In an astonishingly frank interview, Sega West boss Mike Hayes admitted that his company hasn’t been treating its classic IP franchises with enough respect, and has pledged to do better with its future titles. Stating that his company “can’t just get away with PR,” Hayes says that whatever game comes next, it must hit that 85% rating range.
“It’s important that on our old IP that is respected, we need to deliver a good product,” admits Hayes. “And in some instances we have done that — look back at when we re-did Sega Rally. It scored well and was moderately successful commercially. But then with other great franchises like Golden Axe we didn’t produce a great game at all.
“Going forward, if we’re going to look at any existing IP to bring out the locker, we have to make sure we get the quality to a level we now expect. I’m not saying which IP it would be — a Streets Of Rage, a Crazy Taxi, whatever. What we have to do now is build something that is 85 per cent plus [rated]. We can’t just get away with PR.”
That’s great to hear. Sega’s recent mistreatment of the games that made it a star have been very depressing, to say the least. Also … did he just hint at a new Streets of Rage? Did he seriously just hint that? Please say that is what he did!
Sega: We must do better on PS3 and 360 [CVG]
Published: Mar 17, 2010 12:20 pm