Ah yes, I forgot this was at an investor briefing. NeoGAF reported it initially as just "Sega news" and then the post was updated later with the slides, so that's probably what I'm misremembering. You are super correct then. It's real and genuine intention so that's evidently very good news. Looking forward to seeing which projects they choose and the inevitable announcements. Would love to see a return of Dreamcast/Xbox era Sega.
My main fear with this "Revival of old IP" is that the many of the internal teams are long since disbanded or restructured, meaning it's more likely that development of any reboots will be developed more likely or not by western and/or outsourced developers. Sega are going to have to be very careful in picking who they employ, and make damn well sure these people understand the draw of the original franchise to avoid more Golden Axe: Beast Rider moments. Sega's games were a golden era of Japanese gaming born from the amusement arcade, and have a certain "tone" that the current western-dominated videogame industry doesn't show that often. It'd be a shame to see what I think of as the "soul" of Sega games sucked out in an attempt to win a contemporary audience of people that are more interested in your grim and gritty western-developed titles. Capcom were going down that path for a few years too - Resi 6 was an attempt to pander to Gears of War fans, and Dead Rising 4 is a mess made by a bunch of hipsters who can't understand what made the first two great. I just hope whoever they get to make these new games understand Sega for who they are and what made them great, and don't rely to much on pandering to an audience that might shun them. If Sega end up outsourcing, I'd like to see Platinum working with them again. Sumo, too... you could tell they seriously respected Sega's history.
It's a shame, in addition, that the Japanese side of SEGA have reacted in a seemingly extremely antagonistic manner to the Western fanbase. I am also lead to believe that the Japanese side of the fanbase isn't a huge fan of the Classic Tactical Shining series, to boot. Take this with a grain of salt, but I think everyone's just too burnt out West-side - After the implosion of the SFC SOS Campaign, and SEGA of Japan too apathetic, to allow giving the Western fanbase what they want.
A Ristar revival could be neat on touch devices. I could see the game mechanics being bolstered by being able to grab onto things then fling yourself off into the distance, not unlike some pissed off avian critters.
This is something I think about constantly. They could have kept chucking out those Dreamcast Collection compilations and I'm sure they'd still sell. It's a shame we only got the one. Granted, I'm sure they just saw single purchases from Steam/XBLA/PSN and said there's no need to package them. But since Sega has been releasing updated versions of games these last couple months (Bayonetta/Vanquish), I wouldn't be shocked to see Sonic Unleashed or Jet Set Radio Future making their way to your desired platform in the near future. Both franchises celebrate their anniversaries in June! Let's hope! I'd be fine with this push for games is just mass porting classics from all the Sega consoles to Steam/XBLA/PSN/eShop. Especially the Nintendo eShop. I'd die happy if I could have the Sonic Adventure games, and Jet Set Radio games on my Switch! Phantasy Star would be an interesting game to revive as well. With games like I Am Setsuna becoming more popular, I'd love to see a new Phantasy Star V or something. If not, I'd be fine with them porting Phantasy Star Online 2 to Switch.
I've been keeping an eye on the PSO2 English website for a couple months. The website was supposed to expire at the end of May of this year. A couple days after the IP revival news, I remembered that the website was supposed to be gone by now. Lo and behold, SEGA renewed the website for another year, two days after the announcement. Hopefully this wasn't an automatic renewal. I'm keeping my fingers crossed, but at the same time, SEGA needs to redo the website. There's still placeholder text on a couple pages.
I'm certain it was a roll over. But, it's a hell of a coincidence. There's nothing more I want then the US getting a proper English version of PSO2. I have no faith it'll happen at this point though. The only way I could see it happening is if the made a new version (probably if and when we move on to PSO3) that includes all the story and character side-quests into an offline mode, ala Phantasy Star Online DC/NGC/XB. They could even include an online mode that's just super stripped down and more akin to how games like Monster Hunter run on the 3DS. Small lobbies just for 2-4 players to play missions together. (It'd be a perfect way for Sega to compete against MoHun on the Switch, though.) I don't think any of that will happen though. I just think the franchise is dead in the west to Sega.
I don't know, man. Seeing a PSO2 logo on English slides is making me WANT them to finally bring the game over, but I know that this far on it is incredibly unlikely
Maybe we can get Sega to do a game combining Classic Phantasy Star and the Modern Phantasy Star Online and call it Phantasy Star Generations (of Doom) :specialed: Being serious, you have no idea how much I'd love if it there was some equivalent of Sonic Mania for the classic Phantasy Star series - but given how unpopular that series is in Japan - I don't expect SoJ to ever let that happen.
So we can do what PS IV did and have one side-area that references it and ignores it after that? Because that's probably the most I can stomach of III. :v:
aw, that's unfortunate. PSIII is actually my favourite, and my second favourite in the entire series following PSO (for DC).