"Don't push your luck little man...we'll drop the hammer on you soon enough."
Anyway, they just had this Toyko Game Show (taking place at the Makuhari Messe in Chiba, Japan) and there's not a lot that I really cared about. First, Sega & Electronic Arts had to share the same booth--I'm not s***ting you (read third paragraph). And as I'm looking at the official Sega blog posts (one and two)--OH GOD it's everyone's favorite delinquent at it again!! Pimping out Yakuza and Binary Domain. Like he has Tourette's...."YAKUZAYAKUZABINARYDOMAINBINARYDOMAINYAKUZAYAKUZA" etc.
Way to go, Nagoshi-san! You got all these girls in the same room, but you can't even make a new Daytona game. What a shallow man.
Hey babe, where's the Daytona games???
SegaShiro also took a few more pics...here's the EA part of the Sega booth. So Sega's basically promoting Battlefield 3. That's great.
And then the pictures gets weird..
For some reason, the Sega official blog can't stop taking pictures of food. Well, you know what I had for dinner? Dinosaur-shaped chicken nuggets. I'm not making this up.
Look, it's the Sega Headquarters!!! If Solid Snake and Sam Fisher could break in, we can too!!! We're gamers, just put your minds to it. Gamers always think they're macho like that--that's why we play intense action/adventure/RPG games...so we can be "cool."
Oh, and as usual, Sega is upstaged again by Capcom. Crapcom had the best booth. And then here's Keiji Inafune crying that he had wished he saved Megaman Legends 3 from cancellation. Capcom flat out refused to let Inafune help them. Even though Inafune "quit" (the trendy thing for ailing game designers to do, see Yuji Naka & Yu Suzuki), he was still able to do so under contract (I think). EDIT: FYI, Inafune was THAT GUY who created Mega Man, just like Miyamoto created Mario & Zelda and Yuji Naka created Sonic. So they killed Inafune's dreams...of a great Megaman game! The bastards!!!
NOOOO!!! THEY KILLED MY BABY!!!!!
So game developers, hang on closely to your old IP's, like Nagoshi with Daytona USA--aw hell, he doesn't even care anymore.
BTW, Nintendo doesn't even go to the Tokyo Game Show. Instead, they sit back with their dopey 3DS joystick add-on and act all big and bad as usual.
Don't want to go to TGS? What's the matter, Nintendo? CHICKEN???
NINTENDO!!! I saw what you did there... Because the 3DS sucks so bad and the Vita's gonna kick your ass, YOU ARE TERMINATED!!!
I know it doesn't make sense for Nintendo to be "fired" but this is just another lame attempt at a joke.
No one wins at TGS. Just wait for the Daytona port to surface, ha.
You know, you really can't blame Nagoshi for not making a new Daytona game.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure he'd make one if the market for driving/racing games wasn't so retarded. Look what's become of Need for Speed, back in the day it was just about driving an expensive car through various courses for fun, then it transformed into The Fast and The Furious: The Game to finally evolve into the most ridiculous crap ever: a game where you get to see your character run around rooftops and beat cops up in a violent manner. I shit you not. They even included quick time events.
Ridge Racer is also a nice example. From just an arcade racing game with horrible driving mechanics, it transformed into Burnout (see Ridge Racer Unbounded (is that even a word?)).
Really, as it is now, a game must be realistic (in terms of driving physics and graphics) and/or violent. Otherwise it just not "edgy" enough and won't sell.
Hey, it's Eric. You're right...all this gimmicky crap in racing games is pissing me off. I was one of the first to call out Need for Speed and Ridge Racer for their BS. I want a racing game, not some action flick with limited interactivity.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, it's become my schtick to bash Nagoshi (well the dude's hitting up the tanning booths & bars and doing photo-ops with Yakuza girls, that's just weird). I know he's not going to come out swinging with a brand new Daytona/Scud Race/etc. (even if he were more "level-headed") because it wouldn't market well. But still, I wish he paid a little more respect to his old IP's.
What I find interesting is Sega's Marketing!
ReplyDeleteThey released Sega Rally Revo almost silently, Sega Rally Online Arcade almost ghostly - now a Daytona USA is coming up but with no marketing. They just slip it through and hope for the best. It's like a national secret.
