Sega to launch games on Facebook

[ROJM]

Sega to run social games in US on Facebook, Hi5

http://www.totaltele.com/view.aspx?ID=462749
From Nikkei
Tuesday 22 February 2011
Baseball game will come to Facebook later this month, Japanese firm says.
Aiming to build its "Sega Play!" social games into a globally recognized brand, Sega Corp. will soon enter the American market by operating games on the social networking sites of Facebook Inc. and hi5 Networks Inc., the Nikkei reported Tuesday.

The Japanese firm will launch "Sega Play! Baseball" on Facebook at the end of this month. The Sega Sammy Holdings Inc. unit will follow up in March by launching "Sega Play! Football" on hi5, a social entertainment site established in 2003 that differentiates itself from Facebook and Twitter by emphasizing social gaming.

Sega will be the first major Japanese game developer to operate a game on hi5.

While the Facebook and hi5 titles will be free, players will have to pay for items if they want to progress deeper into the games.

Sega plans to develop the "Sega Play!" brand into a series of games with a global presence, supporting a variety of languages in different regions of the world.
 

Im not a facebook user but i remember there was a big topic about Sega of america going down this route last year. Well another exciting chapter of Neo Sega.

[Nathan]

Shenmue Gai coming over seems more and more likely.

[ROJM]

I dunno about that, it sounds like its a different set up to the mobile games division.

[Nathan]

Nah, this just screams Shenmue Gai.

While the Facebook and hi5 titles will be free, players will have to pay for items if they want to progress deeper into the games.

This is the basic premise for Gai.

Sega plans to develop the "Sega Play!" brand into a series of games with a global presence, supporting a variety of languages in different regions of the world.

Gai is already out in Japan, and plans are being discussed for a western release already. This fits in to the plan as well.

Not to mention SEGA is also making RGG Mobile and Phantasy Star: Eternal Hunters for mobile and social platforms. This seems like a growing trend.

[Essay]

I'm no huge facebook user either, but I'm all for it.

You have to hand it to Sega.  No matter how many changes the company has gone through over the years, they're consistently forward-thinking (or at the very least, try to be opportunistic with current or impending trends).

[Team Andromeda]

You have to hand it to Sega.  No matter how many changes the company has gone through over the years, they're consistently forward-thinking (or at the very least, try to be opportunistic with current or impending trends).

tbh they're just looking at the success the likes of EA have had in such ventures and want a piece of the pie. One day SEGA will wake up to the fact that they is a nice market for Model 1, 2, 3 Naomi ECT collection packs, where it could make easy money on simple Arcade ports to the console

[Sharky]

Segas 'Kingdom Conquest' game for iPad/iPhone would probably go down REALLY well on facebook if they could implant it.

The social gaming site version of Shenmue Gai I would play for sure.

As mentioned above the Phantasy Star game could work but the main focus of that is moving from place to place in the real world to detect new monsters in game which doesnt really lend itself to facebook.

Man if they could get that Sonic level building game or even a better version of it on facebook... I see that going down a storm.

Chu Chu Rocket iPad version?

[ROJM]

Nah, this just screams Shenmue Gai.

While the Facebook and hi5 titles will be free, players will have to pay for items if they want to progress deeper into the games.

This is the basic premise for Gai.

Sega plans to develop the "Sega Play!" brand into a series of games with a global presence, supporting a variety of languages in different regions of the world.

Gai is already out in Japan, and plans are being discussed for a western release already. This fits in to the plan as well.

Not to mention SEGA is also making RGG Mobile and Phantasy Star: Eternal Hunters for mobile and social platforms. This seems like a growing trend.

Sega Mobile games and Sega play are two different things. Sorry but they are. Just because you want it to happen doesn't mean it will or Sega wants or plan it to happen. Sega has made tons of mobile games since 2002 and none of them would be suitable for this, as well as the fact Suzuki said it wasn't going to be published outside japan and sega doesn't control the full rights of this game either.

[Sharky]

I suspect he is talking about the social networking version of the game that will be released on that Yahoo run social gaming site 'Mobage' or what ever it's called.

[ROJM]

I know, but like i said its from two divisions. hey who knows they may end up doing it but sega has always been platform specific rather than multi platform.

[max_cady]

The funny side of this is that the Sega Play! Baseball game had already been released on Facebook for a while. Around November, of course, it was first a game meant for the Taiwanese market, but apparentely anyone can play it.

I kinda stumbled upon it recently.

[Nathan]

I think its a beta version.