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Gaming => General Gaming Discussion => Topic started by: Suzuki Yu on February 26, 2011, 01:02:46 pm

Title: another proof that AM3 doesn't exist anymore...
Post by: Suzuki Yu on February 26, 2011, 01:02:46 pm
and most of their staff are working with AM2 now.

this is a new part-time job announced for Research and Development II (AM2)
http://sega.jp/corp/saiyo/parttime/20110225_1/ (http://sega.jp/corp/saiyo/parttime/20110225_1/)
and it got published in both pages Arcade & Software, i think this is new to them! usually any hiring from AM2 would be only published in the Arcade page

and they are listing the IPs they are responsible for
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Card Gen MLB, Miku Project DIVA Arcade Dorimishiata Miku Project DIVA,
BORDER BREAK, Power Smash, Virtua Fighter, Virtual On,
Network Mahjong MJ, Kurosureido Shining,
Medal game applications for mobile phones, other mobile phone content

so we can safely say now and for sure that the only remaining AM studios these days are AM1 & AM2 (except for some minor teams like initial-D and the kids related teams)  
and for me it's clear that each department are focusing on a totally different business and strategy.
AM1 = mainly focusing on card based games, Light-gun games and Medal games
AM2 = mainly focusing on Video-game software
Title: Re: another proof that AM3 doesn't exist anymore...
Post by: cube_b3 on February 26, 2011, 02:41:02 pm
This was kind of obvious by the number of present studio heads which I believe was 3 or 4 last time I checked.

This also explains Border Break, it is sad to see so much talent down graded, it hurts. I would love to see Akujiki 3 instead of Bayonetta 2. Something from SmileBit instead of MadWorld.

Why can't SEGA have faith in their own teams, it isn't like outsourced games do any better critically or commercially if anything they are low on the critic side.
Title: Re: another proof that AM3 doesn't exist anymore...
Post by: Suzuki Yu on February 26, 2011, 03:02:47 pm
i don't see this as bad thing at all.

this will enhances the AM2's strength even more, i don't think the producer of Border break would end up with such a fabulous result if he is still in his own department (AM3)

even VT4 seemed to be way better than VT3 specially in the animation area
Title: Re: another proof that AM3 doesn't exist anymore...
Post by: Deefy on February 26, 2011, 03:48:10 pm
I think SEGA today should have four major development dept. :
AM1, AM2, CS1, CS3, plus the entity of SONIC TEAM, but i'm unsure.

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I would love to see Akujiki 3 instead of Bayonetta 2. Something from SmileBit instead of MadWorld.
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Why can't SEGA have faith in their own teams, it isn't like outsourced games do any better critically or commercially if anything they are low on the critic side.

I'm totally with you cube, but after the merger the policy in SEGA is diametrically opposed, just over a year ago the company had fired 500/600 employees, mostly in the arcade and consumer development divisions.

Many games that seem entirely developed in-house instead are largely the result of external collaborations, examples : Project Diva, Yakuza PSP, Shining Hearts, VAL3 even with nearly ten companies involved etc. .
Title: Re: another proof that AM3 doesn't exist anymore...
Post by: cube_b3 on February 26, 2011, 04:39:04 pm
I don't have access to Arcades, SEGA doesn't port their games to consoles anymore as far as I am concerned they don't exist.

The big yap yap of current Sega fans is Yakuza and I am not into it that much.

This current SEGA forces the teams to churn out sequels after sequels rather than do more. I would like Team Valkyria to stop make Valkyria games now and get to work on Skies again!
Title: Re: another proof that AM3 doesn't exist anymore...
Post by: Suzuki Yu on February 26, 2011, 04:56:18 pm
Quote from: "cube_b3"
I would like Team Valkyria to stop make Valkyria games now and get to work on Skies again!

i don't have any kind of information but i got the feeling that Val team is preparing a big project for console this year with or without Valkyria 4 .... every team has a big project coming this year PS team with PSO2, ST with Sonic Anniversary and Nagoshi's team with Binary Domain. let's see if i am guessing right
Title: Re: another proof that AM3 doesn't exist anymore...
Post by: CrazyT on February 26, 2011, 07:03:44 pm
Oh wow i'm getting the chills while reading that suzuki. A "new", mind blowing RPG from the Skies of arcadia/valkyria team. Do want!
Title: Re: another proof that AM3 doesn't exist anymore...
Post by: cube_b3 on February 27, 2011, 09:38:47 am
Isn't PSO handled by Sonic Team?
Title: Re: another proof that AM3 doesn't exist anymore...
Post by: Suzuki Yu on February 27, 2011, 10:43:50 am
^^
not anymore

PS staff working separately now. and i am not quite sure if they are working side by side with VC staff or not, because there was some info claiming that both PS staff & VC staff are working together within the same R&D (RPG team)

from my understanding there are 5 major teams, 3 consumer/ 2 AM
- Nagoshi's team (now known as SEGA R&D Division I)
- SONIC TEAM
- PS/VC staff
- AM1
- AM2 (now known as SEGA R&D Division II)
Title: Re: another proof that AM3 doesn't exist anymore...
Post by: Sharky on February 27, 2011, 10:54:47 am
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I'm totally with you cube, but after the merger the policy in SEGA is diametrically opposed, just over a year ago the company had fired 500/600 employees, mostly in the arcade and consumer development divisions.

