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[Teknopathetic]

"He's right, but honestly they do sound made up. I can't imagine Rockstar even had much of a public mindshare at that point in time, he left Sega only a year or two after GTA 3."


By the time the conversation in the OP happened GTA3 and Vice City had both come out and were massive successes. Look at how much mindshare Gearbox had right after Borderlands or Infinity Ward after Call of Duty 2 or Bungie after Halo. It only takes one gigantic hit to propel a brand like that.

 

[Danis Saur]

Holy shit that's hilarious, and of course Yuji would react like that.

 

[MrCunningham]

lmao at that Rockstar description

I just can't imagine Rockstar having money problems these days, GTAV has been a non-stop cash cow for them. But, somehow that sounds very appropriate.

From what I have read about Yuji Naka, is that he did have a real ego at Sega after Sonic became a massive hit. I am not surprised to hear a story like this. Though I'd imagine that he has been humbled quite a bit since then.

 

[GOOCHY]

So Peter Moore is pretty much the fuckin' man?

 

[Vital Tundra]

Sega was so freaking all over the place. They could still be making video games consoles if they weren't just terrible back then. Hell it still shows in some aspects.

 

[jackal27]

"He's right, but honestly they do sound made up. I can't imagine Rockstar even had much of a public mindshare at that point in time, he left Sega only a year or two after GTA 3."


By the time the conversation in the OP happened GTA3 and Vice City had both come out and were massive successes. Look at how much mindshare Gearbox had right after Borderlands or Infinity Ward after Call of Duty 2 or Bungie after Halo. It only takes one gigantic hit to propel a brand like that.

Omg yeah. Rockstar was HUGE as soon as GTA3 released. They were all my friends talked about and Rockstar seemed crazy, but cool for making such an edgy game. Drunken uncle is the perfect comparison.

 

[IrishNinja]

Naka's known to be difficult to work with, but fuck anyone who thinks Sega's not cool anyway

Moore's alright though, he did what he could for the DC with the timetable he had, still lay a lot of that at SOJ & Stolar's feet

Lol. "You have made them say this!"

No, years of trash made them say that. I wonder how many devs are deluded along those same lines?

What? Sega was making trash since the Sega CD/32X

there's trash alright, but it's just these posts

 

[Blueblur1]

Wow, that was fantastic. I wish Yuji and Sega had listened to him. :-(

 

[HStallion]

Man working for Nintendo or Sega back in the day must have been insane. Some of the shit Ninty pulled was shady and crooked as hell back in the day.

 

[sphagnum]

Not exactly. But I think "die" is generally the equivalent.

Yeah, I thought the equivalent was "kutabare" which means go die/drop dead or something.

 

[Corpekata]

"He's right, but honestly they do sound made up. I can't imagine Rockstar even had much of a public mindshare at that point in time, he left Sega only a year or two after GTA 3."


By the time the conversation in the OP happened GTA3 and Vice City had both come out and were massive successes. Look at how much mindshare Gearbox had right after Borderlands or Infinity Ward after Call of Duty 2 or Bungie after Halo. It only takes one gigantic hit to propel a brand like that.

I agree, but like I said, to the public, they would only see a company that just released 2 awesome games, why would "they disappear for a while" even enter into it when as far as the public knows, they are just some awesome new developer that released 2 great games faster than most publishers do.

 

[RecRoulette]

There is probably a book to be written about Sega America versus Sega Japan bullshit from the 90's to the death of the dreamcast.

Not sure if serious...

 

[Teknopathetic]

"I agree, but like I said, to the public, they would only see a company that just released 2 awesome games, why would "they disappear for a while" even enter into it when as far as the public knows, they are just some awesome new developer."


I think you're taking the description too literally.

 

[Peroroncino]

Badass.

lmao @ rockstar

 

[Crayolan]

Well at least it seems like they've picked up on how people think of Sega since then considering they've let Sonic become a self aware meme machine recently.

