Sega to increase mobile games operations...

[ROJM]

Sega Sammy Holdings Inc. (6460), the Japanese publisher of the Sonic the Hedgehog, has tasked almost a third of its game unit’s developers with creating applications for smartphones.
The Tokyo-based entertainment company has increased the portion of its 2,000 developers designing titles for phones and tablets as more gamers go mobile, Hideki Okamura, president of game unit Sega Corp., said in an interview yesterday. Okamura didn’t say if Sega intends to develop mobile versions of its popular PC and console titles, such as Virtua Fighter and Phantasy Star. Company spokesman Yasushi Nagumo said no Sonic titles are in the works.
“As the new devices have come out and created a market for smartphone applications, we’re putting a lot of resources into that,” Okamura said on the sidelines of the annual Tokyo Game Show. “We’re shifting developers from other areas.”
Sega Sammy, which was formed a decade ago when pachinko-machine maker Sammy Corp. bought video-game company Sega Corp., has seen sales of packaged games decline as players shift from traditional game consoles to smartphones. The game maker sold 8.7 million traditional video games in the 12 months ended in March, down from 10.8 million in the previous year, the company said in its annual report.      Photographer: Tomohiro Ohsumi/Bloomberg    Hideki Okamura, president and chief operations officer of Sega Corp.
  Sega Sammy rose 0.8 percent to close at 1,794 yen in Tokyo trading. The stock has declined 33 percent this year, compared with the benchmark Topix index’s 2.3 percent gain.
 Gumi Partnership  A shift to mobile gaming will help spur a 29 percent increase in video-game and other consumer-product sales to 128.5 billion yen ($1.2 billion) for the fiscal year ending March, the company forecast. It expects operating profit at the consumer business to more than triple to 6.6 billion yen.
The reshuffling of developers has led to at least one hit.
A team formerly tasked with producing amusement park games developed Chain Chronicle, which has been downloaded almost 3 million times and generated 7.5 billion yen since its release, the company said in May. Sega and mobile game developer Gumi Inc. announced plans in July to jointly publish Sega games in Europe, North America and South Asia, beginning with Chain Chronicle this year.
Sales of Sony Corp.’s PS4 and Microsoft Corp.’s Xbox One appeared to be picking up and would probably surpass their predecessors by the second half of next year, Okamura said.
The consoles would probably also catch on in China, where the central government last year lifted a 13-year ban on set-top gaming devices, the Sega president said. The Xbox One, the first console to hit the nation’s market, is expected to begin shipping in the coming weeks.
Sega was studying the Chinese market to see what titles would best fit and meet approval of the government. He said games with military, martial arts and cultural themes have proven particularly popular with PC gamers in China, which might provide a guide for game console titles.
“You might find an explosive hit if you play it right,” Okamura said. “Once PS4 and Xbox take off, we need to release titles that will fit within the regulatory framework.”



http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-09-18/sega-shifts-more-developers-to-focus-on-mobile-games.html

 

[Mariano]

I already read it today. I dont have a problem with mobile games, and it will be nice if in the end, they bring these mobile games over here like they said.
Your opinion ROJM?

[MadeManG74]

*Checks Sega's Pulse*

Fans, I'm very sorry...

[Mariano]

You know Mademang i think you can say eveything you want and all that, this is a forum after all but at least let me tell you this.
Sometimes your are a Dick, in the same way you now make fun of SEGA and The season pass about Alien isolation and all the complains as a Fan you can have, i can tell you than you are an asshole sometimes.
You are a fan of the SEGA from the 90 and pretty much not the SEGA from now? fine, but again try to express yourself a little more with respect, i dont think i asking you much...
I will not use this lenguage again if some moderator is mad at me, but sometimes this kind of attitude really piss me offf...

[MadeManG74]

You know Mademang i think you can say eveything you want and all that, this is a forum after all but at least let me tell you this.
Sometimes your are a Dick, in the same way you now make fun of SEGA and The season pass about Alien isolation and all the complains as a Fan you can have, i can tell you than you are an asshole sometimes.
You are a fan of the SEGA from the 90 and pretty much not the SEGA from now? fine, but again try to express yourself a little more with respect, i dont think i asking you much...
I will not use this lenguage again if some moderator is mad at me, but sometimes this kind of attitude really piss me offf...

