Apparently a former SEGA employee had a blog and wrote a post regarding the relations between Sonic Team and SEGA, and how the latter is pretty much forcing the team to release sonic games one after another (when they don't want to anymore) and milk the franchise as much as possible.
The blog was shut down after that post, but luckily someone recovered it and TSSZ news made an article about it. A pretty interesting read.
this goes a long way to explain the shortcomings of games produced by Sonic Team: They are forced to work on a franchise they no longer care about, and when they do get a chance to stretch their legs, it is under tight restrictions.
Doesn't mean it's true. If I were in Sonic Team I'd use the 'greedy corporation wouldn't let us do what we want' excuse, as I would want to take the least possible personal responsibility for the pieces of shit they've been releasing for the past decade
The owner of the blog wasn't from Sonic Team, he worked as a 'game evaluator' for SEGA. But he knew the people from the team and what they had to put up.
Welcome to corporations. That's just how it works. Many multimillion dollar companies keep churning out the same crap over and over again, much to the dismay of their employees.
SiKrAiKeN: While I don't think everyone here -is- a Ninja Turtle, I DO believe everyone here has the potential to be a Ninja Turtle. No doubt.
However, should we be so quick to blame sega for all of this.
An ancient chinese proverb says "don't hate tha playa, hate tha game"
The mainstream videogame market is well... boring and generic like most things in mainstream entertainment are. This is the game sega decided to play.
Sega made its name with the arcade kids way back, and to this day that's what they are best at. I just wish they could be happy with arcade respect and not desperately cling to a nonexistent opportunity for world dominanation.
It's funny in a way sega did the worst when they made their best stuff. They were in a bit of trouble near the end of the saturn and the dreamcast wasn't enough after the PS2 came out.
I remember reading a copy of next generation saying "it wasn't ever there games, it was just their hardware that was the problem". I was curious how they'd fare now that they'd be making stuff on the number one selling system ect. It wasn't till they started turning out some bad games or just kinda lackluster stuff that they became healthy again, along with that sammy merger.
Still they make enough for me to like the company.... no were near as much but enough.
Damn Tim, you know there are quite a few Americans out there who still lives in tents due to this shitty economy, and you're dropping loads on a single game which only last 20 min. Do you think it's fair? How much did you spend this time?
Sega made its name with the arcade kids way back, and to this day that's what they are best at. I just wish they could be happy with arcade respect and not desperately cling to a nonexistent opportunity for world dominanation.
but there is no beating around the bush. Fact is sonic is still making cash even if it is with sub par games.
landshark wrote:Welcome to corporations. That's just how it works. Many multimillion dollar companies keep churning out the same crap over and over again, much to the dismay of their employees.
Yeah. The business has grown so big that there certainly isn´t much of a "oh well, we don´t feel like making another Sonic game, thank you but no" attitude anymore.
And really, just because they don´t enjoy making more Sonic games doesn´t explain why games like Sonic 2006 are borderline unplayable. Unless they are trying to get fired, which would explain a lot. I don´t think Sonic team would do better on other games - I still remember how horrible Billy Hatcher was.
landshark wrote:Welcome to corporations. That's just how it works. Many multimillion dollar companies keep churning out the same crap over and over again, much to the dismay of their employees.
Yeah. The business has grown so big that there certainly isn´t much of a "oh well, we don´t feel like making another Sonic game, thank you but no" attitude anymore.
And really, just because they don´t enjoy making more Sonic games doesn´t explain why games like Sonic 2006 are borderline unplayable. Unless they are trying to get fired, which would explain a lot. I don´t think Sonic team would do better on other games - I still remember how horrible Billy Hatcher was.
Sega are such idiots, what a fokking waste or resources, waste of good games, what a disgrace to ex and current employees. I want to buy Sega and rule the game world with that brand. And keep all the developers, music writers, artists and fire all those idiots that let Sega die. Then rehire all laid off employess and employees that left and let's run this motha! Are you with me?
The Sega 80's crowd grew up and turned Playstation simple as that. They are like marketed through the media with EA this and that. The 2% fan base that are left from 80's and 90's are no longer enough to keep Sega pumping millions into new franchises. I am 37 years old and I don't know many people who played Shinobi in 1987 playing much these days from Sega.
It was Sega's decision to keep making arcade games when arcades were dying. To make consoles that didn't appeal to mass market. Sonic is the only icon they have left to milk. So let them get on with it, I will duly walk past any Sonic game. I actually played the latest PSN demo last night and it was ok, but really its a rehash of the 99000 Sonic games that went before it.
