Sega Acquires Techosoft's IP.

[Stevens]

http://segabits.com/blog/2016/09/17/seg ... softs-ips/

I mean this could be good news no?

[Kaiser]

http://segabits.com/blog/2016/09/17/seg ... softs-ips/

I mean this could be good news no?

As long as they keep that idiot Tez Okano or whatever his name out, off those IPs, the same guy who said shmups SHOULD be easy and beatable by anyone with no effort. AND RUINED Thunder Force 6.

[xxx1993]

What if they redeem themselves with Thunder Force VII?

[Xyga]

A shmup full of safe spa... er, spots ?

[EmperorIng]

A shmup full of safe spa... er, spots ?

In Thunder Force V and VI, this encompassed the entire screen!

[TransatlanticFoe]

Blast Wind and Hyper Duel re-releases plz. No-one wants to be paying those Saturn prices!

A new Thunder Force in the vein of III, IV or V would be exceptional news.

[To Far Away Times]

That 3D Classics version of Thunderforce III will be amazing.

[FunktionJCB]

I'm going to remain pessimistic, and say SEGA will at best re-release a couple of titles in Japan only, and mostly forget about those IPs.

I would love to be completely wrong about this, but nowadays SEGA barely "exploits" it's back catalogue (Sonic excluded).
Where is Outrun? Virtua Fighter? Daytona? After Burner? Streets of Rage? And I could go on an on for ages.

Heck, they didn't even bother to release any new Mega Drive/Genesis titles on Steam in, I believe, 4 years!
Not even after they had a surprising huge sales surge after they added Steam Workshop support to those titles.

[FunktionJCB]

(Somebody remind me, Sega isn't in the pachinko biz, are they?)

Sega's parent company, Sega Sammy Holdings, is a huge player in the pachinko sector, through its Sammy subsidiary.

[Van_Artic]

I would love to be completely wrong about this, but nowadays SEGA barely "exploits" it's back catalogue (Sonic excluded).

you aren't, 50% at least

Where is Outrun?

on the 3DS, ported by M2, also they lost some trademarks

Virtua Fighter?

supposedly AM2 is working on a new version of VF5

Daytona?

we already got an updated XBLA/PSN port with online, plus they can't do shit with that series anymore as some trademarks expired

After Burner?

ABII is already on 3DS

Streets of Rage?

in development hell considering beat'em ups are just a dead genre now

And I could go on an on for ages.

when i see the state Sonic's in, i'm really happy they're not touching some other series of theirs
remember what happened with Project Altered Beast?

Heck, they didn't even bother to release any new Mega Drive/Genesis titles on Steam in, I believe, 4 years!
Not even after they had a surprising huge sales surge after they added Steam Workshop support to those titles.

mostly because there's literally nothing else they can port without getting permission from whoever the original developers were

the cows can only be milked for so long unless you have total control of a particular series
and i dont even need to tell you which one they DO have total control of, you mentioned it yourself


and phantasy star online 2, which is currently their #1 best seller in japan

[Despatche]

thank you for your assistance with countering this "pessimism". it ain't easy being blue

also! eight years later people still sincerely believe tf6, a game that is significantly better than everyone's beloved tf5, is so terrible

btw! high difficulty with no way in is what keeps people away from this genre. "being beatable by anyone" means having a mode that anyone can get into, which wouldn't affect a higher difficulty mode at all. touhou does this. cave games do this. people like those games because of this

[gs68]

If they paid money for the IP they ought to do something with it sooner or later. That's better than nothing. (Somebody remind me, Sega isn't in the pachinko biz, are they?)

Why is it suddenly a bad thing that Japanese companies do pachinko games?

Is it because of the whole K*n*mi crap that's been going on in the past year and a half? I mean granted, their ad for MGS pachinko was in poor taste and Erotic Violence had really bad timing, but they've had an active pachinko division since the early 90's.

[Despatche]

It's mostly meme-ing off the Konami thing. It's bad in Konami's case because they've been shitting all over their video game divisions for the past few years.

[gs68]

I suppose that's a fair point. Personally, I'm not terribly affected since I haven't cared about console Konami offerings since Gradius ReBirth (I don't play any of their AAA console series), and I still enjoy their current amusement offerings (mostly Bemani) whenever I get the chance, but I can see why recent opinion of 573 has been...wild, to say the least.

Anyways to get back on topic, I'm hoping we'll see TFIV preferably on a system I own (3DS), but hey, I'll be happy for people who own whatever platform it lands on.