Hey, hey man, I realise you haven't been around here as long as some other members so I'm sorry if I offended you, it's not my intention.

Fact is, I just have a very dry/negative sort of humour towards Sega. Most of what I say is in jest, and not to be taken seriously. I understand it's not easy to see that on an internet forum sometimes, but I never intended to insult someone personally or attack a member of the forum. I'm also sorry if my constant dickery towards Sega is wearing thin.

True, there is next to nothing that Sega does nowadays that I still get excited about (or at least not much that gets released outside Japan), but I'm still actually looking forward to Alien Isolation, despite the disappointing decision to commit to (very questionable) DLC so early.

I'm still a fan of a couple of current Sega games, Virtua Fighter 5FS I still play with friends every week (and I'm travelling to a tournament this weekend), I still play Company of Heroes 2 (even though that was THQ when I started CoH series) and I loved all the Total War games prior to Rome 2 which I haven't played yet.

[Mariano]

Is fine man, I am sorry for the insults, is just that sometimes the gaming comunity is just very...hard to please...
Like everything is wrong and this is expensive and this is bad and blah blah blah...
Is not only with you, is with eveything, internet is full of cowards, and sometimes i would really like to punch in the face some of them...
I know you are a fan of VF5 and COH2 and others SEGA games, it was just a moment of angry.
Again sorry for the insults, wont happen again.

[ROJM]

You know Mademang i think you can say eveything you want and all that, this is a forum after all but at l

Yeah Mariano..you have to get use to MM..and his sense of humor and opinion when it comes to Sega...but he's not a guy who hates Sega for the sake of it..once you get to know him.

[ROJM]

I already read it today. I dont have a problem with mobile games, and it will be nice if in the end, they bring these mobile games over here like they said.
Your opinion ROJM?

I knew this was coming. I use to have a reasonable stake in the company via my dad which i built upon with my own investments. I sold it now because i don't like the direction the company is heading. Only thing left is my dad's original stock. But they've made it more official now.
I wouldn't mind about the mobile thing if they were spreading their bets across all platforms. Its only the console part that is under mined in Sega. All other divisions are plodding along like they were before, Sega Toys, Arcade etc etc..
While its understandable its not something that i personally like. Think about it..in 8 years time all of SOJ's output will be either handheld or digital mobile. Sega console games will be represented by Atlus, Relic, Creative Assembly and or Sports Interactive. That isn't a good thing...because they weren't originally sega and they are not the games Sega built their reputation on.

[Ben]

Mariano, I appreciate that you apologized to MadeMan so I'm not going to make too big a deal out of this, but we don't allow personal attacks/namecalling in the forums. Calling someone a dick or an asshole is not necessary no matter how much you may disagree with them. I'm sure you can find other ways to express your disagreement than with namecalling.

Thanks.

----------------

Regarding this news, it's a bummer. I can't say I'm a fan of these types of games, nor do I own these devices. I hope Sega still has internally-developed traditional Japanese games that actually make it over here, but that seems to be no longer be the case unfortunately so I don't know what to think of Sega right now.

[Happy Cat]

Mariano, I appreciate that you apologized to MadeMan so I'm not going to make too big a deal out of this, but we don't allow personal attacks/namecalling in the forums. Calling someone a dick or an asshole is not necessary no matter how much you may disagree with them. I'm sure you can find other ways to express your disagreement than with namecalling.

Thanks.

----------------

Regarding this news, it's a bummer. I can't say I'm a fan of these types of games, nor do I own these devices. I hope Sega still has internally-developed traditional Japanese games that actually make it over here, but that seems to be no longer be the case unfortunately so I don't know what to think of Sega right now.

theres still internally developed SEGA Japan games coming west on consoles!

http://blogs.sega.com/2014/09/18/all-new-hatsune-miku-project-mirai-dx-screens-from-tgs/

and don't forget about this game coming out later this year.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MedbnbSK-Xk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UIZAceYaEU

i know that isnt what you want to see, but just saying

[Nirmugen]

I think this is a move with two faces.


