Sega announces 7.1 billion yen losses

Pretty sure FS will be safe but this statement from a kotaku article is interesting.

"Sega Sammy Holdings, the parent company based in Japan, released a statement yesterday to investors that identified a "reduction of number of titles," that are targeted to the U.S. and Europe, listing four that seem to be protected. Work on anything else is likely terminated."

http://kotaku.com/5898026/sega-of-americ...nd-three-others

 

FS is basically complete already and will get released, it'll make them money. I can't believe the cost of porting it will be more than they make in DLC sales, not to mention the extra loot they'll get from the DLC Items people will buy. VF5FS should sell pretty well on PS3 in Japan and I think the fighting game community in general is open to at least trying the game. SF4 kinda relaunched interest into fighting games, hence new DOA, new VF for us, etc. The economy around the globe is decaying, many companies are posting decreased sales, tons of big business have went under around here. They are gonna have to shift their focus and figure out what sells, then come up with cost effective way to produce for that market.

 

This news makes me sad. I'll keep supporting SEGA how I have been but I wonder how discouraging it'd be for a SEGA to release a new IP.

 

Most of their cutbacks are going to be in North America and Europe right? Makes me wonder if their games are maybe just a bit too "Japanese" to make it big in the west.

Maybe they will shift all their new ideas to digital games where there is less risk and only make hard copies of the series they said were profitable.

Either way, FS is definitely safe. It would make no sense to cancel the game now that it is so close to release. At the latest South Town tournament Frank from Sega said they were very close to sending the game to Sony and MS for approval, which means its almost done.

 

It depends on what you define as 'big'. Sega indeed makes japanese games, but the market for these is huge. I mean, people love Japanese cultural products.

Sega needs to get people talking about their games: I suggest they make shidosha their community manager. (get master Po to write a novel on VF as well)

 

Japanese games don't sell nearly as well as they used to in the US actually.

 

I would say a game is "BIG" if it makes money and becomes popular. These days that usually means a game needs a few million copies sold.

Capcom sold 2.6 million copies of Lost Planet 2 and they still lost money, that is how inflated the development costs have become. There was a time when that would have been a huge number of sales for any game.

There has been a lot of backlash against Japanese games this gen, mostly because western devs have really stepped up their game and delivered very high quality games aimed at a Western audience. Japanese games require a bit of knowledge or suspension of belief to enjoy, western games are like summer blockbusters, you just sit back, turn off your brain and enjoy the ride.

This isn't just a sega thing though, every Japanese dev is suffering. The western audiences just don't care about their games anymore. I still prefer Japanese games because they usually bring something different to the table, but there is no denying the difference in quality in something like Yakuza and Uncharted.

 

This isn't just a sega thing though, every Japanese dev is suffering. The western audiences just don't care about their games anymore. I still prefer Japanese games because they usually bring something different to the table, but there is no denying the difference in quality in something like Yakuza and Uncharted.

I dunno, I think you are generalising a little too much, and the fact that Nintendo games sell well seems to contraddict your statement.

 

Nintendo is the big exception in many regards, though.

 

Nintendo has enough brand momentum and makes games that already appeal to a broad segment of gamers. The Wii is immensely successful because it is uniquely accessible. Everyone who gamed in the US in the 80s and 90s played their games extensively.

Sega used to have that kind of pull, but from the 32x onwards they continuously shot themselves in the foot when it came to courting mainstream gamers. The Dreamcast almost had that appeal at launch but they couldn't sustain it due to competition from Sony.

During the PS2 era JP devs had more pull, but it was a select few franchises that have since stagnated. They ultimately lost out to devs who used to make games on PC in the 90s and early 2000s in terms of market share and popularity.

I thought people knew this already.

 

Feel free to find me a Japanese company that is doing well in the game business. Nintendo is the one exception to the rule.

Capcom is pretty decent but they have had a huge drop from their glory days. Its only a matter of time before their dlc practices catch up to them and they piss off all their customers. They actually posted losses not too long ago.

Square bought Eidos as a way of getting western games, but their Japanese games have been getting hated on by gamers lately. FF13 also has low sales compared to their past games.

Konami hasn't had a big game in quite a while now, probably not since mgs4.

At the same time you have Ea, Activision, Rockstar and Bethesda who have been getting huge sales and have the most popular games this gen. Are they the best games? That is questionable, but they certainly have huge sales.

Being western companies they are more in tune with what western audiences want and since they have games of quality equal to the japanese companies the masses go for what they like.

Think back to some of the games that are considered good in past generations. Most are japanese, but a lot of them are pretty bad if you think about it. We just didn't have much choice since the western developers were all on pc and all we had on consoles was japanese devs.

 

Feel free to find me a Japanese company that is doing well in the game business. Nintendo is the one exception to the rule.

You answered yoursef already, but let me argue this a little.

It is true that Nintendo is somehow special. The reason why this is so, IMO, is that Nintendo knows that they didn't have the expertise of the resources to go from the Gamecube generation directly into the HD one. Many Japanese developers struggled with this transtion...Sega being one that pulled it off better than others (IMO of course, but I still think VF5 is one of the best looking games this gen).

Being western companies they are more in tune with what western audiences want and since they have games of quality equal to the japanese companies the masses go for what they like.

