Today marks the second anniversary for our website! It’s hard to imagine that we’ve been around for two years already. And while this year wasn’t the biggest in terms of SEGA game releases, a lot of changes have taken place at Sega, and several surprising announcements have been made. Below you’ll find an overview of some of the main stories we reported on over the past year.
Sega’s announcement that they would restructure the entire company earlier this year involved some drastic changes for the company. In particular, SEGA announced the downsizing and relocation of Sega of America to Southern California. What wasn’t mentioned at the time was that they would actually be sharing the same office as Atlus U.S.A. We witnessed long-time employees such as ClumsyOrchid leave Sega of America as a result of the downsizing, while RubyEclipse (who had left the company earlier) made a surprise return. The changes at SEGA of America were only a part of the restructure, however, as the entire entertainment business from SEGA-Sammy was consolidated in a newly established “SEGA Holdings”. A part of that holding company is the (also new) “SEGA Games”, which is basically the side of SEGA releasing console, PC and mobile games.
Later on this year, the newly establed Sega Game’s CEO Haruki Satomi made some interesting statements, not in the least acknowledging that, to some extent, they had betrayed the trust of their fans. He also recognized that SEGA used to be a stronger brand than it is now, and that he wanted to win back the customers’ trust and become a “brand” once again. These statements resonated with the fans in the West, but it’ll take a while before we can really judge whether or not Haruki Satomi can rebuild what SEGA has lost over the years.
For that matter, localizing Phantasy Star Online 2 would be an excellent way to start regain the fans’ trust. Yet despite having been announced back in 2012 for the West, the game still hasn’t been localized, and there’s little hope that this situation will change anytime soon. The announcement of the PS4 version of PSO2 in Japan revived interest in the title, but SEGA quickly smashed the hopes of the fans by stating they have no plans to localize that version of the game. Following that announcement, we reached out to SEGA to learn if anything had changed for the PC version. The answer was similar to the ones we’ve received in the years before: SEGA is still looking for a way to localize the PC version. Unfortunately, as time passes, it becomes increasingly unlikely that we’ll ever see the game released in the West.
All that said, this year’s biggest SEGA news didn’t actually originate from SEGA. Rather, it was the announcement of the Shenmue 3 Kickstarter at E3 that brought SEGA in the news, albeit not quite in a positive light. Yu Suzuki started a Kickstarter campaign to fund Shenmue 3, which raised over six million dollars, breaking Kickstarter records along the way. SEGA wasn’t part of campaign, other than granting Yu Suzuki the license to use the Shenmue IP to create a sequel. Fans are now asking SEGA to release Shenmue 1 & 2 HD, but it remains to be seen whether or not they will answer that plea.
In terms of localizations, SEGA released Project Mirai DX (3DS, you can find our review for the game here), Dengeki Bunko Fighting Climax (PS3 and PS Vita) and several 3D Classics games (3DS) in the West, with Yakuza 5 (PS3) still expected to be released this year. More recently, SEGA announced Valkyria: Azure Revolution, a new entry in the Valkyria franchises, but not a direct successor to Valkyria Chronicles. While the world is the same, Azure Revolution will be a Action RPG, using more of a fantasy setting than the previous Valkyria Chronicles titles. The reaction of the fans has been mixed. While many wanted to see the franchise return as an AAA console game, the fact that it’s not a true successor to the Valkyria Chronicles series has left some fans disappointed. But it’s still far too early to judge the quality of the game. We’ll know more once we get to play the Japanese demo of the game in February 2016, since it will be included with the (also newly announced) PS4 remaster of the original Valkyria Chronicles.
Meanwhile, Atlus seems to be going stronger than ever since they were acquired by Sega-Sammy. Just look at this list of games they’ve localized this year: Etrian Mystery Dungeon, SMT: Devil Survivor 2 Record Breaker, Attack on Titan: Humanity in Chains, Dungeon Travelers 2, Lost Dimension, Etrian Odyssey 2 Untold: The Fafnir Knight, The Legend of Legacy, Stella Glow and Persona 4: Dancing All Night. And they still have plenty of titles under development, not in the least Persona 5. Stella Glow was also the first SEGA-owned game they’ve localized since they were acquired by Sega-Sammy. It’s a good time to be an Atlus fan!
In many ways, this year seems to be one of transition for SEGA. Personally, I hope to see them broaden their horizons and bring more games overseas. There’s plenty of potential in the PC market as well, and SEGA has an endless library of games waiting to be ported. Next year will no doubt be an important one for the company, as we’ll start to see the effect of this year’s restructure. We’ll be there, as always, to report on the news as it arrives!
With all that said, we’d like to thank all the people reading our articles, posting comments or giving us feedback! Thanks also go to SEGA and Atlus for creating the games we spend so much time playing, talking and writing about. And last but not least, I’d personally also like to thank InTheSky and Kuronoa for their contributions to Segalization. This website wouldn’t exist if wasn’t for their help! Here’s to another year of Segalization!
