PSP would be great format for the games …
I disagree about the cost to port a saturn game to the PSP. Atlus will be shipping Princess Crown to PSP next month, so the technical difficulties aren’t an issue. I believe the cost to port over to PSP is exponentially lower than starting ground up or revamping the game.
How many people will buy it?? It seems that Atlus thought enough would buy their Saturn to PSP port, I’m sure the Panzer games have much larger fan base than Princess Crown does.
Yes and it’s also 3D which is a whole different thing to get up and running for a system that it wasn’t designed for. Saying technical difficulties are not an issue is just silly considering that the Saturn to PC emulator Sega chose to take under their wing as official (Giri Giri) was far from perfect and far from running games smoothly even on very powerful PCs.
After looking for information on the PS2 port/remake of the original Panzer Dragoon, I stumbled upon this board!
I have to agree that porting the old Saturn Panzer games to the PSP would mean an instant purchase to me without a second thought! I’d pay full price to play these classics on a screen as crisp and smooth as the PSP.
I also have to disagree with what was said about the Saturn graphics not holding up on PSP. We need to keep in mind that the original resolution those games were displayed was 640 * 480, so they would no doubt look much better after being condensed into 480 x 272 which the PSP displays. I’m sure that they could also slap some filters on the graphics engine to enhance any shortcomings…
Fortunately, PSP 3D capabilities are well above a Saturns…
I think it’s silly to say that Sega couldn’t port any Saturn game to PSP, 2d or 3d, I’m sure their programming ninjas could do it.
Yeah so I guess all the developers creating games for PSP are being silly by creating higher definition graphics because they could have just fixed it all up with some filters. Do you think EA will ask 100-150 triangle 3D characters (if PDSaga even had that) for their PSP games Symytry?
As for the earlier comment about the PD popularity, take the sales of PDOrta as an example of that. And I bet the X-Box also has (and had at the time of the game’s release) a larger number of total users than the PSP has atm.
I also never said the cost of porting would be high. in fact I think porting games such as PDSaga is going to be practically impossible. I said the cost of DEVELOPING for the PSP would be as high as for the home consoles. I meant titles from scratch since I was comparing it to titles-from-scratch for Nintendo’s handhelds.
Dunno what your last comment about the PSP’s 3D capabilities is supposed to mean either. It was one of my points. Its ability is well above the Saturn’s (for games created specifically for it) thus any Saturn 3D games would look very inferior compared to the rest games the PSP gets. Assuming of course they could be ported on first place.
Edit: And Atlus is not exactly Sega-Sammy in size. They can have satisfactory profit with much lower sales numbers.
Anywyay, the main thing I’m saying is not developing games for the PSP (yet) is not a wasted opportunity from Sega as TA made it sound like since at the moment it doesn’t look like it would offer them as much in return as the sales potential on the Nintendo handhelds.
I was merely suggesting that Saga (or any Saturn/PSOne games) would benefit greatly from Zbuffering, anti aliasing, and texture smoothing…
[quote=“Al3xand3r”]
As for the earlier comment about the PD popularity, take the sales of PDOrta as an example of that.[/quote]
Could you list some sales numbers for us? Perhaps from Japan and the US? I’ve never seen what the sales numbers are like.
Why is that? There’s already been plenty of ports of older Saturn games to PSOne and PS2. All it takes is one or two talented software engineers to optimize code for different configurations.
I don’t think they would turn out too badly actually. If you take my previous point into consideration of the condensed resolution. Everything looks much better when condensed, and as I mentioned earlier a simple texture smoothing filter would help the game immensely. Z buffer would greatly help the vertical background hold as well.
I have a PSP and I love it, but i’m gonna have to agree with Al3xand3r on this one. I don’t think a PD port would be beneficial, since it would look inferior and developing a new game would cost just as much as if they made one for a console.
Gamespot recently released a news story that was run in Famitsu magazine citing average development costs http://www.gamespot.com/news/2005/08/12/news_6130901.html
- it basically shows that developing a PSP game costs about the same as a console game, and almost double of a GBA game.
But Sega is making games for the PSP, just not diving into support for the platform, they do have a Sonic title planned, and Virtua Tennis comes out in a month or so.
