Haruki Satomi apologizes for low quality games

[Tad]

They looked into PSO here, but decided against it due to not being able to see the profit apparently. Can't say I blame them.

[Trippled]

They looked into PSO here, but decided against it due to not being able to see the profit apparently. Can't say I blame them.

More like it was probably the few chances a Sega of Japan game could of find success. Aside from Sonic, anything else Sega Japan would be unsellable if PSO2 would not come over here. F2P are at all time high in the moment. Personally I thought PSO2 was partly made for the west.

[Team Andromeda]

They looked into PSO here, but decided against it due to not being able to see the profit apparently. Can't say I blame them.

I'm not on about PSO here . I'm on about having the PSO/Sonic Team making their own dark Fantasy hack and slash game and take on Dark Souls for the consoles. Also I would like to see the Team also make an exclusive separate PSO Online build from the ground up on the consoles for retail,   as well a multi-platform Sonic game

[Aki-at]

More like it was probably the few chances a Sega of Japan game could of find success. Aside from Sonic, anything else Sega Japan would be unsellable if PSO2 would not come over here. F2P are at all time high in the moment. Personally I thought PSO2 was partly made for the west.

SEGA international branches have a surprisingly how level of control over what they publish or not, personally I think the Western divisions just didn't see any chance of success but SEGA Japan still wanted to bring it over ala Gumi with Chain Chronicle. Should have partnered with a rival firm if they wanted to in all honesty.

I definitely think this might be getting in over themselves though. We're not about to see some massive seismic shift in development policy that's going to usher in a golden age, games are going to be fewer and fewer with longer development time frames for major production (Which only CS#1 and CS#2 are capable of in SEGA Japan) probably higher quality and more localised content. I'm fine with that but seriously it was pretty much SEGA's policy even last generation with development of high quality productions.

[Tad]

If you listen to the latest bombcast, they talk about PSO2 as one of them played it. He also said a former SEGA employee told him what I said earlier for those interested.

Looking through my games as of now, apart from Sonic, there doesn't really seem to be that much interest in the Japanese side of SEGA. I guess in that regard they've done a good job of following the market, but it does seem as though they think we wouldn't like any (or few ) SoJ games.

[Aki-at]

If you listen to the latest bombcast, they talk about PSO2 as one of them played it. He also said a former SEGA employee told him what I said earlier for those interested.

Looking through my games as of now, apart from Sonic, there doesn't really seem to be that much interest in the Japanese side of SEGA. I guess in that regard they've done a good job of following the market, but it does seem as though they think we wouldn't like any (or few ) SoJ games.

I think it has more to do with the marketing and platform choices of specific games rather than the games itself.

SEGA West has always deemed games like Virtua Fighter, Yakuza, Miku et all as too "Japanese" but that doesn't mean a market isn't there for it, rather they need to try and cultivate it but they'd rather take the easy way out and blame the market itself rather than themselves.

Some games, sure I can understand like say Rhythm Thief, but others like Yakuza? Sorry it makes little sense Persona can easily do over half a million in the West but Yakuza fails to barely do 5% of that figure.

[Trippled]

It all started when Sega "re-enterted" the western market with new money from Sammy with the mentality of "gaining marketshare". Through western games, "some" SoJ games and partnerships like Platinum. Cultivating a fanbase like Atlus or even Sega of Japan was never a goal really.

As an example, Binary Domain was born out of "slow decision making" which Sega has self-critized itself for numerous times. It was a "Should Sega of Japan make games geared for the west or not..." kinda thing. Binary Domain should have come out in 2009.

Other Japanese publishers were similar. Of course when this all backfired in the end, Bandai Namco and Square Enix recently began to "cultivate" its core fanbase again with fan oriented content. Sega hasn't been making the turnaround as of yet.

[Aki-at]

It all started when Sega "re-enterted" the western market with new money from Sammy with the mentality of "gaining marketshare". Through western games, "some" SoJ games and partnerships like Platinum. Cultivating a fanbase like Atlus or even Sega of Japan was never a goal really.

As an example, Binary Domain was born out of "slow decision making" which Sega has self-critized itself for numerous times. It was a "Should Sega of Japan make games geared for the west or not..." kinda thing. Binary Domain should have come out in 2009.

