SEGAbits Forums
Gaming => General Gaming Discussion => Topic started by: Operationgamer17 on September 19, 2015, 02:00:48 pm
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http://board.sonicstadium.org/topic/20015-rumour-sanzaru-have-not-been-working-on-boom-fire-ice-for-several-months/#comment-974366
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Sounds honestly like they might be better off cancelling it at this rate.
EDIT: Assuming the Rumor is true
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It's probably true. Wouldn't be the first.. or second time this has happened with a SEGA America managed game. It's amazing that this keeps happening with that branch.
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SoA just cannot catch a break. There's a certain point where I'm not sure I should feel sorry or angry that they keep falling for this. I really hope this isn't true, but the evidence is pretty...I wouldn't say convincing, but it's not inspiring.
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It's clear as day that SoA has no development capabilities anyway, I don't get why they don't just scrap it completly.
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The delay hasn't been given a set date yet, regarding how much has been finished Sega seem's they wan't to add more content to the game rather then just releasing it at this state. This is at least something there taking care of; regarding the quality of the final product, it seem's like they took some feedback and removed the heavy ammount's of exploration people have been complaining about in shattered crystal.This does still consern me about the delay of the game though and how long it will be.
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That is fucking hilarious.
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That is fucking hilarious.
No matter how we look at it, the delay is still something nice since they've noticed this and want to add more content to the game rather than release it now. Like this has been the same problem for most sonic game's but they finally noticed this and delayed the game to prevent this from happening again.
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Maybe they just weren't happy with the direction he was taking it in? It could mean anything at this stage.
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Not to be a dick, but Sanzaru is a contractor, the person that usually shows games at events are publishers. THAT IS THERE DAMN JOB. SEGA didn't do many trade shows. Not saying he is wrong but saying 'they didn't show it at E3' is not proving anything since SEGA is the publisher and they didn't show off any games at the event. At this point they would be doing SEGA's job.... something that they aren't being paid to do.
The linkdin thing is suspect, for sure.
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If true, this is really bad. Is development for this game really that unimportant? They should just do everyone a favor and cancel it.
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If true, this is really bad. Is development for this game really that unimportant? They should just do everyone a favor and cancel it.
Considering that the game recycles a lot of assets from Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal in the first place, it doesn't surprise me that they're treating this more so as a low budget side project. The poor reception of Sonic Boom games in general also don't help with confidence in general.
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If true, this is really bad. Is development for this game really that unimportant? They should just do everyone a favor and cancel it.
Sega has been known to hardly show sonic at TGS out of every other event, making a special trailer just to show off at a Japanese audience would be a waste of time and resources.George does have a point but it is still nice that we have a delay rather than a typical rushed sonic game that has been going on for way too long.
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What exactly is the problem here? So what if they're not being used, their last game was pretty dire. If SEGA are trying to boost quality in all aspects, this is probably for the better. If however, it's getting cancelled, then that's fine too. The project had little to go on anyway.
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Can anyone explain to me how Sanzaru could simply decide to stop working on a game funded by Sega? If they're being paid to create the game then they need to deliver. Sanzaru also stated this on their Facebook page regarding the delay:
Happy to see Sega investing the time and money to add in the features that we feel will make the best Sonic Boom game to release alongside the popular Cartoon Network series.
This means Sega is spending more money on the project. If this rumor is accurate, I'd imagine Sega is aware of it as well. Given what happened with Colonial Marines, would Sega of America really make the exact same mistake again?
What I do find a bit odd is that Sanzaru's message didn't state "investing the time and money for us to add in the features". But perhaps I'm reading into things here...
EDIT: Unless this really does imply that Sega wasn't satisfied with the game that Sanzaru delivered, and decided to take all the assets and source code and look for a different studio to finish the game. That way, Sanzaru would be free to move everyone to their VR project, which would explain why nobody is working on the game at the moment. If that's the case, then I guess Sega would have to decide between cutting their losses and canceling the game, or continue to invest and try to find a developer willing to finish/improve the game. They know they can't afford to release another subpar Sonic game. But it seems to me most of the fans wouldn't even be all that upset with the game being canceled.
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The issue here is there is a lot of speculating. SEGA didn't got to E3, so Boom not being there makes sense. Delaying it makes sense, but reading the forum post he draws a lot of conclusions out of nothing.
The two biggest evidence is that it was at E3 (but neither was SEGA as a whole) and that they don't list the game on the Linkdin (which I have no idea why they wouldn't?). That isn't solid prove at all. I guess when we ask for a interview with the developer, this will be a question that will go on the list.
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Here's the thing though, we're entering a Morton's Fork situation at the moment.
