- Joined
- Aug 6, 2018
Sega is one of gaming's most reverred brand names and has a portfolio of renowned franchises under its belt like few other companies in the entire industry. Any gamer in the world will probably have a smile on his face when hearing some of the names like Outrun, Hang-On, Space Harrier, Phantasy Star, Shinobi, Golden Axe, Sonic, Streets of Rage/Bare Knuckle, Shining Force, Virtua Fighter, Panzer Dragoon, Shenmue, Crazy Taxi, Valkyria Chronicles or Yakuza.
Sega has been one of the best developers/publishers in games all the way from the 80s, throughout the 90s, until somewhere around the mid-2000s. After the Sammy merger, Sega's quality seemed to take a dive. There was the occasional Yakuza game, but generally speaking, the quality of Sega's releases was nowhere near such fantastic games as Virtua Fighter 4, Outrun 2, Beach Spikers or Panzer Dragoon Orta which they had put out only a few years earlier. Sega's reputation as a top quality brand got tarnished and it almost faded into irrelevancy.
However, during the recent years, Sega seems to be turning things around again, especially with Haruki Satomi at the helm now, Sega have made a commitment to releasing quality games and acknowledging its own legacy of great franchises such as Shenmue, 2-D Sonic and Streets of Rage. Also, the acquisition of Atlus by Sega in 2013 played a big role in Sega's comeback.While video game fans around the world have been yearning for a renaissance of the old Sega, I'd argue that we're right in the middle of it.
If we look at Sega's track record during the last two years, we can see that on the whole, Sega is doing a hell of a lot right and are constantly releasing quality games. Examples? In 2017 Sega released Yakuza 0 which has earned universal praise. Having been a big brand in Japan for many years, Yakuza 0 was the first game in the series to garner wide attention in the West as well.Later that year, Sega put out Persona 5 which was a huge commercial success and the PS4's game of the year for many gamers and magazines alike.
In 2018 Sega released Yakuza 6, Shenmue 1 & 2 and still has Valkyria Chronicles 4 coming to the West, which has been a big critical and commercial success in Japan.
Sega has also been trying hard to revive some of its classic franchises like 2-D Sonic, Shenmue and Streets of Rage. In these three cases, Sega have licensed their franchises out to outside developers like Christian Whitehead or YS-Net. With Shenmue, Sega fully got behind their franchise and not only licensed Shenmue 3 to YS-Net but also funded and published the current-generation console and PC ports for Shenmue 1 & 2, made by D3T.
Sonic Mania has been a runaway success for both Sega and Christian Whitehead on all platforms and Shenmue 1 & 2 seem to be at least doing a lot better commercially, than Sega expected. Streets of Rage 4 is not out yet, but its existence alone shows Sega's attempt to acknowledge and respect its old franchises, which it had ignored for decades before.
But that's not all. Sega are also willing to capitalize on their own legacy of great past titles to which the announced Catherine remaster and the decision to bring Yakuza 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 to PS4 (and probably PC as well) are proof.
There are a couple of setbacks of course. They still make 3-D Sonic games and the S1 & 2 remasters are rife with bugs for instance, but those are things which deserve their own respective threads. Sega are not quite where they once have been yet, but on the whole, given the track record of the last two years, Haruki Satomi and company are on the right track to "make Sega great again"
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Concerning Sega's near future, things look more promising than they ever have in many years. With ambitious new games like Valkyria Chronicles 4, Toshihiro Nagoshi's Judge project and Fist of the North Star, licensed-out titles like Shenmue 3 and Streets of Rage 4 and retro re-releases like all the Yakuza games and the Catherine remaster coming, Sega has a lot of great things in store for gamers.
What are your thoughts? I must say, Sega has kind of won me back as a fan, recently. While I would have called myself a frustated ex-fan of Sega's for the last ten years or so, the sheer amount of quality which Sega have been pouring out during the recent years already had me on the fence, (with Persona 5 and Yakuza 0 both earning a spot among my top 10 favorite games of all time list) and the way they helped revive my Shenmue was the last step which made me a fan again.
Yes, the S1 & 2 remasters are far from perfect. Sega should probably have given D3T more ressources and with three years of time on their hands (as we now know from the PC Gamer interview), D3T should have absolutely done a much cleaner job, QA-wise than they have, but still: the remasters are here and they are, for the most part, an enjoyable way to finally play my favorite game on modern hardware. They even had it ported to Xbox One which not even S3 is on and are releasing a Limited Edition with a two-CD soundtrack in Japan.