Sonic Team need to get away from cutesy nights and sonic games. Every now and again a company needs to dive into something a bit more gritty.
This industry has become 2 dimensional as it transcended into a 3D world.
Sonic and "it's team" should have been dead long ago if it were any other game character involved here.
There's little excuse for the appalling games (discounting a few 2D efforts)
they made the last few years.
Last Sonic I enjoyed was SA1 on the Dreamcast.
neorichieb1971 wrote:Sonic Team need to get away from cutesy nights and sonic games. Every now and again a company needs to dive into something a bit more gritty.
They tried that, and the result was Shadow the Hedgehog. Let's hope they never try it again ..
They really should replace "NTSC-U" with "WPV" on the covers of all new games. Though I'd imagine the PAL-ers might have something to say about that...
And back to the topic at hand: It's Japan. What gives these people the audacity to demand they have even a shred of happiness at their job?
I can only wonder if it's worse on this front where you are now or back in the USA where you came from.
I can't remember the last Sega game I bought. It's like they suddenly gave up on making good games, and I just shrug my shoulders and couldn't give a shit let alone two.
BulletMagnet wrote:
GaijinPunch wrote:The white people version
They really should replace "NTSC-U" with "WPV" on the covers of all new games. Though I'd imagine the PAL-ers might have something to say about that...
Isn't Europe full of white people too.
"Sooo, what was it that you consider a 'good salary' for a man to make?"
"They should at least make 100K to have a good life"
...
I 'd like to say I wouldn't buy the WPV cause it's obviously not targeting me, but then I would have to toss out my JPN games too...
On topic, anybody who has been watching Sonic Team or Sega over the last 10 years has known the Yuji Naka was tired of Sonic a long time ago. The fact that the First Sonic Adventure came out half decent was a blessing.
I am not really surprised that the team members would rather be working on some other IP, but Sega pays their checks and they will have to deal. They could always work for EA...
neorichieb1971 wrote:Sonic Team need to get away from cutesy nights and sonic games. Every now and again a company needs to dive into something a bit more gritty.
They tried that, and the result was Shadow the Hedgehog. Let's hope they never try it again ..
Also an another result is Yakuza series (Ryu ga gotoku in JP), dude that's one of best series i have played in my life, the story is so deep... and dark. Fights are extremely satisfying. I envy you guys to get both first and second one on PS2. Though we know it's spiritual sequel series to Shenmue, it's great too
hey, yo! I forgot I bought HotD collection and Ghost Squad couple months ago. They aren't exactly new games, so it's not like Sega suddenly started creating good games again.
"Sooo, what was it that you consider a 'good salary' for a man to make?"
"They should at least make 100K to have a good life"
...
UnscathedFlyingObject wrote:They aren't exactly new games, so it's not like Sega suddenly started creating good games again.
They never stopped. This and last gen they produced: Panzer Dragoon Orta, Jet Set Radio Future, F-Zero GX, Virtua Fighter 4-5, Virtua Cop 3, Ryu ga Gotoku 1-3, Ryu ga Gotoku: Kenzan, Valkyria Chronicles, to name a few.
Virtua Cop 3 has gone too long without a home port- though that also used to be true of Ghost Squad. Hopefully Sega has plans for a "Virtua Cop Re-Birth: TRIPLE Threat Edition" as a PS3 Guncon 3 title featuring a graphically enhanced VC3.
Then again, a perfect Wii version of VC3 wouldn't be bad either. The arcade version's graphics haven't aged too badly, even if they're on original Xbox hardware.
Not a Zelda clone, not a Golden Axe Warrior sequel.
And all the other Golden Axe sequels were terribad, the straight to console ones less so than The Revenge of Death Adder. In that game, I believe you can play as a centaur right... and when you mount up on a creature, she magically gets people legs. And Thunderhead returns riding an ogre or something. You end up with a dwarf riding an ogre riding a chicken. Not sure how many white people were involved with that travesty, but there was probably a lot of acid involved either way.
Shit... I remember when I was excited about the idea of that new Altered Beast game years and years ago. And that 3d Landstalker remake for the PSP. Confidence in the SEGA brand's pretty damn low right now...
Last edited by BryanM on Sun Jan 11, 2009 5:10 pm, edited 1 time in total.
