Sega To Close Arcades, Cancel Games, Lay Off Employees

slugo writes with this excerpt from Wired: "The house that Sonic built is getting significantly smaller. Sega's Japanese main branch said Tuesday that it will close 110 arcades, cancel some games in development and seek to lay off 18 percent of its staff. ... Sega says it will chop 20 percent off its research-and-development budget for arcade and consumer games. The company plans to do this by 'consolidating titles to be developed' and 'enhancing the self-manufacture ratio.'"

Re:But...

[elrous0]

Only if we're lucky.

Re:

[drsquare]

If every time they beat a dead horse, a few more dollars come out, why would they ever stop?

There are too many people still buying their shitty games to make them stop, or actually produce something decent. There's a reason Sega crashed out of the console market and don't have any decent game franchises anymore: they're fucking shit at everything.

Re:

[homgran]

I have to disagree.

When Sega crashed out of the console market, they were releasing some of the best games of the generation. The Dreamcast, for all its faults, was home to some incredible games. I don't think anyone can deny it that.

If a console's success was measured purely on the strength of its games, then the Dreamcast would surely be one of the most successful consoles ever -- which is remarkable, considering its criminally short life-span.

So I'm afraid you're wrong. Sega may be making "shitty g

Re:

[e2d2]

You are a loon. I'd kill for a new version of my beloved Sega Dreamcast.

Re:

[jandrese]

We can only hope they fired the morons that took over Team Sonic and are forced to look for some less completely retarded people to take over for them.

Re:Sega had arcades?

[giostickninja]

Arcades are still alive and well in Japan, as I can attest from my recent trip there. I spent some time in a 7 floor arcade...one floor all UFO catchers, one floor all sticker booths (and mostly girls-only) with 5 for games. Expensive, though; the games used ¥100 coins; ~$1 at the exchange rate at the time.

Re:

[Joce640k]

Maybe so, but we have heard of Google...

Re:

[KDR_11k]

But you probably have them anyway even if you call them different names (UFO catcher = that game where you try to grab an object from the pile using a finicky grabbing crane, sticker booths = photo booths with the option to add stupid overlays over the photo before printing it).

for the google impaired

[rednip]

Sticker booths [ecplaza.net], aka photo booths like the ones you'll see at the beach, but they seem to be bigger. UFO catcher [wikipedia.org] aka claw vending machines like the ones you'll see at walmart.

Re:

[Mozk]

Why are claw vending machines (UFO catchers) legal? Most of them have potentiometers in them controlling the claw strength and payout percentage, so the operator controls how often the game can be won. It is not a game of skill, and it hardly even has anything to do with luck.

Re:

[giostickninja]

If you think our UFO catchers are bad, you should see the ones in Japan. Instead of 3 pronged claws, most of theirs have 2 prongs...and some have only one. Still possible to win, though, and I'm guessing they're popular because they're like legal gambelling. There's a strong seconed-hand market in Japan for the collectable toys you get from UFO catchers and gatchapon (capsule toy) machines. You could spend $100 and if you get a rare enough toy, make all your money back with some to spare.

Here's a two-prong

Maybe you SHOULD care

[Moraelin]

Who knew....

er. cared. arcades died in the 90's.

Maybe you should care about this, because they're also firing 20% of the R&D stuff "for arcade and consumer titles". But even that's a bit redundant, because most of their titles were developed for both. Most of Sega's own games were really arcade games.

So, sure, in the very short term they can probably live a year or two off just porting their existing arcade games to every platform out there. But in the long run I can't help feeling that Sega is making itself less and less relevant. They're hardly making games any more. They're making more and more ports and emulations of games they made 10 years ago, with the occasional rehash, remake or sequel thrown in.

How long _can_ they live off innovation and good ideas they had in the 90's?

At any rate, even without caring about Sega or its arcades per se, it's yet another step towards less original stuff in the games market. Yet another company is getting firmer and firmer set into making just ports and sequels. (Mind you, in Sega's case it had started going that way already, but this is another step down that road.) Now I'm not going to go in panic over it or anything, but it's hardly reason to be flippant about it either.

