SEGA TGS 2015 Game Listings

[Aki-at]

Its a theme with Sega Japan execs, they build something, but destroy it immadietly.

I think it's more like they build something and don't see major success, they'll burn it down.

The instances where they do build up something and it is successful (Like the PC movement or SEGA Networks) continue to be expanded but they certainly don't have patience for failure anymore.

Lets be real here, this is has nothing with Sega West at all. Its Sega Japan telling them to focus on fewer established IP before the plan took full effect. They cannibibalized it in the first place.

SEGA West have been apathetic to their Japanese series for a long time though. There's even instance of community managers arguing stuff like Virtua Fighter just doesn't resonate with people (Which is a damn lie) and we saw the sort of marketing allocation Alien: Colonial Marines took over Binary Domain too.

[George]

So, SEGA Japan put millions into producing Binary Domain and specifically told SEGA West to not promote it? Sounds logical.

[SuperSonicEX]

SEGA West have been apathetic to their Japanese series for a long time though. There's even instance of community managers arguing stuff like Virtua Fighter just doesn't resonate with people (Which is a damn lie) and we saw the sort of marketing allocation Alien: Colonial Marines took over Binary Domain too.

The more I see this, the more I go: "wow, that is some major bullshit, SEGA West." and we all saw how well ACM went down.

[Aki-at]

The more I see this, the more I go: "wow, that is some major bullshit, SEGA West." and we all saw how well ACM went down.

I mean on one hand, you could argue that Alien: Colonial Marines was meant to be a sure fire and major hit so you market the product even more.

But on the other hand, that's exactly why you needed to market Binary Domain more than Alien: Colonial Marines, since it was a new IP that SEGA Japan invested millions into it. I have no doubt if it didn't fail and actually did over a million, the reconstruction of SEGA would have either been delayed, not as severe or never have happened.

And not only did they go with TV ads for Colonial Marines but stunts like this too; http://segabits.com/blog/2013/02/11/giant-egg-appears-in-london-billy-hatcher-fans-sad-to-learn-it-is-aliens-colonial-marines-related/

[George]

SEGA of America also does a great job ignoring SEGA Europe titles as well. For example, Tembo the Badass Elephant, as far as I know is a SEGA Europe game.

SEGA America didn't tweet or even write a blog post about it coming out. The game totally bombed and it would have been easy to advertise... literally "FROM THE MAKERS OF POKEMON"

[SuperSonicEX]

I mean on one hand, you could argue that Alien: Colonial Marines was meant to be a sure fire and major hit so you market the product even more.

But on the other hand, that's exactly why you needed to market Binary Domain more than Alien: Colonial Marines, since it was a new IP that SEGA Japan invested millions into it. I have no doubt if it didn't fail and actually did over a million, the reconstruction of SEGA would have either been delayed, not as severe or never have happened.

And not only did they go with TV ads for Colonial Marines but stunts like this too; http://segabits.com/blog/2013/02/11/giant-egg-appears-in-london-billy-hatcher-fans-sad-to-learn-it-is-aliens-colonial-marines-related/

I get what you mean with the first point, it would have been a hit and might have made sense of the 4 pillars strategy they established after the 2012 restructure...unfortunately, it seems like SoA or SEGA West in general didn't keep a good eye on the project and it ultimate caused the mess that followed.  I remember watching a recent Jim Sterling video, the fact that they're still selling the game on Steam with the deceptive screens is pretty dumb.


I wholly agree with you on the second point, especially when it was made clear of that SoJ wanted this to be successful that Nagoshi even appeared on Gamespot himself to demo the game.  Seems baffling that no one at SEGA West saw: big game from SoJ, they want it to succeed in the west, if it doesn't = it comes down on us -> so maybe try to market it.  Maybe if actually tried there wouldn't have been articles mocking the game's non-presence sometime before launch. 


These aren't the Genesis days, they aren't the "mavericks" that paved the way for early success, so perhaps actually working/tolerating with the Japanese branch might be a more lucrative approach for the current SoA.

SEGA of America also does a great job ignoring SEGA Europe titles as well. For example, Tembo the Badass Elephant, as far as I know is a SEGA Europe game.

SEGA America didn't tweet or even write a blog post about it coming out. The game totally bombed and it would have been easy to advertise... literally "FROM THE MAKERS OF POKEMON"

Kind of sad to hear this, haven't been able to pick it up yet, but I've heard good things about the game.  Seems like a simple game to promote that would have made a decent profit at least.

[NoirSuede]

Sega of America always had communication issues with Sega Of Japan even back in the Saturn days, so how do you guys think they should do to cure it ? Personally i think that SoA and SoJ (and SoE i guess) should have a 1-week jamboree so that they can know each other better.

[Centrale]

I wholly agree with you on the second point, especially when it was made clear of that SoJ wanted this to be successful that Nagoshi even appeared on Gamespot himself to demo the game.  Seems baffling that no one at SEGA West saw: big game from SoJ, they want it to succeed in the west, if it doesn't = it comes down on us -> so maybe try to market it.  Maybe if actually tried there wouldn't have been articles mocking the game's non-presence sometime before launch. 

I've always assumed that Sega West is not allocated (by SOJ) sufficient funds for effective marketing. I think they're doing what they can with what they have, but it seems to be next to nothing.

[Aki-at]

I wholly agree with you on the second point, especially when it was made clear of that SoJ wanted this to be successful that Nagoshi even appeared on Gamespot himself to demo the game.  Seems baffling that no one at SEGA West saw: big game from SoJ, they want it to succeed in the west, if it doesn't = it comes down on us -> so maybe try to market it.  Maybe if actually tried there wouldn't have been articles mocking the game's non-presence sometime before launch. 

You know we didn't even get the free Yakuza skins Japan got. It's stuff like that that just indicate to me they don't give much thought if the product succeeds or fails.

