State of Sega

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Poll: Will SEGA go out of business?

Yes
3
5%
Possibly and highly likely but still a chance they won't
3
5%
Possibly however unlikely
9
15%
They will live on through another company due to being bought out
10
17%
NO FREAKING WAY!
35
58%
Total votes: 60

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Nico0020
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Re: State of Sega

Post#11 » Fri Oct 23, 2020 11:38 pm

SEGA is in the best shape they have been in since the Dreamcast failed. They still put out a rough game here and there, but their core franchises are strong. TBH, they are doing incredibly well as a 3rd party, especially considering where they came from post Genesis. Not to mention they are not just SEGA anymore and have some deeper pockets than most 3rd party companies in Japan from their arcade/pachinko business.

Compare SEGA to say Konami when it comes to making home console games, and its like two different worlds.

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Ian Micheal
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Re: State of Sega

Post#12 » Sat Oct 24, 2020 6:12 am

Nico0020 wrote:SEGA is in the best shape they have been in since the Dreamcast failed. They still put out a rough game here and there, but their core franchises are strong. TBH, they are doing incredibly well as a 3rd party, especially considering where they came from post Genesis. Not to mention they are not just SEGA anymore and have some deeper pockets than most 3rd party companies in Japan from their arcade/pachinko business.

Compare SEGA to say Konami when it comes to making home console games, and its like two different worlds.


Your really said this best i agree 100% about them being in the best shape since the dreamcast..

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Tarnish
Prince of Persia
Posts: 342

Re: State of Sega

Post#13 » Sat Oct 24, 2020 5:42 pm

Ian Micheal wrote:Your really said this best i agree 100% about them being in the best shape since the dreamcast..


Financially maybe (although in some of their games, they really seem to be cutting corners), too bad their software output just doesn't do anything for me these days.

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dark
Shark Patrol
Posts: 2077

Re: State of Sega

Post#14 » Wed Feb 03, 2021 10:39 pm

I think they are becoming increasingly irrelevant. Many of the people who grew up with their classic franchises and consoles in the 90s are no longer following/buying video games. On top of that, I think basically all of the people who created iconic sega games in the 90s and early 00s are no longer with the company! The senior leaders like Yu Suzuki, who were instrumental in series like Virtua Fighter, Shenmue, the original sonic games, Jet Set Radio, Nights, etc., are no longer a part of sega. Imagine what would happen to nintendo, or people's perceptions of nintendo, if someone like Shigeru Miyamoto was no longer with the company!

Its a shot in the arm that the sonic movie worked out so well, that at least gets the latest generation of youngsters interested in sonic, a core franchise...

My gut feeling is that sega doesn't operate like its own company anymore. It's part of this Sammy corporate conglomerate where it is just a small subsidiary compared to the Sammy corporate parent. Sammy basically bought sega in the early 00s because it wanted to become a larger player in the arcade biz and also get access to sega's iconic properties, in the meantime, since the merger and the fizzling out of the atomiswave, Sammy basically decided to pull out of the arcade field and has focused exclusively on its pachinko business, which has been a huge money maker for it. I see more sega themed pachinko machines coming out, especially to target the now adult audience that grew up on sega games... I'm sure we'll get more new versions of some sega franchise games, but I think the company is going to be increasingly seen as a minor brand than a big player in the game world.

kali00
noob
Posts: 1

Re: State of Sega

Post#15 » Thu Dec 30, 2021 3:26 am

Roareye wrote:I don't think so. Namely there are several aspects to the company that I think will see it survive in one capacity or another (outside of a buyout from another company).

Being third party, they don't have costs of hardware anymore, so I don't think the threat looms as large as it once did. Still, they're not in the best of positions by anyone's standard in the home console market. Some of their games sell gangbusters still, Yakuza has picked up from being a mediocre seller to a powerhouse brand globally for example. On top of that SEGA has plenty of brands I personally couldn't care less about that still sell, such as Football Manager, Mario & Sonic Olympics etc. None of these are Mario Odyssey or GTA in terms of sales but they also don't demand the same level of budget. Still, from just a home console perspective, it is likely they're failing - mostly due to a lack of solid releases. SoR4 seems to have sold well, as did Sonic Mania, so there's a chance the higher ups will see this and finally cash in on all those currently unused brands they have locked away.

However SEGA is much more than just the home console market. They have a major stake (arguably the biggest of any company) in the Arcade gaming market. Again, yes, this is a somewhat dwindling market due to lack of innovation, but there are still releases here and there such as the recent new Daytona USA and the fact that almost every arcade STILL has Outrun 2 in it (I live gb whatsapp by a load of arcades, several still have the two-seater sit-in red/yellow Ferrari's). An OutRun 3 would no doubt smash their brand back into high stakes in the Arcade field, as would a new Virtua Fighter (in Japan at least for VF). Again, they're sitting on brands that would literally just print them unending wads of cash for some reason - easily rectifiable. They still own a large number of SEGA Arcades and the SEGA Joypolis theme park in Japan too, if they sell those off that is when I will start to worry.

ThirdlySEGA are connected to Sammy, arguably one of the biggest Pachinko machine brands in the East. And Pachinko is big business. Unless gambling is cured worldwide (or in the East), it's unlikely that side of the company will drop. They may drop the SEGA brand, but I think the global and Arcade recognition of the SEGA brand makes that unlikely. Alternatively they may wind down the SEGA side of the company, I do hope that's not what they're doing (would explain a lack of innovative new product or revival of existing brands) but considering they just launched the Game Gear Micro, my bet is on they're feeling out the market.

