lost their respect for SEGA.
Platinum games is really just as they describe it themselves, a developer that hardly or never makes any bad games. Their games are a near perfect execution of ideas. Former Clover studios has only produced great games. They should have held on to them imo and once bayonetta 2 is gonna become a major franchise, SEGA will have to regret their actions.
I may sound a little negative but I am kind of satisfied with how things are going. It just needs better management is all.
