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Sega is refashioning itself as a PC game maker


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The one-time king of consoles is increasingly banking on computer games.

 

Now Sega (SGAMY) is undergoing another revamp. After years of developing its franchises, including the still-popular Sonic the Hedgehog, across all platforms, the company is targeting the global PC games market. Sega has been investing more heavily in the PC gaming space of late. The company recently acquired Relic Entertainment and its World War II-based real-time strategy (RTS) franchise, Company of Heroes. Sega published Company of Heroes 2 on June 25.

On September 3, Sega will publish the ninth installment in the Creative Assembly's bestselling RTS franchise, Total War: Rome II. The series has sold over 7 million copies worldwide and has remained a critical favorite with the discriminating PC gaming press. The Total War franchise has sold over 3.4 million copies in the U.S. according to video game tracker NPD Group, and Total War: Rome has a U.S. installed base of 876,000. Sega plans on capitalizing on the global market this fall. According to Rob Bartholomew, brand director at the Creative Assembly, Total War: Rome II has the biggest marketing budget in Total War history.

"Total War: Rome II outscales any previous war game we've ever made before," said Mike Simpson, studio director at the Creative Assembly. "Our budget for this game was 40% larger than we had for Shogun 2. The gameplay campaign, itself, is around four times the size of Shogun 2's campaign. The game has 700 battlefield units for players to use and nine playable factions to command with different cultures, weapons, and tactics. It's an undertaking of a completely different step."

Three of Sega's core game pillars (Company of Heroes, Total War, and Football Manager) are PC-based, and Sega owns the developers (Relic, Creative Assembly, and Sports Interactive) behind these franchises. "PC is a very important part of our business," said John Cheng, President of Sega of America. "Total War sold 2 million units last year without a tent pole release and the upcoming Rome II had over six times the number of pre-orders in its first official week compared to Shogun 2, making it the fastest selling pre-ordered title in the series." He added that Football Manager 2013 became the fastest-selling game in the history of the bestselling annual franchise, passing one million Steam activations in May of 2013 (reaching that milestone almost five months earlier than its predecessor).

Jesse Divnich, vice president of Insights at video game research firm EEDAR, believes Sega's focus in the PC space is a wise strategy because the market is smaller, but also less crowded with competitors, and overall presents a better opportunity for Sega. "With the launch of the next-generation home consoles, we'll see a lot of focus shift away from core PC gaming from the major publishers, which will leave a lot of room for Sega to make some moves," said Divnich. "When the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 launched in 2005 and 2006, many thought the PC gaming industry was on its last leg. They were wrong."

 

Now make/port: Bayonetta, Valkyria, Alpha Protocol 2, new VT, Shenmue <3

 

Link: http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2013/08/08/sega-is-refashioning-itself-as-a-pc-game-maker/

 

 

Looking forward to play ROME II. :punk:

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So surprise yakuza announcement is Yakuza 5 is coming to PC?

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and FFS sega bring PSO2 to the fking west. You have over 2million active users in Japan alone and its just gonna stay there?. They are bringing it to China/SE Asia before US :doh:

 

 

Sega actually always used to support PC . Even in the 90s , they were the only console publisher to port their first party lineup to PC. Virtua Fighter,Panzer Dragoon,Sonic..etc

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If Sega bring following series to PC , they will have a winner

 

 

The House of the Dead (survival horror)
Yakuza (Third person open world)
Shining (Turn based/action RPG)
Shinobi (action adventure)

 

But success will depend how they treat each series so that they get mass acceptance without loosing the core game philosophy

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