 

[IrishNinja]

There is probably a book to be written about Sega America versus Sega Japan bullshit from the 90's to the death of the dreamcast.

Not sure if serious...

why wouldn't he be? Console Wars stopped right at the beginning of the 32 bit era. the rise & fall of sega is basically just old Eidolon's Inn put to paper, i'd be down for something more thorough.

 

[DAREALGUMMY]

And given the P5 shenanigans lately, it still is.



You and I both know that's a delightfully mixed bag to come out of many eras of Sega, otherwise there would be no gnashing of teeth about them.

The Dreamcast was dead by this. Their mind share was nearly gone by then.

 

[The Silver]

SEGA IS THE GREAT BRAND

 

[Cels]

why don't you point to the actual interview instead of a site just piggybacking on one of the few things moore says in the interview?

http://www.glixel.com/interviews/peter-moore-talks-leaving-electronic-arts-for-liverpool-fc-w475540

 

[djplaeskool]

90s/Early 00s video game industry stories are the best damn video game industry stories...

 

[CertifiedFP]

Yuji Naka is a wanker, news at 11.

Yeah, honestly, this only serves to cement what a shitload of fuck Sonic XTreme being killed for using "his" engine was. Sega earned their fall from grace for not reigning in Naka and the other power-players who put their ego before the company's health.

 

[Nyoro SF]

lmao. If that's the case then Naka really was full of himself. Moore was right, the perception of Sega at the time was just like that.

 

[IrishNinja]

Yuji Naka is a wanker, news at 11.

Yeah, honestly, this only serves to cement what a shitload of fuck Sonic XTreme being killed for using "his" engine was. Sega earned their fall from grace for not reigning in Naka and the other power-players who put their ego before the company's health.

for years, he was a useful wanker - of all the things to pin on Sega's downfall, trying to put them on Naka is bizarre

 

[CertifiedFP]

for years, he was a useful wanker - of all the things to pin on Sega's downfall, trying to put them on Naka is bizarre

I'm not blaming it all on Naka, but he's the only one who's fuckery is publicly known to be on him as far as I know.

And has anything he's produced post-Sega been a hit?

 

[DAREALGUMMY]

there's trash alright, but it's just these posts

Yeah, no wonder Sega was so successful with their last 3 consoles. Sega makes great games but they're completely oblivious to trends which Naka makes clear with his reaction. I bought a Dreamcast day 1 and was heartbroken when it gave out but I'm not going to deny they made a bunch of bad decisions with it.

 

[TheDinoman]

The internal war between Sega of America and Sega of Japan is most certainly one of the biggest reasons to why Sega is no longer making consoles.

 

[CO_Andy]

I remember this story posted on GAF ages ago.

Absolute classic.

 

[SatelliteOfLove]

The Dreamcast was dead by this. Their mind share was nearly gone by then.

Im talking software, yall are talking hardware. We're both right.

 

[BiggNife]

Hahaha, what a great story. And it doesn't surprise me that Naka reacted like that, given his history of being a gigantic dick.

That EA description is particularly apt.

 

[Linkura]

This explains a lot about Sega.

 

[mcrommert]

Peter is best head Xbox ever had... No offense phil

 

[Colonel Mustard]

Haha, weird.

The Yuji Naka I'm friends with on Facebook is like world's daddest dad. Posts nothing but outings with his kids and race cars. Weird to imagine him in a setting like this.

 

[MrCunningham]

Sega was so freaking all over the place. They could still be making video games consoles if they weren't just terrible back then. Hell it still shows in some aspects.

To be honest, Sega always kind of struggled in the home console market. Back in the day, their main stream of revenue came from their arcade division, while their console division was always kind of lack luster. The Sega Master System did have some success in Europe and Brazil, but never took off in the NA market, or their home turf in Japan. The Sega Genesis/ Mega Drive was a run away success in North America and even sold really well in Europe and was their best selling console of all time. But even in Japan, it was a flop.

