SEGA's Active Brands in the Third Party Era - West and East

[Centrale]

Wonder if Space Channel 5 and SEGA Bass Fishing should be deemed active rereleases. They're still on digital marketplaces.

I think maybe the active 'brand' would be Sega Heritage, and the rereleases could go under that as a category.  Because I don't think they'll be continuing the series as if it was a new sequel that came out.  Of course, those two in particular came out before the Sega Heritage label was rolled out, so I can respect your efforts at categorizing all this already, because it's rather hard to do.

[Barry the Nomad]

Good point on SEGA Heritage. Maybe I'll have a "Dreamcast Collection/SEGA Heritage" category?

[Skateboard]

Project X Zone is Namco Bandai's work.

You mean the SEGA characters in the game were not SEGA of Japan's choice?

[Barry the Nomad]

I don't doubt SoJ had a say in the character choices, though I don't think every character represents an active brand. Like some of the classic characters that slipped in.

[Nameless 24]

Valkyria Chronicles is inactive in the west (2008 to 2010) but is still active in Japan. ;____;

I wish they killed off the Shining games in Japan....especially when the dude dissed the western fans for loving the older style of Force...

[Barry the Nomad]

Revised the list to make more of a distinction between new releases and rereleases, also added Valkyria and Virtual-On to active (Japan) and inactive (West) - Virtual-On still has a title available in the West, but Force and the Model 2 rerelease never came West. I assume the brand is "inactive" in the West.

Added SC5 and SEGA Bass Fishing to active rereleases.

Also, due to the 3D Classics titles in Japan, Hang-On and Space Harrier are active over there, and I've placed OutRun as active since it is likely a future 3D Classics release. However, as of now, OutRun is inactive in Japan due to the XBLA/PSN release of OutRun Online Arcade being pulled. Or was it even released over there?

[Nameless 24]

You'd think they'd release 7th Dragon here (DS version) to see how it sells....if Atlus can release EO with a small amount of profit, I am sure SEGA could take that small risk.

Release a version with some promotional things (nothing special, just a poster/badges, a mug etc) and sell it at something like $35/£25/30 Euros and see how it sells.

I do believe it's one franchise that doesn't need to be inactive...especially when the 3rd game came out in Japan a few weeks ago.

[ROJM]

I dont think we can judge how Sega treats its Ips on comparison to how everyone else does it. A Sega game can be inactive for ten years before they decide to create a sequel to it. In the case of OUTRUN nearly 20 years before Yu Suzuki officially returned to do a proper sequel. Probably because of the sheer amount of franchises Sega has in its bag, not one company would be able to regularly update all of them and many of the games people want to see a sequel of are really niche that they wouldn't get a sequel to them anyway. Only certain titles managed to break that rule like GUNSTAR HEROES and even TOE JAM AND EARL(which was succesful tobegin with). Some get prioty and others can get breaks before they start up again PHANTASY STAR took  a break technically before it returned with the PSO series(dumb down) SHINING FORCE was also absent for a while before it returned(in a dumb down version) It's now happened to SAKURA TAISEN which has been absent for a while now. It seems to practice whatever the reason seems to be part of Sega culture. What i find funny is that it appears that many sega fans people dont seem to know that themselves.

[Kori-Maru]

So far, Sakura Taisen is active through stage shows and merchandise recently with Blu-Ray rereleases. The games, I can probably see them do something for the series 20th anniversary in Japan.

[ROJM]

So far, Sakura Taisen is active through stage shows and merchandise recently with Blu-Ray rereleases. The games, I can probably see them do something for the series 20th anniversary in Japan.

SAKURA TAISEN was dead for a while until Sega had to excercise its copyright claim in order to maintain it. Ages back the merc and stageshows were all scrapped in favor for SHINING WORLD to replace it. Its something i dont understand why Sega of all the japanese companies doesn't try to maintain their big franchises instead of leaving them out to dry for a while.