Who said anything about using Saturn code?.
You can use that as basis and create an engine built around the PSP. The PSP is more capable of handling the Model 2 code for starters.
People should play RR on the PSP.
Its looks and sound stunning , and running at a rock solid 60 fps (most X-Box can?t handle that) and its only a launch game.
SEGA should be impressing the pants off people with amazing graphics and sound . You not going to be doing that with Rally ports on N-Gage or GBA.
Now SEGA as a HH that is more than capable of handling the game and SEGA does nothing.
You could add in some of the cars and tracks from part II, and SEGA could have a really winner on its hands .
No lets leave all that to Code masters or Namco (one can?t be failed to be impressed with what Namco is doing on the PSP).
Same with Sonic, by all means make a GBA versions, but the PSP should be playing host to that,. Its screen is perfect for horizontal games. But no Naka love for NCL gets in the way again
You seem to refuse to see the big picture. Sega should develop for the PSP because it’s more powerful is the only reason you are giving. Not to mention that you simply seem to hate Nintendo so don’t like the fact there’s many titles on the GBA despite the fact that most of them were created before the PSP was even out. And they probably brought Sega nice income since all the Sonic Advance sequels must mean that they sell good (and of course cost little to make).
Sega IS developing for the PSP as Felix said but of course they won’t be creating as many titles as for GBA and NDS as the PSP doesn’t have a big enough fanbase yet that will warrant as good sales numbers as on Nintendo’s systems.
Why should Sega support it so much so early in its life? Just to please the few Sega fans that may have bought it out of nowhere? Or just to make it more popular? Do they owe it to Sony or something? Or should they develop games so early in its life and be the reason the PSP becomes popular while having the least benefit and then the companies that develop for it after can get all the benefit from the increased fan base?
And I see nothing wrong with NDS’s 2D capabilities as to prefer Sonic games on the PSOne. Sonic DS looks pretty damn good to me and uses the vertical aspects greatly despite being a side scrolling game.
I’d say Sonic is more suitable for Nintendo’s platforms anyway since people have the habit of thinking their consoles as kiddy stuff while wanting more mature looking titles for Sony’s systems.
And, if you want Sega to be amazing people with graphics why do you even want them to go to the portable market at all anyway?
Sega is losing nothing from not giving more support to the PSP at the moment. And is gaining a lot from supporting Nintendo’s handhelds. I don’t see how that can be wrong in any way.
[quote=“Al3xand3r”]You simply refuse to see the big picture. Sega should develop for the PSP because it’s more powerful is the only reason you are giving. Not to mention that you simply seem to hate Nintendo so don’t like the fact there’s many titles on the GBA despite the fact that most of them were created before the PSP was even out. And they probably brought Sega nice income since all the Sonic Advance sequels must mean that they sell good.
Sega IS developing for the PSP as Felix said but of course they won’t be creating as many titles as for GBA and NDS as the PSP doesn’t have a big enough fanbase yet that will warrant as good sales numbers as on Nintendo’s systems.
Why should Sega support it so much so early in its life? Just to please the few Sega fans that may have bought it out of nowhere? Or just to make it more popular? Do they owe it to Sony or something? Or should they develop games so early in its life and be the reason the PSP becomes popular while having the least benefit and then the companies that develop for it after can get all the benefit from the increased fan base?
And I see nothing wrong with NDS’s 2D capabilities as to prefer Sonic games on the PSOne. Sonic DS looks pretty damn good to me.
I’d say Sonic is more suitable for Nintendo’s platforms anyway since people have the habit of thinking their consoles as kiddy stuff.
And, if you want Sega to be amazing people with graphics why do you even want them to go to the portable market at all anyway?
Sega is losing nothing from not giving more support to the PSP at the moment. And is gaining a lot from supporting Nintendo’s handhelds. I don’t see how that can be wrong in any way.[/quote]
The PSP isn’t a new thing. Developers have known about it for some 2 years at the very least. So a Sonic title should have at least been in production just like RALLY.
I mean if you can get GBA or N-Gage versions of Rally you should at least make one for the PSP as well. It wouldn’t be that hardwork and SEGA could even hand it out to the likes of Sumo Digital.
