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The Tangent: Buckling Down

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It’s been an ugly few days for Sega fans as the details leak in, with who knows what potential bad news to follow still. Well-known faces at Sega’s American division were cut loose with virtually no notice, and I believe I speak for everyone here at TSSZ when I say we wish them the absolute best of luck finding new placement soon. The damage has been done, and out of respect for those individuals, the rest of this editorial will no longer discuss that.

Instead, the focus has to be on Sega’s future direction. Specifically, their statement of a renewed focus on the franchises currently most valuable to them, namely Sonic, Football Manager, Total War, and Aliens. From the start, we can put any question of Sonic’s longevity aside; with the way the hedgehog makes money for them, even if Sega was down to four staffers working out of an apartment, they’d still be desperately hacking together the next adventures of the Blue Blur. Although if things were that bad, the franchise might end up going the Valis route. And that could get scary.

Right now, Sega’s plan sounds like a page from the EA playbook of late: stick with what works, iterate, don’t waste money on new ideas. Even if they’re already in progress, to Sega a project like Hell Yeah! by Arkedo Studios may have become too much of a gamble on an untested franchise. It’s not got a hedgehog, and it’s not simulating soccer, and that makes it a risk. Super Monkey Ball is a tested franchise, but not necessarily as popular as it used to be, and the Vita is the source of a lot of uncertainty. Can they afford to develop, produce, and market a title for a portable that could flop? Or would it be better to at least delay the title until they were more certain about the platform? (A tactic publishers have been very fond of this generation, on both portables.) And to say the unsayable, what about the heavily-rumored sequel to a cult classic? A game doesn’t have to be announced to be cancelled; in fact, it’s much easier that way. Releasing big boxed games is an expensive practice, so why not play off of their wealth of IPs and history, and focus their development toward smaller, digital distribution titles?

The trouble is, there’s a freshly-dug grave to remind us that going “primarily digital” is not a fool proof plan. The fool in this case being Konami. In January 2011, Hudson Soft was acquired by Konami, Konami having already been the largest shareholder for a decade prior, and at the start of April, their US branch was closed, many of their games canceled, and the remaining staff focused on social network gaming, what should have been a potentially profitable pursuit. But before they were even given a year, Hudson’s board members (including Konami’s Kazuhiko Uehara, you’ll remember) voted to be absorbed into Konami. A company that, as it currently stands, appears to have no respect for Hudson’s rich history and franchises past crapping out the occasional Bomberman game. One might even question why they purchased Hudson in the first place, if they show so little interest in the IPs, and many of the legendary names resigned at news of the buyout. To kill it? Or did they really think nine months was enough time to drastically shift the developer’s direction from console projects already deep in development, to the very different world of casual social gaming? While some of the original staff still work together at what has become a spiritual successor of sorts, Nd Cube, Hudson is a testament to the fact that just because a company seems like a legend to you, that it’s been around too long to die, it can die. Sega was in that dangerous place in 1999, when they were struggling with the Dreamcast and a massive debt, and in a world without many people like Isao Okawa, it’s not a place they can risk again.

However, hunkering down and only going with the most tried-and-true franchises of today doesn’t set much of a foundation for the future, and any one of those licenses falling out of favor (or being removed, in the case of Aliens) could slice a deep wound into the already-ailing Sega. They’re gambling on a razor-focused output, and while it could pay off for them and bring them back to safety, it strikes me as too much of a short-sighted approach, that could lead to a very slow, very desperate death.

And I absolutely, unquestionably want to be wrong about that.

This post was originally written by the author for TSSZ News.

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45 Comments

  1. No, it can’t be true… NOT SEGA!!! NOT MY SEGA!!! :'(

  3. Soooooo… no April Fools Joke?

    Seriously though, I know its something none of us want to believe, but we all know its true: its only going downhill from here for a long while.

    And I mean a LONG one.

  4. Looks like sega needs support. Gonna have to put even more money on buying ther products and games. Maybe someone can assemble some rally for sega donations to help them out this jam.

