Sega's internal team console preference:

Z

zurich

Kendoka
Veteran
Hmm, how does this break down again?

AM2 - PS2 (Virtua Fighter, Ferarri F355, 18-Wheeler American Pro Trucker), Xbox (Shenmue? [Wasn't this ported by MS?])
UGAS - PS2 (Rez, Space Channel 5 pt 2)
AV - GC (Super Monkey Ball 1/2)
Overworks - PS2 (Shinobi)
Smilebit - Xbox (GunValkyerie, Panzer Dragoon Orta, JSRF)
Sonic Team - GC (PSO, Sonic, Sonic Mega Collection), Xbox (PSO)
Hitmaker - Xbox (Crazy Taxi), GC (Crazy Taxi), PS2 (Sega Sports Tennis)
WOW - Xbox (Sega GT, House of the Dead 3)

I left out the sports titles on purpose since they're multiplatform, and the unreleased-but-announced titles like Virtua On and VF:Evo.

Of the 21 SKUs, the breakdown is:

Xbox: 8
PS2: 7
GC :6

Pretty even.. now I KNOW I missed some of the more obscure games, as well as the portastic DC stuff (like HeadHunter)... I have a feeling when MS's contract is up you'll see Sega pumping out PS2 games like no tomorrow though. If they wanted to be like EA, they'll have to learn to play by the bucks ;)

BTW, someone with more time on their hands, feel free to do a proper, in-depth breakdown of whatever!
 
Hmm.. interesting. Thanks for pointing that out. Personally, I'm not too impressed with Sega's PS2 efforts from a technical perspective though. Virtua Fighter 4 aswell as F355 were pretty letdowns, although they do deliever on the gameplay. Hopefully VF4 Evo will look as good as it playes. 8)
 
here are some new pics of Evo ps 2:
(not the best quality) but it seems like an improvement.
News_PS2_Virtua_Fighter_4_Evolution_30.jpg


News_PS2_Virtua_Fighter_4_Evolution_35.jpg


News_PS2_Virtua_Fighter_4_Evolution_34.jpg


News_PS2_Virtua_Fighter_4_Evolution_29.jpg




It's good to see Shinobi do well in Japan and the U.S though as well as VF and Sonic. Sonic Team found a good audience with GC and AM2 and Overworks should stick with PS 2 for their own sake, I know Suzuki will, he always was the more intelligent one at that Sega camp :eek:
 
Crazy Taxi 1 was ported to PS2 and GC but wasn't it handled by Acclaim? Of course Xbox got CT3 exclusive...

and what about AM2's Beach Spikers, it may be a sports game but its only on GameCube. I'm probably the only one that bought it though, its a pretty clean Naomi2 port.
 
So far Sega has pretty much spread out their portfolio evenly over the platforms. I expect them to stick with this trend, but go multiplatform with more titles and develop a stronger PS2 preference over the next year at the cost of Xbox exclusive development. There's some more games in the pipe for Xbox or at least the Xbox based arcade board (e.g. VC3 and some racing titles were confirmed lately) that are likely candidates for a console release later on, but I guess new developments will mostly be either multiplatform or focus more on PS2...
 
Averging the lower end of SEGA's sales spectrum into the picture as well as their few standout performances, the PS2 and GameCube haven't performed any better than Xbox for SEGA. In fact, the list of their lowest selling games are littered with PS2 and GC releases, and those titles are posting losses that can't be ignored. Overall, SEGA's sales have been pathetic on all platforms.

In fact, when pulling in only a few thousand units sold from some of their recent efforts, it wouldn't be far-fatched at all to realize they could've released those as Dreamcast games and sold them exclusively through their online store (and other online outlets like NCSX, Amazon, and the like) and managed to outperform what they did on the next-gen consoles at retail! Really, it absolutely sickening when a game makes it through Novemeber and December while failing to even reach 30,000 units (especially with the critical acclaim some of those releases are receiving).

SEGA used to sell several thousand units of their Dreamcast software online, even after the system died and wasn't being stocked at retail... some titles like Shenmue II Euro actually sold in the tens of thousands. And of course, SEGA themselves would be getting almost $40 of revenue for each online Dreamcast sale compared to the $20 or so they get from third-party software sold at retail, since there would be little to no retail and distributor cut, and no third-party licensing fee.

Obviously, moving forward, SEGA needs to be looking for much higher sales, and only the still-living systems can satisfactorily provide that. I bring up the Dreamcast example to show just how unacceptable sales of 24,788 copies of NBA 2K3 are for GC, sales of 23,322 copies of Bass Fishing Duel are for PS2, sales of 11,548 units of Ferrari F355 Challenge are for PS2, sales of 25,370 copies of Beach Spikers are for GC, sales of 9,685 units of NCAA Football 2K3 are for GC, etc (and they get even worse when looking at titles like NHL 2K3 for GC, GunGrave and Rez for PS2, etc.)

