Do ya think Sega will ever release another console?

Zhane

maybe it might do better than the Dreamcast, which was actually a good console?

Jim

they went bankrupt. hey work for nintendo now making games. [which must be a huge ego trip for nintendo, i can just imagine the things they are made do to hold ono their jobs]

so, in conclusion, very doubtful.

ferdi

****ing nintendo.

tman

would you rather they worked for sony or ms?

(well, they do, just not as much as nintendo...)

goo

No, basically. Like "Jimeatsmenu" touched upon, the creative section was pretty much disbanded and it's not really a stand alone company anymore. Definitely couldn't handle a console proper any time soon. It'd be cool if they managed a good hand-held though, considering every ****er's trying now.

BlitzKrieg

does no one else think its a crime that Sega is gone and Nintendo is on the ropes. I mean they were the companies that made consoles great. They made the most creative games and most of todays major blockbusters owe so much to them (platformers to Mario, Beat em ups to Sega with Virtua Fighter)


Of course u got some third parties who have and will still be the creative force but with sega and nintendo you were assured new gems cause they owned the console, unlike other companies who have to appease the masses and cant take as much of a risk.


I mean as great as the new companies are in power or technology, they dont have the same character and dont care as much about the gaming experiance (most notable vampire microsoft)


I actually remember the moment my loyalty to Sega was sealed and rewarded, I bought a Saturn, and though everyone told me i was stupid, i loved that console and i loved how sega at xmas would put out cool free stuff for owners like christmas nights (sonics 1st true 3d debut) But that same xmas i found the cd that i was given for free was cracked and unworkable i emailed Sega and they asked for the cd i sent it, they sent a new copy back plus 2 free games (i admit one was a baseball game but worldwide soccer ruled) the rep who contacted me by email then kept sending me personal info on releases etc right up to telling me about the dreamcast (and sonic adventure).

You never get that from microsoft, nor sony.

seanos

Although I was a Nintendo person, I do think it's a shame Sega is gone, as they created some lovely games, and each console had it's own style;

Nintendo tended to create nice cheerful, happy, bright and colourful games.
Sega I thought always tended to create the darker type game,

Again, I haven't played an awful amount of Sega games, but from ones I played, this is impression I got [referring to GB, NES, SNES ... moved to PC then ...], and I thought it made a nice mix.

Anyway, if any company was to buy them over, glad it was Nintendo

TheSonOfBattles

I thought Sega was still an independant company, although had a lot stock owned by Sammy, and were just making games for multiple formats.

When did they go bankrupt, and when did Nintendo buy them?

On topic, I hope they don't make another console because although I agree the Dreamcast, and all of there consoles were excellent, they can't advertise for sh*t, and if they do make another console, they'll sell it badly, the product will fail, and Sega will just be in more hot water.

MÓC

Does it really matter who makes the consoles ??
They are all companies whos only interest is to make money.
Lets not feel nostalgic or sorry for them.

Games are games no matter what you play them on !

tman

Originally posted by TheSonOfBattles
On topic, I hope they don't make another console because although I agree the Dreamcast, and all of there consoles were excellent, they can't advertise for sh*t, and if they do make another console, they'll sell it badly, the product will fail, and Sega will just be in more hot water.

ditto.
they consistently pushed things forward with each console release, shame they couldn't back their machines up with the advertising they deserved...
hopefully they'll focus on creating more original games and characters (e.g. billy hatcher)

a new panzer dragoon, virtua fighter & the 2 shenmues on the gc would be nice:)

Deadwing

It really was a crying shame Sega went out of the console business. As has been said tho, it wa spartially just down to their woeful marketing. Tho i still remember tot his day their ad's for the Mega drive, and pirate tv..ahh..great days etc etc. Still, the dreamcast had a stronger line up than the PS2 right up until it went belly up..i remember going round to a friends house to play Tekken tag when it was released, and laughing my ass off at how woefully inept it was compared to the original soul calibur, and how bad it looked compared to it too. When you think of what theyre graphically capable of squeezing out of the ps2 nowadays (killzone etc) it really brings a tear to the eye to think how good the dreamcast couldve been if only itd had the support
Stll, sega keep coming up with the goods gameswise, so its not all doom and gloom.

honru

The days when the Dreamcast was alive and well is undoubtably the best gaming days I ever had, and it was only after its demise that I really began to miss Sega's place in the console market. I still miss it to this day, it just isn't the same.

