It seems like SEGA of Japan once again forgot to renew their www.sakura-taisen.com domain name, and as a result the official Sakura Wars website is no longer accessible and simply displays a parking page (screenshot posted below). This isn’t the first time they forgot, as the same thing already happened in 2014. The domain name expires on 29th of December, which may explain why SEGA tends to miss the renewal. Nevertheless, they should be getting reminders via e-mail long before the domain name actually expires, so it’s curious to see how this continues to happen. Even more so given that this is still one of SEGA’s most iconic franchises in Japan, and also topped SEGA’s own poll for franchises that fans want to see revived. Unfortunately, this doesn’t inspire confidence that SEGA actually intends to resurrect the franchise anytime soon. In any case, SEGA should have some time left to recover the domain before anyone else can attempt to claim it.
That’s not as bad as deliberately letting the Dreamcast domain expire so fraudsters can create a fake marketing campaign and getting people to sign up for it. Sega really wants to save the $10 domain renewal on dormant brands.