Wednesday 18 September 2013

Uncertainty for Atlus & other tidbits of news.

So, Today the big news in Otaku gaming circles is that Sega bought out Atlus. I was notified at 6.45am by Rodwyn Hoffman on Twitter n then at about 9am by Andi. A few minutes later both my Hatsune Miku & Neptune alarms decided to go off so I gave up trying to snooze n got my butt outta bed n got ready for work. I watched some Kagamine Rin music videos on the Vita (dat OLED!) while supping green tea n continuing the Sega/Atlus discussion with a few people. One thing struck me the most. EVERYONE is worried for Atlus. Now its not that there's any kind of anti-Sega sentiment around these parts. Quite the opposite in fact. Both myself & Andi are die-hard Sega fans. Ive been with Sega myself since I was a nipper, jumping around on Alex the Kid and gunning down pesky planes on Bomber Raid with the good ol' Master System. I still have a Mega Drive, Saturn and a Dreamcast in perfect working order that I do occasionally use. So why are we worried? Its simple. Lately, Sega don't seem to give a damn about its fans in the west. I dont even need to go on about Yakuza5 because if your here reading this then no doubt you had some interest in the title too. But its also their other dealings. Is it just me or do we only get titles developed by western developers and published by Sega here? Where have the localised titles gone? When you look at previous deals done by Sega lately it deosn't look good. Remember Relic? I do. They made the awesome Warhammer 40000 Space Marine game that I had a hell of a lot of fun playing! Sega recently aquired them and....well Ive heard nothing from Relic since. Are they even working on anything? I may have to start sleuthing and find out. Its worrying. There are some good points to the deal though. Atlus aren't bankrupt, so we dont have to worry about them going under and selling their IP's. Imagine if SquareEnix ended up with Persona? *Shudders* Also Sega have a HQ in Europe. Yep, They really do! so that should help with getting Atlus games in the EU quicker but as Andi said this morning "Unfortunately Sega Europe spend more time trying to nail jelly to kittens so it worries me we may see less SMT titles than ever" I dont doubt for a second that Andi could be wrong there.
How Sega treats the EU at times seems like a betrayal after the leg up we gave them with the Master System when they were starting out (sold 6.8 million here compared to 1 million in Japan n 2 Million in the US) Like everyone I worry about how Atlus are going to end up. But is it justified? I dunno. Id like to think we'll see more from Atlus on our shores but you just never know with Sega these days. Thats where the worry comes from. Atlus's future is now uncertain in the EU, buisness as usual for Atlus USA so they are good for now, and only time will tell how its buy-out is going to effect its output. I hope when the sale is finalised on the 1st November, Sega will put our fears to rest and announce whats in store for the future of Atlus.

What other tidbits of news do we have? Well apparently Sony had another conference of sorts today. Your right they had one last week too lol so what was it about today? Well apparently the Ps4 will be getting released in certain asian terrortories in December this year. Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and South Korea will each see the console before Japan. While it deos sound odd, it seems to make sense to me. Japan will see the release of the new Vita & the VitaTV this year before the Ps4 is released in February. With Sony waiting till then it gives consumers/retailers time to focus on the new Vita goodies and prevents the market from getting oversaturated. People would probably mistake the VitaTV as the new Playstation if they all launched together. Yes, people are that stupid. We still have people in the UK who think the WiiU is an add-on for the Wii.

 I also came across this article on Kokatu while looking for extra early snippets on TGS. Its a short article containing a excert from a book entitled 'Dreamcast Worlds'. Me & Andi are bothe extremely nostalgic when it concerns the Dreamcast so I implore you to have a read. Any new article concerning the Dreamcast is worthy of a read!

Any game news to speak of? Well theres a little. Anyone looking forward to TGS in the hope of seeing more of FFXV is going to be dissapointed as theres no plans for anythin new to be shown at TGS. Zip. Although there is talk of the director Tetsuya Nomura making an appearence in Sony's 'Conversations with creators' video. Will we get a tidbit of new info then? Probably not. Im not too fussed anyway. FFXIII still leaves a bitter taste in the mouth and Kingdom Hearts 3 seems to be more intrigueing so Id rather see that (Although I am looking forward to FFX HD whenever it comes) FFXV probably wont release for another 3 years or so yet anyway so theres plenty of time for information lol Actually, on the subject of Final Fantasy...
Theres been news posted on Kotaku concerning a certain Final Fantasy Type-O. Heard of it? It was released back in 2011 for the PsP in Japan, but by then the PsP had started to wane here so its no wonder it wasn't localised for the west. The director recently spoke to USGamer concerning its sequel, which is to be localised, and the conversation obviously moved onto the PsP game. Here's a snippet -
With that caveat in mind, Tabata also stated that he sees Agito and Type 0 as companion titles, and that they're best enjoyed with one other. Therefore Tabata says he still hopes to bring Type 0 to the West via PlayStation Network, and while a complete localization hasn't been greenlit it's definitely in the final stages of planning. While quick to offer the same localization-is-not-a-guarantee-of-release caveats for Type 0 as for Agito, he made clear the fact that both fan enthusiasm for the game along with the changing portable market have caught the company's eye and renewed their interest in bringing it overseas.
So in reading that, its safe to assume that it may come eventually via digital means on PSN no doubt. Id snap up a copy if the price was right.

There is also a review up on PushSquare (not by me lol) for Final Fantasy XIV if of interest to you: LINK
 Interested in Soul Sacrifice Delta? Well you'll be pleased to know that new enemies are being created based on fairy tale characters. Little Red Riding Hood, Hansel and Gretel, the Three Little Pigs, and Snow White are already penned in but they will no doubt not look anything like they did when we were kids. There are also new spells n the like to be included and also a new 'neutral' option to the save/slave mechanic in the original. How will that work then!? No idea yet as information is still pretty thin on the ground. Hopefully learn more at TGS

There may not be a post tomorrow due to other commitments I have, so apologies in advance. IF I can I may do a retrospective of sorts. With it being so close to TGS there will no doubt be more snippets tomorrow so If there is I will do a nice bumper post of news on Friday. With TGS kicking off its business days on the 19th & 20th before moving onto public shows for the 21st & 22nd, I may not be doing a review this week and just focus on Tokyo Game show news. I purchased EDF 2017 Portable on the Vita yesterday so I may be looking into that for a review next though. Any announcements your hoping for at TGS? Let us know!

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