Video games are getting more mainstream by the day, and even back in 2000 Sega couldn't hold on in this developed gaming world. They created great, original games which were just so simply overlooked, and I doubt anything would change if they released a new console now. It just wouldn't be plausible on their part.

Even though they would like to release a new machine, I highly doubt that they will be doing that in the nearby future, even though I hate to admit it.

BLITZ_Molloy

Christ.. some of you people aren't very clued up on this at all are you? Sega didn't go bankrupt. They haven't been bought by anyone.

They published games for Xbox, GC, PS2, Ngage, PC and GBA in Europe last year. In Japan they still publish DC games, and alot of Java phone games.

A couple of their designers have left in the last two years; head of Overworks and UGA but otherwise their creative staff are entirely intact.

Their last installment of Virtua Fighter has been the most profitable arcade game ever released.

Last month Sammy (makers of Guilty Gear and big pachinko manufacturer) bought 20% of the company, previously owned by CSK. It's not a controlling share so it really doesn't affect things that much. They've started avising Sega put more emphasis on their arcade division.

Sega aren't going to make another console any time soon. They've not been very successful as a third party publisher so I'd expect they'll start releasing slightly less games for the consoles and probably stick to the PS2 platform, or whatever has the largest audience.

The arcade industry is very healthy at the moment (in Asia and parts of America) so they'll be making a big push there. Sammy also talk about trying to build an audience in South America and poorer countries with low cost hardware.

The arcade industry died on its arse in Ireland in the mid 90's because the cabinets started costing £20,000. A return to cheap, modular cabinets and good games could be just whats needed. It's a pity the operators in this country only seem interested in targetting the casual tourist market for a euro a play however.

I'm going off on a tangent.

Bottom line is I expect Sega to return to their roots. The Mega Drive was a success because of the companies arcade background. Maybe they'll launch a console in 5 or 8 years time once they've established an audience once again.

Retr0gamer

I'm almost sure Sega made a decent profit last year.

The Dreamcast was a fantastic console. It's a shame that it did so badly because it really didn't deserve to. The Saturn deserved to fail because of silly Sega deciding that all it's best games wouldn't get a release outside japan. Up until it's demise the DC was outclassing the PS2 it graphics and in the quality of its games. There were no games on the PS2 for a year that could match the graphics of Shenmue or
Soul Caliber.

astrofool

debatably, there still isn't a ps2 game that can match soul caliber

Syth

they can't advertise for sh*t

Alas Nintendo don't advertise well, hopefully history won't repeat itself...

TheSonOfBattles

Say what you want about Sony, but there advertising and marketing departments are obviously the sh*t. When they decided to release there own console, they advertised it with the weird "Stick" adds over the crimbo period, and then made it an essential item for the undergound crowd by placing booths with psx's in major clubs, and having Ridge Racers soundtrack done by the kind of people this crowd would listen to. Since back in those days gaming was for nerds and stuff, this appealed to the underground crowd, because it was there little thing, that no one else was enjoying properly, and a lot of other people who just happened to be in the clubs also got games on it, and found they liked the experience.

Years later, when Sega were releasing the dreamcast, and games had become a much more acceptable, and normal pasttime, what does Sega do, repeat the same thing, and there console, which had so much potential, and some great games to boot, goes tits up.

Leason here: Sonys marketing and adverts divisions can keep up with the times, and know who to appeal to, and how to market it, and Sega's don't.

As Syth said, Nintendo are just as bad, they have another great console, some brilliant games courtesy of both themselves and Sega, and where is the advertising? Hidden under the proverbial rock on the moon by the looks of things.

Ah well.

Edit: God damn it, I've double posted again. That's the second time today. Is there a Modder in the house? Cause we need a clean up on aisle "oh sh1t, I just *****d up again please."

goo

Em, that's a fairly biased opinion of Sony's, very short, spin of console making, do you not think?

Fair enough, they made it cool but not to the underground, quite the opposite, in fact. The main reason Sega's consoles didn't work and that Nintendo's found it hard over the years is that Sony managed to open up a more mainstream market for home gaming, for itself. Ignoring the influence of GTA3, through admittedly clever advertising (Champion's league springs to mind) and the fact that SONY was already a household name they could sell their machines to people who'd never have considered gome gaming before. I always found it a little annoying that Sony were company selling games to non-gamers, not from elitism but the inherent cheapness of it.

