Once upon a time, SEGA was one of the world’s best publishers and game developers. It might be hard for fresh-faced millennials to believe that, given the company’s perpetual spiral towards insignificance.
We grizzly, old bastards though? Those of us who grew up on a diet of good Sonic the Hedgehog games, Outrun, Shinobi, Golden Axe and watched SEGA’s 16-bit domination to its Dreamcast decimation might even feel a little betrayed. SEGA’s fall from grace has been a hard one to stomach.
SEGA, it seems, is finally starting to realise that chucking out sub-par Sonic game after sub-par Sonic game might not be in its best interests. Speaking to Famistsu (via Siliconera), Sega CEO and president Naoki Satomi admitted that the company has messed up, and wants to focus on making quality titles again.
“We did our best to build a relationship of mutual trust with older fans of Sega, but looking back, there have been some titles that partially betrayed that [trust] in the past 10 years.”
Yes, like just about everything starting with “Sonic.” Satomi insist that the copany is set to focus on quality again, instead of pushing games to market.
“Sega in the ‘90s was known for its ‘brand, but after that, we’ve lost trust, and we were left with nothing but ‘reputation. For this reason, we’d like to win back the customers’ trust, and become a ‘brand,’ once again.”
“I’ve been talking to the employees about how we should start putting serious consideration into quality from this point on,” said Satomi. “Especially in North America and Europe, where it’s always been more of a focus on schedules, I believe that if we can’t maintain quality, it would be better to not release anything at all.”
The company will look to one of its own acquisitions for inspiration: Shin Megami Tensei and Persona developer Atlus.
“As far as the Western market goes, we learned a lot from Atlus. If we can make a title with proper quality, I believe there’s a good chance for it to do well even in the West for players that like to play Japanese games.”
I’m going to cast aside my innate cynicism for a moment, and congratulate SEGA for figuring out something its fans have known forever; make great games and people will buy them. I’d love to see a renewed SEGA, and though we can never expect SEGA to enter the console hardware market again, we could, in an ideal future, see it stand proud as one of the better AAA game development houses.
Last Updated: July 8, 2015
kuuu(UMAR)rrrr
July 8, 2015 at 07:37
Seeing this trend in SquareEnix as well. Hopefully they can mend those bridges. I still love Sega and they can really push out some great games on the PS4…here’s looking to TGS.
Jonah Cash
July 8, 2015 at 07:40
One can only hope that they have really learned…
Ranting Raptor
July 8, 2015 at 07:47
Yeah, I’m not holding my breath here
Hammersteyn
July 8, 2015 at 07:56
A new Streets of Rage would be nice………just saying
Klipkop1980
July 8, 2015 at 09:00
I agree. I want so of this!
Hammersteyn
July 8, 2015 at 09:04
I used to that!
Skyblue
July 8, 2015 at 09:06
I still play it to this day, awesome game.
Hammersteyn
July 8, 2015 at 09:20
dat blast processing
Skyblue
July 8, 2015 at 09:08
Also, check out Streets of Rage Remade if you can. On PC but awesome mash-up and increased difficulty.
WitWolfy
July 8, 2015 at 08:24
Reading this makes me miss the “bit wars”.
Klipkop1980
July 8, 2015 at 08:29
*Puts shirt in front of mouth*- “Seeeeegaaaaaaaaaaaah”. The first thing you hear when you switched on Sonic the Hedgehog on Sega Megadrive…..anyone??? Nothing???? Ag Come onnnnn! 😀
Admiral Chief's Adventure
July 8, 2015 at 08:51
Ag, have an upvote for making me all nostalgic!
Klipkop1980
July 8, 2015 at 08:54
Thank you, Chief!
Kensei Seraph - Terran Ghost
July 8, 2015 at 10:07
That was my first thought when seeing the header.
Deceased
July 8, 2015 at 10:52
Klipkop1980
July 8, 2015 at 10:57
Oh man…that brought back memories of sitting on the carpet in my onnie some Saturday morning with a bowl of cereal next to me. Oh to be a children again….
Deceased
July 8, 2015 at 11:45
Then of course, after the SEGA startup, this next one is engraved into my brain:
Skyblue
July 8, 2015 at 09:09
So many feels in that header but so much betrayal since those days…