SEGA Networks

[Team Andromeda]

I'll give you that, from the view of getting console ports, it's really gone quite backwards. Which is wierd considering nowadays everything is global and all arcades run on PC's.

The Arcades I can accept tbh . SEGA Japan all big giving up on the consoles I can't . People can go on about mobiles and all that, but lets face it most of here are SEGA fans not because of their PC or Mobile stuff , but for their console games  and if you're a console gamer this once great corp that was SEGA Japan offers you next to nothing other than the odd ace title here and there and endless updates to Yakuza (which even the Japanese seem to be tiring  of).

The worst part is the longer SEGA Japan gone on like this the more the teams will lose out and their console pipelines will no longer come up to scratch. SEGA Japan should be training the new staff up on how to make console games and trying to find the new Naka or Suzuki san for tomorrow

[MadeManG74]

^I agree that I'm not a fan of mobile games and Sega doesn't have much appeal to me compared to what they used to, but from a pure business standpoint I understand entirely their decision.

Consoles are a shrinking and finicky market, if Sega can make bank going to Mobile instead, why wouldn't they?
Their PC output is good, but most of it is just series that were around before they bought them out (CoH and Total War) with the odd Ayyy:Isolation thrown in.

[Aki-at]

^I agree that I'm not a fan of mobile games and Sega doesn't have much appeal to me compared to what they used to, but from a pure business standpoint I understand entirely their decision.

From a pure gamer standpoint mobile is where most of the Japanese console market have moved to, its not just business. This isn't just odd whales who sit at home using their money on just mobile games, these are the normal hardcore type who go cosplay as their favourite characters, just look at how popular Chain Chronicle is!

There's going to be loads of people who won't be able to stand what the game industry is going to look like in the next ten years. But that's okay, independent games are flourishing so hopefully they'll help pick up the slack the death of the b tier market has left. If you hate them though it's better giving up on the future of games or work on your backlog.

[Team Andromeda]

Consoles are a shrinking and finicky market, if Sega can make bank going to Mobile instead, why wouldn't they

Why do people say this ? The PS4 is about to break 20 million consoles barrier after just more than a year on sale , the XBox One is seeing massive sales too and soon both these consoles will sell more units that what the Cube or the XBox did in their entire life time . Just becasue Japan as all but given up on consoles doesn't meant the rest of the world has


Also every major gaming corp is on mobile and the likes of EA are even bigger and make more money that SEGA Japan do they not on the mobile . The difference is its not done at the expense of their Console developement - EA still have their major studios working on console and PC games while the seprate Mobile arms work on the mobiles - Why can't SEGA Japan do the same

[MadeManG74]

Aki-at:


I didn't mean to imply that there wasn't a big market for it, just that mobile gaming isn't for me. I've stated why multiple times but basically:
1) Touch screen controls suck 99% of the time.
2) Only play mobile games on the bus/train- when I'm at home why wouldn't I play PC/Console?
3) When I'm on the Bus/Train, I'd usually rather read a book anyway, because of point 1.

I'm sure there are some people who will enjoy the games, but there are probably an equal amount who don't.

Yeah gaming is changing considerably, I'm sure 'real' games will still exist as a niche industry (probably better for it too), but it's not going to be the same.

[Aki-at]

Aki-at:


I didn't mean to imply that there wasn't a big market for it, just that mobile gaming isn't for me. I've stated why multiple times but basically:
1) Touch screen controls suck 99% of the time.
2) Only play mobile games on the bus/train- when I'm at home why wouldn't I play PC/Console?
3) When I'm on the Bus/Train, I'd usually rather read a book anyway, because of point 1.

I'm sure there are some people who will enjoy the games, but there are probably an equal amount who don't.

Yeah gaming is changing considerably, I'm sure 'real' games will still exist as a niche industry (probably better for it too), but it's not going to be the same.

Ah I should have made myself more clear, the point isn't that it's not for you, the point is that we are the old school crowd who'll slowly get less and less products catering to us. Gaming already went one drastic change from arcade like experience to simulators or more larger, massive worlds (Making sequels to series like Outrun and Afterburner less feasible.) Even my favourite genre, platformers, are now almost always shoe horned with something other than platformer, wither its racing elements, combat or some specific gimmick, you don't actually get solely platformer games anymore outside of Nintendo. Times change and I think we'll see a negative trend with console gaming too.

Also I've found my Sonic 1, 2, CD etc ports to control perfectly on the Note 3, of course the Note 3 is a massive phone so there's that too, I think once we get more mobiles equipped with this technology;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CwnyJDw8Xo

We could be looking a real game changer (Pun intended)

[MadeManG74]

Ah I should have made myself more clear, the point isn't that it's not for you, the point is that we are the old school crowd who'll slowly get less and less products catering to us. Gaming already went one drastic change from arcade like experience to simulators or more larger, massive worlds (Making sequels to series like Outrun and Afterburner less feasible.) Even my favourite genre, platformers, are now almost always shoe horned with something other than platformer, wither its racing elements, combat or some specific gimmick, you don't actually get solely platformer games anymore outside of Nintendo. Times change and I think we'll see a negative trend with console gaming too.