As far as I ever heard it was staff that ran the arcade buisnesses like Sega Club that were let go, not game development staff.
Title: Re: another proof that AM3 doesn't exist anymore...
Post by: Suzuki Yu on February 27, 2011, 11:00:23 am
Quote from: "Sharky"
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I'm totally with you cube, but after the merger the policy in SEGA is diametrically opposed, just over a year ago the company had fired 500/600 employees, mostly in the arcade and consumer development divisions.

As far as I ever heard it was staff that ran the arcade buisnesses like Sega Club that were let go, not game development staff.

yeah you are right, most of the fired people are from the closed Arcade centers
Title: Re: another proof that AM3 doesn't exist anymore...
Post by: Sega Uranus on February 27, 2011, 11:27:03 am
SEGA needs to sloooooow down with RPGs. Yakuza and Phantasy Star are all they need in that front. If anything they should be focusing on bringing these to all platforms available.

There should be less focus on Japan-only brands like "Let's Make A..." series. The teams making those game could really make a wonderful product that could be loved around the world. I mean, it is nice that they have IPs to churn out that they do not need to worry about, but the same people doing these could easily make something that would peak peoples attention, like a Sonic RPG.

And do not get me started on Border Break... With the right marketing, that series could be huge outside of Japan, I am certain.

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This current SEGA forces the teams to churn out sequels after sequels rather than do more. I would like Team Valkyria to stop make Valkyria games now and get to work on Skies again!

You hate how SEGA is finally settling down and doing consistent and polished sequels, but ask for another sequel?

I would love a new Skies of Arcadia as much as the next guy, but they have a pretty good thing going with Yakuza and Valkyria. I am the biggest hater of the later, but the fact they have another brand people can recognize and actually want to play is a great thing, instead of that obscure Shinobi spinoff series that only did okay.
Title: Re: another proof that AM3 doesn't exist anymore...
Post by: Team Andromeda on February 27, 2011, 12:09:30 pm
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so we can safely say now and for sure that the only remaining AM studios these days are AM1 & AM2 (except for some minor teams like initial-D and the kids related teams)
and for me it's clear that each department are focusing on a totally different business and strategy

No not really , the AM#3 lines are still there. You may well see AM#2 in VO credits for a few reasons: 1). AM#2 PR dept  Handled the PR of the Arcade series as well as other titles,  and 2). AM#2 ported the NA@MI game to XBLA .

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i don't think the producer of Border break would end up with such a fabulous result if he is still in his own department
The main men behind BB were Shimoda-san and Mikami-san' who are SEGA AM#2 through and through and worked on the likes of Afterburner, Ghost Squad, VC 3 and VF 5.

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because there was some info claiming that both PS staff & VC staff are working together within the same R&D (RPG team)

They was some talk of what was the Overworks staff working on a PS single player game

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from my understanding there are 5 major teams, 3 consumer/ 2 AM
- Nagoshi's team (now known as SEGA R&D Division I)
- SONIC TEAM
- PS/VC staff
- AM1
- AM2 (now known as SEGA R&D Division II

Just give up on knowing the Teams names, not even the Teams know what teams are what at SEGA  anymore (even joked about this in interview). Lots of people think the Val team are ex Overworks members (which there were) but at the time of making the game (PS3) they were in fact part of the Hand Held Division

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even VT4 seemed to be way better than VT3 specially in the animation area

The game is being led by the AM#3  VT team and Kumagai-san. The main reason why the game looks and moves better is because it's leading on the PS3/360 and not Lindberg

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As far as I ever heard it was staff that ran the arcade buisnesses like Sega Club that were let go, not game development staff.

They was also layoff's in the consumer and R&D sections too, but that was mainly  voluntary or not getting new staff after retirements

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This current SEGA forces the teams to churn out sequels after sequels rather than do more. I would like Team Valkyria to stop make Valkyria games now and get to work on Skies again

I said before the team is proven and proved they can handled a BIG production. Would really like to see the Team now work on a next gen SOA II with the Canvas engine

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SEGA needs to sloooooow down with RPGs. Yakuza and Phantasy Star are all they need in that front. If anything they should be focusing on bringing these to all platforms available.

Yes and you're right (thought a SOA II would be nice) I really think SEGA needs to slow down on Yakuza series now. They're milking it a bit too much and the game (and the team imo) need a 2 or 3 year development period to bring in some new tech and freshness into the series

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And do not get me started on Border Break... With the right marketing, that series could be huge outside of Japan, I am certain.

Yes give to a consumer team, to bring in a single play mode and up the GFX a little and it could be a nice 360 and PS3 multi player title
Title: Re: another proof that AM3 doesn't exist anymore...
Post by: Deefy on February 27, 2011, 01:46:48 pm
Quote from: "Sharky"
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I'm totally with you cube, but after the merger the policy in SEGA is diametrically opposed, just over a year ago the company had fired 500/600 employees, mostly in the arcade and consumer development divisions.

