I thought this might be relevant
It turns out Famitsu is still useful for something
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I haven't had a chance to read this closely yet but in the meantime I thought i'd post the link. I may be able to translate a few bits latter tonight
The interview is with the two Sega 3D Classics producers, the president of M2 and another Sega employee named Naosuke Arai (a.k.a. YUNKER MATEI) who worked at Technosoft in the glory days--he wrote sound drivers and BGM for their MD output and became a director/producer during the 32-bit era (TFV and Hyper Duel are two STGs he directed).
The tl;dr is that the catalogue was in the possession of the former Technosoft president until his death around two years ago, and it was at that point that producer Okunari started agitating for Sega to acquire their library, with Aria acting as intermediary. Sega eventually bought the rights to the games from Twenty-one Company but the official transfer didn't happen until May of this year. (21c still retains the rights to sell soundtracks from the TS library.)
As for why they chose TFIII for the new 3DS compilation, it was both a scheduling issue (they didn't have time to do 3 and 4 or even just 4) and a result of 3 being the most popular game in the series.
They don't have any concrete plans for TF or other games, but Arai (who now works in R&D on emerging technologies) thinks it'd be cool to do a TF VR game.
With Sega owning the TF franchise, I'm hoping they do a TF VII that does something the existing 2.5D TF games haven't quite done- namely, capturing the intensity and challenge of TF IV. Given the power of PS4 or today's decent gaming PC, this should be possible now. TF IV about gets everything right.
One thing with serious potential would be a 2D TF IV remake developed by Dracue, who could then put the same TLC on it that they did with Assault Suit Leynos. Higher difficulties than Maniac could be added as well, for those who feel up to it. Adding an option to play as Styx ala the Saturn port would be fine.
Posted a translation of the more interesting sections of this interview regarding the old days at Technosoft, and some info about the making of TFII, III, and IV.