But I agree with you on all of that. I'm not sure what the disparity is?

[Aki-at]

But I agree with you on all of that. I'm not sure what the disparity is?

There isn't, I just wanted to you mourn my platforming loss with me.

RIP 3D Rayman.

RIP Sonic.

RIP Banjo.

RIP Monster World.

RIP Crash Ban- oh wait no better he stays dead, I never liked this series.

[Nirmugen]

Maybe you should about what kind of game Japanese developers put the money in the last generations. 

Mostly all of them are Middle-term games (not AAA, not short budget) and the industry in that time or even this generation doesn't allow to be promoted as an interesting or relevant game.

With the industry demanding AAA games every quarter or month, a developer needs to release 3 or 4 AAA multiplatform games every year and only a few of them do that, mostly Western devs.

Nor Sega, nor Capcom, nor Konami, nor Square-Enix,  nor even friggin Bamco with all their money can put all those conditions.

With the economic recesion in Japan as an icing in the cake, it's obvious why many jp devs and enterprises now are starting to move forward in the mobile business and only put their most relevant IP's in consoles.

At least Sega has done this years before and now they are in a good position.

[TruthEnigma]

It's a difficult position in the console market right now. There is a lot of opinion within gaming right now that Nintendo's next console will be the last console with physical media. I disagree with this, that there's still too many gamers fundamentally attached to having disks, but I get the theory. Microsoft already showed signs of it with their always on DRM and sharing your game library, along with the noises they are making in regard to unifying Xbox1 with Win10, that having their next machine built around a Steam like service is not impossible. Same goes for Sony who could save money by building a cheap streaming box using Playstation Now and using cloud processing to do the heavy lifting. If Sega is one of those who buy this, and I need to repeat I don't, then moving to a digital format at this point would be understandable, if a bit premature.

[MadeManG74]

There isn't, I just wanted to you mourn my platforming loss with me.

RIP 3D Rayman.

RIP Sonic.

RIP Banjo.

RIP Monster World.

RIP Crash Ban- oh wait no better he stays dead, I never liked this series.

*Presses F to pay respects*

As you said, the indie scene still supports these games to an extent. Does the hand-held market?

I know RTS is a struggling genre that I really miss. Total War is turn based strategy, CoH is like RTS mixed with RTT. The only 'pure' RTS game I can think of recently is Grey Goo.

[Aki-at]

*Presses F to pay respects*

As you said, the indie scene still supports these games to an extent. Does the hand-held market?

I know RTS is a struggling genre that I really miss. Total War is turn based strategy, CoH is like RTS mixed with RTT. The only 'pure' RTS game I can think of recently is Grey Goo.

The handheld market definitely does but the dedicated device is another declining market.

I didn't realised RTS was suffering but it does seem people want games to be more and more accessible regardless of who they are, I saw some people complain Shovel Knight is as hard as Super Meat Boy and I *eye rolled*

Makes me wonder if the samething happened to the RTS crowd.

[MadeManG74]

The handheld market definitely does but the dedicated device is another declining market.

I didn't realised RTS was suffering but it does seem people want games to be more and more accessible regardless of who they are, I saw some people complain Shovel Knight is as hard as Super Meat Boy and I *eye rolled*

Makes me wonder if the samething happened to the RTS crowd.

RTS's decline is due to a lot of factors I think. I don't know if it was entirely down to making things more accessible, but the opposite could be said of the biggest player, SC2, which seems to have created a stigma that RTS games are all about super high levels of micro-management and actions per minute. I feel like the more accessible games like C&C and AoE just struggled with quality and trying to change things too much (See: Age of Empires Online. Great concept, poor execution).

[Sharky]

To counter what TA said about most of us being SEGA fans because of SEGA console games, well that is true, but a good portion of those console games were originally arcade games, like Outrun, Virtua Fighter, Space Harrier, Daytona USA its a huge list really but the problem is that for the last two generations Arcade games have been at odds with Console gamers... And so have I... I got the Xbox360 far into the last generation and I currently own no new consoles... I miss the old simple fun days of blue skies SEGA and I see an awesome opportunity for that to return with Mobile/Tablet and PC gaming... What is Arcade gaming if not pick up and play short bursts of addictive fun? Just like Mobile, just like the kind of Indie games that get greenlit for Steam. And I think FREE TO PLAY is awesome too.

[MadeManG74]

^Personally most Free to Play and Mobile games today feel more like the UFO catchers and other ticket machines rather than top arcade games sadly.