I've always assumed that Sega West is not allocated (by SOJ) sufficient funds for effective marketing. I think they're doing what they can with what they have, but it seems to be next to nothing.

I don't know if this is entirely true looking at the European marketing for stuff like Alien vs Predator, the E3 coverage they got for Alien Colonial Marines or how much booth space the likes of Alien: Isolation and Total War are getting. Don't forget they had money to;

- Splash the case on an expensive voice cast for Yakuza 1
- Acquire the Marvel license
- Pay Danica Patrick to feature in SEGA Allstars Racing

It'd stand to reason if SEGA Japan was being cheap with their own marketing (Which they're not) or SEGA West don't prominently market their own products (Which they do) but since neither are the case, I just feel it's apathy rather than limitation on the part of SEGA West. Stuff like the Puyo Quest reskin should really drive home that point I feel.

[Nirmugen]

I've always assumed that Sega West is not allocated (by SOJ) sufficient funds for effective marketing. I think they're doing what they can with what they have, but it seems to be next to nothing.

It's something like that to be honest.

Remember the Marvel deal(2008-2011)? It was Marvel that gave money to SEGA/SOA for making tie-ins games from their movies. From 2001 to that point SOA weren't making any money at all besides Sonic (Visual Concepts games, although they sold well for that time, they weren't big hits in all regards).

It's the same way 20th Century Fox gave the Alien VG Licensing to SEGA but with the condition of making a new release every year.

SOA took that money, cut a part and later gave the smallest one to devs to make a game in 9 months or less than a year. Every single instance. Perhaps A:CM was a sort of big focus but you know what happened.

In comparison,SOE took that, did a big investment in R & D and funded an AAA studio to make a big release (A:Isolation), and that was only possible because they had secure money with TW and FM to the whole enterprise!
And you will see why they invested so much in localizing a lot of JP exclusives and introduced so many things in that time (Based Mike Hayes).

Kinda like what THQ did before their bankruptcy minus a good secure source of money.

[George]

I think my issue really is that SEGA doesn't do a effective, free marketing on their social media. Like, they can't for the life of them hype their users up for their own games. Mostly because they themselves consider those games a failure I assume. See their posts when a game does well "OH THIS GAME SMASHED EXPECTATIONS!"

Yeah... so a Japanese game came over that fans asked for and it sold more than 100k? Talk about great expectations.

[Nirmugen]

There is a problem with a community managment right now for sure but don't think every single japanese game from SEGA localized will sold well even with good marketing. Look what happen with NiGHTS and JSR.

[SuperSonicEX]

You know we didn't even get the free Yakuza skins Japan got. It's stuff like that that just indicate to me they don't give much thought if the product succeeds or fails.

Yea, that always ticked me off, seem like it would have been a nice thing for Western fans to have as well.  Especially odd since Dead Souls was scheduled to be released shortly after Binary Domain in the West.  I see no reason why it couldn't make it over.

I don't know if this is entirely true looking at the European marketing for stuff like Alien vs Predator, the E3 coverage they got for Alien Colonial Marines or how much booth space the likes of Alien: Isolation and Total War are getting. Don't forget they had money to;

- Splash the case on an expensive voice cast for Yakuza 1
- Acquire the Marvel license
- Pay Danica Patrick to feature in SEGA Allstars Racing

It'd stand to reason if SEGA Japan was being cheap with their own marketing (Which they're not) or SEGA West don't prominently market their own products (Which they do) but since neither are the case, I just feel it's apathy rather than limitation on the part of SEGA West. Stuff like the Puyo Quest reskin should really drive home that point I feel.

I imagine getting RDJ, Don Cheadle, and Samuel L. Jackson along with other MCU actors to (partly) voice the licensed games wasn't that cheap either.  They also managed to get the Golden Compass license.


Wonder how it cost to get Daisy Fuentes to push that Pilates game too (probably not that much but still).

[SuperSonicEX]

There is a problem with a community managment right now for sure but don't think every single japanese game from SEGA localized will sold well even with good marketing. Look what happen with NiGHTS and JSR.

Okay I've wanted to have this cleared up, which of the three digital games didn't meet expectation? I've been hearing it's either NiGHTS and JSR or NiGHTS and SA2.  Also, there was good marketing with these games? I barely remember anything with them outside maybe a trailer and ONE blog post.  Hell I barely remember the Model 3 games getting any fanfare.

[George]

Well, basically right SuperSonicEX. They did sponsor the first few DC titles at E3 with giveaways and stuff, but those where the bad ports and I think they did well so SEGA put more effort then most people felt sour... then they cut funding for promotions it seemed.

The issue here is that SEGA West should have planned content leading up to the digital releases instead of "ITS OUT HERE IS A LAUNCH TRAILER THANKS GO BUY IT"

You know, like getting the developers and holding a social media question round table where they get to ask them their questions that are filtered through PR (cuz SEGA, i mean we know everyone wants a 3). Having live events where they answer questions, play the game would have attracted a new crowd. But no. It feels like in the old days SEGA really tried to reach their consumers and show them what else they had, now it seems that SEGA shuns their uniqueness.

For example in the late 80's SEGA launched their own magazine for free, to SEGA console owners. They spent cash on printing and distributing these magazines with articles of the company, people that work there, up coming games, walk thrus. What was the main purpose? Showing you games that you will not hear about otherwise due to not having a TV marketing budget. Think about it, not every game had a marketing budget so they spent money to reach out to fans about new games. Works.

SEGA now has a social media account with over a million users, much more than SEGA Visions magazine had. Yet they can't even do content to hype their own users? Tembo the Badass Elephant isn't worth a few tweets? We are talking about the bare minimum effort here. I felt like doing an article on how SEGA killed the title, basically.