Games: The Sega Sammy balance.

[One Classy Bloke]

It just came to me, you have no clue how business works, do you?

[Cataferal]

IRT Xel - Yeah, from Sammy, all i want is another Guilty Gear game (which, according to Famitsu, is currently in development). I dont like anything else Sammy do or make, mostly because they rarely release anything outside of Japan.
Maybe that situation can be remedied with this merger reformation; although if they intend on bringing out titles like Seven Samurai 20XX, they may as well not bother.

As for ShenMue Online, im keeping an open mind. If they do decide to release it, it'll certainly be a much more unique take on the MMORPG formula, which is typically rooted to a fantasy setting. If we just pretend its not called ShenMue, and ignore that appalling intro FMV, the game itself may have its merits.

[mrwiseman]

IRT OCB: It just came to me, you have no clue how business works, do you?

I probably know more than you do (prove otherwise). As an aggravating factor, your fanboyism for sega makes you think what they do is actually right and smrat.

[One Classy Bloke]

I'll have to prove myself tomoz. I just don't have time today.

As for my fanboyism, i admit. But i would prefer to have loyalty to something i love, rather than be a gaming prostitute.

Remember the marriage vows, "for better, for worse". I love Sega so much, i'm willing to suggest i'm married to it. No matter how much they fuck up, i will always stand by them. I'm sure better times will come again.

[mrwiseman]

i would prefer to have loyalty to something i love, rather than be a gaming prostitute.

I used to be fairly loyal and faithful to sega. Then they betrayed and assraped me and the system, sagas and games I love, and I got royally pissed, which is one of the reasons why I hate sega. The other reason being I can't stand their massive stupidity; /b/tards on scaturday night would be better decision makers.

After that, I wandered around like a poor man begging for RPGs. And had to go through the humiliation of getting a PS2 in order to play my RPGs. Since then, I became a RPGs whore, caring not for companies and showing no loyality or mercy. I still hate sega, I hate microsoft, and I more or less hate sony (even though they're making it hard to hate them lately).

Even so, I'm buying next sony's or billy's depending on what system gets the best RPGs. Remember, I buy consoles to play RPGs, not to say "I have a XXXX console!". (I'll consider Nintendo's too, but I haven't heard much of their next system yet.) And if sega goes back to the console business, I'll wait two years before buying and make a decision based on their stupidity rate, but you have to understand my ass is still sore from what they did with the Dreamcast, and the least I can do is to despise them deeply for being utterly stupid.


I'm sure better times will come again.

And regardless of how much I hate them, I still would like to see this; better times means console I buy. However, by looking at facts like sales and market share one can see it's not that sega's doing bad today - it's their usual. They just did exceptionally good with the Genesis, those were a few abnormally lucky years. Maybe their directors back then were in coma after mistaking 2-propanol for Aquarius and smrat people had taken over it. Or maybe they got so lucky, they couldn't fuck up, no matter how hard they tried.

[One Classy Bloke]

This topic needs less sage, and more Sega. Name calling is childish. In fact, most of 4chan humour is crap outside the context of 4chan.

Also, what the hell is your obsession with the japanese being racist all the time? Sure that Shenmue MMORPG ain't being released here, and that may be a mistake, but thats a business move. It probably would do well over here, and the success of FFXI, WoW, Matrix Online, etc, may convince them to bring it over.

Same with most cRPGs. You may play them, but who else will? GTA:SA sold 1 million copies in 9 days of it's release in the UK. I doubt Grandia II sold that many, including all the versions from all over the world since it's release. With the exception of Square's RPGs, i doubt they are really as popular as you may think.

Now prove me wrong. I want facts, figures, links and naked breasts!

[Xellos]

MMORPG means tying up people to constantly be giving it new contnet and fixing it.

You have the costs for that.

Then you have server maintenance. new content development. Balance issues, and implementing the fixes, and this is just the tip.

Not worth it for a game which isn't popular in the western world.

[mrwiseman]

MMORPG means tying up people to constantly be giving it new contnet and fixing it.

Properly designed and implemented MMORPGs only need a base of moderators, which you can recruit and get for free if you're smart enough. New contents will be developed anyways, remember they're doing it for the Asians.


Then you have server maintenance.

If it's going to be that small compared to other MMORPGs, you can have third party partially managed servers. And don't forget people will be paying for it, and it's not a fixed cost but it scales to customers and therefore incomes.


new content development.

Already going to do for Asia. So they will be an even lower investment - same money spent, but for more customers and incomes.


Balance issues, and implementing the fixes

If they're going to screw it like PSO then yes. But it'll happen in Asia anyways, and what they are doing for Asia, they can do for the rest of the world at no additional cost and additional revenues. (This doesn't even have to be translated.)


and this is just the tip

Actually, you're giving more justification for a global release. You have a set of fixed costs to get the game running in Asia, which are analysis, design, development, testing, fixing, and improving/new features. You can divide these costs among x customers' profits, or you can divide these costs among x+y+z.


Not worth it for a game which isn't popular in the western world.

Worth if you'll sell more than, say, 10000 units, which would easily happen. And you know why the game is not popular to begin with - it's sage's fault again.

[Vegito]

Sega is making Shining Force Neo, an action RPG(which pisses me off). We will not see another good Shining Force game(Strat. RPG) unless by some fluke chance they make an incredible story and good gameplay. Fuck that just get them to release all of Shining Force III. I wish Sega would buy out Camelot(will never happen and besides they left Sega) so that we can get another good Shining Force game.

[Xellos]

Actually, it's ot popular in the US cause it's not a game most US gamers like.

Not only PSO is screwed. Every MMORPG has balance issues (In fact, PSO is the most balanced ORPG I've ever played). What PSO had was an abundance of cheaters, almost all of which were US and Europe. I'm pretty sure Sega's fed up with the west destroying their online game's community, besides the fact that it's not a worthwhile venture for the US,a nd probably Europe.