Appearently AM1 has an Internet appearance again.

[Trippled]

AM1 has been mismatched and changed time and time again.

In the very beginning they were known for the Beat em ups like Golden Axe and Dynamite Cop but most importantly House of the Dead. Movie-licenced shooters, some racing games (SEGA GT) were also part of the portfolio.

For a very quick time they were merged with the people that did RPG games and Shinobi.

But then they put into strict Arcade development. By far the biggest success was the card RTS game "Sangokushi Taisen" that went on and on for over 10 years now, and is still one of their biggest earners

In 2009, instead of the 3 teams, SEGA split the Arcade division, into 2. With 1 one being games mostly actual arcade games (AM2) with the other being card games, and other.

Well appearently the Arcade divisions do smartphone games too now; this is appearently the portfolio of AM1 now:

Chain Chronicles (I think this was by the RPG team leftovers then)
Various Medal games
The Sega Toylet game!
MaiMai
Puyo Puyo Arcade machine
Code of Joker
World of Three Kingdoms
Initial D games



http://buzz.sega.jp/

[jonboy101]

You're telling me an actual Sega studio was behind the toilet game? The guys who made House of the Dead, Dynamite Cop, and Sega GT? It wasn't just outsourced? Good lord.

Also, I thought Sega Rosso was the Initial D guys and they merged with Hitmaker? So is AM1 now Hitmaker, Rosso, Overworks and WoW?

[Nirmugen]

Also, I thought Sega Rosso was the Initial D guys and they merged with Hitmaker? So is AM1 now Hitmaker, Rosso, Overworks and WoW?

Pretty much...only Makoto Uchida, the creator of Altered Beast and Golden Axe, is working in Sega China (House of the Dead EX, Golden Gun, Transformers).


AM2 is the only major arcade studio ,directed by Hiroki Kataoka, that worked as own studio like Sonic Team for ex.


Border Breaker Series, Shining Cross Series, Let's Go Series and VF5:FS are they most prominent games.

[Nirmugen]

Also, I thought Sega Rosso was the Initial D guys and they merged with Hitmaker? So is AM1 now Hitmaker, Rosso, Overworks and WoW?

Pretty much...only Makoto Uchida, the creator of Altered Beast and Golden Axe, is working in Sega China (House of the Dead EX, Golden Gun, Transformers).


Sega WOW (Overworks/AM7 + WoW Entertainment/AM1), now CS3, are the "non-action" part of that merge,ergo RPG games, Ports and co-devoloped games.

Ex:
-Valkyria Chronicles Series
-Shining series (co-developed with various studios)
-3D Classics (co-worked with M2)
-Dengeki Bunko: Fighting Climax.


AM2 is the only major arcade studio ,directed by Hiroki Kataoka, that worked as own studio like Sonic Team for ex.

Border Breaker Series, Shining Cross Series, Let's Go Series and VF5:FS are they most prominent games.

[cube_b3]

Nirmugen has successfully pointed out some discrepancies in your reasoning.

You refer to AM1 as a team however around the Dreamcast days the studio consisted of < 20 employees. Makoto Uchida, Atsushi Semiya and few others were notable members. Fast forward a decade most of those people have either been relegated to executive positions away from game development such as Makoto Uchida or they have simply quit and made their own indie studio.

So please elaborate who are you calling AM1?

[Trippled]

Nirmugen has successfully pointed out some discrepancies in your reasoning.

You refer to AM1 as a team however around the Dreamcast days the studio consisted of < 20 employees. Makoto Uchida, Atsushi Semiya and few others were notable members. Fast forward a decade most of those people have either been relegated to executive positions away from game development such as Makoto Uchida or they have simply quit and made their own indie studio.

So please elaborate who are you calling AM1?

Cause it's called R&D1 without the CS attached, implying it's an Arcade studio. They made it that way, 2009 or so

[ROJM]

You're telling me an actual Sega studio was behind the toilet game? The guys who made House of the Dead, Dynamite Cop, and Sega GT? It wasn't just outsourced? Good lord.

Also, I thought Sega Rosso was the Initial D guys and they merged with Hitmaker? So is AM1 now Hitmaker, Rosso, Overworks and WoW?

Nah you'd think they give that type of moolah to an outside studio on an arcade project especially with the tech involved? Nah..the arcade side of things is more guarded within Sega than their consumer side of things..

[jonboy101]

Nirmugen has successfully pointed out some discrepancies in your reasoning.

You refer to AM1 as a team however around the Dreamcast days the studio consisted of < 20 employees. Makoto Uchida, Atsushi Semiya and few others were notable members. Fast forward a decade most of those people have either been relegated to executive positions away from game development such as Makoto Uchida or they have simply quit and made their own indie studio.

So please elaborate who are you calling AM1?

