SEGA CEO admits they betrayed fans' trust

[NoirSuede]

Bare in mind that they aren't just referring to Sonic, but other SEGA games as well such as the West being promised Phantasy Star Online 2 years ago and we still haven't gotten it, Sonic and All-Stars Racing Transform having some rather poor character choices for the PC version + the consoles never getting them, Several games never coming over here for unexplained reasons like 7th Dragon, Valkyria Chronicles 3, Phantasy Star Portable 2 Infinity, various SEGA AGES remastered games never coming here, and some of their other titles released during the 10 year period also weren't up to snuff.

 

One can also argue that it was because they were milking Sonic so much as well, that folks were just getting tired of it, which I can understand Japan Sega fans being angry about that since sonic isn't popular there.

 

 

Talk is pretty cheap at this point through, if their gonna do another Sonic, or Valkyria Chronicles, Golden Axe, NiGHTS, Phantasy Star, Virtua Fighter, Sakura Wars, Shining Force, WHATEVER, they better give their 100% on them. Otherwise the whole "Sonic is Dead" Internet blabber will become legit.

[Bowbowis]

What do you mean with ASRT having poor character choices of PC ?

 

Presumably he/she is referring some of the controversial picks for DLC characters (like the Yogscast).

 

Anyway, SEGA can talk about focusing on quality over deadlines all they like but until they do something about it it's just words on a page. Even if they do follow through longer development times are no guarantee of quality games; all the time in the world would not have saved Rise of Lyric, the game just doesn't work on a conceptual level. Bad ideas lead to bad games and no amount of polish will change that fact.

[NoirSuede]

Presumably he/she is referring some of the controversial picks for DLC characters (like the Yogscast).

 

Anyway, SEGA can talk about focusing on quality over deadlines all they like but until they do something about it it's just words on a page. Even if they do follow through longer development times are no guarantee of quality games; all the time in the world would not have saved Rise of Lyric, the game just doesn't work on a conceptual level. Bad ideas lead to bad games and no amount of polish will change that fact.

 

Hmm, maybe the reason Rise of Lyric was rushed was that they knew the game was fundamentally crap and that no amount of development time would save it, so instead of wasting time and money polishing a turd they instead rushed it to cut losses ?

[ChikaBoing]

Oh. Nepotism.

I can see why this company's gone downhill already.

Any other person who has overseen so many flops would have long been gone, unless he's new?

 

The CEO position is new, yeah, tough he was on the board since 2005

 

Satomi Senior probably stopped caring about Sega once they failed to get to the top 3 or top 5 of international publishers (a goal set in 2005).

 

https://www.segasammy.co.jp/english/pr/corp/profile.html

[Stritix]

Does this really mean anything though? I seriously don't think it does. I swear they've made numerous similar statement in the past that were just hot air.

[NoirSuede]

 

The CEO position is new, yeah, tough he was on the board since 2005

 

Satomi Senior probably stopped caring about Sega once they failed to get to the top 3 or top 5 of international publishers (a goal set in 2005).

 

https://www.segasammy.co.jp/english/pr/corp/profile.html

In Asian countries it's pretty common for a CEO of a company to put his kids in a lower position at said company in order to train him up as his successor.

Besides, if it really was nepotism then wouldn't Satomi Senior be arrested already ?

[-blank-]

Look. SEGA can say that they're going to focus more on quality, but words can only go so far. When they actually put this into action and come up with better quality for their products, then I'll take this to heart.

[MightyRay]

I'll believe it when I see it SEGA. Until then I'll be saving my money for other goodies. After all, the proof is in the pudding.

[LindseyWalker]

SEGA's in big trouble and something significant has got to change. The CEO is probably worrying for his job.

[Tornado]

In Asian countries it's pretty common for a CEO of a company to put his kids in a lower position at said company in order to train him up as his successor.

Besides, if it really was nepotism then wouldn't Satomi Senior be arrested already ?

There's nothing illegal about nepotism except occasionally in public office.

