Romier S
Senior HTF Member
- Joined
- Sep 2, 1999
- Messages
- 3,525
Well here it is. The new restructured studio setup for Sega has been completed. I was hoping to see Smilebit remain autonomous but its merger with Amusement Visions could make for some interesting titles. Now that this has been completed can we PLEASE get back to announcing and developing the games that made me fall in love with Sega in the first place (Altered Beast PS2 and Vectorman are not those titles)
http://www.gamers.com/news/1429918/
Heres the restructure with my comments below:
Sega has completed the contraction of its development subsidiaries, creating seven teams where there once were nine, reports Mainichi Interactive. Some teams have been combined with others, but none have actually been eliminated. Rather, Sega hopes to streamline and refocus its teams in order to create more hit titles over the next five years.
The new structure works out as follows:
Sonic Team combines with United Game Artist.
This team will focus on popular titles for more casual gamers -- Sega likely wants to balance Sonic Team's focus on mass-market games with UGA's creativity.
-The focus for this restructuring is of course to increase overall sales and add more focus to game development. With that, I hope that the Sega of the future continues taking chances and with these 2 studios combining I'm hoping Rez 2 is a possibility and with that a decent marketing push behind it. (I can dream).
Hitmaker combines with Sega Rosso.
This team is to focus on new types of games for new hardware.
-New type of games eh? I would figure UGA would have been a better selection here as Hitmaker, though a good studio is not as well known for its creativity as UGA or say Smilebit.....IMHO. In fact..I'll get to that later on...
Wow Entertainment combines with Overworks.
A rather odd fit -- the makers of House of the Dead combined with Sega's premier RPG team -- but this group's focus is on games for all age groups.
- Odd indeed. House of Arcadia? Skies of the Dead?
Lets hope not. Should be interesting to see what these two studios come up with in the future.
Amusement Vision combines with Smilebit.
A meeting of two extremely talented teams -- this team will focus on creating movie-like experiences.
-Amusement Vision if memory serves are the folks handling F-zero and known for the Daytona series. Mind you I have very little trouble with these 2 studios working together considering, as noted above, both are exremely talented. However a union of Smilebit and UGA would have m foaming at the mouth to see what they could come up with.
Sega-AM2 will remain independent, but with the departure of Yu Suzuki, its focus will shift even more towards games for serious gamers, especially fighting games.
Meanwhile, Sega will also create two entirely new teams. One of the two new teams will focus solely on sports games, using staff drawn from Smilebit and Amusement Vision (likely those responsible for the "Let's Make A Pro Sports Team" titles and the Virtua Striker series). The other will be headed up by Yu Suzuki, who has turned over leadership of the AM2 division to Hiroshi Kataoka. Suzuki's new team will be built around his hit properties, like the Virtua Fighter and Shenmue series. This holds out the strange possibility of the Shenmue series continuing, despite its commercial failure in the past.
Hopefully, these moves will help Sega more effectively direct the considerable talent at its disposal. We'll continue to update with more news on Sega's reorganization as it arises.
My only other comment here is that I'm excited to see what the future of Sega holds. Can't wait to start hearing some game announcements!
http://www.gamers.com/news/1429918/
Heres the restructure with my comments below:
Sega has completed the contraction of its development subsidiaries, creating seven teams where there once were nine, reports Mainichi Interactive. Some teams have been combined with others, but none have actually been eliminated. Rather, Sega hopes to streamline and refocus its teams in order to create more hit titles over the next five years.
The new structure works out as follows:
Sonic Team combines with United Game Artist.
This team will focus on popular titles for more casual gamers -- Sega likely wants to balance Sonic Team's focus on mass-market games with UGA's creativity.
-The focus for this restructuring is of course to increase overall sales and add more focus to game development. With that, I hope that the Sega of the future continues taking chances and with these 2 studios combining I'm hoping Rez 2 is a possibility and with that a decent marketing push behind it. (I can dream).
Hitmaker combines with Sega Rosso.
This team is to focus on new types of games for new hardware.
-New type of games eh? I would figure UGA would have been a better selection here as Hitmaker, though a good studio is not as well known for its creativity as UGA or say Smilebit.....IMHO. In fact..I'll get to that later on...
Wow Entertainment combines with Overworks.
A rather odd fit -- the makers of House of the Dead combined with Sega's premier RPG team -- but this group's focus is on games for all age groups.
- Odd indeed. House of Arcadia? Skies of the Dead?
Lets hope not. Should be interesting to see what these two studios come up with in the future. Amusement Vision combines with Smilebit.
A meeting of two extremely talented teams -- this team will focus on creating movie-like experiences.
-Amusement Vision if memory serves are the folks handling F-zero and known for the Daytona series. Mind you I have very little trouble with these 2 studios working together considering, as noted above, both are exremely talented. However a union of Smilebit and UGA would have m foaming at the mouth to see what they could come up with.
Sega-AM2 will remain independent, but with the departure of Yu Suzuki, its focus will shift even more towards games for serious gamers, especially fighting games.
Meanwhile, Sega will also create two entirely new teams. One of the two new teams will focus solely on sports games, using staff drawn from Smilebit and Amusement Vision (likely those responsible for the "Let's Make A Pro Sports Team" titles and the Virtua Striker series). The other will be headed up by Yu Suzuki, who has turned over leadership of the AM2 division to Hiroshi Kataoka. Suzuki's new team will be built around his hit properties, like the Virtua Fighter and Shenmue series. This holds out the strange possibility of the Shenmue series continuing, despite its commercial failure in the past.
Hopefully, these moves will help Sega more effectively direct the considerable talent at its disposal. We'll continue to update with more news on Sega's reorganization as it arises.
My only other comment here is that I'm excited to see what the future of Sega holds. Can't wait to start hearing some game announcements!