Again, I find this questionable. I mean, take the DS or the PSP...huge markets, even outside Japan...what have the western developers done to capitalise on it? Nothing. Ea, Activision, Rockstar and Bethesda havent capitalised on two of the most successfull portables systems ever...if that is not shortsighted, I dont know what is. You could also argue that they are doing badly in Japan, where FPS's are not so popular.

TBF, if the 'Japanese' are struggling with the HD generation, the 'Westeners' are struggling to come up with moderately budgeted games that mainly rely on gameplay. The way I see it, the companies you mention(EA, Activision, Rockstar and Bethesda) rely completely on 1-2 big budged titles...epic games, cutting edge graphics...but same old clunky combat.I dont know if this is what Japanese developers also should do...I agree with you that choice is good.

 

http://www.dailytech.com/Japanese+Game+Development+Continues+Decline/article14050.htm

http://www.digitaltrends.com/gaming/capc...ehind-the-west/

http://www.industrygamers.com/news/japan-game-market-down-8-in-2011/

Fact is, western titles make up most of the sales on home consoles. Only the DS is popular in the US, and that's due to Nintendo's software and licensed tie-ins. The PSP was never popular, and the Vita won't be either. The 3DS will be competing with iOS and Android, and it may not have much staying power because those OSes have an edge over over the 3DS in ubiquity and hardware power already.

If you want to talk about the games creatively, that's a different discussion.

Indie games on PC, XBLA, and PSN are plenty good. Same with several iOS and Android games.

 

EDIT: I have thought about it, let me state my position again, see if can express myself more clearly.

1. I believe there is huge demand for Japanese cultural products outside Japan, Nintendo being one example of a company doing it best.

2. I am aware that the market for Western games is also huge, but I question if this means that people are tired of Japanese games. I dont think so, given the popularity of PSP (70 millions sold worldwide) and DS. I think the potential for Japanese and Western games to sell equally well exist, its just that:

3. Western game makers are not responding to customers demands: Why not make a small yet clever game for less powerful systems? (IMO) Because they dont know/want. One example? Resident Evil Revelations on the 3DS. How come only Capcom can do that?

4. Going back to Sega: IMO Sega has to stop throwing money to third pary western developers in the hope that they come up for something palatable for the west, and just stick with what they do best: Japanese-type games (PDS please Sega).

 

To be fair, Sega's Japanese developed games NEVER did that well either. If they want to make money they need to concentrate on their IP's that bring back the big sales, concentrating on games that have a small cult following isn't going to get them anywhere.

I guess they could always expand their Pachinko business.

 

Finally someone speaks the truth. I honestly think Sega fanboys who cling to the past (or a rose colored version of the past that may have never existed) are some of Sega's worst enemies. Bring back Guardian Heroes! Bring back Shenmue! Bring back whatever crap Yu Suzuki made 20 years ago! No you know what? The mainstream doesn't care! Also the Japanese buyers ie. 15-30 Japanese male demographic who buy video games don't care either. They moved past Sega even before the Western fanboys did. Many of those Sega classics people talk about never really sold that well even in Japan, sometimes they did specially poorly in Japan.

Also, is there a market for things that are distinctly Japanese? Yes. Is it huge? No, it's not THAT huge even in Japan. It riles up some people when I mention the fact that Disney movies do better in Japan than 99% of anime. If the Japanese cultural market was that huge we would not have had bankruptcies after bankruptcies of Western anime and manga publishers in the past ten years.

 

If the Japanese cultural market was that huge we would not have had bankruptcies after bankruptcies of Western anime and manga publishers in the past ten years.

Well...there's also the issue that people translate and consume manga/animes online, eating into pubblisher profits.

Also, is there a market for things that are distinctly Japanese? Yes. Is it huge? No, it's not THAT huge even in Japan. It riles up some people when I mention the fact that Disney movies do better in Japan than 99% of anime.

Well there is also the utter disaster that is MS Japan. Some things are well received (disney and starbucks) others aren't (Xbox and Ebay).

 

http://neojaponisme.com/category/features/the-great-shift-in-japanese-pop-culture/

This sheds a lot of light on the issues that cause this decrease in sales and interest domestically. It's lengthy (there are four parts that precede the one in the link, all worth reading IMO), but very interesting nonetheless.

I don't see the demand for JP media outside Japan sustaining itself for long, because of how narrow the appeal for most of this stuff is now. It's narrow by design, as the article describes.

This isn't true AT ALL. Look at the platforms I mentioned.

 

Sega has some of greatest IPs, if not the greatest amount of good recognizable IP. It is short sighted that people think that that their games cater to only to a very small group. Often times, their games fall short for the dumbest reason. For example, when Virtual On came out, the game was like a fucking puzzle to majority of people who reviewed it. There is a huge misconception even to this day, that the game is unplayable on a gamepad, I can tell you it's not. If SEGA put in more efforts to provided an interactive tutorial, it would help immensely and the series may still continue to this day. Seen way too much video review of people playing Virtual On and can't even do basic shit. It's dumb that SEGA expect people to figure out the game, as hard as it already is, and/or buy some guide which is only available in the Japanese language. Of course, we already know how terrible SEGA's marketing is. Any of SEGA's IP can still be relevant today, but their final product are always missing that something extra for it to be notice. The people running SEGA are old Japanese businessmen, out of touch with today and the what western players do and not like.