Sega CEO Admits Failures, Promises more Focus on the West

[Hyro-Sama]

Sega CEO and president, Naoki Satomi, has recently broken his silence to comment on his view of Sega's current standing in an interview with Famitsu. He was fairly candid in said interview. Admitting to Sega "betraying" fan trust over the past decade and falling to meet expectations. He now shares they have learned from their missteps and are attempting to re-focus in order bring back the glory days that the company experienced in the 90s. Part of which entails looking westward to the overseas market that Satomi claims Atlus is actively having a hand in as seen in the quote below:

“As far as the Western market goes, we learned a lot from Atlus. If we can make a title with proper quality, I believe there’s a good chance for it to do well even in the West for players that like to play Japanese games.”

Perhaps more chances for more localisations in the West are on the horizon? He also goes on to talk about the logistics of development as well and how they plan on turning away from the previous mindset Sega adopted before:

“I’ve been talking to the employees about how we should start putting serious consideration into quality from this point on. Especially in North America and Europe, where it’s always been more of a focus on schedules, I believe that if we can’t maintain quality, it would be better to not release anything at all.”

He finishes by saying home consoles will be a high priority going forward with a heavy emphasis on quality consistency, and Sega will hopefully have something new to announce at this year's Tokyo Game Show.

Siliconera

I wonder if the Sonic franchise was running through his mind during this interview. That's where I've personally seen Sega do the most damage. Sonic '06, Sonic Boom, Sonic Lost World, etc. We haven't had a proper Sonic game in years. It royally sucks to be Sonic fan right now.

 

[Armadillo]

"As far as the Western market goes, we learned a lot from Atlus"

Fuck. Guess we can expect all SEGA games to have a 6 month delay to Europe from NA, if they can even be bothered to release them here.

 

[KSP]

Sega holds some of the biggest grossing AAA IPs in Japan, if they made them all available in the west they'd be up there in no time.
Yakuza Ishin, Yakuza Zero, Yakuza 5, Yakuza HD Collection, Yakuza Kenzan, all AAA titles.
They gotta start developing those games from the grounds up with English subs, and cross release them in both regions.
The production value of those games blow away anything they produce in there western studio arm. In todays climate how any company can bury AAA titles and release them in only one region is beyond me.
All AAA games should go global.

 

[MegaAce™]

"As far as the Western market goes, we learned a lot from Atlus"

Fuck. Guess we can expect all SEGA games to have a 6 month delay to Europe from NA, if they can even be bothered to release them here.

Persona 4 Arena Ultimax: 2 months difference.
Persona Q: simultaneously
Persona 4 Dancing: might also be at the same time, though it's brought to Europe by NISA for whatever reason.

EDIT: Forgot Devil Survivor 2, that's getting half a year of delay. Why can't they keep their shit together on all games?

 

[gamesquest1]

"As far as the Western market goes, we learned a lot from Atlus"

Fuck. Guess we can expect all SEGA games to have a 6 month delay to Europe, if they can even be bothered to release them here.

well thats pretty much what he went on to say

“I’ve been talking to the employees about how we should start putting serious consideration into quality from this point on. Especially in North America and Europe, where it’s always been more of a focus on schedules, I believe that if we can’t maintain quality, it would be better to not release anything at all.”

which tbh is fine, i know everyone hates it when a game you want to play is delayed (wii u still waiting on zelda u).....but with the growing trend of companies throwing products out the door in a barely functional state to meet release schedules, i guess having teams prioritize quality over getting it out sooner (or at all) is good, i think most people could list a few games that should of just been delayed or canceled with the shoddy state it was released in and patch after patch trying to fix flaws in the system and introducing new ones.....that said i don't think things will change all that much, there will still always be the deadline of getting games out to catch Christmas rush, movie release dates etc

really i think seeing as the main "reason" that EU often gets stuff last or not at all is down to them having to translate into several languages, personally i wouldn't be against them rolling out additional languages over time (easy for me to say as English would probably be first), but it makes sense get what you have out asap (as long as its stable and complete), then add additional languages as you go via updates, its not like any systems don't have online capabilities now days and often games require day 1 patches anyway, so why not mitigate the delay and be able to gauge demand for each language as you go....ofc that would open up the "what if people dont have internet" debate, but tbh who doesn't/couldn't have access to the internet for a few minutes to download a small language pack, just as long as they dont try to DLC language packs

 

[Armadillo]

really i think seeing as the main "reason" that EU often gets stuff last or not at all is down to them having to translate into several languages, personally i wouldn't be against them rolling out additional languages over time (easy for me to say as English would probably be first), but it makes sense get what you have out asap (as long as its stable and complete)

Atlus, one of the biggest culprits for huge delays between NA and EU, are mostly English only.

Taking any lessons from Atlus, may as well be the kiss of death for EU.

 

[fafaffy]

So... Sega, now that you're so interested, I wonder *cough* Hatsune Miku *cough* what game you'll release to the home consoles to the west?

 

[gamesquest1]

Atlus, one of the biggest culprits for huge delays between NA and EU, are mostly English only.

Taking any lessons from Atlus, may as well be the kiss of death for EU.

maybe their lesson was on what not to do

 

[TecXero]

Eh, we've heard plenty of companies wanting to change their ways and put consumers first, and some do for a short time, but we have yet to see one that actually commits to it over a significant amount of time. It just seems like they do it long enough to make some good PR, then go back to screw their consumers over.

 

[Hells Malice]

Sega will continue to be dead to me until I see more Valkyria Chronicles.

 

[Deleted User]

Sonic lost world seemed like an alright game. Sure its no classic, but its not that bad either. It didn't have any of that buggy as f#$% gameplay from the other two titles mentioned. Between Sonic 06 and Sonic Boom there was Sonic Colours and Sonic Generations. With that said they definately need to step up their game or its just a matter of time until their game's over.

 

[WiiCube_2013]

I demand Sega to cancel Sonic Boom 2 and release Sonic Gens 2 whenever it's ready.

 

[Hyro-Sama]

Sega will continue to be dead to me until I see more Valkyria Chronicles.

The remaining two entries need to be ported to PC. First one sold well enough on Steam, didn't it?

 

[Hells Malice]

The remaining two entries need to be ported to PC. First one sold well enough on Steam, didn't it?

Yeah pretty sure i saw it in top sales for a while.
I'd like to see them improve the maps, at least for 2, before porting to PC though. The teeny tiny maps would make no sense on PC and they really did take away so much from the strategy of the game. One can dream, i guess. I kinda doubt they'll put 2 and especially not 3 on PC.

 

[the_randomizer]

So...will they finally make a good game that doesn't get outsourced to some crappy no-name company that was doomed from the start (Sonic Boom)?

 

[UltraHurricane]

they can start by bringing this to west

ya know... just sayin'