Rumor: Sega to sell Sonic Team

B

Blimblim

The Inside Track
Before posting this, let me say that I doubt this is true, but it's interesting :

Changhong (SH: 600839) and Zarva Technology (SZ: 000688) will jointly acquire Sega's R&D team in China and Sega's subsidiary Sonic Team, reports Tom Online quoting an unnamed source. Changhong and Zarva established a joint venture in September for the IT market. The joint venture might look for capital cooperation with Sega, said an insider. Currently Zarva Technology's subsidiary Zarva Digital Entertainment is the mainland China operator of Sega's Q-style online game Phantasy Star Online. Sega established a gaming branch in Shanghai in June.
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http://www.pacificepoch.com/newsstories/19561_0_5_0_M/

Changhong is China's top television maker, and Zarva is the third-largest distributor of IBM products in China.

Considering Sega's new boss said recently in an interview that they would buy some games companies soon I really doubt they would sell Sonic Team, or even the part of the team that worked on PSO. But still pacifichepoch.com seems like a rather legit site, so...

Discuss !
 
Sonic Team is the only subsidiary of SEGA which is making any money. It would be stupid if they were sold.
 
ourumov said:
Hmmm....Nintendo should prepare the money...
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Did you really read the text ? They would sell Sonic Team to a chinese company, nothing to do with nintendo.
I think a joint-venture with these people could indeed be possible. But selling the whole team... Nope.
 
Blimblim said:
Did you really read the text ? They would sell Sonic Team to a chinese company, nothing to do with nintendo.
I think a joint-venture with these people could indeed be possible. But selling the whole team... Nope.
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I read the text but if there is the intention to sell I think Nintendo should consider it. Why ? Because that would be really helpful for them.
 
There is so much hate to the Sonic Team in this thread that I am impressed. Not that I am a defender of them but well I think they haven't done things so bad as some of you claim.
SA1, SA2, Billy Hatcher, PSO, PSO Ep. III are games that perhaps are not AAA but that are definitelly acceptable.
I still believe they could produce awesome games under the right direction/supervision.
 
Prine said:
Seriously, they havent made a good game since Sonic Adventure.

Sell em
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If you don't consider Samba de Amigo and Chu Chu Rocket good games, then...well, you're wrong. They're both a hell of a lot better than Sonic Adventure too.

And, while I'm not the biggest fan of the game, a lot of people love PSO too. Haven't played Billy Hatcher.

Seems to me there's way too much focus on only the Sonic games from Sonic Team. The name obviously doesn't help, and those games have been poor, but look past them and you'll see there's still a lot of talent there.
 
Billy Hatcher is a very good game that could have been very great if the camera wasn't so crappy. Sonic Team really need to get better at 3D cameras...
 
If we consider the resources/budget they have used to make all those games and compare it with others (basically all the SEGA teams that have choosed XBOX) and the compare success I would say Sonic Team are the best ones.
Come on...Billy Hatcher budget is ridiculous compared to Orta/JSRF yet it sold comparable (if not more).
 
Yeah, which a lot of people like, even if it's short. Once again, haven't played it myself.

Of coruse, I believe that game was made by mainly (only?) ex-UGA people, but they're all Sonic Team now.
 
Shiggy said:
Sonic Team, what was their last game?
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This past year...

-Astro Boy (PS2)
-Feel the Magic: Xy-XX (DS)
-Phantasy Star Online Episode III: CARD Revolution (GC)
-Phantasy Star Online: Blue Burst (PC)
-Puyo Puyo Fever (Naomi/DC/PS2/GC/XB/Mac/GBA/PC/PocketPC/DS/PSP)
-Sega SuperStars (PS2)
-Sonic Advance 3 (GBA) co-developed with DIMPS
-Sonic Battle (GBA)
-Sonic Heroes (GC/PS2/XB/PC)
 
Shiggy said:
Why isn't Camelot still a team of Sega? Maybe the same will happen with Sonic Team.
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There was some really bad dealings between Sega and Camelot around the time of Shining Force 3, which caused them to cease doing bussiness with Sega for pretty much the rest of eterenity.
 