The people running Sega of Japan had a weird resentment for the success of Sega of America and the Genesis. When they developed the Saturn, they practically made it in a bubble and it was developed by one of their arcade divisions. No other part of Sega had any input on it out side of Sega of Japan. Which was a really big mistake, given that Sega od America had first dib's on the N64 hardware (which was turned down by Sega of Japan) and Sony even tried to set up a partnership with the Playstation.

The first version of the Saturn was very underpowered compared to the Playstation. Which caused Sega of Japan to go into a panic mode and redesign parts of the system on the fly, which caused all sorts of additional headaches for developers that had to make games for it. Also combined with the lack of a good tool set, and a surprise early launch that just pissed up retailers (at least in North America) , Sega of Japan really botched that system up. Though ironically, it was still the best selling Sega console in Japan.

After the Saturn flopped, Sega actually spent a lot of money on R&D for the successor. They worked with partners like NVidia, 3DFX, Lockheed Martin (apparently) and of course PowerVR2 for the final system.

By the time the Dreamcast came out, the arcade scene was slowly dying everywhere with the exception of Japan. The Dreamcast actually sold alright numbers for the short period of time that it was on the market, but it wasn't enough to turn a profit.

 

[Zee-Row]

I can imagine Yuji Naka acting like a diva with the stories i've heard of him flipping out when they tried to use the Nights engine for Sonic Xtreme.

 

[funkystudent]

Not sure if serious...

Why not? The infighting between the different wings of Sega during the 90s is infamous.

I bet there are a lot of stories to tell about it.

 

[Mechazawa]

for years, he was a useful wanker - of all the things to pin on Sega's downfall, trying to put them on Naka is bizarre

Moore practically outright says in this interview that Sega largely failed because the direction of the company was molded over the whims of the head-honcho developers.

Naka has some culpability in that regard.

 

[IrishNinja]

I'm not blaming it all on Naka, but he's the only one who's fuckery is publicly known to be on him as far as I know.

And has anything he's produced post-Sega been a hit?

i can't say, what's Prope done beyond Let's Tap?

Yeah, no wonder Sega was so successful with their last 3 consoles. Sega makes great games but they're completely oblivious to trends which Naka makes clear with his reaction. I bought a Dreamcast day 1 and was heartbroken when it gave out but I'm not going to deny they made a bunch of bad decisions with it.

eh, i take your meaning here but bumbling with the 2 chipset designs aside, i don't think the DC really made any big missteps - it's just that the writing was on the wall with their financial benefactor gone & mistakes they'd made in the gen prior, as far as debt/3rd party relations etc.

as an aside: anyone aruging they should've had a DVD player int that thing has no idea what they're talking about.

Moore practically outright says in this interview that Sega largely failed because the direction of the company was molded over the whims of the head-honcho developers.

Naka has some culpability in that regard.

well yeah, but then Naka probably shouldn't have been moved up to management in the first place...i appreciate what they were trying to do for corporate culture & such but he had no real experience on that level.

he was a goddamn wizard on early development, though.

 

[Shadoken]

Yeah, no wonder Sega was so successful with their last 3 consoles. Sega makes great games but they're completely oblivious to trends which Naka makes clear with his reaction. I bought a Dreamcast day 1 and was heartbroken when it gave out but I'm not going to deny they made a bunch of bad decisions with it.

Being oblivious to trends suddenly means they made Trash games? Yes they werent making games that werent the trend especially in the west. That doesnt make the games bad.

Also I really doubt even if they did follow trends they could have saved the Dreamcast. The PS2 hype was just insane at that time and the DC couldnt have done much to stop that.

 

[Aaron Strife]

So was GTA 3 one of the drunk uncle's wacky get-rich-quick schemes that actually worked?

 

[yatesl]

Moore's a Scouser, I wouldn't have fancied Naka's chances.

I don't know, do they sell white lightening in Japan?

