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Sega Studios To Be Amalgamated In Sammy Merger
jasoncart writes "News from Japan today informs us that the Sega-Sammy merger is progressing apace ahead of the October completion date, with the announcement of new appointments at the holding firm, and news that 'Sega's seven internal divisions, including famous studios such as AM2 and Sonic Team, will be amalgamated ahead of the merger.' Sammy boss Hajime Satomi argues: 'I feel that Sega has high individual capabilities, but it's too separated into different subsidiaries... It's about time that we returned back to the old Sega' - there's also a new company logo for the holding company. At a time of great change for Sega, the only thing now certain is this great shift, with which Sammy aims to push Sega back into profitability."
Is it me, or does that logo look ghetto as hell?
Well, I like the new logo, and I can only hope that this will lead to better games from Sega. I can't recall the last Sega game I played.
I remember having some interest in Sonic Heroes, but horrible reviews dropped it to the bottom of my list of games to check out, and I still have yet to bother.
What else have they produced lately?
I do have some doubts about how well Sammy will manage Sega.
Not to be offtopic here, but wasn't there a lot more posts than this 5 minutes ago?
amalgamate
v. To mix or alloy with mercury.
That's right folks! Sega's seven internal divisions will soon be incinerated inside a giant cauldron!
Today, Sega doesn't seem like much to me. They make a Sonic game once and a while, and they make sports games. What else do they do? Sure they released Toejam & Earl III (which wasn't supposed to be too hot), or occational House of the Dead sequels, but let's get them making a bunch of games again. They seem to be stuck in sequel-ville with many other parts of the industry.
If it makes Sega better, I'm all for it.
But get a better logo. Use the old Sega logo from the 16bit days.
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
Sega and even Sammy's own individual logos looked much more appealing. If I didn't know better I'd guess that it was the logo of some random manufacturer or rice cookers or appliances. Their old logos just had that coolness, and white and blue go with almost anything... Now they're Luigi colored...
Maybe the reason I can't think of more Sega stuff is the advertising. Sega used to have FANTASTIC advertising. I already mentioned the Sega scream. I remember the commercial for the Game Gear where they had a guy playing a Genesis on a plane and there was a big orange extention cord that went to the ground, and after a second the cord got pulled out of the wall and the guy couldn't play any more. Then they showed the teenager next to him playing Sonic on the Game Gear and talked about how great it was. Then the flight attendant came up with the cart and asked the question that I will never forget: "Coffee? Tea? Water? SEGA!!!".
And how about those awesome commercials they had for the Saturn. Remember the "Theater of the Eye" commercials? Where they'd show some of the awesome graphics of the system (often Panzer Dragoon, IIRC).
Maybe Sega could use some help in the brand name department. Make it stronger, like it used to be.
Also, yes I have played Sonic Advanced 1 and 2 and they were great games, but we need more than that (before anyone mentions them). They also "felt" different than the old school Sonics, but I'm not quite sure how. Starting with just releasing the "four main" Sonic games as a GBA cart would be great (1, 2, 3, and Sonic & Knuckles). Or release Sonic CD for the GBA. You could compress the music, and the platform is powerfull enough you could do a very good job of it.
PS: Sonic CD is my all time favorite Sonic game, I think it's the best they ever made. Too bad so many people have never played it.
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
Maybe they should bring back that weird midi-effeminate-guy-choir that sang, "Se-Ga!" at the start of the games. Now, with support for different sound schemes, we can have that theme song played around the user, circling around until the user gets dizzy ;)
0- Eamonman Proud member of DNRC
I remember the Sega marketing engine made a small sputter towards the old school Sega commercials (with the SEGA scream) around SegaNet's launch. Couldn't tell you what happened there, but it was at least an attempt to go back to that "old school" marketing trend you've mentioned.
Sega was hip and did titles that meant something during the Dreamcast era, yet no one bought into it (Space Channel 5, Sea Man, Jet Set Radio, Shen Mue, Typing of the Dead, Rez ((ok...it got a limited Japanese release on DC)) and Phantasy Star Online...just to name a few). *That* was when Sega was making their come back publishing/backing genuinely great ideas, yet it felt like no one wanted to support it (going back to marketing...it isn't as if they helped themselves by not running more advertising...). I sometimes think we don't deserve this romanticized Sega we talk about, because we'll just piss on it anyways.
P.S.: I agree. Sonic CD is by far my favorite Sonic.
I will note that Sega reverted back to the scream commercials for the Saturn some time after launch but it was too late at that point and they had lost that generation of consoles.
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Sega - The Atari of the new millennium
To me they have always seemed like fantastic ads. They really caught your attention, and if you didn't pay attention the first time you made sure to keep alert for the next time they were on. They showed off some of ther great graphics and peaked your interest in the product. The fact that I still remember them to this day shows the effect that they had on me.
That said, I can COMPLETELY see the wisdom in including more "traditional" ads. Ones that were just footage of games with a voiceover talking about the system or some such. The combination could be very effective.
I really liked the "old" sega. Maybe it's all just nostalgia because I was about 9 or 10 during the height of the Game Gear and the Genesis and Super Nintendo; and I see that as sort of a golden age of games in some senses. Either way I still think Sega could be doing a better job today than they are.
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
I already thought up a new name for this merged company:
SEGA + Sammy = SMEGMA
Buy the Phantasy Star Collection for GBA and the Sonic Mega Collection for GCN. I know that the Sonic Mega Collection is a Players' Choice title now because of how popular it is.
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Originally parsed the title as "Sega Studios To Animate Sammy Hagar"...as if that was necessary!
"If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in 5 years there'd be a shortage of sand". -Milton F.
Hooray for destroying the different studios within Sega! Hoopefully they got rid of that pesky Smilebit, with their hip attitude and fun games, they might bring shame to Sonic Team!
I dont see how one studio will be able to keep track of all the different games that the old ones were making. I mean, whether they're in 10 buildings or 1 shouldn't make a difference, but I can bet that they'll get rid of a lot of the redundant positions ("Six producers!? One is enough to make pachinko machines!")
I'm just bitter.
oh, wait Sammy Merger
That man tried to kill mah Daddy
I don't know what 'amalgamated' means you insensitive clod! Seriously, I don't know and I'm too lazy to look it up on dictionary.com
-Dipster
Not too lazy to post a retarded cliche post though are you?
they destroyed the Phantasy Star series with Phantasy Star Online (and its various incarnations).
If they remade the series from 1-4, they'd probably have huge success with it.
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