The game gets released against the odds, but it bombs due to the poor reception of the last Sonic Boom titles haunting the game, and it may or may not be justified based on the quality of the game itself. It could sell a lot better if indeed the game somehow becomes godly, but (spoilers) we know it won't.
The game gets cancelled, but this causes a gap in 2016 in terms of software. This is mainly an issue with western territories, since as we've seen Japan side of things are fine, but because of the ">SEGA in charge of localizing" problem it's going to be a big issue overseas. We don't know anything about a Sonic Team Sonic title in development since nothing has been announced, but there's a good chance one will crop up and it will be released the holiday season to compliment Sonic's 25th Anniversary, which will still not solve the software drought.
Both situations regardless will damage Sonic Boom to the point of no return.
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Well, this is what new Sega Games co. CEO and President has to say about games under his watch:
“I’ve been talking to the employees about how we should start putting serious consideration into quality from this point on. Especially in North America and Europe, where it’s always been more of a focus on schedules, I believe that if we can’t maintain quality, it would be better to not release anything at all.”
http://segabits.com/blog/2015/07/07/sega-japan-ceo-talks-about-earning-gamers-trust-learning-from-atlus-and-focusing-on-quality-titles/
Hummmmm
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I respect The Sonic Stadium and know Hogfather through the merch forum there, he's a nice guy, but maaaan are they so way off base with their speculations there.
Let's look at the facts: SEGA of America has not been at any events or trade shows outside of Momocon (which was itself a small affair and almost exclusively Hatsune Miku and Japanese games focused). SEGA, not the developer, is in charge of promoting and previewing the game. It's been pretty clear that for a better part of the year, moving and hiring new staff has been priority over promoting games. Fire & Ice is not alone, just about every game slated this year has had little more than an announcement video and a few social network posts.
Fire & Ice was due to release within the next month, so the game would have had to have been finalized some time back. It is entirely likely that Sanzaru shifted work to other projects because they were done with the game. Shattered Crystal was a rush job, Fire & Ice reused a lot of assets and as such was also a quick project. Why is it a problem that Sanzaru has not been working on the game for the past few months when now is the period of time for a Holiday 2015 game to be out of their hands and in SEGA's?
Let's also not forget that people do not always update their LinkedIn (it's not Facebook, people) and listing specific games is not always done due to fear of titles leaking before being announced.
As far as the concern that Fire & Ice was made with a small team, how big a team is really needed for a 3DS sequel that reuses a game engine and other assets?
Here is my proposed timeline of events:
• Late 2014 Shattered Crystal releases, is enough of a success to warrant a sequel ("success" meaning it made more money than it took to develop).
• Late/Early 2015 - SEGA green lights a sequel and Sanzaru gets to work.
• Early 2015 - SEGA announces layoffs, restructuring, and the big move from San Fran to LA. Stephen Frost is laid off.
• Early-mid - 2015 Development continues on Fire & Ice.
• Mid 2015 - Aaron Webber and other new staff are hired and the move is completed.
• Mid 2015 - Sonic Boom Fire & Ice is announced to release late 2015.
• Mid-late 2015 - Fire & Ice is completed, Sanzaru shifts staff to other projects.
• Mid-late 2015 - SEGA Japan urges all regions to focus on quality, Aaron Webber (known for playing a part in Sonic 4 Episode 1's delay) and other staff agree that Fire & Ice needs more time. Sanzaru likely also pushed for more time.
• September 2015 - Fire & Ice delay is announced, behind the scenes dealings take place - DEVELOPMENT CANNOT SIMPLY START BACK UP. This is a business, money needs to be allocated and contracts need to be signed.
• September 2015 - Sanzaru posts to Facebook: "Happy to see Sega investing the time and money to add in the features that we feel will make the best Sonic Boom game to release alongside the popular Cartoon Network series."
• October 2015+ - Sanzaru resumes development once timetable and additional budget is sorted, all the thing Sonic Stadium worried about never were an issue.
• Early 2016 - game releases.
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Right, gonna take any rumour coming from Hogfather with a huge bucket of salt. Seems like he bases the validity of the rumors he comes across by his own speculation about stuff rather than if his source is actually legit or not.
Which definitely seems to be the case here. The reason why he trusts the source is because "he knowns how the industry and SEGA and outsourcing works". Meaning that his source may not actually be close to SEGA, but just knows a lot of stuff about the company. This could also mean that his source just heard stuff through the grapevine or was just speculating.
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Right, gonna take any rumour coming from Hogfather with a huge bucket of salt. Seems like he bases the validity of the rumors he comes across by his own speculation about stuff rather than if his source is actually legit or not.