[Ming Ming Hatsune]

You see CEO, you can't say that and still bring out Sonic Boom: Fire & Ice.

[FriendBot]

You see CEO, you can't say that and still bring out Sonic Boom: Fire & Ice.

Well if Fire & Ice is going to better version of Shattered Crystal and it's quite possible that SC made up most of the 490-600k copies sold so yeah..... Not sure where you're going with this tbh.

[sonicDX]

I am really happy to hear this. This means maybe we still have some hope to get back the real Sonic. Now they might stop making Boom games.

But I can't really agree with that they screwed up in the past ten years. I think Sonic Riders, Generations, Unleashed, The Black Knight and Sonic X were great projects. They can be proud of them!

[Mania Pipe]

This sounds great and all, but I'm not going holding my breath for that until SEGA actually follows upon what CEO Hajime said. :I

[Short-Sleeved Nook]

Funny, I saw this article on Nintendo Life way before it was on TSS or TSSZ

The way I see it is this: great, everyone has been saying that about SEGA for years now, and SEGA is just finally discovering this for themselves? It's fine that they acknowledge it, but actually fixing the problem is a completely different thing...the question is, will they actually be different now? We'll just have to wait and see, but I'm personally sick of waiting: I gave up caring/hoping for SEGA's change a long time ago, so I really don't care what they do anymore. 

As for Fire & Ice, although I haven't purchased Shattered Crystal, I've played the demo and watched previews of the game: Sanzaru is passionate and they're really doing their best with these games! They put a lot of love into trying to make a game that would appeal to fans, yet would be for younger gamers (main fans of the Boom brand). In my personal opinion, although not very Sonic-like in terms of overall gameplay style, there's lots of Sonic love to be found here! Why bash Fire & Ice? Like Aaron Webber recently stated, it may not be the Sonic you want to see, but if you take the rose-tinted nostalgia glasses off, you'll see that the Boom games on 3DS are made with care, and should at least be respected as such.

[MiyaSaffron]

The way I see it is this: great, everyone has been saying that about SEGA for years now, and SEGA is just finally discovering this for themselves? It's fine that they acknowledge it, but actually fixing the problem is a completely different thing...

^^^ Pretty much my first thoughts.

I don't know, it's nice that they admitted they had a problem...the hopeful and optimistic part of me really wants SEGA to be able to pinpoint and focus on their flaws and then try to fix them...but then the pessimistic and realistic part of me is thinking that after so many years of disappointment, it's hard for me to really take this statement seriously. As people have said, once SEGA actually gets serious and starts actually taking action, then that's when I'll start taking them seriously.

[Char]

everyone has been saying that about SEGA for years now, and SEGA is just finally discovering this for themselves?

Given how likely they are to actually follow through with what they've said, maybe they just needed to make their periodic statement of apology and chose to put the blame into something most people would agree with.

 

Personally, I'm not sure what to make of this. I don't believe it would take anyone so many years and failed tries to realize what they are doing wrong, and as people have said, it's not the first time they apologize and then proceed to continue screwing up as if nothing had happened. Both things are kind of offensive, to be honest, but in the end it's not like they owe me to make good products. On the other hand, while the comment in the interview isn't really reassuring because of precedent, it doesn't really hurt anyway.

 

I just really hope they don't screw up the anniversary next year.

[MykonosFan]

So there's a pretty important fact correction TimmiT brought up over at Sonic Retro.

 

The person who made the comments was Haruki Satomi, who is Hajime's grandson. Haruki became the CEO of SEGA Games in April: https://twitter.com/Hideki_Naganuma/status/622961649276751877

 

This puts everything into a more sensible light. We'll still need to see the company walk the walk.

Edited July 20, 2015 by MykonosFan

[Salamander]

...Siliconera's original article has been updated in light of the error thanks to a comment on its own article, but it now claims that it was citing Naoki Satomi.  Who's he?  A translation error for Haruki?

[Bowbowis]

So there's a pretty important fact correction TimmiT brought up over at Sonic Retro.

