Is the PC Sega's future?

[ROJM]

We all seen Sega has become more involved into the PC market and how that market has grown for them and the wise choices in studio acquisitions and licenses that they have recently purchased. Even in japan Sega's marquee RPG franchise PS0 2 has done well in the notoriously small PC market in that country.  And the coming release of COMPANY OF HEROES 2 may also be another money maker for Sega as well.
Apparently Sega is considering porting their PC franchises like TOTAL WAR onto the PS4 and XBO, this may be something that they want to do when the first batch of WARHAMMER games are released as well to capitlise on the license. The last time Sega did this was with FOOTBALL MANAGER when the 360 and PSP was first released, but it didn't continue for whatever reason.

 I'm just wondering since the whole PC investment has obviously paid off for Sega than what they invested in console development, would it be better for them just to release other big titles for PC first and then port them to console afterwards or not at all, instead of the other way round? I heard certain games that were made for console but then released for the PC market did slightly better in sales than their original console counterparts. And in a way PC development is still slightly cheaper than console development as well. What do you think?
Here's the original article....

http://www.videogamer.com/pc/rome_ii_total_war/news/sega_considering_porting_total_war_and_strategy_line-up_to_ps4_and_xbox_one.html


SEGA is considering porting its "big strategy properties" to next-gen consoles if the systems are a success.

Talking to MCV at E3 last week, SEGA West boss Jurgen Post explained that "if next gen consoles become as successful as people say we can look to move some of our big properties on PC over to those machines".

SEGA owns three major strategy IPs, including Football Manager, Company of Heroes and the Total War franchise.

All three series are typically only released on PC, bar a brief stint of experimenting with Football Manager on Xbox 360 in the mid-00s.

SEGA's next big strategy game, Company of Heroes 2, is due for release on PC next Tuesday, June 25. Check back at 2pm this afternoon to find out what we think of it.



 

[max_cady]

I think that out of all the available consoles, the PC is perhaps the safest platform. Especially with STEAM.

Even free-to-play games like Spiral Knights seems to be bringing in some good cash.

It might not be the future, per say, but at least it's a good enough fallback. Though, the thing to take into account is that SEGA seems to have a stronger grip on the RTS market. While it's still a bankable genre, it's slowly becoming sort'of a niche market.

The RTS genre, love ir or hate it, is a small market compared to what it was in it's golden years when Command & Conquer and Starcraft were big.

Sure, have different genres, but always port them to PC. Hell I bought Hell Yeah and Sonic Adventure 2 through Steam. I normally reserve these for my 360, but they are good enough for Steam.

[CrazyT]

With the major succes SEGA has on PC, I personally think expanding on that would be a smart move. Company of heroes and rome 2 literally don't leave the top 10 top seller list on steam. And rome 2 has been there for weeks and weeks.

I would personally love for any game to be multiplat with PC. From sonic games to yakuza, but wonder if that type of game really has a big audience on pc. It's mostly PC genres that do well on PC. Like western RPG's(skyrim/witcher), First person shooters, MMORPG's and RTS

When it comes to more console games like sonic racing transformed or a binary domain. It seems they don't do that well on PC. But I am not very sure about the numbers. I like that the online community for BD is a lot more active though

[Trippled]

that new sega west president kinda irks me just saying. whenever he talks it's like he doesn't even know that Sega exists beyond Sonic/RTS/Aliens

[ROJM]

When it comes to more console games like sonic racing transformed or a binary domain. It seems they don't do that well on PC. But I am not very sure about the numbers. I like that the online community for BD is a lot more active though

That's what got me thinking, because BD sold better on the PC/steam end but its really hard to compare to the console versions due to the pricing the game had on the PC. If this game was released on PC first i wonder if the outcome would have been different.

[nuckles87]

SEGA has had success in the PC market, but as you've said it has been largely due to acquisitions. The Total War series was already successful when SEGA started publishing the franchise, Football Manager had already see a decade of success under Eidos (though it was known as Championship Manager), and Company of Heroes had the benefit of THQ's support.