Which definitely seems to be the case here. The reason why he trusts the source is because "he knowns how the industry and SEGA and outsourcing works". Meaning that his source may not actually be close to SEGA, but just knows a lot of stuff about the company. This could also mean that his source just heard stuff through the grapevine or was just speculating.
Definitely agreed. I think what Barry posted sounds more on the right tracks. What's most concerning to me is how many people read Hogfather's speculation in that thread and immediately stated taking potshots at Sanzaru/SEGA as if it were proven fact. SEGA is not without fault by any means, but there's no clear evidence to any of this and whether it's really as negative a thing as people are making it out to be.
I really don't know how much improvement the next few months will offer to this game, but hopefully it makes it out of the woods as at least a fun licensed title.
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I can see why people would think he is correctly based on the way SEGA America has handled releases in the past 5+ years. But Sega Games Co. is under a new CEO who stated he wants more quality games and isn't scared of delaying them (as I posted) and even mentioned that the past games in Europe and America haven't been up to par due to tight schedules.
Again, we shall see when the product comes out.
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Sanzaru have made great games before and seem like alright guys so I really don't think they're jerking Sega around the way Gearbox did. I mean, I would like to hope so anyway.
SoA might not even be a cohesive force anymore so I wouldn't count on them for much of anything. Take this with a grain of salt but according to one of my friends who is close with a person at Atlus, SoA is as follows now:
"Sega is split up like this: a couple of guys in the Burbank office are handling the Sonic IP mainly and the rest of Sega are in Irvine at the same building with the Atlus guys, handling localization and managing the other projects."
Let's treat Fire&Ice with caution. If it's good, great. If it's not well that's really no surprise.
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If true, I assumed as much that SEGA moved in to Atlus's building given our review copies have recently been coming through a guy from Atlus who told us to ignore his email address and that he is with SEGA now. Looks like they are sharing resources, which makes sense given both companies had people in similar roles and SEGA recently laid off staff who were likely redundant.
Aaron Webber was quite mum on where SEGA's new base of operations is for America, despite them being settled and there being (from what we've seen in photos) a new reception desk, entryway, and SEGA themed conference rooms. He said they have the SEGA sign from the San Fran office in storage and they might be placing it or a new SEGA sign on or near the building. Though I've done some Google Maps walking about Atlus's US offices, and see no signs for them so I don't know if that will be happening.
I do hope proximity to Atlus will help to infuse a bit of their mindset into SEGA when it comes to localizing.
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I have heard sorta the same thing and like Barry said, it matches. The idea is to build the branch up? But really it seems like SOA has given up on anything besides Sonic and will just let Atlus USA handle the rest.
RIP Tembo, never got a chance to shine.
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Where is SEGA supposed to be located now? I'd be tempted to drive around sometime when i'm visiting my bro in Riverside.
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Where is SEGA supposed to be located now? I'd be tempted to drive around sometime when i'm visiting my bro in Riverside.
That's the mystery, they have moved and have physical offices... but we don't know! The San Fran office was very open to sharing the address, the new location... not so much. In the past, George and I would get the occasional piece of mail from SEGA of America, and I was hoping that we'd find out this way, but 2015 hasn't had many games and what we have had have been digital codes, so no games in the mail revealing the address.
SEGA.com lists all their headquarters, and the US locations are:
SEGA of America, Inc. (US Head Quarter)
6400 Oak Canyon
# 100
San Francisco, CA 92618
United States
SEGA of America, Inc. (US Head Quarter)
250 East Olive Avenue
#200
Burbank, CA 91502
United States
The 6400 Oak Canyon is a typo, as there is no 6400 Oak Canyon in San Francisco. This is in fact Atlus's address in Irvine, CA.
250 East Olive Avenue is actually Marza Animation Planet.
My assumption is that 6400 Oak Canyon in Irvine is where a bulk of the offices moved to, and 250 East Olive Avenue in Burbank has some Sonic brand folks who will be working with Marza and the upcoming Sonic movie.
Edit: The SEGA Sammy site does a much better job: https://www.segasammy.co.jp/english/pr/corp/group/list_kaigai.html
Looks like SEGA and Atlus share space in Irvine.
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Yeah, I'm pretty sure the Marza office is now the "Sonic Brand/Marza" office. I work really close to there so it's only a matter of time before I see Webber walking around.
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Looks like what Barry stated is accurate. Atlus and SEGA USA seem to be sharing offices, interesting. Looks like i won't be driving by a SEGA building for a while.
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"Sega Networks Inc.", aka the mobile division of Sega West, is under one roof with Three Rings Design.
With the MMO job ads of Relic about Japanese MMO's (PSO2) a while back, I think it would be neat to grow Relic to properly support online titles.