Anyway, about the teams' preferences, they're really all open to work on any platform. They split up and tackled different platforms early on with different teams so they could use their vast development resources to cover all the bases. However, a team like AM2 has done PS2 development (VF4), Xbox development (Shenmue II - yes, they did the port), and GC development (Beach Spikers). Hitmaker is working on Virtual ON for PS2, did Crazy Taxi 3 for Xbox, and is working on a GameCube project. UGA ported Rez and the Space Channel 5 series to PS2, but they are working on a GC title now. Smilebit has developed for Panzer, Jet Set, and GUNVALKYRIE for Xbox, Baseball Advance for GBA, and Let's Make a Pro for PS2. AV has worked on Monkey Ball for GC and is working on SpikeOut and another title for Xbox. Sonic Team has devved PSO for both Xbox and GC. Overworks has made Shinobi for PS2 and Skies of Arcadia Legends for GC. The list goes on, but it's fairly apparent that each of the teams are now spreading out to more multiplatform development after getting their initial few projects under their belt.
 
Sega seems to be offering their most loyal followers the pick of the litter on xbox. Last I read they intend to keep it that way. Maybe a greater number of Sega games are being planned in the future for PS2, but the hardcore Sega fan type games? Not that I've heard of so far.

Makes sense from a "let's stick to thems what drove us out of the hardware biz" POV but its kind of silly from a "let's make as much $$ as we can, while we can" perspective.
 
Releasing for PS2 gives a higher potential ceiling for sales, but there's a threatening possibility that the games might also get overlooked much more easily in the crowded market and actually end up doing worse.

In a smaller market like GC and Xbox, a SEGA game could get more visibility and sales in some cases. Also, Microsoft especially is more desperate at this time for Japanese support, so the incentives and lowered licensing fees they're giving to SEGA for the Xclusives (Jet Set Radio Future, Crazy Taxi 3, World Series Baseball, SEGA GT 2002, The House of the Dead 3, Toe Jam and Earl 3, Panzer Dragoon Orta) help to some extent.

There's money to be made on all three platforms depending on the game and the timing for its release, so it's really all a balancing act of demographics.
 
I think the restructing is interesting. A good move IMO.

Sports and Arcade are self explanatory.

Standard seems to apply to any release that isn't character based or for initial character-based games that aren't prone to spin-offs.

Series seems to apply to anything character based where they want to milk the franchise like Sonic, Knuckles, Amy, etc... in Sonic.

The last category (Spectacular) obviously applies to games like Rez, Space Channel 5, and Jet Set Radio Future.

This gives them a good funding formula. They can decide if a game is Standard (good funding) or Spectacular (low funding). If the game does extremely well and has some characters or franchise power to leverage then it might become a Series game. Sports would probably receive just enough funding to put out a better product than EA. Arcade would obviously vary.

One thing is pretty clear with Sega lately - Genesis games have some name power (Virtua Fighter, Shinobi, and Sonic). Saturn & Dreamcast supporters are too scattered across the three platforms to carry a game as of yet. I maintain that there's nothing wrong with Sega's games - they just need to know how much to spend and what platform to put them on.

JSRF should have been on Cube. GUNVALKYRIE should have been on PS2 (four shoulder buttons). Microsoft paid the money to make it otherwise, but Sega could have done better with these games. They should continue porting games to other platforms, but they have to do it quickly like EA does. Not many people are going to care about JSRF on Cube when they see it in bargin bins for Xbox for $9.99.
 
Restructuring is needed but unfortunately Tetsu Kayama's joke of a plan hardly qualifies. He will either be replaced or bring the company down.
 
Maybe a greater number of Sega games are being planned in the future for PS2, but the hardcore Sega fan type games? Not that I've heard of so far.

Makes sense from a "let's stick to thems what drove us out of the hardware biz"
Click to expand...
Their biggest hardcore hitter is PS2 exclusive (VF4), as well as their another two 'hardcore' games (Shinobi and VO). I would say they don't follow 'let's stick it...' point of view very much.

Here are hands-on impressions of VF4Evo, but it's insider only:

http://ps2.ign.com/articles/383/383791p1.html
 
marconelly! said:
Their biggest hardcore hitter is PS2 exclusive (VF4), as well as their another two 'hardcore' games (Shinobi and VO). I would say they don't follow 'let's stick it...' point of view very much.
Click to expand...

VF4 was ported from the PS2 arcade board, correct? Put that along side the viod in new fighters to come out since PS2s launch at the time and it becomes obvious Sega had to bring it to PS2 when they did. Exclusive?- not when you include Evo. Ferarri F355- Sega fans already have it. 18-Wheeler American Pro Trucker- definately for quirky Japanese tastes- is it aimed at the hardcore Sega fan?- no. Shinobi could be a dent in my thinking Sega has had a 'let's stick it...' attitude but not much of one.
 
how can you deduce "Sega's internal team console preference:" from the number of titles they develop on each plateform ?

i think the choice of the titles and the plateform mainly reflects bu$ine$$ choices, and not the personnal preference of the different sega teams...
 
I prefer the Sega GC release list : SMB1+2, PSO 1&2, Skies of Arcadia Legend, Beach spikers, Sonic2

Add to that FzeroGc and VF quest, it looks like a lot of fun.

The xbox library seems more hardcore but good.

The ps2 looks bleh beside VF4.1
 
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