SEGA: Laughable Game Publisher Straight From The Gamer's Mouth

This is about a GameFAQs poll on Feb. 13, 2011.  I followed this since last night and waited for all the votes to be cast before mentioning it.

The question was "Which major game publisher do you most trust to publish the best games?"  Out of a polling sample from 70,938 voters, the results from best to worst are as follows (rounded to nearest number):

1. Nintendo (26%)
2. Square Enix (19%)
3. Activision Blizzard (11%)
4. Capcom (9%)
5. Sony (6%)
6. Electronic Arts (6%)
7. Konami (5%)
8. Take-Two Interactive (5%)
9. Ubisoft (4%)
10. Namco Bandai (2%)
11. Sega (1.24%)
12. THQ (1%)

Click here to see the poll.  Surprised Valve is not on the list either but they'd rank in the half-way part most likely.

...

Well, let me address a few things.  One, the title is a bit of a misnomer cause you might as well say "Who's your favorite game company?" or something like that.  Oh, and they use the word "Publisher" instead of "Developer" which took me a few glances to pick out.  So Sega gets the benefit of games like Bayonetta and Vanquish here, but that maybe raised their percentage by 0.01-0.02% only for that same gain to be sucked away due to bad games like Full Auto and Iron Man 2.

There really isn't a whole lot to defend here.  They're mostly right, even if you take the GameFAQs bias out of it.  If you saw two anonymous game boxes lying on a table, one with a Nintendo sticker on it, the other with a Sega sticker, which one would you keep?

Do you know who I voted for?  I voted for Sega.  Yeah, me and 882 other sorry losers.  Why?  Cause of Sega Racers and cause of this:

I mean, really, I just don't buy into all these nerdgasms over Final Fantasy or Metal Gear Solid or whatever.  You can grill me for that but I don't care.  If Sega was to make a good racing game, I would check it out!  Screw Mario Kart or Need for Speed or Chocobo Racing or whatever other crap you got.  I'd enjoy a good Sega racer 10x more than your crappy little RPGs and stuff.

But really, you had Sega back in the 90's, the only company that could compete with Nintendo, on top of the world, but then crash-boom-wham-bomb-smack-dead.  If they're not releasing some crappy Sonic game, it's a hackneyed rehash of some old ported game in a vain attempt to drum up some nostalgia factor, but the public doesn't buy it for more than a minute.  Yes, you got Yakuza, Bayonetta, and hopefully some new good Sonic games, but that's enough.

Let's talk about Nintendo.  Employees who work at Nintendo vs. employees who work at Sega...what's the difference?  Cause I know that the employees at Sega have opposable thumbs (I think).  Is it a lack of resources, skill, or motivation that's holding these guys back?  I'm starting to think so.  Like I said before (and I still believe it), Nintendo is in Cruise Control--they make another Mario or Zelda game, it's an instant hit, Nintendo is God-like, nothing can stop them, etc.  So why does Sega even BOTHER anymore?

Just looking around and I see another example of a great Nintendo product...

Sega should do what Nintendon't.  MAKE A GOOD DAYTONA USA GAME CAUSE NINTENDO DOESN'T KNOW HOW TO MAKE A TRADITIONAL RACING GAME.  There, that's one Achilles Heel that Nintendo has.  Oh wait, no one likes good racing games anymore, my bad.  But at least there's urinal games that Nintendo won't touch.  Yeah, Nintendo is making motion control hardware, Sega is making urinal hardware, makes sense, right.  Oh, and pachinko machines, there you go Sega, a hall of fame lineup right there!  Sticking it to Nintendo.

Oh, and one more thing.  SEGA LOST TO NAMCO.  Wtf.  I mean, what's Namco doing nowadays besides that crap Ridger Racer Unbounded game?  Pushing that Body & Brain Connection game that's basically Nintendo's Brain Age for the Kinect?  Not saying the game is bad, but where's the hallmark titles out of Namco, like...uh, Soul Calibur, Time Crisis, Tekken...Klonoa...?

 Dr. Kawashima works for the highest bidder.

And lol THQ, what are they doing on this list...?  Hey, Sega didn't come in dead last, so if there's a slight victory to be gained here, it's this.

EDIT: I know in the past that I didn't really "care" about all these popularity lists (i.e. best games ever made), but this isn't just a list, this has to do with Sega's ineptitude altogether.

Some More Sega Insight (Publishing Is Not Game Design)

You know, right now I get on Sega a lot for being down.  I mean, I can sit here and act like Sega's the king, but come on, Sega's my team and I stick by them through thick and thin.  And when they suck, I say they suck.