It works for hollywood, abc, nbc, cbs, the riaa...

[tomhudson]

"So, sure, in the very short term they can probably live a year or two off just porting their existing arcade games to every platform out there. But in the long run I can't help feeling that Sega is making itself less and less relevant. They're hardly making games any more. They're making more and more ports and emulations of games they made 10 years ago, with the occasional rehash, remake or sequel thrown in. How long _can_ they live off innovation and good ideas they had in the 90's?"

Lets see:

[X]

Bit of a black and white view

[Moraelin]

That's a bit of a black and white view. "X does it too" doesn't automatically make X equivalent, if the extent differs considerably. E.g., "Alice took a sick day too" doesn't make her equivalent to Wally who was sick half the year.

To go through your list:

[X] Hollywood does it

Hollywood makes plenty of new movies too, not just remakes and ports of the old ones. In fact, I don't think that remakes are that big a part of their income.

In fact, other than Lucas, I can't think of anyone whose main business for yea

Re:

[iluvcapra]

Hollywood makes plenty of new movies too, not just remakes and ports of the old ones. In fact, I don't think that remakes are that big a part of their income. In fact, other than Lucas, I can't think of anyone whose main business for years was re-releasing the same 10 year old movies, to the extent that Sega did lately.

While I cannot quote you figures right now, I can tell you most of the real revenue by the studios over the past decade has been generated by DVD sales, which is, in fact, nothing more than

DVD's are just a part of selling it

[Moraelin]

I see your point, and I'll even agree with you there, but DVDs are simply one of the many distribution channels of that product. It's planned from the start that the movie will be released in cinemas, on DVDs, on Blue Ray, etc. It's still the same product.

In a sense, it's the same as releasing WoW in a version on 4 CDs and a version on 1 DVD. It's still the same game, only on a different physical medium.

IMHO the equivalent to how Sega does its ports would be maybe if there's at least a re-mastering involved

Re:

[sznupi]

Are DVDs where you live released at the same time as cinema release?

Re:

[nicodoggie]

Yep. It's called: Piracy

Re:

[Aladrin]

Why should I care about their business model? I'm not a stockholder. If they produce a good game, I play it. If they don't... Well, nothing. It doesn't affect me at all.

If Sega goes out of business, that's just more room in the industry for someone else who might create good games.

So why should I care?

Re:Maybe you SHOULD care

[IBBoard]

So why should I care?

Won't someone please think of the hedgehogs!

Re:

[drsquare]

Maybe you should care about this, because they're also firing 20% of the R&D stuff "for arcade and consumer titles".

Hopefully that 20% will be the department for researching how to continually rape the corpse of Sonic.

Re:

[srothroc]

Arcades (aka game centers) are still very much alive and well in Japan. Sega operates a number under its branding and I'd be sad to see any of the local ones go.

Re:

[Dracil]

They actually have a pretty neat CCG RTS arcade game based on the Three Kingdoms era. It's also on the Nintendo DS.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdLtTPvzTls [youtube.com]

After each game you get a random card which you can use for future battles. I believe they are networked too so you can play with people around the country.

Re:

[Khisanth Magus]

There is also a very awesome arcade game based off of the Gundam anime, which I played frequently when I lived in Japan. It was the same type of thing, a CCG RTS game, although this one was kind of more similar to something like a real time Shining Force. They were also networked, although only some arcades had them hooked up to the network, other arcades only had local available.

'enhancing the self-manufacture ratio.'?

[Chrisq]

'enhancing the self-manufacture ratio.'?

What does this mean? Outsource development to offshore companies?

Publisher

[Moraelin]

Well, they were already a publisher too, which pretty much _is_ outsourcing. I guess they'll just stick to more of that from now on.

Re:

[NonSequor]

I've never heard this term before and I can't find any definitions but I'm guessing that since they say manufacture that this probably has to do with physical production (printing discs etc.).