I'm happy to call myself a Sega fan again. It feels good and I'm really excited to see what they have coming.
Sega has been one of the best developers/publishers in games all the way from the 80s, throughout the 90s, until somewhere around the mid-2000s. After the Sammy merger, Sega's quality seemed to take a dive. There was the occasional Yakuza game, but generally speaking, the quality of Sega's releases was nowhere near such fantastic games as Virtua Fighter 4, Outrun 2, Beach Spikers or Panzer Dragoon Orta which they had put out only a few years earlier. Sega's reputation as a top quality brand got tarnished and it almost faded into irrelevancy.
However, during the recent years, Sega seems to be turning things around again, especially with Haruki Satomi at the helm now, Sega have made a commitment to releasing quality games and acknowledging its own legacy of great franchises such as Shenmue, 2-D Sonic and Streets of Rage. Also, the acquisition of Atlus by Sega in 2013 played a big role in Sega's comeback.While video game fans around the world have been yearning for a renaissance of the old Sega, I'd argue that we're right in the middle of it.
If we look at Sega's track record during the last two years, we can see that on the whole, Sega is doing a hell of a lot right and are constantly releasing quality games. Examples? In 2017 Sega released Yakuza 0 which has earned universal praise. Having been a big brand in Japan for many years, Yakuza 0 was the first game in the series to garner wide attention in the West as well.Later that year, Sega put out Persona 5 which was a huge commercial success and the PS4's game of the year for many gamers and magazines alike.
In 2018 Sega released Yakuza 6, Shenmue 1 & 2 and still has Valkyria Chronicles 4 coming to the West, which has been a big critical and commercial success in Japan.
Sega has also been trying hard to revive some of its classic franchises like 2-D Sonic, Shenmue and Streets of Rage. In these three cases, Sega have licensed their franchises out to outside developers like Christian Whitehead or YS-Net. With Shenmue, Sega fully got behind their franchise and not only licensed Shenmue 3 to YS-Net but also funded and published the current-generation console and PC ports for Shenmue 1 & 2, made by D3T.
Sonic Mania has been a runaway success for both Sega and Christian Whitehead on all platforms and Shenmue 1 & 2 seem to be at least doing a lot better commercially, than Sega expected. Streets of Rage 4 is not out yet, but its existence alone shows Sega's attempt to acknowledge and respect its old franchises, which it had ignored for decades before.
But that's not all. Sega are also willing to capitalize on their own legacy of great past titles to which the announced Catherine remaster and the decision to bring Yakuza 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 to PS4 (and probably PC as well) are proof.
There are a couple of setbacks of course. They still make 3-D Sonic games and the S1 & 2 remasters are rife with bugs for instance, but those are things which deserve their own respective threads. Sega are not quite where they once have been yet, but on the whole, given the track record of the last two years, Haruki Satomi and company are on the right track to "make Sega great again"
.Concerning Sega's near future, things look more promising than they ever have in many years. With ambitious new games like Valkyria Chronicles 4, Toshihiro Nagoshi's Judge project and Fist of the North Star, licensed-out titles like Shenmue 3 and Streets of Rage 4 and retro re-releases like all the Yakuza games and the Catherine remaster coming, Sega has a lot of great things in store for gamers.
What are your thoughts? I must say, Sega has kind of won me back as a fan, recently. While I would have called myself a frustated ex-fan of Sega's for the last ten years or so, the sheer amount of quality which Sega have been pouring out during the recent years already had me on the fence, (with Persona 5 and Yakuza 0 both earning a spot among my top 10 favorite games of all time list) and the way they helped revive my Shenmue was the last step which made me a fan again.
Yes, the S1 & 2 remasters are far from perfect. Sega should probably have given D3T more ressources and with three years of time on their hands (as we now know from the PC Gamer interview), D3T should have absolutely done a much cleaner job, QA-wise than they have, but still: the remasters are here and they are, for the most part, an enjoyable way to finally play my favorite game on modern hardware. They even had it ported to Xbox One which not even S3 is on and are releasing a Limited Edition with a two-CD soundtrack in Japan.
I'm happy to call myself a Sega fan again. It feels good and I'm really excited to see what they have coming.
