Sega West President and COO Mike Hayes commented last August that more core Wii titles would be coming from the publisher. In a more recent interview with CVG, however, he emphasized share growth for the PS3 and Xbox 360.
"The key development over the next 12 months for us will be to build on the success we've seen on Wii and DS, as you'd expect - but our main area of focus will be to increase the market share we have on 360 and PS3. That's absolutely our single-minded goal for this year,” said Hayes. “If you look at Sega in Europe, we're around the fifth or sixth biggest publisher - and a lot of that is driven by Football Manager, Total War and Mario & Sonic, Sonic and Sega IP like House Of The Dead. And we've had a lot of success with DS. But if you look at our market share on 360 and PS3, we're closer to No.8, and we need to bring that up.”
Hayes was particularly complimentary of Bayonetta, and when asked if the PS3 and Xbox 360 was the natural home for Platinum Games, he said, “I think so. I guess there's a reference to MadWorld there. Critically it got a lot of acclaim, but commercially it wasn't the success we wanted it to be. Clearly that was a mismatch with the Wii audience - particularly in terms of the amount of cross-ownership between Wii and the other home platforms. If you're going to play a mature-rated game, you're going to get your 360, PC or PS3 out to do so. But you can't knock us for having a go.”
“We were brave in that area - but the reality is, Platinum Games is such a cutting-edge developer they need the PS3 or 360 to realize what they actually want to do,” Hayes continued. “You saw that with Bayonetta - it was a very high-quality standard. Vanquish will push the envelope even further. Platinum are definitely more at home on those platforms. But we were thrilled when they tried to do a mature thing on Nintendo. House Of the Dead was seen as a more credible IP with the Nintendo audience - maybe even more fun.”
Sega has a large cast of classic characters, and Hayes is aware of their potential for future projects. “It's important that on our old IP that is respected, we need to deliver a good product. And in some instances we have done that - look back at when we re-did Sega Rally. It scored well and was moderately successful commercially. But then with other great franchises like Golden Axe we didn't produce a great game at all,” said Hayes. “Going forward, if we're going to look at any existing IP to bring out the locker, we have to make sure we get the quality to a level we now expect. I'm not saying which IP it would be - a Streets Of Rage, a Crazy Taxi, whatever. What we have to do now is build something that is 85 per cent plus [rated]. We can't just get away with PR.”
Hayes also addressed questions about Microsoft's Natal and PlayStation Move, and he was frank about what it meant business-wise for Sega. “The challenge for both first parties is to make sure the installed base of these devices is as high as they've claimed it will be,” said Hayes. “If you look at how many Xbox 360s or PS3s there in Europe - let's say 12 million of each - if they get an attached rated of 12-and-a-half per cent with these [motion] devices, that's 2.5 million consumers for us to go after. If ten per cent of those buy our games, that's 250,000. How much money can you realistically spend on development for that audience?
“But Microsoft and Sony are talking very big numbers. If they can achieve that, it will make these devices very viable,” he continued. “Could sales of Natal hit 50 per cent of those current installed base? We think the price point will be very attractive. 360 has a long way to go with a lot more hardware - so, for example, if they were to bundle Natal, it's a home run if they can afford to do that. I would imagine both Microsoft and Sony are going to spend big development money to make these devices very attractive.”
17 Comments
April 6, 2010
It's so funny how the sales of Madworld must always be a reflection of the Wii platform and not the game itself. Hell, the failure or success of any Wii game must be because of the platform. Heaven forbid that it could be the game's fault!
People forget that:
a) Madworld is made by a niche developer with a history of niche, arty games
b) It has a very alternative black-and-white artistic style which, frankly, is confusing to look at. Very few people want that in a game. Just as few people read Frank Miller comics.
c) Nobody wants a mega-violent game. This level of violence does not mean "mature" or guarantee appeal with the "hardcore".
Madworld is a pet art project (just as Okami was, and I'm glad such games can get made). It should never have been expected to sell much and if it sells more on other platforms it will be on hype alone with 95%+ of sales in the first week and proportional to advertising spend, before being quickly forgotten about, resold and reduced to a fraction of the price.
April 29, 2010
I'll admit it—I was in love with the Nintendo Wii long before we'd ever met. And then, a few seconds after I touched those strange, new motion-sensing controllers, months of giddy anticipation vanished. I've played and won 14-hour-long Halo tournaments. I was a bird-slaughtering Duck Hunt master back when Times Square still had arcades. But the Wii, which is being marketed as the ideal system for newbies, made me feel like an incompetent novice. I don't blame myself. The ugly truth is that the Wii's already-legendary motion-detection system doesn't work very well.
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May 5, 2010
I hope MOVE does good. The big publishers have said they have about two thirds of there motion support on Microsoft. But I think Sony will have a lot of first party support for the MOVE. I wonder if Microsoft has been working mostly on the NATAL titles these last two years? That would be a reason they have not released as many first party games as Sony. best online fax
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