No Sega for Gamecube next year...?
 

I saw this on Yahoo! Business:

Here's the link for the complete story:

http://biz.yahoo.com/djus/021120/0433000270_1.html

Does this mean Sega will farm out development for the Gamecube? Possibly have Nintendo handle all of their development internally? An interesting development, considering how tight Sega has been with Microsoft...

Jeremy

I take it to mean that you should not expect any Sports games (NFL2k4, NBA2k4, WSB2k3, NHL2k4) to come out for the GameCube next year. I would guess given that the GameCube versions of these games come out weeks after the PS2 and X-Box version that it just is not cost efficient to bring them out on GameCube.

If you look at some sales statistics (someone over on the IGN boards shows 3 regional section sales from Best Buy), the PS2 and X-Box versions of these games have outsold the GameCube version. Face it, the GameCube is hindered on Sports games because of:

1. The blur effect used
2. The memory card limitation
3. The unwieldy controller for Sports Games.

This is only on Sports games they are talking about, not the whole Sega line. I doubt it will be farmed out. They are losing money in this arena and the GameCube port is the easiest one to cut because of low sales.

I agree with AgtFox completely. I especially agree with the how horrible the controller is for sports games.

yeah sports, probably, but since the only Sega Million Sellers are for the Cube (monkey Ball, Sonic and soon to be Monkey Ball 2), I doubt Sega is going to pull out from the system.

Not to mention F-Zero. That no doubt will be a million seller.

It's true that SEGA's sports game haven't sold well on the Cube but I can't believe they still don't make at least a small profit from them. Plus I think next year might be the year SEGA puts out some really good sports games leading to better sales accross all 3 systems.

GC will still get Madden though since it seams to do okay, but I think overall the memory card issue has hurt the sports game area. I won't be surprised to see sports releases cut down.

I had no problem with the controller, but the memory card thing was a big mistake.

When it comes to Nintendo hardware and sports games take your pick of problems. Ever since the N64 Nintendo has created a bad system for sports games. Someone in another thread mentioned that Madden 2003 GC looked almost identical to Madden 2003 on Xbox and I couldn't disagree more. The GC just isn't getting any love in the sports area of gaming. Oh well, I'll be happy playing Metroid. :) Now if they would reconsider that stupid looking Zelda style (I know they won't . Just venting)

You mean ever since the SNES. With few exceptions most people prefered the Genesis over the SNES in terms of sports games. Although I don't know why.

If I remember correctly, Sega had a close relationship with EA Sports and the Genesis received much love from them. I'm not even sure EA Sports titles were on the SNES, though I'm sure they were.

They were.

You scared me with the subject heading on this thread, i thought sega was dropping out completely, but thank goodness they were only talking about the sega sports game :).

I owned both the SNES and Genesis, and I found that the Genesis versions of EA games were always better. The Madden and NHL versions just seemed to play better, the SNES copies has a more arcade feel to them. NHL especially was nothing more than an up and down shootout, devoid of the control that the Genesis offered.

Never understood why. I love Nintendo's games, but their systems never seem to offer this sports fanatic much satisfaction.

I've never had a problem with sports games on the GC controller. I actually prefered it to the others for NBA Street, Madden 2002 and NBA 2K2.

The memory card is worthless for sports games though, I buy the PS2 (bought one in May) versions now just for that reason.

Good - maybe Sonic will come to the Xbox. This sounds like it's just sports games though and I doubt they will be missed on the Cube.

The EA Sports series of games didn't make it onto the SNES until a couple of years after they started on the genesis I believe.

Chris

EA's games were on the SNES from the start, or at least very close to the start. The Genny was released a year earlier though (I think).

Yeah, there was a definite lag with the EA sports games coming out on the SNES, although I don't recall it being several years but more likely several months. They also didn't play as well on the SNES compared to their Genesis counterparts. No one should be shocked by this Sega Sports announcement, though. Almost no one buys a Gamecube to play sports games (you can get a PS2 or Xbox for that). It's for the few premiere first party titles that you get each year. I know that's the only reason why I bought it! :)

Sega's Law:

Next year all the EA games will sell like crazy on the Cube.

Thats just crazy talk. Unless your hands are as big as your head theres no way the cube has a more "unwieldy" controller than the box. I chose the Box for my sports gaming this year and last but it was in spite of the controller not because of it.

Here are some numbers for NBA 2K3 sales in October from IGN's article:

PS2: 98,000
XBox: 53,000
Gamecube: 7,000

I'd be suprised to see Sega continue supporting a platform that will only make them lose money. And you can forget about any extra effort added into their games, such as online support.

One thing I would like to add. Sega did bring some of this poor sales of 2K3 on themselves by making a terrible port of NFL and a mediocre port of NBA. No one is going to buy the GameCube version, even if they prefer it when the games look much worse than the PS2 and Xbox versions.

is the cube version of nfl2k3 horrible? cuase i was thinkin of pickin it up

I think Sega will probably take its football game Xbox exclusive anyway. Madden pounds them on PS2 every year. They should take advantage of the fact that EA isn't on Xbox live, and give Microsoft a good exclusive online football game.

Fever is pathetic.

I'd say they still sell enough copies of NFL2Kx on the PS2 to justify putting it out, simply due to the huge installed base. NBA2K2 sold nearly twice as many copies on the PS2 as the X-box, according to Flay's numbers posted above.

Plus, it's not like X-box owners are going to be more likely to buy NFL2K4 if it's exclusive to the system, than they are if it's on the PS2 and X-box.