  5. “The occasional bomberman game”

    …actually, the canceled those too, Bomberman 3DS was canceled.

  7. “God help Sega.”
    God not help sega.
    The anxiety for launch of sonic games is the result of this.
    The terrible spinoffs is the result of this.

    Or Sega make less than 2 sonic per year (the good is one sonic in 2 years) and pay attentions for quality and make a sonic for 2D public or 3D public (it’s impossible make one sonic for two publics).
    Or sega continue in bad situation.

  8. ^ Don’t mean to be rude, really, but I think God would rather help those desperately in need, than to help just another company that some people love.

    I will include those job losses at SEGA in my night prayer. Hoping for them to find work very fast.

  9. Off topic, but last night, I had a dream I was playing Episode 2: White Park Act 1, and the controls felt soooo fluid and nice! 😀 Of course, that’s just my opinion though.

  11. @Metal

    Don’t mean to be rude, really, but God doesn’t exist.

    What does exist is sub par sales figures for their games, it seems SEGA needs to “come on, step it up”.

    @Lucas

    SEGA’s success does not hinge on the quality of Sonic games. At all.

  12. @Metal
    Yeah, that all powerful, almighty God must really be stretched thin helping all those needy people. Certainly he doesn’t have the spare resources to help EVERYONE. That would just be silly. Right? Right??

  13. @Metal – it was probably a nightmare.

    At least we will get Ep2 and hopefully many more Sonic games in the future. SEGA should not have to rely on it’s mascot to be successful. Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo don’t have to rely a mascot to be a success.

  15. I’m surprised I have to say, but this is not the place for a God argument, whether you believe in a particular religion’s interpretation of God (or Gods, Goddesses, etc) or don’t.

  16. @Solus and sth88

    Agreed. This issue at hand is Sega’s health as a company, not religion, so let’s keep it that way. Further inflammatory or debate-worthy comments in this regard will be removed.

  18. Oh look, some jackass has to attack someone else’s spiritual beliefs. Gotta love that internet, right?

    Idiots.

  20. ATTENTION EVERYONE! LUCAS HAS FINALLY GAVE UP AND QUIT THE SONIC COMMUNITY AS HE THINKS THE FUTURE OF SONIC WILL BE RUINED BY THE COMMUNITY!!

    April fools =P

    On a serious note, it’s quite sad that SEGA is suffering so much for these past few days and I hope things get better for them and the many workers that were fired. I just hope Sonic isn’t affected by this at all, maybe a canceled game (Dimensions?) but nothing more than that.

    I’d be perfectly fine with some of the VAs to be fired however >.>

  21. @MetaRyan

    Boy I wish. But unfortunately Sega needs to make the right choices and we all know how that usually goes at least I hope so.

    Oddly enough though Sega can’t seem to make smart choices or do things right. It’s actually amazing that they haven’t gone to their old IPs yet, it could have been so simple. They could have brought Ristar back in 3D, they could have brought Alex Kidd back in 3D but they didn’t. I at least HOPE that they were considering on making a new Jet set Radio and if not SHAME ON THEM. But hopefully they’ll be okay and we can look forward to them being bigger than they are now in the distant future.

  22. “SEGA’s success does not hinge on the quality of Sonic games. At all.”
    What?
    But sonic is the nucleous of sega. And sonic need a special attention.
    But my problem is only with sonic at moment btw. Phantasy Star for example, have a nice job in your games =)

  23. The thing that worries me the most about this is that it will cut off innovative creativity. Sega was a company that was based on the idea of going nuts with cool ideas and seeing what sticks.

    PSO2 better come out in English. 🙁

  26. @QuietGuy – Oh, I see lol.
    Louis, please do not delete this comment as I believe everyone should see this.

    Guys, whether an April Fools joke or not, please do not insult or diss in what I believe in. It is not something to make light of. If you guys do not believe in God, then okay, I understand, and I WILL NEVER judge you….and I think you guys should do the same for me, and other religious people. We all think and believe in different things.

