Sega didn't publish Bayonetta 2 because the first game didn't sell well. Bayonetta 2 was a Wii U exclusive because Platinum Games asked Nintendo's investors to fund it. It had absolutely NOTHING to do with SEGA the IP holder.
It's adorable how you assume nothing but the best of an AAA publisher in a situation where said Publisher publicly stated that their PG games sold poorly and don't really want to continue any of them while PG developers themselves said that Sega shitcanned the sequel mid-development but allowed them to search other publishers to look for funds. That's the extent of their investment of the game. They couldn't give less of a shit about it, not even assed to bring in a producer or executive producer.
It has literally everything to to with Sega as the IP holder because, as time has proven so blatantly in the past, they can't see the inherent value that niche, cult hit games like Bayonetta brings to their brand as a whole and leave that shit to dry in the wind. Literally everyone showered the fucking game with 10/10s and said Bayonetta is one of the last bastions of japanese 3D pure action games.
I know this is a Sega fanboy place and all, and I wouldn't be here if I wasn't one, but it's fucking baffling how so many people here talk about Sega like they are stockholders or some shit instead of actual video game fans and justify Sega's depressingly anemic attitude with themselves as a whole with BUT THE NUMBERS DON'T MAKE SENSE crap.
Yes. Shemnue 1 and 2 cost 70 million. So the fuck what? How hard it is to actually port that game in HD in a digital format? Just to test the waters, see if there's any wiggle down there. The only decent thing they've ever done with the IP was letting Yu Suzuki do his thing but that's the bare minimum you could ever do.
It's not. Valkyrie Chronicles was ported by 5 fucking guys and it was one of the best PC ports out there and apparently that was a gigantic effort for Sega of Europe to make it happen cause Sega of Japan is being Sega of Japan.
They don't care, they never really did after the golden age. Now Shemnue 3 is flipping the shit out of everyone so Sega is "thinking of ways" of bringing it again. I'll not say things aren't ultimately driven by money, especially in the video game industry, but they could at least try not to be so fucking transparent about it.
Even Square Enix still releases incredibly niche and disturbing weird Japanese crap that will NEVER really sell (Anything by Taro Yoko) but there's some top suit in there that recognizes the true value in games that don't necessarily make big, gigantic piles of cash in day 1.