I'm not sure what you're saying. So Sonic Team stopped existing when Yuji Naka and co moved up or out? Same with AM2?

[cube_b3]

Sonic Team is being run by Takashi Iizuka, he has been around almost since the formative years and when it is time for him to move up or down somebody below him can follow up.

In the case of AM1 the studio was largely dissolved members from the studio went independent like the creator of HOTD. Makoto Uchida moved to a managerial job. I also know off several familiar names who went to Namco, Capcom, Platinum Games and I think I read that some went to Premium Agency as well.

Bare in mind the studio was very small and relied on frequent out sourcing. So if Sega currently has an AM1 it is possible that it is just in name.

I would be very happy if I am proven wrong so if Trippled can give me 5 familiar names who are still with AM1, I would be ecstatic.

[Trippled]

Sonic Team is being run by Takashi Iizuka, he has been around almost since the formative years and when it is time for him to move up or down somebody below him can follow up.

In the case of AM1 the studio was largely dissolved members from the studio went independent like the creator of HOTD. Makoto Uchida moved to a managerial job. I also know off several familiar names who went to Namco, Capcom, Platinum Games and I think I read that some went to Premium Agency as well.

Bare in mind the studio was very small and relied on frequent out sourcing. So if Sega currently has an AM1 it is possible that it is just in name.

I would be very happy if I am proven wrong so if Trippled can give me 5 familiar names who are still with AM1, I would be ecstatic.

You could turn that question around and ask who actually hasn't left. You can barely keep track of them, the resignation of Rikiya Nakagawa is the only one that's really known. You are reffering to the HotD creator (Atsuhi Seimiya), you barely can find anything about him.

I know one person tough who still is there, and that's Yasuhiro Nishiyama.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=np5Lya-F7eY (Here he is promoting Sengoku Taisen)

http://www13.atwiki.jp/game_staff/pages/603.html
You can do research on your own with this.

[cube_b3]

I like it. Good points Tripple. It is indeed better to count who all have left.

1) The thing is Resident Evil 6 was directed by somebody who was a low level programmer for Resident Evil 6. So some people might say that the original Resident Evil team is still intact, I however do not follow that school of thought.

2) The second thing people follow is whether X person is still employed by the company for example AM1 founder Makoto Uchida is still with Sega and according to Sumo Digital's SOL, he worked directly with him on his IPs like Golden Axe and House of the Dead. Back on the Nerds forums he told me that the entire model for Gillius was made by Uchida san's studio.

Coming back to the example of Resident Evil. my favorite game in the series was Resident Evil 2 written by Shu Takami. Takami san is still employed by Capcom but hasn't worked on that franchise in over a decade.

So just because X person is there doesn't mean he is with the studio.
___________________________

As far as AM1 is concerned it was never a studio with a very strong identity. It can be argued that Golden Axe was a cash in on Conan the Barbarian (well Uchida san has actually agreed with that statement so not much of an argument) and House of the Dead was a cash in on Resident Evil (this however is debatable).

So I guess I do agree with you, AM1 is back!
Good for Sega!

[George]

The first Resident Evil and House of the Dead came out in the same year and gameplay/story/genre are totally different. There is no way that House of the Dead is a RE cash in... considering its NOTHING like Resident Evil outside the cheesy voice overs and undead creatures.

[cube_b3]

Hence why I called it debatable.

Resident Evil 1 can be simply explained as a cop fighting undead hordes in a secluded mansion.
HoTD 1 can also be simply explained as a cop fighting undead hordes in a secluded mansion.

Either way the HOTD analogy was just an analysis of AM1.

The studio has primarily been used by SEGA as a response to trends rather than genuine innovation. After all WoW Entertainments last home console game was SEGA GT.

I am not dissing the studio, it is just an observation. I love Golden Axe and House of the Dead. I didn't really enjoy Sega GT though and never bought a fishing rod so never got into their Fishing games.

Blood Will Tell technically isn't strictly a WoW Entertainment game but it did start development prior to the merger, and it was basically Am1's response to Overworks Shinobi. If only I could play PS2 games on my PS3 I would've played it by now, but my 60GB PS3 is back home in Pakistan.

[Trippled]

Well it's notthat  the teams at Sega have much of an idendity now, it's just one humongous developer now.

However it is very nice to see that there is enough things going on at Sega (even if its just Japan only iOS and Arcade games), that R&D studios feel the need to have more presence. Not many publishers with internal devs have that.

[cube_b3]

Last I heard Nagoshi had moved to an external location, this was way back in a Kikizo interview maybe 2007 or 2008.

AM2 is still AM2 and I think it is just a matter of time before they unviel Virtua Fighter 6.
HitMaker is still AM3 and they still have some identity especially since VT4 was released in 2011 with Mie Kumagi still at the helm and now with Kenji Kanno resurfacing with Crazy Taxi: City Rush in association with HardLight.