Do you still like Sega?

[Mengels7]

Depends. Sega to me was always the quirky Sega games coming out of Japan.  When I hear Sega's publishing someone else's game, I couldn't care less.  When I see something like Shining Force Cross or Hatsune Miku or Valkyria Chronicles I still get that bubbly Sega feeling inside.  I want more of that. 

[Nameless 24]

Of course, Virtua Fighter and Yakuza are still part of them and either are almost always deadset to be my GOTYs when ever a new title drops, add to that Football Manager too whenever I feel my life needs to amount to nothing else but managing a virtual team. There is a lot less quantity yes, but the same is said about the industry in general. EA dropped from 72 retail titles in 2008 to 14 this current year and Konami only had one inhouse developed title this TGS (With everything else being digital)

Gaming is in the gutter and is in the middle of a crash for retail gaming whilst another crash soon to happen over iOS gaming (Namco/SEGA/Konami/Capcom/Square am cry) a truly sad situation we find gaming in but c'est la vie. I plan on moving onto PC for next generation in anycase, nothing from the big 3 seems particularly interesting, Xbox has never been my thing, Sony will go all art and no substance and Nintendo is not too special anymore either.

It's really sad to see some of these developers not doing too well recently...and I actually blame this on the huge sales of Call of Duty, Mario, Pokemon and probably Assassins Creed since everyone seems to want more of those rather then some of the lesser known but still polished games.

The Japanese industry in general has dropped the ball this gen I believe...SEGA, I would say have been dropping it less this gen when you see the likes of Capcom milking their franchises/killing Mega Man, Konami treating Silent Hill and Castlevania like crap whilst shoving MGS down our throats and Nintendo's recent dilemma of "Will they? Won't they?" online features for their 3DS/Wii U.

Let's not get into Sony's Vita/Sony Japan scenario either.

Have the west really killed the gaming industry for us? iOS gaming, the huge successes of CoD, AssCreed as well as Steam's service getting better and better every year (I don't agree with this, but it seems some Valve fanboys will love anything about Steam).

I wouldn't count SEGA's UK output into the category since those games seem to do well as retail PC games and have their own little fanbase to sustain itself, but yeah...I really hope that SEGA improves from here on out since I can't see SEGA America doing much to help them.

[ROJM]

yes but not from here onward

http://www.segasammy.co.jp/english/pdf/release/20120330sega_kaikaku_e_final.pdf

A public report doesn't prove your point. The whole point of these type of reports is just to smooth things over and make a brave face to the media as well as investors current or potential future ones.Even though the curent investors would have a more better idea since they actually have the full report including breatdowns and performances which are omitted in the public reports. Sega's situation is actually worse than what's been described and they may not even make any real high end games for systems next gen apart from whats been described already. That's how bad it is. And that's why they are going digital. If you have actually read any of the stock reports from the last ten years especially under Hajime Satomi's reign they promise you this will happen and that will happen yet something goes wrong and it never does happen. I know a lot of investors got rid of their stock when Sega basically re organised it self again as well and that's not a ringing endorsement for a great and shining future. Things could turn round but dont expect it to happen as the stock report describes because believe me it wont. 

[MadeManG74]

So now Sega are releasing Crazy Taxi on iFail devices with the real music, while XBLA and PSN got shit-rock instead.

You know what, fuck Sega. They are shit-cunts now.

[Aki-at]

So now Sega are releasing Crazy Taxi on iFail devices with the real music, while XBLA and PSN got shit-rock instead.

You know what, fuck Sega. They are shit-cunts now.

IT'S BECAUSE YOU DIDN'T BUY BYENORY DOMEIN!!! (Have you bought the game yet?)

They are also re-releasing Virtua Fighter 2, Fighting Vipers and Sonic the Fighter for XBLA.

What say you now?!

[upsidedown fuji]

I've been with SEGA through thick and thin although I've seen way too much thin since they gave up making their own consoles. While I've scratched my head at plenty of business decisions they've made over the years, the most notable being Bayonetta 2 on WiiU, Valkriya Chronicles 2 on PSP, focusing too much on making Sonic games, and not bringing Shining Force III ep 2 and 3 over to the West. Of course there are more botched ideas and poorly executed plans but that's all that I can pull off the top of my head.