It's not going to happen, but to fuel the discussion...Nintendo doesn't need Sonic Team as a developer. The best thing that could possibly, but wouldn't come out of a deal would be for Nintendo to lock Sonic up as an exclusive character to their console. But one, Sonic Team won't be sold to Nintendo, or likely at all. And two, even if they did get sold, their licenses would probably remain Sega's.
 
I had thought about this for a WHILE now, but never said anything! When Sammy bought Sega they've since consolidated all the teams, decreased Sega game output for the time being, sold off VC to ESPN...to me, it sounds like they're shaving the company down into a controllable ball. I know it is the hopes and dreams of alot of Sega fans for Sega to re-enter hardware, but after losing their sports line (what they're known for) and being absorbed by a profit-minded Sammy I don't think it'll happen.

Sonic Team has still sorta been seen as seperate from the rest of Sega even when Sammy consolidated most all the teams down into one big one where they share resources and the like. Plus Sonic Team has continued to produce more games than the rest of the Sega teams in this last year including new ones like Fell The Magic...the rest of the teams just seem to be finnishing up what they started before Sammy got them and not really doing much else besides the Matrix Online and some ports. So has Sonic Team sorta bucked what Sammy wants to do...are they not liking the fact that (under Sammy) they don't have the chance of getting back into hardware? Or maybe it's just plain having freedom? If Sammy was willing to sell away Visual Concepts and their successful sports line, then what's to say they wouldn't cut away Sonic Team?

And already I heard someone say in this topic that Sega would retain the rights to Sonic even if Sonic Team left. But remember when RARE was sold off by Nintendo...alot of people thought that Nintendo would just KEEP Perfect Dark, Banjo, Conker, Kameo, Blast Corps & Killer Instinct...but guess what, RARE kept them. Stranger things have happened.

This report says that these are Chinese companies involved in aquiring Sonic Team. Maybe Sonic Team see's a market there for online games like PSO, maybe they see an opportunity to get back into some form of hardware, even if it's just in China? Maybe they plan to follow Nintendo's footsteps with their own iQue like service? Anyways, it should be noted that Nintendo is also taking notice in the Chinese market.

What if in the crazy off chance that Nintendo would end up with Sonic Team? I think that would be pretty cool just for Mario/Sonic cross-overs...but there's more too, Nintendo could really establish themselves as online focused next generation with a full push with PSO and having it exclussive. Again...stranger things have happened...
 
Prine said:
Seriously, they havent made a good game since Sonic Adventure.

Sell em
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Of all the recent games they made, the Sonic ones are easily the worst

Outside of Sonic Adventure and arguably Billy Hatcher (never played it), they have been really good this gen, IMHO
 
Since nearly all of Sonic Team's revenue has come from Nintendo this gen (barring the DC, obviously), that would be a wise place for them to go.
 
As a couple have alluded to, selling Sonic Team also means selling UGA.

But maybe it doesn't matter because Sega keeps screwing up more and more as they go along.
 
Koshiro said:
Despite how Sonic Team have been lately, Sega selling Sonic Team is the day Sega sells Sega.
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Lately? I dunno, they're still doing fantastic software. Look at Feel the Magic. Sonic Team is Sega's greatest asset. If the shed that crucial layer they're setting themselves up for a long hard road.
 
Shiggy said:
Why isn't Camelot still a team of Sega? Maybe the same will happen with Sonic Team.
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Sega basically tried to force them into developing for Dreamcast ahead of schedule by cutting funding for SF3 for Saturn.
 
Shiggy said:
Why isn't Camelot still a team of Sega? Maybe the same will happen with Sonic Team.
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Camelot was never an internal Sega team (despite using the Sonic branding). They've always been an external 3rd party.
 
I sincerely hope this rumor is a joke. Sonic team may not be AAA anymore but theyre still a good development house,Sega would be crazy to loose them.

I guess I'm the only one who really enjoyed Sonic heroes too then,it was a welcome change with the 3 team characters. It made for some damn good fun in making your way across each stage in the game. Using each characters abilities was a different change from the same old Sonic formula.

The only ting that I hated was the final two stages in the game where you had to jump on those rails when EggMann would send electric surges on the rail you were riding on,the control and camera were bad in these last two stages.
 
Hard to see so many old guards go down like this. The late 90's and 2000's haven't been very kind. Sega without Sonic team basically ceases to be Sega to me.
 
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