Yakuza
3 and Resonance Of Fate are two games that have had a substantial
amount of money and development time expended upon them. Both games were
released, either around, or the same week as Final Fantasy XIII. Bayonetta was released after the holiday season and
just before Mass Effect 2 during a time where gamers either had their
interest occupied or had no money. To Sega's credit, the aforementioned games are
interesting enough for critical debate and function as a window as to
what the Japanese games market contributes to the community. However,
when Sega isn't churning out
a game featuring a rodent their larger more experimental titles are put
in a no win scenario. Is it the market? Is it the game itself? Does the
blame train begin and end with Sega's
[mis]management structure?
We All Had High Hopes For Madworld Didn't We? A Mediocre
Nugget Sega Barely
Supported Post-Release
So when did big
budget games all go to pot for Sega?
Since making the transition from console and first-party studio
producer, Sega has made a
small fortune as a budget title developer and has seen moderate-to-good
success on the Wii. Re-issuing classic 80's titles as downloadible games has
proven lucrative on the PSN
and Xbox Live services. Its only when a Viking or Madworld comes a long -- which
seem to have a considerably larger budget and larger risk of failure --
when Sega completely balks
on marketing strategies. Anyone whose played Madworld knows that game needed either more time or
a third-person involved in the creative process.
Hmm...Okay I Can See Why The
Hostess Clubs Would Be Cut, But Really? I Think Americans Would Let It
Go
Fans of the Yakuza series are fully aware of the difficulties of
bringing a game so niche over to the States. Anyone with half a
salesman's brain is aware of how Yakuza
3 was going to sell, but further handicapping a game by releasing it on
the same day as one of the biggest games of the year makes me think Sega could really give a damn.
Think about how much time and money goes into producing a game like Yakuza 3 just for the Japanese
fans. Now couple this effort with the localization and advertising
efforts [if any] and scratch your head and wonder why Sega would throw all of that away.
Divide that point by Sega
enforcing cutting more than hostess clubs
and a trivia show for the sake of dumb Americans digesting the game
easier. Really guys? Really?
Asking for games to be of a better
quality prior to release is a pointless and pretty darn pretentious
question. Claiming the reason games published by Sega aren't well received by the gaming public solely
based on the date of release is grasping at straws. Regardless of
quality, Japanese games deserve a fair[er] shot than they've been getting by Sega. It's great that Sega cares about digital
distribution -- though its rare to see a Sega game on Steam -- and the budget gaming market
will continue being the company's automatic source of funds. Because of Sega's focus on the smaller
titles, their talent for supporting larger titles has made me question
the direction this once well respected Japanese game publishing
powerhouse.
Know
This Miscellaneous RPG
Character? No, Well You're Not The Only One.
So
what gives? Is Sega
planning on releasing a new console? Are they throwing out titles with
the hopes of being bought by a much larger gaming entity? Maybe Sega's Quality Assurance
department knows these games aren't that high of a quality and
refuse to treat them as such. Who knows, but it shouldn't be used as an
excuse for treating the games their publishing like crap.
***Compliments From The Brog***