It's nice to see they've turned over a new leaf ,so to speak, and have given us a good handful of re-releases like Afterburner Climax, Outrun Online Arcade, JSR, and Daytona USA along with a lot of newer published stuff from Platinum games. I think if SEGA can keep churning out solid update ports of their legacy franchises then we may see a revival of the SEGA brand. At least that's what I keep telling myself...


So while my opinion of SEGA can change I generally like them despite a lot of the questionable things they've done as a company. They still know how to release unique games that rock.

[Nameless 24]

So while my opinion of SEGA can change I generally like them despite a lot of the questionable things they've done as a company. They still know how to release unique games that rock.

It's too bad that gamers when they see SEGA they laugh and state something stupid they have done in their history.

The only problem with SEGA is the few that run the operations, the developers are fine as they are, since they make none of the decisions that ultimately make their games appear like they have some controversy around them.

It seems only VERY recently, gamers are starting to take notice and are praising them for not being the Capcom of this generation...some would even argue that SEGA have done better then even Nintendo in terms of churning out both new and ports of old games in the right way!

[crackdude]

First word I wrote was SEGA. That goes to show my involvement with Sega products not just as a fan, but as a human being as well.


It's safe to state that if Sega ever leaves, I'll stop gaming.


This being said, it is hard being a Sega fan ever since they dropped the consoles. After the Dreamcast juice dried up, Sega's name was thrown around cheaply and horrible games came out. That was no good.


But right now, Sega is focusing on what it does best: great arcade experiences and strong IPs.
These rereleases are not just a way of reliving the golden age, but also introducing a whole new generation to Sega's best games. The popular ones will get sequels eventually. I believe that is something to look forward to.


Unfortunately, the console market has shifted ever since the demise of the Dreamcast. Sega's traditional style has nothing in common with today's gaming. Sega's quality really shines through the XBLA releases though. Fast paced arcade experiences like we've come accustomed to love.


So yeah, I still love Sega. It has had it's ups and downs over the years, but there's always one or two titles to look forward to.
What's most important is to never lose their identity and honor Segata Sanshiro's sacrifice.

[MadeManG74]

^See, I don't get how you can quit gaming just if Sega exited the market (which seems more and more likely to happen recently), especially as you said they've fallen from grace since the console days.

Do you really not like any games not made by Sega?

Aki-at, yes I did buy Binary Domain for $30, then Sega Australia went bust and it dropped to $10 about 3 weeks later. As for VF2, FV and Sonic on XBLA:
VF2: Who cares? VF5 FS is out and is the best fighting game on the market.
FV: This is actually really cool, assuming the port is good
Sonic the Fighters: Also very cool.

[crackdude]

Yes, I do like other games. EA is my second favorite publisher. I enjoy it's sports titles, it's Mass Effects, the SimCitys..


But (to me) Sega is gaming's soul.


Imagine you eat your first burgers at this awesome burger joint everyone's talking about. You go there every week and see them becoming less burger joint and more family dinner. You eat other dishes too, but damn those burgers are awesome..
After 20 years, it's a full on restaurant with this one last burger meal on the menu. You eat other stuff more often, but sometimes you gotta have that burger, other restaurants may have better dishes, but this burger is great.


Imagine they take the burger away from the menu.
What's the point of going there?


This is gaming for me.
It used to be all arcade games and stuff. It's gaming's soul. Nowdays focus has shifted, but there's this one awesome Sega burger that keeps me coming back for just one more game.
If they take away Sega, I better have better fun somewhere else cause gaming lost it's soul. No point in coming back.


This may sound stupid, but it's the only way I can find to express my feelings on this right now.

[MadeManG74]

No need for the burger analogy, because I'm similar to you. I grew up playing Afterburner with my dad in the arcade, staying up late on weekends to try and finish Sonic the Hedgehog with my dad, playing Virtua Fighter 2 until it came out of my ears, ringing the shop every week to ask "is Shenmue out on Dreamcast yet?"... Even a few years ago I purchased all three Shining Force games in Japanese and then installed Saturn emulators on my PC and plugged in a SF4 pad so I could finally play the trilogy in english! I think it's fair to say that Sega has played a big part in me getting into gaming and enjoying the medium and yet, if they were to exit the market I would happily continue playing. Gaming is, and always has been bigger than just Sega.