If you do look at today's Sega lineup, you see they've got some decent stuff with the Sega logo on it...Bayonetta's good.  The Conduit, Alpha Protocol, all your boys.  But are all these games developed by Sega?  Answer: NO.  Most are just published by Sega and produced by other developers.  Here's just some big Sega-published games that have come out recently and links to what other games the developers have worked on:

Bayonetta* - Platinum Games (boasts some of Capcom's staff from Viewtiful Joe, Resident Evil, Devil May Cry and Okami)
Vanquish - See Bayonetta
The Conduit - High Voltage Software (also Dora the Explorer, Ben10, Family Guy, lol see for yourself)
Alpha Protocol - Obsidian Entertainment (also Star Wars: KotOR, Neverwinter Nights, Fallout: Vegas)
Empire: Total War - Creative Assembly (also a million other "Total War" games)
Alien vs. Predator - Rebellion (and some Pro Darts game, WTG guys)
Sonic Rush - Dimps Corporation (also Sonic 4, Sonic Colors, and some Dragonball Z crap)

* About Bayonetta, I've done a little research--I've read over GameFAQs, Wikipedia, I just don't see Sega doing that much with this game other than publishing it. There's a few Sega references (as well as some Capcom ones like Devil May Cry and Resident Evil), but to me, I see Sega coming up with pieces of a game, handing it over to some Capcom guys, and that's it. I may be wrong but I'm pretty sure that's what happened. Even if Sega was partially responsible for the final product, they would still be nothing without Platinum Games. BTW, I also heard Sega was responsible for the PS3 port which sucked compared to the 360 version so that helps Sega's case, doesn't it?

Compare this to games like Daytona USA, OutRun, Virtua Fighter, old Sonic the Hedgehog--games that were MADE AND PUBLISHED BY Sega.  There's still a few games like that today, like Yakuza, Super Monkey Ball, Virtua Fighter, (EDIT: I forgot to add Valkyria Chronicles...I think) and, if you can believe it, Initial D (up to stage 5 now), but let's not act like Sega's this juggernaut cause they've got Bayonetta or Sonic Rush.  Just don't give me any of that nonsense. 

I mean, compare Sega to Nintendo.  They're also guilty of handing off some of their games to third-party devs (it's hard to tell, some may be second-party), like Star Fox: Assault (Namco), Zelda: Oracle of Seasons/Ages (Flagship), and Mario Hoops 3 on 3 (Square Enix *choke*), but for the most part, you can expect a steady lineup of Nintendo games BY NINTENDO THEMSELVES (first/secondish-parties count like Game Freak, HAL Laboratory, Intelligent Systems, etc.) on an annual basis (usually Mario, Zelda, Pokemon, Super Smash Bros, etc.).  Of course, I don't mind third-parties making games here and there, as long as they don't overdo it...

Sega on the other hand seems interested in mortgaging a lot of their games to other companies.  Like instead of making a good festive Sega game themselves, they hand it off to Sumo Digital to make Sonic & Sega All Stars Racing and that Sega Tennis Superstar game.  Also, look at these new Sonics being made by this Dimps company--what a disgrace!!  Why did Sonic Team themselves have to SUCK SO BAD???


You know, if you could at least fix the controls or the load times on this a bit, maybe it could be DECENT, but no.  DANKE!

You know, I feel like the biggest jerk in the world right now cause all I do is sit here and lambast everything, like The Powers That Be are out to get me for being such an asshat.  But really, come on Sega, I know you can do better than this.  Like I don't know if there is poor leadership down at Sega HQ or they're all high or drunk (I know Nagoshi is), I don't know.  The only part of Sega that's still keeping the pulse alive is Sega AM2 especially with Virtua Fighter and OutRun 2.  God Bless Them.  They made OutRun, they made Daytona USA (yes, I know T. Nagoshi had a hand in it, but it still had the AM2 Stamp of Approval on it), they made Virtua Fighter, etc.

*sheds a tear*

But nonetheless, all the wheels are coming off the Sega bus--I don't know what else to say.  Like how did a great developer with their own line of consoles turn into crap like this over half a decade?  WHY????  Really, this happened because of the Sega CD/32X/Saturn/Dreamcast lineup which the latter consoles had some hits but after that, the train went off the cliff and that's all she wrote.

I'm just bummed out again, I can't talk about it anymore.  Yeah, I'm not feeling good right now, but I'll make it through, like I usually do...