Peter Moore Joins Microsoft
You know that guy in charge of the Sega Dreamcast? They one who gave it birth and watched it die? He works for Microsoft now.
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Comments
Sega of Japan calls all of the shots when it comes to their games.
- They pulled a finished game (Shenmue II) from being released in the US and sold the 'exclusivity' rights to Microsoft. (Didn't stop me from importing, though)
- They stopped production of US DC games (while there are still quite a few waiting for release overseas). (Again, didn't stop me from importing Ikaruga.)
- They prematurely killed DC online servers (while many are supposedly still up in Japan).
- They prevented SoA and Capcom to set up the 'Matching Service' way of getting into online games (like you can in Japan, basically P2P) to push sega.net
- They contracted out the production/publication of Sega's GBA games to THQ based on the sales of *one* GBA game. (The game is Chu Chu Rocket, features thousands of levels, a level editor, and single cart multiplayer. Look for it at game stores for less than $10.)
- Sega of Japan is masterminding the re-release of many games as well. In the time that Sega has been '3rd party' it has re-released (or will re-release):
18 Wheeler American Pro Trucker
Sonic Adventure (DX)
Sonic Adventure 2 (Battle)
Phantasy Star Online (Episode 1)
Crazy Taxi
Skies of Arcadia (Legends)
Various 2k2 sports games
Sonic Mega Collection (All Sonic Genesis games)
House of the Dead 2
Ferrari F355 Challenge
Tennis 2k2
Sega Bass Fishing
Rez
Headhunter
Shenmue 2
Panzer Dragoon
Not only that, but nearly every game they are putting out is a port of the game from the DC (but never released on the DC). These include:
Toe Jam & Earl 3
Shinobi
Gungrave
Sega Soccer Slam
Virtua Fighter 4
Various 2k3 sports games
Crazy Taxi 3
Gunvalkyrie
House of the Dead 3
Jet Set Radio Future
Sega GT 2002
Panzer Dragoon Orta (yes, it was being built for DC first)
Beach Spikers
Super Monkey Ball (1 & 2)
So what exactly was Peter Moore overseeing? His job was to make sure that Sega of America listened to Sega of Japan. Nice work Peter. Don't let the door hit you on the way out.
Playstation 2
Nintendo Gamecube
Microsoft Xbox.
It makes me twitch at Sega to see great looking games on one console and basic ports for the other. Even Panzer Dragoon Orta isn't expected to sell 50,000 in Japan because of Bad Xbox support there. It could do half a million or more here but point be made their being wasteful. Always shooting themselves in the foot because of what Money they get paid to support the Xbox. How many more titles are going to have to be discontinued? How much more money are you going to haft to lost? How more people haft to leave? The Support is there Sega, I from a Gamecube forum with members in the groups of 20's who want or demand more from you.
Really though it can all be explained. Sega said in 2002 they wanted to be the U.S's Number #1 3rd party developer. At the moment EA is and still is the U.S's number Number #1 3rd party developer. I guess Sega sees the Xbox a key in reaching that goal. Why not? It is a U.S console which holds favor over the U.S peopel.
Sega of America has no say in whether Microsoft can buy them. Like I said above, Sega of Japan calls all of the shots, and MS would have to buy them.
You also know that Jet Set Radio Future is the sequel to Jet Grind Radio which is on the Dreamcast, right? In fact, the next Jet Grind Radio game is due for release in March on the Game Boy Advance. I don't think the series is going anywhere. With the bundle pack, btw, JSRF is one of the 'most owned' games on the Xbox. There will probably be another game.
[quote]Sonic was their best selling game of 2002, it out sold everything. <hr></blockquote>
You're joking, right? Sonic Adventure 2: Battle was NOT the best selling game of 2002. Yes, it did sell well, but not well enough to be the best selling game (last I checked, it had not even sold 1 million copies).
According to the NPD results for 12/02, Vice City sold 1,581,519 copies in that month alone!
[quote]It was Sega's bad sales for both the Xbox and Gamecube that got in this slump. But doing the math their Profits come in this order.
Playstation 2
Nintendo Gamecube
Microsoft Xbox.
<hr></blockquote>
Actually, profits would most likely be:
PS2
GBA
Xbox (due to the 2k series and pack ins)
GCN
[quote]It makes me twitch at Sega to see great looking games on one console and basic ports for the other. Even Panzer Dragoon Orta isn't expected to sell 50,000 in Japan because of Bad Xbox support there. It could do half a million or more here but point be made their being wasteful. Always shooting themselves in the foot because of what Money they get paid to support the Xbox. How many more titles are going to have to be discontinued? How much more money are you going to haft to lost? How more people haft to leave? The Support is there Sega, I from a Gamecube forum with members in the groups of 20's who want or demand more from you. <hr></blockquote>
PDO did sell more that 50,000 copies in Japan. Perhaps you meant 500,000?