 

[IrishNinja]

Being oblivious to trends suddenly means they made Trash games? Yes they werent making games that werent the trend especially in the west. That doesnt make the games bad.

exactly this - they didn't make a profit off anything but the Genesis, but their libraries were loaded with classics. that's my umbrage with the "trash" nonsense.

 

[Hero of Legend]

I'm not blaming it all on Naka, but he's the only one who's fuckery is publicly known to be on him as far as I know.

And has anything he's produced post-Sega been a hit?

I had to think for a moment, but the answer is yes, sort of. Fishing Resort on Wii sold over 200k in Japan and is his biggest post-Sega success.

Most would say that critically, Rodea the Sky Soldier on Wii is his best post-Sega game, it just sold awfully. Didn't help that it took 4 years to come out...

 

[RedSwirl]

The sonic games were not badly received at the time this would have occurred.

Come to think of it, if this was indeed early 2001 then I might be able to understand the mindset Naka was in at the time. He was probably getting ready to launch Sonic Adventure 2 -- the game positioned to celebrate the 10th anniversary of SEGA's mascot franchise and what he probably considers his baby. The hype train for that game was at full speed around that time. I can see how emotions would run high.

 

[Hot Coldman]

intense suspicion of western involvement/participation in SEGA? yeah sounds like SEGA to me

 

[levious]

exactly this - they didn't make a profit off anything but the Genesis, but their libraries were loaded with classics. that's my umbrage with the "trash" nonsense.

Are we sure they didnt profit off of saturn? Wasn't it their most successful system in japan?

 

[gdt]

That's amazing haha.

Tell him to fuck off.

 

[brownfedora]

So Peter Moore is pretty much the fuckin' man?

Love Peter Moore and his personality but if you look at the outcomes of his leadership over the last 20 years, it's not a pretty picture.

 

[IrishNinja]

Are we sure they didnt profit off of saturn? Wasn't it their most successful system in japan?

yeah, i recall reading that they were able to see meager profits off the game gear before killing it, but i've read multiple sources saying worldwide, they only ever profited from the genesis/mega drive. every other endeavor ended up a loss, which is really sad to hear.

Love Peter Moore and his personality but if you look at the outcomes of his leadership over the last 20 years, it's not a pretty picture.

gotta agree here

 

[RedSwirl]

To be honest, Sega always kind of struggled in the home console market. Back in the day, their main stream of revenue came from their arcade division, while their console division was always kind of lack luster. The Sega Master System did have some success in Europe and Brazil, but never took off in the NA market, or their home turf in Japan. The Sega Genesis/ Mega Drive was a run away success in North America and even sold really well in Europe and was their best selling console of all time. But even in Japan, it was a flop.

The people running Sega of Japan had a weird resentment for the success of Sega of America and the Genesis. When they developed the Saturn, they practically made it in a bubble and it was developed by one of their arcade divisions. No other part of Sega had any input on it out side of Sega of Japan. Which was a really big mistake, given that Sega od America had first dib's on the N64 hardware (which was turned down by Sega of Japan) and Sony even tried to set up a partnership with the Playstation.

The first version of the Saturn was very underpowered compared to the Playstation. Which caused Sega of Japan to go into a panic mode and redesign parts of the system on the fly, which caused all sorts of additional headaches for developers that had to make games for it. Also combined with the lack of a good tool set, and a surprise early launch that just pissed up retailers (at least in North America) , Sega of Japan really botched that system up. Though ironically, it was still the best selling Sega console in Japan.

After the Saturn flopped, Sega actually spent a lot of money on R&D for the successor. They worked with partners like NVidia, 3DFX, Lockheed Martin (apparently) and of course PowerVR2 for the final system.

By the time the Dreamcast came out, the arcade scene was slowly dying everywhere with the exception of Japan. The Dreamcast actually sold alright numbers for the short period of time that it was on the market, but it wasn't enough to turn a profit.

...and now SEGA mostly just publishes western PC games.

 

[Phatcorns]

Lol, this is awesome. Explains a lot about Sega too.