[segadc]

http://www.1up.com/d...ory?cId=3143569

Sega Announces New Partners
THQ, Chunsoft, Vivarium all working with Sega now.
by David Karlin, 09/09/2005

At their latest meeting in Japan, Sega announced a series of partnerships with American publisher THQ, Chunsoft, and Vivarium.
Working with THQ, Sega will be publishing several of their games in Japan, and the company will also publish a variety of Chunsoft games on PSP, PlayStation 2, and Nintendo DS. Finally, Sega will be releasing Vivarium's Seaman 2, which you can also read about today.

With these new partnerships, Sega's hoping to strengthen their place in the game market. "For the last few years Sega has been a bit quiet. But now finally Sega is back in full health again and this partnership will show it!" said an employee of the company.

On to the specifics of each deal. Through THQ, Sega will release Destroy All Humans! and Juiced in Japan, hoping both titles will appeal to Japanese gamers. Since Japanese gamers typically enjoy driving and GTA-style games (the actual GTA series has racked up solid sales for Capcom), both titles should do well.

Their workings with Chunsoft are a little more interesting. For the DS, Sega will be releasing a version of Chunsoft's famous dungeon crawler series, Mysterious Dungeon: Fuurai No Shiren. On PS2, they will continue the horror graphic adventure series Kamaitachi no Yoru, and PSP will receive ports of Kamaitachi no Yoru 2 Special Edition, taken from the 2002 PS2 release, and Machi ~unmei no kousaten~ Special Edition, a port of an sound novel adventure game original released on the Saturn and PlayStation in the late 90s.

Ported text adventures aren't really going to lead the PSP software charts, but it appears Sega hopes adding a few more games to the systems library will help light a fire. We'll have to wait and see what happens!

[core238]

This is one of those perfect examples of why SEGA are such dumbasses. In the post above they mention that Seaman 2 is coming. So I'm thinkin, oh hell yeah, time to raise another little hellion. But I'm thinkin that the game is for Nintendo's DS - I mean, what other system do you know with built-in voice recognition and the ability to touch you seaman - seriously though, if any of you remember, occasionally, 'physically' interacting with the seaman you were raising, was part of the game - I'd thump that lil' fucker all of the time and piss him off As I was saying, an intelligent person would think that a sequel to Seaman would be headed to the only system that is not only capable out of the box to handle the game's interface, but if Nintendogs is any reference, a game like Seaman could potentially sell millions on Nintendo's two-screened portable.

Obviously, there does not seem to be any intelligent announcements coming out of SEGA today - as usual. Read on . . .

http://www.1up.com/d...d=3143567&did=1

Quote

Seaman Returns On PS2
Ready to raise some more fish? Get your mic ready.
by David Karlin, 09/09/2005

One of Sega's stranger games of the last few years was the voice-recognition Dreamcast game Seaman. Originally released on Sega's ill-fated console back in 1999, Seaman was later ported to onto PlayStation 2 in Japan. We haven't heard from him since.
Now, 6 years after the original release, the fun-loving Seaman is receiving a proper sequel from developer Vivarium, and it's also headed to PS2. "In the last 20 years there really hasn't been much advancement in the user interface of games," says Vivarium president Satou Yutaka, "If we could just change the interface, I think games would get much more exciting and unique."

In the original Seaman, the bizarre pet human/fish learned by exclusively recognizing single words. With Seaman 2, however, the team has researched ways to have Seaman understand full sentences, ultimately leading to more human sounding speech patterns. The game will use the PS2 USB microphone, and you have some time to prepare; Vivarium and Sega won't be unleashing Seaman until next year.

What about the US, though? No word from Sega right now, but start crossing those fingers.

There's just something so wrong about overlooking the most obvious choice. The game is not due out until next year, so let's hope between now and then that someone at SEGA grows a few brain cells and makes sure a copy of the game is released on the one system guaranteed to allow the game the success it deserves.

[Ustink]

Agreed, Core.

Juiced?? I know the Japanese like driving games but bad ones too??

Quote

With these new partnerships, Sega's hoping to strengthen their place in the game market. "For the last few years Sega has been a bit quiet. But now finally Sega is back in full health again and this partnership will show it!" said an employee of the company.

Yeah, those are some real powerhouse devs that you partnered up with Sega.

[BriannaHaskins]

When I heard Seaman 2, I too immediately thought "Nintendo DS".
WTF are SEGA thinking?!? They should fire whoever makes those stupid decisions, LITERALLY, as in front of a firing squad. I mean, come on!!
Where's your head at?? It makes no sense!!

Any way we can contact Vivarium and tell them about this HUGE mistake they're making??

Ustink: Yeah, no kidding. I thought SEGA was going to partner with UbiSoft, Atari or Activision. But THQ?? And who the hell is Chunsoft?? That's the first time I've heard of them.

[George]

Seaman for the PS2?

[Team Andromeda]

BriannaHaskins, on Sep 9 2005, 12:56 PM, said:

When I heard Seaman 2, I too immediately thought "Nintendo DS".
WTF are SEGA thinking?!? They should fire whoever makes those stupid decisions, LITERALLY, as in front of a firing squad. I mean, come on!!
Where's your head at?? It makes no sense!!

Any way we can contact Vivarium and tell them about this HUGE mistake they're making??

Ustink: Yeah, no kidding. I thought SEGA was going to partner with UbiSoft, Atari or Activision. But THQ?? And who the hell is Chunsoft?? That's the first time I've heard of them.
<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

This is not SEGA, Its Vivarium.
SEGA only publishing the game as they and Yoot Saito get on well. This should be a big hit for SEGA as the 1st game was massive cult fav in Japan.

I know it would work well on the DS. But bare in mind that Yoot only brought the game to the DC after he saw the machine power and Video Ram.
Before that Seaman was a simple Mac game, that he 1st wanted to bring to the N64, but went for the DC becasue of the machine power for handling AI ect.

[Goonboy Republic]

If they partner with Climax for awhile(The japanese LANDSTALKER maker) or evben putn aside differences and partner with Camelot i would be a happy bunny. Satomi is making his attack already he mentioned that this was going to happen. When some well bigger names get under the publishing list i think half the people in here will sit up and take notice."Dude i thought sega was bankrupt"

[BriannaHaskins]

Team Andromeda, on Sep 9 2005, 03:01 PM, said:

This is not SEGA, Its Vivarium.
SEGA only publishing the game as they and Yoot Saito get on well. This should be a big hit for SEGA as the 1st game was massive cult fav in Japan.<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Maybe. But if SEGA really are the visionary and creative company they are, shouldn't they have told Vivarium, "Hey, Yoot!! You know what?? Seaman 2 sounds like a great idea. Do you think you can make one for Nintendo DS?? That Nintendogs game is ridiculously popular, and Seaman could be like our version of the phenomenon...What's that?? You wanna do it for PS2?? That's great!! We'll green-light and fund it, but let's get Seaman 2 for the DS out the door first and I promise you we'll make a PS2 version."

Sadly. This doesn't seem to have been the case.

[thengodisseven]

Seaman2 for PS2 will sell in droves. Sega is not being stupid. There's nothing in the article ruling out Seaman for the DS.

Super Monkey Ball is just arriving on DS. And it should do well too. Seaman2 on PS2 makes sense. It will be huge in Japan, which is the place the title sold so well in the first place. Sega is not that stupid, Seaman WILL hit the DS, but add a year.

This post has been edited by schmev: 10 September 2005 - 03:45 PM