They have the potential to draw a huge crowd here as Daytona USA is to gamers what Star Wars is to SciFi buffs - it's basically the holy grail of gaming.
If they want it to succeed in this day and age they should have made a campaign - 4 months ago....hype it up..
If its successful then they might release the other racers Scud/Daytona 2.
I hope the new Daytona USA game has the same arcade handling and more tracks.
- #1 - Competitiveness
I think Sega lost its way with Shenmue - they burnt themselves with a huge budget and along with that sent Yu Suzuki to the naughty corner. From then on they stuck to mainstream games - follow the sheep. 3D everything - Sonic Sonic and more Sonic.
And some more Sonic. Hey lets add Sonic to a Mario game....Lets hold Nintendo's hand and sing Kumbaya. We are all friends now.
This is the first problem with Sega - lack of competitiveness. They mix their IPs with Nintendo games, like they are submitting to their masters - Nintendo. They will do anything out of desperation. Money, money money...
- #2 - Demotion
The same thing with Nagoshi - he is working on big IP titles - Binary Domain and Yakuza etc...
The same thing will happen to him when the sales drop. He will be demoted (Japanese culture) and he doesn't want to work on
smaller downloadable titles as he will see that as a demotion.
The problem with this threat is that the producers will take the safe and easy way - copy and mirror what's out there.
- #3 - Talent
It's no secret that Sega success was fuelled by Yu Suzuki - the man is a rare mix of tech and artistry. You have a person who wrote assembly code and was also an artist.
Sega need to get Yu Suzuki, Tetsuya Mizuguchi, Makoto Osaki and Nagoshi back into the mix. The reason it worked was because of their competitiveness and their willingness not to follow everyone else.
Sega needs a new AM8 division. They would be responsible for their back catalog and also for new high risk IPs.
- #4 - East meets West
Sega is an American company influenced/infused by Japanese culture. Sega is having a hard time trying to find a balance.
People don't want Sega to create the next Call Of Duty....but Vanquish was spot on.
There is still hope. Sega does get it right. But people just expect more from them.
- #5 - The good
I think Sega is trying to please too many people. But when it does get it right its awesome.
Sega Rally Revo
Out Run SP
House of the Dead
Vanquish
Virtua Fighter 4/5
Bayonetta
Binary Domain
Yakuza
Renegade Ops
etc
When you mention those games the picture looks nice. I think Sega gets a bad rap because they release sooo many titles.
Especially Sonic titles. Sega should focus more on substance than quantity.
Sega needs to have an arcade division. Their focus is to bring their arcade games old/new to multiple consoles.
Simple as that - and finally releasing Daytona USA is a good sign.
Finally - looking at the list above Sega looks pretty good.
Add Daytona USA and hopefully a Dreamcast Collection 2 and Sega is catering a huge audience.
In the end though - the main problem is this. Sega diehards want Sega to be in the console mix. Dreamcast 2.
Raiden
Woah, that's a big post. Sure you don't want to save it for the message boards? I don't know how many people browse the comments here.
ReplyDeleteI wish Sega promoted their arcade titles more often. Yes, that is totally surprising. I believe more people out there would identify OutRun/Sega Rally/Daytona but they'll never find out about it. OOA is going to be removed from XBL at the end of this year which really sucks too.
Shenmue was certainly Sega's last straw. In a world where cinematics & story reign king, that was their ace in the hole. But since then, they put a stop to the series and Yu Suzuki is out of the picture.
Also, arcade games, once one of Sega's big strengths (OutRun, Daytona, Virtua whatever, etc.) have been made insignificant so that's a huge loss there.
Sega is still making good games but they're either cliche (Yakuza with the zombies, Binary Domain with the robots) or shaky (Sega still struggles to make the "perfect" Sonic game). They are doing better than they were 5 years ago but that's not saying much. Their games are good though so give Sega credit there.
I agree with you that the Sega crew was really competitive and brought a certain Eastern quirkiness to their games which was something that really made their racing games stand out.
I still have some faith in Sega to do things right. We need new people to step it up at Sega since this current batch may be losing interest. It really sucks but that's what I (and many others) are trying to do...