One, many developers and workers of Sega can start doing something new or introducing existing IP's that could work in the mobile market just like Puyo Puyo for ex. instead of waiting to comeback to work in an specific IP for the console market that ultimately could fail in sales by many causes regarding the environment of that market despite all the efforts just like Binary Domain.


And two, without counting Yakuza (JP), Phantasy Star (JP), Shining (JP), Hatsune Miku, Sonic, Total War, Football Manager, Alien, Company of Heroes, Persona, Etrian Odyssey and some individuals IP's from Atlus, we can expect nothing more nothing less for the consoles and PC, at least in reference to physical releases.

[Aki-at]

MadeManG please stop hating on SEGA, your anti-anti-consumer hate is very disorientating.

Moving along I have no problem with SEGA increasing their mobile output but they cannot put all their eggs in one basket. If Sony manages to successfully revive the Playstation 4's fortune in Japan (February - March 2015 would be the real test, Dragon Quest Heroes, Ryu Ga Gotoku Zero, Bloodbourne and few other Japanese centric titles launch then) SEGA could effectively see themselves locked out of a 10 - 15 million+ userbase, add to that the now growing Chinese market (Which to be fair, they have acted on now with localisations of their titles) putting a further large lucrative userbase out of their reach.

Also it is a disappointment for people like me who primarily play traditional games on consoles!

[ROJM]

MadeManG please stop hating on SEGA, your anti-anti-consumer hate is very disorientating.

Moving along I have no problem with SEGA increasing their mobile output but they cannot put all their eggs in one basket. If Sony manages to successfully revive the Playstation 4's fortune in Japan (February - March 2015 would be the real test, Dragon Quest Heroes, Ryu Ga Gotoku Zero, Bloodbourne and few other Japanese centric titles launch then) SEGA could effectively see themselves locked out of a 10 - 15 million+ userbase, add to that the now growing Chinese market (Which to be fair, they have acted on now with localisations of their titles) putting a further large lucrative userbase out of their reach.

Also it is a disappointment for people like me who primarily play traditional games on consoles!

Well i doubt they will ignore the chinese market...they tried it before when the chinese was big on PC gaming..but that ultimately failed. Now that the chinese are going into consoles..i suspect Sega will try again but use local chinese developers to make games for that market under the Sega umbrella rather than doing it themselves..it depends how big console sales and gaming get in China..

[Aki-at]

Well i doubt they will ignore the chinese market...they tried it before when the chinese was big on PC gaming..but that ultimately failed. Now that the chinese are going into consoles..i suspect Sega will try again but use local chinese developers to make games for that market under the Sega umbrella rather than doing it themselves..it depends how big console sales and gaming get in China..

I think Ryu Ga Gotoku could be a big hit there, though big in relative terms of the market. Outside of that I'm not sure what else SEGA has that could be a sure fire hit. In anycase though, it'll be a much needed boost for the Japanese gaming industry to have another large market that could bring in further investment in the development of console software.

[ROJM]

I think this is a move with two faces.


One, many developers and workers of Sega can start doing something new or introducing existing IP's that could work in the mobile market just like Puyo Puyo for ex. instead of waiting to comeback to work in an specific IP for the console market that ultimately could fail in sales by many causes regarding the environment of that market despite all the efforts just like Binary Domain.


And two, without counting Yakuza (JP), Phantasy Star (JP), Shining (JP), Hatsune Miku, Sonic, Total War, Football Manager, Alien, Company of Heroes, Persona, Etrian Odyssey and some individuals IP's from Atlus, we can expect nothing more nothing less for the consoles and PC, at least in reference to physical releases.

Well they're already doing that...END OF THE WORLD is basically a AAA title..its just not on consoles. As for updates of old Sega IP...good luck on that. The only IP they update are games that was popular with the japanese to begin with like PUYO PUYO. Anything like CRAZY TAXI and the such only seems to be updated if at all here. I mean unless i'm incorrect but the new CRAZY TAXI game wasn't even mentioned by SOJ website...i didn't see it there anyways..