Since Sega announced the demise of the Dreamcast and its strategy for future third party development, the concept of seeing Sega games on a Nintendo platform has become more and more acceptable.
In a recent interview with Ngenres, Peter Moore, president of Sega of America and COO, has spoken candidly about the future of the Sega brand and the pivotal role any new platform will play.
When quizzed over the possibility that Sega has taken delivery of the latest version of the GameCube Development kit, Moore was surprisingly candid: “Not that I’m aware of yet. But, if you were to look at a Sega franchise that fits well on the GameCube then, obviously, Sonic is at the top of the list. And from our point of view, we’ll be looking very seriously at what GameCube has to offer, and I know that Yuji Naka, the creator of Sonic, really likes the GameCube hardware so ultimately, it’s not going to be a shock to anybody if Sonic shows up on GameCube. I think the demographics match, from what I understand, GameCube will appeal to [a lot of people]. Sonic certainly is a character everybody in the business knows.”
Moore then went on to discuss the development strategies of Sega with a less than flattering comparison to our old friend, Electronic Arts. “Well, the assets are our Ten Studios... nine studios in Japan, and Visual Concepts here in the US. [Sega has] an incredible array of franchises that have been grown from within. The difference between us and EA is that we pretty much nurture all of our franchises, whereas EA, if you look at who they are, well they’re NFL, NBA, Hockey, Tiger Woods, Harry Potter, Nascar, and these are all licensed properties from outside. Whereas we are, obviously, Sonic, but then Phantasy Star, Crazy Taxi, Shenmue, Jet Grind Radio, these are all unique – there’s Seaman, Space Channel 5, I mean these are incredible games that we’ve built from within, that we have not licensed. Now, obviously, we do a lot of licensing as well, but our assets are an incredible library. I don’t know how far back you go with Sega but, Panzer Dragoon, Shinobi, Nights, Golden Axe, Altered Beast.”
Sega is definitely planning something big to move its older properties forward. Shinobi and Golden Axe for the Dreamcast must be two of the greatest games never made. When pushed, Moore refused to rule out the possibility of any game on any platform.
“Well, these are all things that we can do. I mean, great games that people instantly recognise,” he said. “. But, the thought of a new Panzer Dragoon on, let’s say PS2... These are the types of things that we can pull out of our hat, we’ve been in this business - the videogame business - for twenty years.”
Things are certainly looking up for Sega. It will be a great relief for the company to shed the skin of being a struggling hardware manufacture and assume what many may argue its rightful role as one on the planet’s leading software companies.
In a recent interview with Ngenres, Peter Moore, president of Sega of America and COO, has spoken candidly about the future of the Sega brand and the pivotal role any new platform will play.
When quizzed over the possibility that Sega has taken delivery of the latest version of the GameCube Development kit, Moore was surprisingly candid: “Not that I’m aware of yet. But, if you were to look at a Sega franchise that fits well on the GameCube then, obviously, Sonic is at the top of the list. And from our point of view, we’ll be looking very seriously at what GameCube has to offer, and I know that Yuji Naka, the creator of Sonic, really likes the GameCube hardware so ultimately, it’s not going to be a shock to anybody if Sonic shows up on GameCube. I think the demographics match, from what I understand, GameCube will appeal to [a lot of people]. Sonic certainly is a character everybody in the business knows.”
Moore then went on to discuss the development strategies of Sega with a less than flattering comparison to our old friend, Electronic Arts. “Well, the assets are our Ten Studios... nine studios in Japan, and Visual Concepts here in the US. [Sega has] an incredible array of franchises that have been grown from within. The difference between us and EA is that we pretty much nurture all of our franchises, whereas EA, if you look at who they are, well they’re NFL, NBA, Hockey, Tiger Woods, Harry Potter, Nascar, and these are all licensed properties from outside. Whereas we are, obviously, Sonic, but then Phantasy Star, Crazy Taxi, Shenmue, Jet Grind Radio, these are all unique – there’s Seaman, Space Channel 5, I mean these are incredible games that we’ve built from within, that we have not licensed. Now, obviously, we do a lot of licensing as well, but our assets are an incredible library. I don’t know how far back you go with Sega but, Panzer Dragoon, Shinobi, Nights, Golden Axe, Altered Beast.”
Sega is definitely planning something big to move its older properties forward. Shinobi and Golden Axe for the Dreamcast must be two of the greatest games never made. When pushed, Moore refused to rule out the possibility of any game on any platform.
“Well, these are all things that we can do. I mean, great games that people instantly recognise,” he said. “. But, the thought of a new Panzer Dragoon on, let’s say PS2... These are the types of things that we can pull out of our hat, we’ve been in this business - the videogame business - for twenty years.”
Things are certainly looking up for Sega. It will be a great relief for the company to shed the skin of being a struggling hardware manufacture and assume what many may argue its rightful role as one on the planet’s leading software companies.
Companies:
SEGA
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