That whole idea reflects the opinion of Sony I've had since they started in consoles.
I always considered Nintendo and Sega as the only companies (except of course, the odd distraction) with Plastation and PS2 representing the (generally) more straightforward, boring, commercial market and style. Now, with Sega as good as gone, "a second Sony" coming through with the release/almost instant success of Xbox and Nintendo's outlook, terrible third party support and timing just not suiting the current climate it seems my opinions are completely outdated. Oh well, beautifully cheap gamecube games on the way I suppose.

TheSonOfBattles

How is it biased? I don't like Sony releasing an average at best console, and then winning the console war hands down any more than you, or most people here by the looks of things do. I'm pointing out that it was there adverts and marketing that allowed it to happen.

Personally I'd like to see Sega release another console, and Nintendo and them battling it out for our bucks as well.

As for Sony not appealing to the underground. The underground music and culture was very big at the time, and by appealing to that, and the older crowd that it was made up of, rather than the younger crowd that console companies had till then targeted, Sony brought consoles and games out of the nerd, and childish bracket most people put it in, and made it a must have item, and something that was cool and trendy for late teens, early 20's and above crowd. They saw that it wasn't soley good to be played in dark rooms on your own, or any other stereotype, but that it could also be good fun for parties, and for messing with mates. This is the type of audience that sony still sells to tbh. Something that's not great for the avid gamer, but more as entertainment for the casual gamer, a party accessory, and something to do while drinking with mates.

Nintendo aren't winning the console war, because they're not appealing to this crowd, but to avid gamers, and there old fanbase. This is good in that it keeps them bringing out brilliant games, but bad in that Sony and Microsoft are gaining a lot of support from Joe Soap.

Also, thanks for the suggestion I try deleting my own post, any other time I tried doin it, it wasn't allowed so i'd given up on that option. Works here though.

goo

Don't worry about it.

"The underground music and culture was very big at the time", we must have different definitions of underground, sorry.

About me calling you biased, sorry, I didn't mean to seem tetchy, the way I read it, you seemed quite pro-Sony.

According to eurogamer.net PS2 sold four times more than Xbox this December, with Xbox selling twice as much as Gamecube. This supports both our arguments, so it's fairly relevant. The thing is, Xbox was only the third best selling console this Chrimbo, trailing behind the two versions of the GBA, which shows there's a huge amount of business in the handheld market (and life in Nintendo) so the PSP et al are very, very important releases (although, mismarketed).

TheSonOfBattles

Originally posted by goo
"The underground music and culture was very big at the time", we must have different definitions of underground, sorry.

Heh, not my definition at all tbh, just what i've gathered from reading stuff of differant magazines, sites and news over the last while. Tbh, I wasn't into games or music back in 1995 or whenever the psx was released. And my memory isn't good enough to remember what the culture was like back then either, so i'm taking the bit of research I've done on this and applied that instead. Could easily be wrong.

Cake Fiend

Sony went after the lowest common denominator. That's just good business sense, and it worked. They aimed at the general public instead of the hardcore gamers. Unfortunately for the hardcore gamers, it means the market is now saturated with sh1te, but there are still more than enough good games released on the various platforms to keep anyone busy.

I miss my Dreamcast

goo

Anyone else remember the preview pics of Playstation? With that silly rotating joypad, funny stuff.

TheSonOfBattles

Nope, never seen 'em to my knowledge. But wouldn't mind seeing them now, and laughing if anyone wants to post them up.

tman

Originally posted by goo
Anyone else remember the preview pics of Playstation? With that silly rotating joypad, funny stuff.

didn't that "silly rotating joypad" actually get released?
something to do with namco iirc

goo

Oh, yeah, I think I remember seeing something about that a year ago. Probably what put the thought in my head in the first place. Well, much kudos to the first person who finds pic/info.

TheSonOfBattles

Is this the one your on about:



It's called the negcon, and was indeed released by Namco for the psx.

There were a few weird controllers for the psx though, including:



and...



The above one is also by Namco, and is called the jogcon.

Anyone got pics of anymore weird controllers I wonder.

You can send the kudo's in the post by the way ww)

BlitzKrieg

Here's sumtin everyone forgot


3rd party developers.


No not who attracts them (though that is a tiny bit) But their change.

In 16 bit years 3rd party were always 2nd to nintendo and sega themselves cause the in house developers had many advantages and more income to use. Acclaim, midway etc made games for all consoles but they couldnt match in number or quality to the in-house of either sega or nintendo (i know wierd when compared to nintendo's N64 record)

Sony though offered something new, no in house developers, the 3rd were more important to sony. So of course Sony won support lots of it but also gave birth to the massive development companies of today who make countless games of a debatable standard.

