SEGA-Sammy holdings Inc Anniversary, your thoughts of the merger.

[Mariano]

Hello, i think this will be an interesting topic. In case you didnt know it this October 1 of 2014 is the anniversary of SEGA-Sammy Group, they will celebrate 10 years old. I made this topic because i would like to know what were your thoughts of the merger back in the day (If you were SEGA fans at that time) and what do you think about the holding now.What do you think the group means for SEGA and viceversa and what do you think are the advantages and disadvantages of the merger back in the day and what are now. I will post my thoughts later on the topic, for now i would like to hear you guys.

[ROJM]

I let you know in October...
There's been pluses and negatives...i suppose...A plus is Sega is more stable than they've been in years..negative is the type of games coming out is not my cup of tea..

[MadeManG74]

Sega is owned by the Yakuza now, so I guess it lent some creedence/authenticity to the Yakuza series?

[Trippled]

Gambling > Videogames

Videogames are for casuals

[pirovash88]

I'm definitely fine with it in regard to financials, but the games are where i've had my issues lately. Not a lot of good games coming out of Sega, the only game i'd hyped for right now is Alien Isolation.

[inthesky]

The worse Sega does the more dependent financially and direction-wise they become on Sammy is my guess. That being said I'm surprised at some of the decisions Sega makes anyway (no Puyo Puyo Tetris localization on at least one platform, making Hero Bank and all of the investment in it as a franchise) I just don't like the change in the direction of the industry, it's squeezing out a lot of awesome games or preventing them from getting localized.

[Centrale]

At the time there were a few other companies I would rather have had Sega merge with. To be honest, I never really paid much attention to Sammy at all, aside from being aware of their rather silly-sounding name. But today those other companies are far worse off. Sammy does have a knack for managing the bottom line. I guess that's what organized crime brings to the table.

[jonboy101]

I let you know in October...
There's been pluses and negatives...i suppose...A plus is Sega is more stable than they've been in years..negative is the type of games coming out is not my cup of tea..

One is a direct result of the other, I'm afraid.

[Mariano]

One is a direct result of the other, I'm afraid.

What do you mean?

[George]

And SEGA still has the West and East disconnection problem ....

[jonboy101]

What do you mean?

If Sega released the sort of games we wanted, they'd be bankrupt.

[Mariano]

Yes i imagened you would said, thanks

[ROJM]

One is a direct result of the other, I'm afraid.

Yes even more so now than it was in the few years after the merger...

[ROJM]

And SEGA still has the West and East disconnection problem ....

Yes that's gone worse under SS in my opinion. Really if Sega had an american management i don't think they would have that much of a problem establishing their brand in the west and as well as becoming more stronger and powerful in japan than they are now.

Its no real coincidence that when the company was in american management from its initial beginnings with Rosen and then SOA taking the charge of Sega in the west in the nineties..the company grew to higher levels. Under the Japanese management its been coasting along and not really growing to the point that they should be by now.

[TJKitsune]

I chalk a lot of it up to the risks..  I'm sure they're aware of those of us in the West that enjoy quirky games like Miku and Yakuza, but they'd rather stay on the conservative side and not risk games falling through the cracks or not selling over a million units..  It's a lot cheaper to keep things local in Japan.  No large shipping, distribution or localization/translation worries.