    I was going to post one nasty comment, but seeing Louis’s comment has caused me to cool down. 🙂

    So, no more fighting. All we can do is hope for the best for SEGA 🙂

    And if no one deleted this comment, thank you, I appreciate it (not the Sonic way) xD

  27. Moving back to the topic at hand, I’m going to start buying some of their games that have already been released from the Gamecube and Wii to help them out (because I only own Nintendo consoles/handhelds. :p). So if you guys want help me out on giving me ideas of those games that are in those consoles, let me know.

    @Lucas Not every good Sonic game can make a difference in saving a company. Other franchises are going to have to support it.

  28. Okay, now I’m only buying SEGA games. Or at least, predominantly SEGA games.

  30. “Why does the link not work? Were you trolling or something?”

    hahaha xD
    April 1 lol

  31. @Lucas it doesn’t matter what they pump out, people will buy it. Quality determines nothing. Just take Mario for example, and I think we all know that it especially applies to Sonic as well.

  32. @sonicriders02
    Nintendo have care with mario. You can see one mario per year or two years. You have a pure and solid gameplay without many bugs.
    If the game is bad. you can see low rating score of reviews and low sales.
    For example… Mario Party 9 – http://www.metacritic.com/game/wii/mario-party-9
    The nintendo lost your mind and… launch various games for end of 2011/ start of 2012. without the same quality of mario galaxy.
    This is the first problem of sonic.
    But we have ONE sonic in 2011 – Sonic Generations. and your quality is very.. very good.
    The Sonic CD is only port.

  34. @Lucas But Mario Party 9 is a party game that is advertise to casual players. It’s no where ever intended to be a game for hardcore Mario fans.

  35. This is an April Fool’s joke, right?

    O.O or was this the story Tristan was talking about as a ”possible road-map to the future of the Sonic franchise”?

    Or it’s none of these?

  36. Y’know what I’d hate to see? Sega absorbed by some other company, like Sqeenix or EA. There’s not too many people out there who I’d trust with Sega’s franchises. If they started to go under, I’d rather them take their franchises with them to the grave than let someone else have them. Though there is one obvious exception.

  37. @Skai I agree. especially if it was someone like EA, whom I desise nowadays. I’m guessing you were talking about Nintendo? Maybe that would work, but it’s difficult to imagine.

  38. @Skai

    Nintendo doesn’t absorb other companies but I think a halfway split between Konami and Nintendo could work.

  39. I, for one, dream that SEGA goes down in a ball of flames and crashes into a mountain. If another company, one that’s more competent and respectful to classic franchises happens to buy the Sonic brand, that would be the best possible scenario.

    I hope everyone that’s losing their jobs find new career opportunities as soon as possible. But SEGA as a company has already abused Sonic too much.

  40. @Lucas I explained that in another comment in one of the articles.

    Nintendo is different. They can make a million games, and it doesn’t matter. Because Nintendo’s CORE teams, such as Miyamoto, and Sakurai, are totally seperate from the Mario Party teams and whatnot. They don’t directly influence the quality of the good, more official products. Unlike SEGA, Nintendo’s got money to blow on experimental titles.

    SEGA HAS to stop.
    They can’t make that many spin-offs. It’ll affect them eventually.

  42. @Bob the Goldfish & Heat Pheonix
    Nintendo did buy up Rare and Retro when they were starting up (also half of Silicon Knights), and they did (seemingly) buy up the Fatal Frame franchise, so they do do some buying up. I totally get your point though. I did mean Sonic specifically though, as I don’t really have faith in them to properly support House of the Dead or Phantasy Star though (not enough experience in those areas).

  43. Sega has to work on a revival… Or a sequel every fan would want. SA3 anyone? Dreamcast 2?

  44. @Andre
    “If another company, one that’s more competent and respectful to classic franchises happens to buy the Sonic brand, that would be the best possible scenario.”

    That company already exists and its name is Nintendo.

  45. @JimJam They’re not going to make another console because both the Saturn and Dreamcast didn’t sell at all.

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