 

The person who made the comments was Haruki Satomi, who is Hajime's grandson. Haruki became the CEO of SEGA Games in April: https://twitter.com/Hideki_Naganuma/status/622961649276751877

 

This puts everything into a more sensible light. We'll still need to see the company walk the walk.

Well if he's new blood then I'm a lot more willing to give him the benefit of the doubt here. He hasn't overseen the rushed games of yesteryear and hasn't made these kinds of promises in the past only for nothing to change. In other words I'm more willing to believe that he's not just paying lip service and that he's actually trying to implement some reforms at SEGA. Of course only time will tell, but I'm a little less cynical about the whole thing now.

[NoirSuede]

Well if he's new blood then I'm a lot more willing to give him the benefit of the doubt here. He hasn't overseen the rushed games of yesteryear and hasn't made these kinds of promises in the past only for nothing to change. In other words I'm more willing to believe that he's not just paying lip service and that he's actually trying to implement some reforms at SEGA. Of course only time will tell, but I'm a little less cynical about the whole thing now.

Wait a minute, if Haruki became CEO in April, doesn't that mean he've overseen Runners's worldwide release ?

[Bowbowis]

Wait a minute, if Haruki became CEO in April, doesn't that mean he've overseen Runners's worldwide release ?

The worldwide release, sure, although the game's initial development and soft launch would have been done under the previous CEO. Even if he had been overseeing Runners from the beginning though a free to play mobile game is a bit different from a full blown console game in that it's constantly being updated, which is an inherently risky prospect. I can tell you from firsthand experience just how easy it is to fuck up a game with one mistyped line of code. Not to mention the process of un-fucking the code, which basically amounts to isolating the problematic code (looking for needle in a haystack would be an appropriate metaphor) and then praying that your attempts at fixing the problem don't wind up making things worse. A game like Runners which is constantly having code added, modified, or removed with each update is going get screwed up every now and then, it's simply the nature of the beast. But I digress.

Back on topic, Mr. Haruki Satomi has only been CEO for a few months now, no doubt he's still adjusting to his new position. Even if that wasn't the case though change isn't going to happen overnight. A big company like SEGA has a lot of inertia and it's going to take some time to break them out of their old way of doing things.

[Wittymations]

This raises a bit of a question, if he's only been CEO for so long, then the games that were already in development won't reflect his management, will it? I mean, using the new Sonic game as an example, we've only got maybe a year of his management, and it could still look bad on him.

[Short-Sleeved Nook]

I just really hope they don't screw up the anniversary next year.

Yeah, here's hoping for a game as quality as Generations for the 25th!

lol, or else I'll spend the year playing Sonic Riders like I did for the 15th (And thankfully missing Sonic 06 due to being a Nintendo gamer!) XD Either way, I didn't mind Riders much. I gotta say it's definitely a childhood favorite of mine, and a fun action-racer, but that's besides the point and a little off topic

Tbh though, I miss the old SEGA that used to release multiple Sonic games and Sonic-related material throughout the year. It really made the 15th at least somewhat exciting. In 2011 we got Generations...and that was it, all year long. Unless we got a mobile game that year, but unless mobile games are meant to compliment a series, they just deal a harsher blow to fans waiting for actual games. But that's just me being picky: 2011 and Generations were awesome because we got a quality game and a bit of hope attached to Sonic, so let's hope for similar for his 25th! While waiting for releases we can talk on the forums, play some more of the old games, watch Sonic Boom and read the comic books

Edited July 22, 2015 by Short-Sleeved Nook
Added thoughts

[ChikaBoing]

So there's a pretty important fact correction TimmiT brought up over at Sonic Retro.

 

The person who made the comments was Haruki Satomi, who is Hajime's grandson. Haruki became the CEO of SEGA Games in April: https://twitter.com/Hideki_Naganuma/status/622961649276751877

 

This puts everything into a more sensible light. We'll still need to see the company walk the walk.

I borought this up before. It's actually his son...and regarding Sonic Runners it is pretty much under his watch, as I said he oversaw Mobile since 2012