In short, while all of these games have done well for SEGA, they would have done well for ANY publisher that picked them up. So I'd say that this has less to do with SEGA being very good at selling games to the PC market and more to do with SEGA simply being smart enough to acquire winners for that market.

SEGA definitely HAS a future in PCs, but I'm not sure if that really is there future. Unless there future is just Total War, Football Manager, Relic's stuff, and any other big PC devs SEGA picks up. I think the major issue for SEGA has always been a lack of faith in their own franchises outside of Sonic and Yakuza. I've never seen any other SEGA IP get the kind of advertisement that, say, the original BioShock or Deadspace got. Until SEGA is willing to take THAT kind of risk and actually back some of their other IPs with serious advertisement dollars, their future isn't any one platform: it's just wherever their big IPs already do well.

[Trippled]

Maybe some franchises outside of PSO will go F2P

Namco is doing it with Tekken and Ridge Racer

[tarpmortar]

I'm a PC gamer, so I hope so. Tons of Japanese SEGA games I want on PC but I also want them to release their PC back catalog on Steam! But also bring out the newer SoJ games on PC, give me Virtua Fighter, give me Yakuza, Vanquish, Bayonetta, etc.

Tons of PC gamers still want Vanquish on PC in particular.

[ROJM]

@TaroYamada.
I'm a gray importer IE i buy a lot of japanese games as well as western games, Sega japan's history with the PC is odd but interesting because they released a number of arcade titles for the PC in japan as well as continue certain console titles/franchises onto the PC platform. To me its an evolution of something that they have been striving for since the mid nineties. I also agree that VANQUISH would be perfect for PC,to be honest i think sega should have made the game an exclusive for PS3 instead of multiplatform because its the type iof gsame that appeals to the PS3 audience rather than the 360 audience who is spoiled for FPS games,anyway.

@Nuckles
Well to be fair Sports Interactive seperated from Eidos and made a deal with sega to just publish their version of Championship football aka FOOTBALL MANAGER, but when the sammy money came in(yes it is good for something) Sega Europe took their chances and made the offer and they accepted. The point i'm making is, yes these games would sell regardless of who is selling them but Sega is selling them and they have improved their growth in this market because of it. This is a market that they have actually made sensible business decisions and it has paid off for them. Much more than the western makeover focus that they tried to do with games such as GOLDEN AXE BEAST RIDER and other failures. And the lessons of that adventure is yet to be learnt.
@Trippled
The last time they tried to do that with was SAKURA TAISEN, I manage to get a copy of the chinese MMO but its a headache to play. |Not really a proper ST game either.

[Trippled]

One original creator spoke upon making a Online Jet Set Radio.

F2P Multiplayer Jet Set Radio? Could be good

[Radrappy]

One original creator spoke upon making a Online Jet Set Radio.

F2P Multiplayer Jet Set Radio? Could be good

nothing F2P is ever good. 

[George]

DC Universe Online isn't bad at all.

[CrazyT]

Neither is spiral knights, which seems to be a lot more inspired by pso than pso´s follow up itself. Great game that keeps on improving. There will be mag esque "pets" added soon.

It can be done right if the devs arent idiots

That's what got me thinking, because BD sold better on the PC/steam end but its really hard to compare to the console versions due to the pricing the game had on the PC. If this game was released on PC first i wonder if the outcome would have been different.

It's hard indeed. I can't tell if the growth of PC audience is underestimated or not. I sometimes have a feeling it is, and that next gen may feel the consequences of that since PC is so much more convenient than consoles if you allow yourself to invest a little bit into it. But it's just a thought

[3raser]

If I was going to play a PC game, then it would not be a game made by Sega. I know that seems strange since I'm on this website. I just think they have not really created console gaming and arcade gaming experience as well as they used to. If they started making only PC games, then they should at least leave console gaming on a high note.

[MadeManG74]

As Taro said, I would love to see more Sega games ported to PC. I've been focusing on PC a lot over the last year of so, and it's really become my main platform. I'll still buy games on console when it's the only option, but when given a choice i'll go PC all the time.

I think all genres have a home on PC, since you can essentially emulate a console perfectly with 360 Controller support on most games and big screen mode if you really want to play on a TV.