Recently...

"The latest issue of respected UK games magazine Edge boasts a well researched piece on Sammy Corporation and its recent activity with Sega. The feature even includes a short interview with Sammy's boss Hajime Satome. Maybe it was just me, but the tone seemed amusingly sardonic; the last question posed to the pachinko punk was "What do you think is Sega's finest game?" To which he answered "Sonic." Oh, and then he remembered - "Phantasy Star Online" as well. Well done Hajime!

Far more interesting was a paragraph suggesting what all Sega fans fear most: that Yuji Naka, Yu Suzuki and Toshihiro Nagoshi will all follow the lead of Mizuguchi-san and do a runner. "There are reports from Japanese insiders that the mood is very bleak at Sega. Some say that Sega president Hisao Oguchi, who opposed the Sammy merger, will have no option but to resign, and that key Sega staff, such as Nagoshi, Naka and Suzuki, will follow." That's good to hear isn't it, chaps? "


Yuji to call it a day?

 

Yu Suzuki

What the hell is going to happen to VF if there is'nt Yu Suzuki?

 

Two words: It's Kikizo. Adam Doree is about as reliable (and respected amongst the old-timers here - anyone remember that DC VF3tb review? Good stuff!) as a magic 8-ball.

Then again, Suzuki ain't at AM2 anymore, either.

 

Nice one idiots.
Read some Ohguchi comments from when he first became top dog at Sega, HE was the one who shot down Namco, HE was the one who said he wanted closer ties with Sammy and pursue further possibilities with them, way back before summer;
Naka didnt mind either since he has worked with sammy from before these shenanigans started on the Sonic Pachinko machine.
etcetera etcetera.

 

completely off subject, but hit me up and lets play some vf...having a bunch of people over tomarrow for the UFC fights. Send me a pm

 

Of course things ain't just bleak at Sega, the whole industry is undergoing the horrible transition to a tighter business model.

Companies like EA and Take-Two now threaten to gobble the whole industry up, which is why so many developers are forced into mergers they'd rather not have. I doubt very much Sega wanted to merge with Sammy but had to accept it in the end.

It's no wonder top directors/producers are getting disollusioned and want to head-it alone. Only a few years ago these guys were given relative freedome to persue their ideal projects, but not any more.

 

It's quite sad that the American "bottom line" game design theory is taking over the industry... it's impressive and amazing to me that so many companies take risks with their games, like Capcom, Konami, Nintendo.

Really, when the world finally starts to look at games as art, rather than looking at them as art, rather than a time wasting medium, maybe games will evolve further. As of now, many companies have found that if they can milk a concept, they should so that they can survive as a company.

Thank god that there are still those creative development studios that will continue to push entertainment software in ways it has never gone before. Without them, well... games would be utter crap.