SEGA's output is nowhere near as in-your-face and frequent as it once was, and that is concerning. But they only replaced their CEO a couple of years ago who promised to change things around - since then we've had Sonic Mania, Streets of Rage 4, Daytona USA and several Yakuza titles. Hopefully that's just the beginning of a new golden age.

Hey,
I think. In the begining of the franchise they were so excited. But by passing days they loss there interest and quite.

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Nemu
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Re: State of Sega

Post#16 » Thu Dec 30, 2021 9:35 pm

dark wrote:Many of the people who grew up with their classic franchises and consoles in the 90s are no longer following/buying video games.


But that doesn't explain why series like Mario and Pokemon are still popular. Perhaps SEGA has failed/is failing to attract new players.
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albert90
shadow
Posts: 7

Re: State of Sega

Post#17 » Tue Jan 18, 2022 12:14 am

I haven't been the biggest Sega enthusiast myself as of late, but I am intrigued by the new open world Sonic game they announced, Frontiers I think it was called. They're clearly borrowing from Nintendo and going the full BotW approach.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRkKZG1z9PY

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Tarnish
Prince of Persia
Posts: 342

Re: State of Sega

Post#18 » Tue Jan 18, 2022 2:39 am

Nemu wrote:
dark wrote:Many of the people who grew up with their classic franchises and consoles in the 90s are no longer following/buying video games.


But that doesn't explain why series like Mario and Pokemon are still popular. Perhaps SEGA has failed/is failing to attract new players.

A big part if you ask me would probably be SEGA putting out not exactly quality games anymore.

As for a "beginning of a new golden age"...wishful thinking. The games that made them a recognised brand are no longer popular to the mass audience. Arcades and arcade style games are all but dead. A lot of their key talent moved on from the company a long time ago. While SEGA was screwing around trying to figure out what to do next, other companies took their place in the limelight. They are no longer setting trends and being revolutionary, they are just merely following them, a lot of the times quite clumsily.

Unless by a "new golden age" you mean SEGA trying to focus a bit more on their old IPs, there's a chance, but that definitely won't make them suddenly the brand everyone and their grandmother cares and talks about again. Not that they need to be, I'd be happy with getting games from them that I actually enjoy again. (I found Sonic Mania and Streets of Rage 4 to be okay throwbacks, but in no way fantastic.)

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Roareye
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Re: State of Sega

Post#19 » Tue Jan 18, 2022 5:33 am

If I had control of Sega, I'd put in place a plan to really see the company get it's brand back out there.

Let's be clear, SEGA cannot compete with Sony or Microsoft in the hardware space due to costs and the fact that both of those companies have a wealth of other industries under their umbrella that Sega just doesn't have the support mechanism to fight against. But Nintendo (and the Switch) have shown that a comparatively small company can still smash it if it makes the smart choices.

If I were Sega I'd build a new home console, but not one designed to destroy the Playstation or Xbox - one designed to take some lucrative sales out of Nintendo's Switch market. Here would be my suggestion;

- Build a new console design (exterior) that has a unique design that harkens back to classic console design of the 90s (Hi-Fi influence, sleek like the front of a car)
- Build a unique identifier chip that the console must detect before allowing games to boot. Essentially this solves the issue of online key registration if the console is offline, and prevents piracy - Apple use this method in their otherwise bog standard (and incredibly cheap to build) mobile phones already.
- Have a dedicated emulation team who work towards backwards compatibility specifically for the new console's hardware (You don't have to worry about compatibility with multiple graphics cards etc, since it's a single console) and develop hardware accurate emulators for their arcade super-scaler, Models 1-3 systems boards, Naomi etc. Considering some arcade hardware (such as Atomiswave) can be "emulated" on current hardware like the Dreamcast (I understand it's because the hardware is the same, but DC emulation is pretty good now) that reduces the difficulty on specific arcade cabinets.
- Set up a purchase store (not Nintendo's £50 a year rental bollocks) to buy these games on the console individually. Because they are individual, you can sell a game for £2 whereas otherwise you'd charge £20 for a bundle that only gets you £1 per game. Obviously prices would vary based on cost to port etc.
- Make sure new Sega titles, such as Streets of Rage 4 and Sonic Mania, release exclusively on the Sega console first. Even if it's only timed exclusivity at first, it might be enough to bring people over.
- If the console itself isn't able to be made portable like the Switch, perhaps make a modern "VMU" that allows you to transfer a single title to it's internal storage and carry it as a portable games unit - however instead of text adventures it would be games like Sonic Mania, Outrun etc. Cheaper to build the console, portability is an option and it's a nice fan callback to the days of the VMU.

Obviously this plan mostly discusses what to do with old franchises and titles, new games of quality would need to be developed for it to work long-term. But let's be honest, the longer Sega sit on a mountain of games that aren't available on modern hardware, the more money they're losing just by pure laziness. Evidence has shown that even if people emulate, most will buy an official version if it's made accessible to them - wrapping that deep history in another console for that market would definitely work.

albert90
shadow
Posts: 7

Re: State of Sega

Post#20 » Wed Jan 19, 2022 4:54 pm

Roareye wrote:If I had control of Sega, I'd put in place a plan to really see the company get it's brand back out there.


Yeah those do sound like the right moves, all things considered. Be really nice to see them rise up and disrupt things with Nintendo sometime honestly. PS and Xbox are indeed an uphill battle.

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