Revisiting AM...

Regarding the AM development houses which changed names (except AM2 I guess), can someone reclarify wha tthey are exactly? Are they directly development houses under Sega? Or are they development houses working with Sega?

-Chanchai

 

To the extent of my knowledge, the former AM houses work directly under CRI, Sega's parent company - but aren't entirely subjected to Sega, from a business point of view; that move towards a greater autonomy of the dev. teams was perhaps a telltale sign of a willingness to shift the development focus of the houses sometime in the near future for a multiplatform effort, although a more immmediate reason would be to provide them with more immediate cash flow, cutting a chunk of the bureaucracy involved (i.e. having to ask Sega for funds, and that in turn having to ask CRI - why not CRI directly?) - and also, perhaps, shileding them to a certain extent from the ups and downs of Sega's financial blues, so that it wouldn't have to directly affect title development.

cheers,
M.