As far as I ever heard it was staff that ran the arcade buisnesses like Sega Club that were let go, not game development staff.

Yes Sharky, a portion of redundancies is due to the closure of many of the SEGA CLUB and generally of the Amusement Center Operations, but there were also layoffs in the development staff :(
Title: Re: another proof that AM3 doesn't exist anymore...
Post by: Deefy on February 27, 2011, 01:50:37 pm
Oh... I'm late..., too long to write :oops:
Title: Re: another proof that AM3 doesn't exist anymore...
Post by: Sharky on February 27, 2011, 01:56:51 pm
Yes, but the way you were painting the picture suggested they were sacking the majority of them from the 'teams that matter' when in fact it was mostly from the arcade operators.
Title: Re: another proof that AM3 doesn't exist anymore...
Post by: Suzuki Yu on February 27, 2011, 06:05:53 pm
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No not really , the AM#3 lines are still there. You may well see AM#2 in VO credits for a few reasons: 1). AM#2 PR dept Handled the PR of the Arcade series as well as other titles, and 2). AM#2 ported the NA@MI game to XBLA .

well, of course the line of AM3 would be there. we are talking about a port for an old game, this is logical.
what it's clear here from this announcement is that AM2 are taking care of the whole series from now on, they are not specifying a single game they only said "Virtual-ON" and "Power Smash" means the whole series of each title is there responsibility now.

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The main men behind BB were Shimoda-san and Mikami-san' who are SEGA AM#2 through and through and worked on the likes of Afterburner, Ghost Squad, VC 3 and VF 5.

i know there is some key people from AM2, but i keep hearing that one of the producers was previously working on Virtual-On

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They was some talk of what was the Overworks staff working on a PS single player game

what i am sure about is that PSO team is not working as SONIC TEAM anymore, either they are working totally independent or joined force with VC staff.
you can easily notice that since PSZ,PSP2 & PSO2 now there is no any single mention of SONIC TEAM. even if you go to their site
http://sonicteam.com/ (http://sonicteam.com/)
you will see all their latest game including Puyo Puyo but you won't see anything related to the PS games since PSP1.

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The game is being led by the AM#3 VT team and Kumagai-san. The main reason why the game looks and moves better is because it's leading on the PS3/360 and not Lindberg

i know that Kumagai-san is working on this, but this bit of info is not denying that the game is underdevelopment by AM2, there is no any indication of any kind that AM3 is still active for a long time now.
regarding the animation, i don't think this has anything to do with the hardware itself rather than the tech and the skills behind it. we are talking about AM2 here which has the best talented people in the animation field just look at VF5R/FS (which is also using LINDBERGH)


as for RPG games from SEGA i think we need an Adventure/RPG (other than Yakuza) i mean something like Skies or at least a fellow-up to the Original PS games.
i don't understand! this is the right time to bring a single player PS game because of the success the franchise is getting as of late!
Title: Re: another proof that AM3 doesn't exist anymore...
Post by: Team Andromeda on February 28, 2011, 11:21:13 am
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well, of course the line of AM3 would be there. we are talking about a port for an old game, this is logical.

I'm not just on about VO II but VO Forc

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what it's clear here from this announcement is that AM2 are taking care of the whole series from now on, they are not specifying a single game they only said "Virtual-ON" and "Power Smash" means the whole series of each title is there responsibility now.

They're still AM#3 IP and AM#3 (what we knew as AM3) are leading development of VT IV

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i know there is some key people from AM2, but i keep hearing that one of the producers was previously working on Virtual-On

The main people are AM#2 and have worked on many AM2 classics. To be honest, most of the AM3 Virtual On staff have long since left SEGA and went to work with Square on the likes of FF 10 ECT.

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what i am sure about is that PSO team is not working as SONIC TEAM anymore, either they are working totally independent or joined force with VC staff.
you can easily notice that since PSZ,PSP2 & PSO2 now there is no any single mention of SONIC TEAM. even if you go to their site
It's still mainly Sonic Team staff, but even since the disaster that was PSU, the game is handled by the Mobile division.

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there is no any indication of any kind that AM3 is still active for a long time now.
To be honest the likes of Overworlks, AM#3 ECT have all long gone; The staff still man the same lines and report to the same Team Heads.

It's about time SEGA started to share its talents and share Tech between the teams ECT

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regarding the animation, i don't think this has anything to do with the hardware itself rather than the tech and the skills behind it.

The better the hardware the more advanced you can run animation patterns and handled ever more complex physics and compression. AM#3 also have some of the best animation teams in SEGA, as their lines of games like Decathlete, Virtual Tennis, Last Bronx showed.  

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we are talking about AM2 here which has the best talented people in the animation field just look at VF5R/FS

It's AM#2 they are the best there is, there is not doubt about that. But we all see the difference and improvement in animation to VF6 over VF 5 thanks in part to better hardware.

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as for RPG games from SEGA i think we need an Adventure/RPG (other than Yakuza) i mean something like Skies or at least a fellow-up to the Original PS games.
i don't understand! this is the right time to bring a single player PS game because of the success the franchise is getting as of late!

I'm right with you and imo it needs to lead on the 360/PS3