Other Japanese publishers were similar. Of course when this all backfired in the end, Bandai Namco and Square Enix recently began to "cultivate" its core fanbase again with fan oriented content. Sega hasn't been making the turnaround as of yet.

Of course and that was wrong, they should have established a foothold with some of their Japanese games but they've been unable to understand why game x or y failed. Though I suspect that Satomi knew what was the cause after working at SEGA America for a few years and then looking at what Atlus themselves understand about the North American market.

SEGA's Western branches were just too slow and fell in the trap most Japanese publishers/developers do, that is Western versions of their series by Western developers. Not trying to create a high quality title by their Japanese teams and marketed appropriately. I'm sure we're going to get more chances of localised content now, especially if Atlus can demonstrate how to effectively market some of their games.

[Trippled]

I think the PS4 "monopoly" also created an easier enviorment to succeed. No casual market to care of either with smartphones.

[Team Andromeda]

As an example, Binary Domain was born out of "slow decision making" which Sega has self-critized itself for numerous times. It was a "Should Sega of Japan make games geared for the west or not..." kinda thing. Binary Domain should have come out in 2009.

Tell me about it and I said it back in the day too . Launching a new IP is always hard, but its much harder to do it at the tail end of a console life cycle . SEGA Japan have made so many bad steps that one could cry sometimes and it made me sick when so many of the AM#2 and other teams would say they loved Gears or On-line shooters and SEGA Japan wouldn't have them to work on BD untill it was too late, never mind the poor way SEGA Japan used On-Line for its games last gen, despite On-Line games taking off and SEGA Japan doing so much for console on-line game in the late 90's

Bandai Namco and Square Enix recently began to "cultivate" its core fanbase again with fan oriented content. Sega hasn't been making the turnaround as of yet.

Square always sort of done it , I think Namco are on a bit of a backwards steps of late myself

[Team Andromeda]

I think the PS4 "monopoly" also created an easier enviorment to succeed. No casual market to care of either with smartphones.

PS 4 has no monopoly really . SEGA Japan needs to be multi-platform and needs to make games that appeal to the West, They can just forget about Japan for console gaming  and leave that to their Mobile division.   

[Trippled]

PS4 has 70% marketshare in Europe, and Sega always performed there best. (also PC ports)

[Aki-at]

I think the PS4 "monopoly" also created an easier enviorment to succeed. No casual market to care of either with smartphones.

Yes this is absolutely true, last generation the market was horribly segmented. You had the Wii, which had problems selling most third party software, then you had the Playstation 3 which whilst strong in Japan, never reached the heights of the Wii nor broke into the Western markets convincingly until the end of the generation and finally we had the Xbox 360 which really struggled to sell Japanese productions.

Now we have the Playstation 4 as the console of choice in Asia, the console of choice in Europe and has a 800,000 units or so lead to the Xbox One and outselling both Microsoft's and Nintendo's consoles combined. It's monopoly has certainly helped raise Japanese publishers confidence in their own products again and we're even getting ports of their games we normally wouldn't (IE Namco porting titles like Godzilla to PS4 because of the consoles success in Japan.)

Let's also not forget how well the console is doing in Asia and in particular China. It's a good area to invest in future and I get the feeling games like Yakuza and other Japanese games are going to stay afloat to these new markets now opening.

PS4 has 70% marketshare in Europe, and Sega always performed there best.

This isn't entirely correct.

It has 70% marketshare in the UK, most European nations give it a 90% marketshare!

[Team Andromeda]

PS4 has 70% marketshare in Europe, and Sega always performed there best. (also PC ports)

PS has always had the best marketshare in 'Europe' and SEGA hasn't always done best in Europe be that with consoles or console games of late (be that PS2, PS3) so I don't really get where you're coming from on that one.  When you had such a small fanbase as SEGA does and so little IP that sells on the WW stage you can't limit your output to just one system. SEGA Japan needs to be multi-platform (with the PS4 the lead system) and try its very best to get back decent sales in the USA.

USA again for this generation is where the real sales and money is to be made and lets hope SOJ at last wakes up to that. SEGA Japan should just forget about Japan for console games given its market is so rubbish   

[crackdude]

In Europe Sega games are held in good regard.