Course the worse offender is easily EA who are now the biggest developers right??? For the Dreamcast EA were ticked off by sega's earlier failure and so refused to develope for it which i feel was one of the real big nails in Sega's coffin. (most notable the FIFA's and other licensed titles)

In house development is dying, you either make consoles and hire other companies to make the games or buy these companies under your loyalty (ala microsoft)


Course advertising etc did their part as well.


I have a PS1 but i dont think i'll get a PS2. I only have 3 games on my ps1 FF8 FF7 and MGS. WHile i had over 40 for my Saturn (with only 3 or so duds) None of the others ever appealled to me so i guess the same might happen with PS2 cause it has LOADS of games very few of them appeal to me. I'll stick to PC and DC for all my joys for the next few years (so much to shenmue1 + 2)


-Personnally i wait for the day that Nintendo and Sega fully burry the hatchet and make a console together "THE OLD FRONT" and finally give me a beat em up with both sonic and mario. (course i'll be sonic all the time)



The company i most deteste in the gaming industry is EA they offend me...

goo

Really, really good point BlitzKrieg, but I think it'll be a long, long time before games machines are just that, machines, and the makers have no creative input. I really don't want to imagine a time when they're almost like VCRs or CD players (very old fashioned, aren't I?), with the companies (whoever's still left) not putting any games out themselves. Nintendo's a good example, all their best games were their doing (arguable, obviously).

Good man "TheSonOfBattles", that is definitely the one I'm on about. Is it just me, or does the one in the middle look like a fairly famous Resident Evil character? You know, with the bulging eye?

As an aside, I want to post a little bit of an interview with Martin De Ronde, General Manager of Guerilla Games, who are developing Killzone, that appeared on the charming game site 1up.com.

Q. Killzone's visuals are highly impressive, but do you think the bar will be raised by the time the game ships next summer?

A. Yeah, that happens continuously. But on the consoles, the technology is rigid, so it wont change that much. The PC will continue to be better in graphical performance than the consoles. As for whether the bar will be raised, it depends. People who don't play PC games will look at the last PlayStation 2 FPS for the FPS benchmark, so that's Medal of Honor or FireWarrior. People may see Halo 2 as the benchmark if they have both consoles.

Interesting conversation and all, one of gaming's many cycles, the speed at which developer's can increase their ability at working and manipulating the consoles compared to the level of technology in pc gaming actually increasing. However, the main reason I put that up is that Martin said there's two consoles, simple. I've read his words before, he's no idiot and I doubt that was a slip of the tongue. All it can mean is that, in his head at least, there really are only two consoles, at least that his company would work for and I'd say that's indicative of the opinion of many 3rd party dev. teams.

Matt Simis

Originally posted by goo
However, the main reason I put that up is that Martin said there's two consoles, simple. I've read his words before, he's no idiot and I doubt that was a slip of the tongue. All it can mean is that, in his head at least, there really are only two consoles, at least that his company would work for and I'd say that's indicative of the opinion of many 3rd party dev. teams.

The fact that he recognised that there is a platform, a technically superior platform, known as the "PC" knocked him up a notch in my book.

Im sure many devs talked like this before the DC was officially killed. They hear things in the industry, or at least think they do. In regards a "Second Sony", I like Microsofts console business model to be honest. Even their ads come across as "amusing" cool instead of Sony-esq pretentious cool.


Matt

Deadwing

Originally posted by goo

As an aside, I want to post a little bit of an interview with Martin De Ronde, General Manager of Guerilla Games, who are developing Killzone, that appeared on the charming game site 1up.com.

Q. Killzone's visuals are highly impressive, but do you think the bar will be raised by the time the game ships next summer?

A. Yeah, that happens continuously. But on the consoles, the technology is rigid, so it wont change that much. The PC will continue to be better in graphical performance than the consoles. As for whether the bar will be raised, it depends. People who don't play PC games will look at the last PlayStation 2 FPS for the FPS benchmark, so that's Medal of Honor or FireWarrior. People may see Halo 2 as the benchmark if they have both consoles.

On the topic of Killzone tho..while it looks good, really good, i seem to remember the early pics of vice city on the ps2 looking amazing, and being disappointed as hell to play the jagged, fogged mess that wa sps2 vice city. The pics released for killzone so far are all high res images, that probably look alot better than the game will on most T.V's. A couple of high res screenshots does not a great game make.