Sega Reprises Old Roles

[ZoNeD]

Straight From SpOnG.

"We can reveal this morning that Sega is currently in the process of licensing out a massive range of its key intellectual properties, in some of the biggest news regarding the firm since the Sammy buy-out from earlier this year.

Sources at various development studios in the US and Europe have been privy to an invitation to tender for the rights to create updates to some of the biggest Sega franchises, though the full story is slightly more interesting.

One source told us, “Sega of America has pitched the concept of westernising these franchises. So the ITTs have been given solely to studios in the States and Europe. The idea is to broaden the appeal of some under-exploited IP or to achieve greater sales of certain franchises outside of Japan.”

The list of IP that has been designated for western third-party development reads as follows:

House of the Dead

NiGHTS

Golden Axe

Virtua Cop

Streets of Rage

Shinobi

Crazy Taxi

Altered Beast

Of the above, Sega designated House of the Dead as being the most important franchise. Golden Axe had the lowest priority. We can confirm that Travellers’ Tales is in talks with Sega right now concerning one of the firm’s franchises that is not listed above.

There are two more games on the list from Sega, making a total of ten. At time of press, these were not available to SPOnG.

Expect updates and a slew of outsourcing announcements from Sega as the months roll on."

Why bother to rephrase when they say it so well over there :smash

 

[stack99]

nice .... I was going to post this great news.... sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet

http://news.spong.com/detail/news.asp?prid=7708

 

[reX dart: eskimo spy]

I'm not so sure this is great news. I mean, it could work out well. Nintendo has gotten some good results with its IP-licensing. But I am the only one who remembers Travellers' Tales track record of Sonic games?

And I'm not sure I trust NiGHTS in the hands of anyone but Sonic Team.

I fear that a lot of these games could be really badly Americanized.

Virtua Cop and House of the Dead as FPSes?

A GTA-Crazy Taxi hybrid?

A Max Payne-style Streets of Rage?

x 10

I don't mean to play devil's advocate here, but I'm a bit nervous. Hopefully they'll turn out well. :/

 

[it290]

Hmm, yes indeed. Nights? That should really, really stay in Yuji Naka's hands. I definitely don't like the sound of a Western-developed SOR game either. If a bad game is made, it could kill off some of these series for good. Let's just hope the QC is there.

 

[schi0249]

I have agree with the skeptisism. I worry that the "westernizing" could ruin some of these awesome series.

 

[ExCyber]

What bugs me the most about this is that all of the franchises they list except NiGHTS are already heavily inspired by western art/culture, which means that they probably want to "westernize" them in a gameplay style and marketing sense. I can only hope that they get developers who actually care about doing the franchises justice and don't license it out to publishers to treat it like a movie license.

 

[Pyrite]

Westernising? Bad move by Sega once again <_<

Lets see who should really be handling some of these titles :

House of the Dead -Namco

NiGHTS - Nintendo

Golden Axe - Treasure

Virtua Cop -Namco

Streets of Rage -Capcom

 

[Cloud121]

If my beloved Golden Axe is screwed up even in the SLIGHTEST, I will kill.

:devil

NiGHTS?! WHAT THE HELL?! NO! Make that Sonic Team only!

Golden Axe should be top priority.

😛

 

[axelblazeadam]

They should try to licence them out to dev teams who left Sega. I dread the thought of a western teams take on Streets of Rage. It almost certainly wont be a beat em up.

 

[reX dart: eskimo spy]

Originally posted by Zheræ@Sep 27, 2004 @ 01:14 PM

Westernising? Bad move by Sega once again <_<

Lets see who should really be handling some of these titles :

House of the Dead -Namco

NiGHTS - Nintendo

Golden Axe - Treasure

Virtua Cop -Namco

Streets of Rage -Capcom

[post=119823]Quoted post[/post]​

Those are actually some good ideas.

Although I sort of doubt Nintendo would be interested in a Sega license. They have their plate filled with the current GBA and GC, as well as the DS and 'Revolution' consoles. Capcom is very reluctant do make 2D games nowadays, and would probably make a Streets of Rage EX Alpha-type game. As for Namco, I personally am not a big fan of the Time Crisis series, but I certainly would be happy to know either series was in their capable hands. Treasure + Golden Axe = :bow

Unfortunately, none of these developers are very 'Western.' I could be wrong, but I was under the impression that all of these developers were Japanese. 🙁

 

[Daniel Eriksson]

I have agree with the skeptisism. I worry that the "westernizing" could ruin some of these awesome series.

