In the latest Famitsu magazine, they covered a SEGA Games’ recruitment talk where they recruited for new planners, producers, programmers and designers. One of the guest speaking at this event was Shun Nakamura, Producer of Sonic Forces and director of Sonic Team/SEGA CS2 where he revealed that Sonic Team/SEGA CS2 are the ones making the upcoming Shin Sakura Wars game announced last year.
During the speech Nakamura did mention that SEGA has finally re-organized the teams behind the new Sakura Wars and Valkyria Chronicles game, which where folded into Sonic Team/SEGA CS2 years ago. It really did seem for awhile that SEGA was killing off smaller teams to fold into Sonic Team, since Sonic the Hedgehog was so massive. But now it seems SEGA is happier to reorganize these teams and allow them to work on older IPs? Is this good?
So far the only people we have really heard talk about the upcoming Sakura Wars game has only been Toshihiro Nagoshi and now Shun Nakamura, really want to see the people actually working on the game talk about it. But I guess we shall see next year what the new Sakura Wars will be like.
[Via: Siliconera]
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The Sonic Team?
Okay it will be bad sorry… The Sakura Taisen serie is now over
Can’t argue with that mindset, I would prefer that Sega have other, more successful developers work on new installments of their older IPs
So SEGA has gone from having nine internal in-house studios (AM1 to AM9) to now just two (SEGA CS1 and SEGA CS2)?
I hope that’s wrong.
Don’t know about you but that sounds like a decline to me, since 2003, SEGA has made itself smaller and smaller with all this downsizing restructuring after moving on from the Dreamcast.
And it’s not just downsizing, it’s become more mediocre – if there ever is any output at all, look at Sonic Team today (formerly AM8) – they become more mediocre and try were one of SEGA’s finest houses once, even Sega-AM2 today compared to before – hardly anything since Yu Suzuki, not as mediocre but Sega barely does anything with it now.
No, Sega has about 6 teams now. CS1, CS2, Online R&D, AM1, AM2 and AM3.
*They were one of SEGA’s finest houses once.
did somebody say…….’phone game’?
Everything Sonic touch , it dies .
This is going to be a mobile game, isn’t it?
Wow, I’m an emotional wreak right now, all this news about Sega is actually scaring me, it really feeling that the Sega that i love is disappearing, this new management might finally kill my love for Sega, if that happen, I might have to give up gaming. Sega the only reason I”m a game, without them I’ll lose my drive to played, good i hope i’m wrong, i really do.
I mean god i hope i’m wrong, not good.
It’s just videogames, not something very important… I mean it’s not a big deal if this happens
Sega may not mean anything to you, but it means a lot me, i don’t veiw Sega as just a video game company, i view it a huge part of my life that mold me, Sega maybe not be the best video game company out there and is a huge joke now, but they always made games that appeal to me more then any other gaming company, and now it seem Sega just turning into a plain video gaming company to me, noting special about it any more, ever since this new guy taking control, Sega lost that fighting and create spark that they once had, view how I feel as pathetic or stupid, i don’t care, Sega just affect me like that.
I second that, Sega is more than just another video game company. It had a distinct persona and way of doing things in the industry that made them very different and stand outtish.
thank you for that, I need it, it easy to feel alone in all this.
I think SEGA could only ever be the same again by and large when they were on the cutting edge and involved with the home hardware industry but it’s an overcrowded market now and Sega doesn’t have the same market base they did, though they do still have their legacy which has what has stopped them from becoming just another forgettable company as well as some titles like Yakuza and Valkyria Chronicles ect that still has that old Sega magic, and I get that Sega’s original market was always the arcade sector specifically and that their line of home hardware was just an offshoot of that that was costing them too much with not as much of a return for them.
Now I think I know what’s happening here.
Sonic won’t have a new original game so soon, as it seems Sonic Team is busy handling this game.
That’s why we got Team Sonic Racing made by Sumo Digital and other Sonic media like the upcoming movie.
Sega just neither have the time or money to make a bunch of studios work on their games.
Sincerely, I don’t how the company can still survive nowadays…
So much doom and gloom in the comments section. Are you guys seeing the same SEGA that I am? SEGA just had their best year in probably a decade. In 2018, we got (in the west):
-Valkyria Chronicles 4
-Yakuza 6
-Yakuza Kiwami 2
-Fist of the North Star Lost Paradise
-Shenmue 1 & 2 HD
-Shining Resonance Refrain
-SEGA Genesis Classics
-SEGA Ages on Switch
I second this. Seem like every comment on this topic is negative. I personally can’t wait to see the outcome to this project. And also personally SEGA will always be my favorite video game company by far.