The production facilities that they own have a limited capacity and this may mean that they want to avoid paying a premium to other companies when their production needs exceed the capacity of their in-house facilities.

Basically I think they're saying that in the face of a recession that they would rather risk not bein

Re:

[PhoenixOne]

Sega actually *does* outsource some of its work to the US.

Oh, damn

[Kokuyo]

I know a guy who's going to need a strong drink today... poor sod.

Sega and the decline of Sonic

[religious freak]

Sorry, but as far as I'm concerned they killed Sonic when they turned him into a monstrous, slow werewolf and killed everything that made Sonic good. Why should I have to play a slow, sub-par action game to get to the good, fast Sonic levels?

What else do these guys even make? It's kind of a shame to see them in such shape since they were a pioneer, but they need to make better decisions.

Re:

[Shrike82]

Perhaps this will signal a return to past form? If they have any sense at all they may take note of the lukewarm reception of their latest Sonic titles by the press and the public, and decide that perhaps these games weren't as awesome as they thought.

Somewhere along the line they forgot what it was that made their games such hits...

Re:Sega and the decline of Sonic

[epistemiclife]

Actually, Sega makes a a significant number of excellent titles which no one buys, especially in America. It just so happens that Sonic Team's games sell well because they have the most mass-market appeal. Recently examples of others include the four Yakuza games, Valkyria Chronicles (the best game I've played in several years), Virtua Fighter 5, Virtua Tennis 3, and Outrun 2006. Since you mentioned Sonic, very few people are complaining about the excellent Sonic Rush games. Most of the games that people complain about not games developed by Sega of Japan, but games merely published by Sega. And to be fair, Sonic Unleashed is not a bad game. The werehog levels are not action levels; they're platforming levels. People complain that it's slow, but they only complain that it's slow because it's a Sonic game. If it had been any other slow platforming character, like all of the others, no one would have been outraged, even if they had disliked the gameplay. I think that including the levels was a bad decision, but I don't think how some evaluated it is very even-handed. Sonic games are aimed primarily towards kids, and they seem to like Sonic Unleashed, overall.

Re:

[VinylRecords]

Virtua Fighter 5, Virtua Tennis 3, and Outrun 2006

How can you claim these are "excellent"? They're trash! Maybe they would have been acceptable 6 or 7 years ago, but not to today's gamer.

Virtua Fighter 5 is the sequel to Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution, generally considered to be the greatest fighting game of all time and one of the greatest games in the history of gaming.

Virtua Fighter was the first 3D fighter and is a legendary franchise. Even now years and sequels later, Virtua Fighter 5: Online for the X360 has gotten excellent reviews and it's arcade only sequel, Virtua Fighter 5R (only in Japan) has been in the top five most played arcade games since it was released in Japanese arcades an

Re:

[KDR_11k]

Perhaps this will signal a return to past form?

You know how often people already thought that?

Re:Sega and the decline of Sonic

[mog007]

Didn't Sega re-release their old Sonic games for the Genesis a few days ago for the PS3 and 360? I'm all for nostalgia, but come on guys, you already released that sort of collection during the last console generation. Maybe they're going broke because they're out of ideas and they're trying the EA approach: make the same thing year in and year out.

Re:

[elrous0]

Are you kidding? Sonic 2009 is WAY better than Sonic 2008!

Re:

[Cheeko]

The original Sonic has been on Live Arcade for over a year.

As have many of the other great old Sega games. I still love playing them, but I'd hardly call this new content. Its great to have them, but its hardly a significant source of revenue. Seeing new games that will end up on Live arcade in 10 years would be preferable to me.

Re:

[Bemopolis]

Maybe they're going broke because they're out of ideas and they're trying the EA approach: make the same thing year in and year out.

Actually it sounds more like Disney before the Pixar acquisition.

