Millefune @ Wed Dec 27, 2006 9:12 pm) wrote: Just thought I'd chime in on the "sales/boycott" angle of the thread. The sales in the U.S. really won't affect what direction they go in, just whether or not they port the next ones over. It's the sales in Japan that'll influence the series' game mechanic/style trend. The game is made and developed in Japan after all.
Uh-huh.
You do realise that Japan has become one of the smallest markets for games now, right?
Sega of America have already translated SF Exa despite Neo crashing on the launch pad because they aren't currently thinking in terms of brand recognition.
They are thinking in terms of trends, and trends tell us that non-restrictive non-turn-based "RPGs" are all the rage. SoA has/have gone through some sort of an identity crisis whereby their ideal business direction is to follow the leader.
I have to give them some credit though for buying up the rights to the Aliens franchise, and publishing a new Aliens RPG developed by Obsidian, but again, Sega is/are just foreseeing yet another trend (the rising popularity of sci-fi RPGs and action games).