And what is Sega nowadays without Ryu Ga Gotoku studio?
It’s still Sega. Sega has many studios outside of Ryu ga gotaku studios.
not that make console game, Sega only as two now, CS1/Yakuza Studio and CS2/Sonic Team. the AMs teams are arcade teams and Sega network the moblie team.
Not totally correct. SEGA also has Creative Assembly and Atlus, both of which make console games.
those are acquire studio, not in-house studio, personally i just view them as third party developer working with sega, they don’t have the same magic as Sega in-house studio do, to me at leash, well to be fair i’ve never played any of there games before so that could be it, but at the same time, noting they made have interest me yet. the point that got me upset is Sega shorten the in-house teams again.
It is Valkyria Chronicles, Puyo Puyo Tetris, Sonic, Shining, Total War, Football Manager, etc.
Oh and literally all of Atlus, so Persona, Shin Megami Tensei, Etrian Odyssey, etc.
Also, it’s not really fair to say “what is SEGA without Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio?”. Most third party publishers look much weaker if you take away their best studio. This isn’t just a SEGA issue.
I hardly think having the Sega Ages platform series relegated to a Switch exclusive is an achievement, more like a missed opportunity, but point taken.
Sega shouldn’t still be relegating some projects to a market that is primarily dominated by Nintendo fans.
I’m perhaps not as negative as others, I actually think Sega has improved a lot lately both in how they handle fan interaction and how their handling their ips and games. However there is one branch of Sega that has been a consistent problem for far too many years now, and sad to say… thatnis Sonic Team. This studio was once one of the finest the industry had to offer, but is now a shadow of its former self. If anything was going to worry me about the quality of this game, it would be Sonic Team.
Still I don’t want to announce doom and gloom just yet. Sega has demonstrated that they have big plans for the future and is all too aware of the precarious situation their in as far as public opinion is concerned. I choose to be cautiously optimistic and hope this turns out good.
The negativity surrounding Sonic team over the years is overrated. personally, I never played a bad Sonic game. And I’ve played a majority of them. That’s including Sonic ’06.
That’s very true. Compare recent Sonic games to Mario ones and they aren’t any different in quality. Nintendo’s properties unfortunately get put on a pedestal to be overrated. Mario Odyssey was essentially Sonic Adventure but it got some crazy scores that probably beat the latter. Mario as well as Nintendo obviously has a bigger fanbase. A lot of this mockery towards the company comes from Sega not being in the console hardware business any more. If Sega was still in the console hardware business their Sonic games would definitely be praised more. At the end of the day though some perspective is needed: Nintendo’s Mario games aren’t any better than what Sonic Team has put out.
Very true. To me, Nintendo is most overrated company in the industry.
They are and unfortunately they have the loyalty of a bigger percentage of gamers. I mean I’ve played both New Super Mario Wii and New Super Mario Wii U and they are very generic games, they aren’t any better than Sonic Forces for example. As for Super Mario World 3D it’s fun in places but again it isn’t any different in quality to other Wii Sonic games or Sonic: Lost World, yet Nintendo’s games will get more praise as they’re seen as a reliable company with a bigger inbase loyalty.
Well said!
Although I get huge flak for saying all this on any gaming forum.
Sakura is for girls
Comments really need to stop being this in most cases:
“SEGA isn’t as good as it used to be”, “Sonic Team are awful”. “SEGA is dying and they are never going to recover”. Sonic Team are likely assisting in Development, and it isn’t like Puyo Puyo or Phantasy Star Online are bad games either by the team, it is just Sonic that they struggle with.
As for Mario games not being that great, I honestly don’t know what to say, and I am a SEGA fan. They don’t rock the boat and stick to what works. Yes, some entries are not the best but the worst Mario game was ages ago and Sonic’s? Well…4 years ago.
Sonic COULD be as good and recognized as Mario, but SEGA chooses to make bad decisions on the franchise.
You forgot Sonic Mania, yeah Sega themselves didn’t develop it but they did release it. Can’t agree on Mario, the games are very generic and predictable and I hate the physics in them. Sega as a company could be better but I think their failure as a company is over exaggerated.