Re:

[Gizzmonic]

The SEGA of today is not the SEGA of yesteryear. That company went away when Sammy bought them. Nowadays they publish decent games, but most of the inhouse development is rehash or bargain bin trash.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

Sorry, but as far as I'm concerned they killed Sonic when they turned him into a monstrous, slow werewolf and killed everything that made Sonic good. Why should I have to play a slow, sub-par action game to get to the good, fast Sonic levels?

What else do these guys even make? It's kind of a shame to see them in such shape since they were a pioneer, but they need to make better decisions.

Sega will be publishing Aliens vs Predator 3, an Aliens RPG, and Alines: Colonial Marines (A pure Aliens FPS) all in 2010 (or possibly early 2011).

Respectively, the companies working on those are: Rebellion, Obsidian, Gearbox. You might know these companies for AvP 1, NWN2/MotB/KOTOR2 + former Black Isle stuff, and the Opposing Force mod to Half-Life 1 (plus some other games apparently).

The developers at Obsidian have said that Sega is an amazing publisher to work with, and given that game line-up (and the

Re:

[elrous0]

I remember when the first Aliens vs. Predator came out on the Atari Jaguar. If Sega can replicate even a fraction of that smashing success, I think they'll be around for a long time too.

Re:Sega and the decline of Sonic

[pizzach]

What else do these guys even make? It's kind of a shame to see them in such shape since they were a pioneer, but they need to make better decisions.

They made the highly lauded and extremely difficult F-zero GX in the GameCube era. They also created Monkey Ball series. As of late, they have released House of the Dead Overkill for the Wii. Coming up they are publishing, The Conduit and Madworld. These are all _extremely_ big games for the Wii.

As for Sonic...he has turned into junk food for little kids...and it shows. Little kids LOVE gimmicks and would be disappointed without one. This is the real Sonic to them no matter what you may think or say. This doesn't mean that Sega might try to make old school gamer fan service games every once in a while. (*Cough* Sonic the Hedgehog reboot on the 360)

I personally think if Ristar had been chosen by luck as Sega's main mascot in history, their 3D tradition would have gone a lot better. His stretching arms are begging for interesting 3D level design. Hell, it should even be a flexible design that could grow well over time. Unlike Sonic, if they created bawl sections or slow puzzle section, there wouldn't be purists screaming "That isn't Ristar!"

Re:

[misterooga]

That's SO not Ristar! By the way, does Sega have N.A. studio or will this be all in Japan? And yes, I didn't RFA.

Re:

[drinkypoo]

Kind of sounds like they're making but madworld is a sequel or a knockoff. Conduit is hl2+portal... or so it sounds.

Re:

[PeanutButterBreath]

As for Sonic...he has turned into junk food for little kids...and it shows. Little kids LOVE gimmicks and would be disappointed without one.

Sonic has always been junk food for little kids. The franchise has just been around long enough for some of those little kids to have grown up and out of it. Gimmicks? Did someone say "Blast Processing"?

Akihabara

[Taulin]

I really hope they are not closing their arcade in Akihabara. All my friends are amazed when I describe how thriving the arcades are in Japan. The bigger ones are usually comprised of about three or four stories, each with a different genre or games (fighting, shooters, etc). They are always busy, and it is an amazing feeling I haven't seen since the old days of Aladin's Castle. This news really saddens me.

-Phil
UrbanLegions.net - Online Super Hero Text-based RPG

R&D? Sega has new titles same old tech

[Anonymous Coward]

I haven't seen any R&D, that's why arcades are not as new and exciting as they could be. There will be a second coming and there will be profit for the right company. Segas shooting games just aren't cool anymore! New title same old game! Why can't your drive and shoot at the same time? arcades need some good R&D. Me and my friend John have been designing _many_ arcade games, were just to stoned to do anything about it.

Consolidation of Titles?

[MagusSlurpy]

So this means I can expect Super Sonic Ball!?

This just puts one more nail in the coffin that is

[Anonymous Coward]

Shenmue III.

Suzuki, you bastard. At least write the book.

Arcades?

[dukeofurl01]

I haven't seen an arcade in at least 6 or 8 years. I live in California.