Of course people want to buy good Sega products, but money talks. MS has literally purchased their place in the market right now and everyone knows it. But that doesn't change the fact that they are now #3 in sales in North America and most of Europe with the GameCube down to #4.
The problem is partially that Nintendo leaves it up to Sega to pioneer their own console's technologies. For example, what were the first games to use the GCN-GBA connection? Sonic Advance and Sonic Adventure 2: Battle. What was the first game to use the GCN BBA and modem? Phantasy Star Online. What was the first GCN game released? Super Monkey Ball by about 2 weeks.
Now that Sega is profitable, it might be different but Sega is still working off of the games they were developing for their own console. Look at my list above: These games were developed for the DC and ported over. Should Sega really be expected to throw out their old games? Remember that these are what we'd be seeing if the DC was still alive.
[quote]Really though it can all be explained. Sega said in 2002 they wanted to be the U.S's Number #1 3rd party developer. At the moment EA is and still is the U.S's number Number #1 3rd party developer. I guess Sega sees the Xbox a key in reaching that goal. Why not? It is a U.S console which holds favor over the U.S peopel. <hr></blockquote>
First of all, EA appeals to the casual gamer with titles including Madden, Lord of the Rings: TTT, 007, etc. Their games rarely rank high on review sites and their sports titles are no longer the best on the market. Yes, NFL 2k3 is a better football title than Madden 2003, but most people don't know that.
In Sega's quest to dethrone EA, they needed to look at where they could gain some ground. EA refuses to make their titles Xbox Live compatible, so this is where Sega decided to strike. They hit the Xbox with NFL 2k3, NBA 2k3, NHL 2k3, various NCAA titles and the ESPN license. Not only that, but they don't have to maintain the servers which means a significantly reduced cost to them. I can't see much wrong with that. <img src="graemlins/hmmm.gif" border="0" alt="[Hmmm]" />
Peter Moore joining Microsoft means nothing to Sega-MS relations. I wouldn't read too much into this at all.
Also I didn't mean Sonic it's self was the best selling game of 2002. I meant it was Sega's best selling game of 2002. I didn't make that clear, I'm sorry. Side note though it has sold over a million copies it did that 3-4 months after launch.
Giving it some thought the Bundle may have earned Sega some extra cash. May even make it profitable. The titles are being handed out for free so there not making a $50 each title and I really don't know how much money was given to use those games. Really though if you look at it with no bundles and just raw sales, I believe more order is correct but only Sega really knows.
Hahah. You are right I did mean 500,000. Again sorry about that. In all though good reply I enjoyed reading that.
How can 500,000 copies of an XBox game be sold in a country with ~300,000 XBoxes?
I'm sure that <a href="http://ebgames.com/ebx/categories/products/product.asp?pf_id=232062"; target="_blank">Electronics Boutique</a> and THQ would be surprised to hear that. Most GBA sites still list the game as due in March.
[quote]Also I didn't mean Sonic it's self was the best selling game of 2002. I meant it was Sega's best selling game of 2002. I didn't make that clear, I'm sorry. Side note though it has sold over a million copies it did that 3-4 months after launch.<hr></blockquote>
Good enough. On another side note, I've confirmed that Sonic Advance 2 also works with Sonic Adventure 2: Battle.
[quote]Giving it some thought the Bundle may have earned Sega some extra cash. May even make it profitable. The titles are being handed out for free so there not making a $50 each title and I really don't know how much money was given to use those games. Really though if you look at it with no bundles and just raw sales, I believe more order is correct but only Sega really knows. <hr></blockquote>
Well it's only MS that's taking the hit on this one, and all Sega had to do was give them the games as MS published the DVD with the games and movies. Not only that, but it gave more publicity to both Sega GT and JSRF. I think that Sega's betting on sequels to rake in even more.
I'd love to see some new games from Sega more widely available. After all, the DC is my favorite console with excellent games. I can see where Sega's coming from, though, losing their console and just starting to make a profit again. Hopefully they'll be back to 'normal' soon enough.
I also did a check on the sales of the Panzer Dragoon Orta Game. I found this chart here. It says Updated: January 5, 2002)From: Dec 16 - Dec 21, 2002. So take it how ever you want to it was the only one I could find. From the chart though it says the game has sold 20,238 from that date.
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[ 01-21-2003: Message edited by: Reality ]</p>
I think I remember reading that PDO was closer to 60,000 copies sold now but I'll have to find the link.