I agree as well. I mean, c'mon who would want to se a "westernized" version of Nights? Poor Yuji Nakas masterpiece will probably be destroyed...

House of the dead could probably get done ok, as could Virtua Cop (considered decent developers get to work on them) but the others... no, I doubt that would work...

 

[link343]

Sweet!

 

[Alexvrb]

You have to ask yourself though: Is it better than nothing? I think it could be.

 

[Daniel Eriksson]

Yeah, that is another way to see it... Well, I wont say no, but id rather see that, as mentioned before, studios like Capcom and Treasure take care of this.

 

[Dud]

Originally posted by Alexvrb@Sep 28, 2004 @ 01:15 AM

You have to ask yourself though: Is it better than nothing? I think it could be.

[post=119894]Quoted post[/post]​

As with food, I'd rather eat nothing than a piece of shit. Maybe first, we need more information as to what developers are going to be working on these franchises. When I hear western developers, I think Rockstar North, id, Blizzard etc.--and that would be very bad. The only "western" developer I'd trust with a Sega franchise would be Rareware, and even then I would still be skeptical because they usually don't stray too far from platformers and FPSs.

 

[ExCyber]

The only "western" developer I'd trust with a Sega franchise would be Rareware

I can imagine Rockstar San Diego (fka Angel Studios, developer of Red Dead Revolver) doing a solid take on some of these licenses, though that might just be wishful thinking. Also I think Retro Studios has a shot; I didn't like the idea of first-person Metroid any more than the next guy, but I think they did a brilliant job all the same.

 

[it290]

I'd like to see Team 17 do HOTD.

 

[Pyrite]

I went to their site to see what they been doing and seems like Worms is the only game they work on another one that hits the dust after so many classics on the Amiga.

 

[M3d10n]

Wait. What about that horrendous Altered Beast game that is already under production by WOW Entertainment? Will they keep it Japan-only and make another game for USA and Europe?

IMO this sounds as bad as the ongoing trend of making US versions of Japanese movies/animes.

 

[Andrew225]

Hell all, I'am new(been lurking for awhile)

If this is true anyhow, I'am both excited and a bit worried especially being a long time fan of SEGA and these franchises.

Its true that a majority of SEGA's franchsies do have a western flavor to them(save for those created by Sonic Team and titles like Skies of Arcadia and Phantasy Star Online),however most of them have thier roots as made for arcade games like Outrun,Virtua Cop,HoTD, and Crazy Taxi. The problem however is that thier gameplay don't have a strong of a appeal with console gamers in this day and age;Virtua Cop and HoTD being prime exsamples since they're light gun games and the fact light gun games aren't that appealing as your every typical FPS.

I for one have always believed SEGA properties like Virtua Cop,Panzer Dragoon,Golden Ax and just to name a few have potential beyond what they currently are and wished SEGA tried new gameplay styles with them, and that seeing that they all have like cousins close what they are e.g. Panzer Dragoon(Drakan),Virtua Cop(F.E.A.R.) and etc. In fact, the thought of Midway successfully translating Area 51 into a FPS really makes like to see a Virtua Cop FPS.

While I do value these franchise what they're all about, I'am all for change. They say change is good, and good for the better. If SEGA believes that some of these properties have potential beyond what they are, I'm all for it given that they entrust them with a credible software developer who know what they're all about. The thought of the PS2 vectorman looking horrible made me think otherwise,but theres other talented software makers out there.

Now if you would like to know what software developers I would entrust some of these franchises to, it would be these:

-Surreal Software - Panzer Dragoon

-Insomniac - Vectorman

-Monolith - Virtua Cop

-Snowblind Studios - They would be perfect for handling a Golden Ax title. Their excellent handling of both Baldurs Gate😀ark Alliance and Champions of Norrath pretty much say GA would with them. Its also quite interesting for being only 12 man studio,they can turn out 2 of the best console RPG's to date.