For all the negative things I say about Sega, and how I get disheartened with their decisions, Yakuza, Bayonetta and VF5:FS are some of, if not my favourite games this gen. Even so, The Witcher 1 and 2, King of Fighters XIII, Mafia 2, Max Payne 3 and more were also games that I absolutely adored. I guess I just can't understand it from my perspective, because why would I refuse to play The Witcher 3 just because Sega isn't making Yakuza 6? I wouldn't turn down King of Fighters XIV just because I can't play Virtua Fighter 6.

Not to mention, Sega's best titles and developers would likely be picked up by another Publisher anyway.

The fact is, your hamburger analogy is flawed. You aren't not eating at a certain restaurant because they don't make the burgers anymore, the equivalent would be saying that because they don't make a certain burger anymore, you will never eat any food ever again.

[crackdude]

In my analogy, food is entertainment; restaurants are different forms of entertainment; and each dish is a dev/publisher.
But I get what you're saying. I understand that point of view.


Truth is I just can't imagine gaming without Sega. I'd be heartbroken that's for sure..
But no Sega would mean a games industry with no space at all for the kind of games I love.


A more proper analogy would maybe be that I wouldn't really care for football if my favorite team shut down.
But then you could call it fanboyism.


Then again, it's pretty obvious deeply I'm a Sega fanboy.

[Nameless 24]

I have my perfered restaurant (as I love dining), but I check out all sorts of resaurants because I like my variety.

SEGA is my perfered restaurant at the moment (it wasn't always like this, I still liked playing SEGA games, but I played different things in my life to ever be dedicated to SEGA's games only). I would say that SEGA's reputation has grown these past few years by giving gamers what they want!

You can't say this for other developers...

For me...it's on a rotation every generation. I felt like Nintendo were the best the last gen, and before that Sony...to me it's flavour of the gen, but I guess I am seeing now why SEGA's really devoted to making unique games now, so I appreciate it!

If SEGA left the business, I wouldn't stop gaming, but my choices would be severely limited since other developers games don't interest me quite as much.

[ROJM]

Look, i'm not into Sega as much as i use to be. I see stupid decisions and to many restructures to test my patience. I'd still buy their games though. But if they did stop making games as i fear could be a reality. I would definatly quit. Sega is the sole reason I went into gaming in the first place. I'm raised mainly on Sega systems, Sega games and the Sega philosphy on video games,arcades culture and hardware. Have i played other games from other makers? many of times but they don't pull me back or hold my intrest as a Sega game does. When I as a Sega gamer and once Sega console consumer look at the game systems from the current to past gen, i dont see look how cool Sony did this system, look how cool M$ did that or  how Nintendo did this, all i see is how they have all somehow ripped off an idea Sega originated on their game systems and how they ran with it. We all can still see the legacy of the DC still influencing this gen and at least the next Nintendo system. This goes for games. I'm fed up of hearing how lauded and original GTA was when anyone with any sense can see that the 3D versions of the game is just SHENMUE open world meets CRAZY TAXI. If Sega didn't exist the reality is many of the stuff people are enjoying today including other people's games just wouldn't exist. So yes you can play your capcoms or your konamis or your EAs and etc, but they dont have the depth, the variety, the extraordinariness and the finess that over 20 years of Sega gaming i've come to enjoy from one special little company which sadly is being ran into the ground. Yes i'm not into them as much but i'd still stick by them to the bitter end till or if they fall. but dont expect me to stick around a games sphere whose motto is lets rip off Sega and then ignore their contributions of what is now called the gaming industy.
I understand why people may fall out of love for Sega, i dont get is why they would stick around after Sega would leave the industry.

[Berto]

Yes, I still like SEGA.

Do I like SEGA as much now as I did in the Megadrive days? Strangely enough, yes. But to tell the truth, the first time I fell in love with SEGA is not because of MegaDrive, it's because of the arcades. I grew up playing SEGA's arcades (Space Harrier, Altered Beast, Golden Axe, Outrun, and my all-of-time favorite, Michael Jackson's Moonwalker).

So what's making me still like SEGA? Mostly because of 3D Classic series on 3DS. I prefer 3DS over PS4, WiiU, Vita, or X1.
Mainly because the arcade feeling of the 3D classic series gave to me. I'm not into hardcore gamer, I'm more casual one.