And maybe TFII X68k, but I'm probably pipedreaming a little bit at that point.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Sega had acquired Creative Assembly, Relic and Sports Interactive quite a few years ago. Those keep making some pretty good-selling PC games that ARE Sega titles nowadays. A fairly heavyweight PC software producer & publisher by now. Seems to me this course of action was taken about the year 2005.

[Ghegs]

Daytona?

we already got an updated XBLA/PSN port with online, plus they can't do shit with that series anymore as some trademarks expired

You can still buy Daytona USA from the Xbox 360 store, which would suggest they still retain all the licenses they need. Also, they had previously released Daytona USA as Sega Racing Classic when they lost the Daytona license for a little while, so they have that option as well. I'm still hoping they'd release the game on Steam...

The Ferrari license is long gone, sadly. Good thing the PC port of OutRun 2006: Coast 2 Coast works great on modern systems and is cheap to acquire.

[gs68]

Personally I'm waiting for the (nonexistent) day that Daytona USA 2 and Sega Super GT get ports.

[BIL]

And maybe TFII X68k, but I'm probably pipedreaming a little bit at that point.

I'm more interested in this than anything else of their STG catalogue. A third Gold Pack with this and Thunder Spirits sounds like a great job for M2, haha. (I'd prefer some incarnation of TF1, for completion's sake, but the universe decrees every GP needs a version of TFIII)

Actually scratch that, if the fabled AC version of Blast Wind were to somehow turn up (or be reconstructed by capable hands, M2 pls) I'd boner for that too.

[Despatche]

Weren't there two versions, an earlier one called "Inazuma Saber" and then one just called "Blast Wind"? I figured the port was based on this second version.

[BIL]

Not sure on two versions (or even one tbh). I've seen Inazuma Blade used interchangeably with the supposed Blast Wind AC, on here and Gamengai... and of course there's that apparent screenshot of BW running in full 3:4, on TFGP2's manual reverse.

All very strange! I'm betting on Shou eventually coming up with something. BW (like Elemental Master) plays just fine as it is, but lawd it'd be interesting to see.

edit: lmao. I went to dig up old posts because my stuff is all packed up for moving ATM, and I could've sworn it was Hyper Duel's manual with the fabled Blast Wind tate screenshot, not TFGP2. Now I remember... the coverup!

[necrosonic]

I can see it now, a Thunder Force re-release but change all ship sprites to Opa Opa and call it Return to Fantasy Zone

Then reveal that Alex Kidd has been piloting Opa Opa the entire time!

[Kiken]

And maybe TFII X68k, but I'm probably pipedreaming a little bit at that point.

I'm more interested in this than anything else of their STG catalogue. A third Gold Pack with this and Thunder Spirits sounds like a great job for M2, haha. (I'd prefer some incarnation of TF1, for completion's sake, but the universe decrees every GP needs a version of TFIII)

The prior Gold Packs clearly had a Mega Drive theme going (even with the inclusion of AC in GP2). I doubt Technosoft would ever want to port Thunder Spirits to anything. Most likely, having obtained distro rights to it, Sega would probably get/give the green-light to Nintendo to throw it up on Virtual Console. I think a new Gold Pack should revolve around their earlier PC-based games, so TF, X68k TFII and maybe Herzog. Then you've always got the possibility of another Mega Drive themed pack that could include Herzog Zwei, Elemental Master and perhaps even Dragon's Fury/Devil's Crush MD... or go the arcade/intended-arcade route and release Hyper Duel and Blast Wind. Sega have loads of options depending on how many IPs they snagged with this deal.

Now whether or not they actually do anything with them is an entirely different discussion.

[pegboy]

So when can we expect a Thunder Force AC 2 lol?

[Spiralmind]

I want to see a Technosoft collection, including all the Thunder Force games, Elemental Master, Herzog Zwei. I'm sure this will never happen, but I can dream.

[Tokyo-J]

Hope they release Thunderforce IV as a PS1 Classic so I can play on my Vita

[JBC]

I want to see a Technosoft collection, including all the Thunder Force games, Elemental Master, Herzog Zwei. I'm sure this will never happen, but I can dream.

Aren't the 3DS M2 ports pretty popular? It suspect this was done specifically for that reason. I bet we see these on 3DS

(I've bought all of the sprite scalers so far )

[ezbman]

Would love to see them do a collection of some kind.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[AxelMill]

Here's a nice Thunder Force retrospective by Nintendo Life to celebrate.

[parodius]

Hope they release Thunderforce IV as a PS1 Classic so I can play on my Vita

Wut ?

[soprano1]

Hope they release Thunderforce IV as a PS1 Classic so I can play on my Vita

Wut ?

He probably meant V.