I wouldn't give SEGA East the benefit either...didn't they force many Shining fans to take down their Shining Force III play-throughs? I can understand SEGA West's lack of advertising being frustrating, but let's not forget who calls the shots.
SEGA West can only do what their budget is allowed them to do....I am sure some of the employees want to promote them as best as they can, but they are pretty much tied to the budget....I bet you if SEGA Japan gave them the budget close to Sonic advertisement levels they'd do a very good job at it...but as it stands...both divisions have little money to promote the games.
We know Yakuza will do well based on the fanbase alone, so those resources are never given to the Yakuza franchise since it has word of mouth...but their experimental games such as Binary Domain and Rhythm Thief needed that boost.
SEGA Europe isn't any better in terms of advertising the games either, but I at least seen some adverts on Transformed (despite not being very common on TV).
I hope SEGA Japan start to make money now, and start advertising their games globally rather then segmenting their games....this is one of the reasons why the Japanese Industry is bad....they don't make their games available to everyone (I am sure Otaku/Weeaboos would appreciate the effort...since their own region wouldn't make enough on the game these days) whereas the west have been pretty good giving the Japanese their games translated (you rarely see a western game not released in Japan bar Transformed, they may not sell great, but it's an effort).