Rally would work perfect on the PSP and would imo be a great money makers of the group. They could amaze the HH crowd with a PSP port of RALLY.
One final thing.
While the DS is outselling the PSP in Japan, Its a diff sotry in the USA. Where sales of june/july show the PSP outsold the DS.
Europe is all but ready to be impressed with the PSP SEGA could have got some decent sales with a Rally port .
I don’t mind SEGA making GBA games, but Sonic , Rally should really be on the PSP as well.
N-Gage is hardly seting the world alight with sales, yet SEGA can make SONIC or Rally for that. Thats what bugs me.
When I said the PSP is new I meant market wise. Sure Sega could have been developing more. But it’s not a missed opportunity at all as you make it sound. I’m sure when the PSP gets more mature and has a more solid footing in the market (if it manages that, you never know how it will go despite initial sales being good) we’ll be seeing many more titles appear. And with a reason more than what kind of games the handful of Sega fans that bought the system want to see.
Was asked to comment, so I shall.
PDO had mediocre sales in the US, somewhere around the 90-100k mark befor the price drop. After the price dropped, there was a small boost in sales (at the cost of any sort of profitability), but I can’t give exact figures.
As for the whole Saturn-on-PSP argument, well, let’s just say that there are factors beyond the control of the publishers as to what gets released on certain platforms.
(And Saturn-to-PSP isn’t as easy as you make it sound. Particularly in the case of first party games on any console, the games are likely built specifically to that hardware, making it difficult to port. The reason why RR was so great was because it used the original PSX code as a base, and as the architecture between PSX and PSP are so similar, it made it relatively easy to do.)
This, of course, has nothing to do with the fact that the game got virtually no coverage outside of TWOTA, Die Welt and Sega Communities, has it? >_>
Let’s hope Ninja Gaiden Black doesn’t go the same way.
You mean other than the print ads, the TV commercials, and all the press coverage?
Hell, OXM reviewed the game twice.
[quote=“Abadd”]You mean other than the print ads, the TV commercials, and all the press coverage?
Hell, OXM reviewed the game twice.[/quote]
I really think SOA not briging the game out for the Christmas period never helped matters.
But in saying that ORTA was never going to be a multi million seller , given the type of game it is. Its not all bad, in Japan its one of the best selling 3rd party X-Box games 
[quote=“Abadd”]
(And Saturn-to-PSP isn’t as easy as you make it sound. Particularly in the case of first party games on any console, the games are likely built specifically to that hardware, making it difficult to port. The reason why RR was so great was because it used the original PSX code as a base, and as the architecture between PSX and PSP are so similar, it made it relatively easy to do.)[/quote]
What’s this using Saturn code ? I doubt N-gage Rally or GBA Rally used any of the Saturn code 
:P. There’s nothing stoping SEGA or a 3rd party building a new engine , but using the tracks and cars from the series as a Basis.
Rally on the PSP would just be a match made in heaven (even more so if SEGA pit in wifi modes). Socking really as the PSP is getting a pretty decent foothold in the USA, and all set to do well in Europe . SEGA haven?t got a major PSP game ready.
Not really the one way to impress or make money. Much like making sure Sonic or Virtual Fighter aren?t multi platform . Which I hope to God will change over the next gen (with VF) .
Plus like Namco SEGA should be making the most of this same series. I see Ride Racer is all set to go on the 360 will full LIVE play. While SEGA Japan stays quite , yet again. I really hope they have something major for the Tokyo games show. I love to know what they are up too.
BTW great point about the PSX and PSP sharing a bit in common
And I doubt a PSP game that can match up visually with the rest games the system has to offer is going to cost as little as the GBA game cost to develop. Who knows maybe they’ll port Sega Rally 2005 eventually or something like that. But again, it’s not a missed opportunity for anything… It’s not like they have dominated the rest markets in order to need to advance on yet another system that just came out. Nor do they have anything to quarantee sales on it. Atleast on the GBA/DS it’s a given that they are going to sell some given the massive fanbase… So that’s little cost with certain profit. There’s no reason to compare it with the PSP at all since it would be high cost (as much as making it for a home console) and certain to get less sales than on the GBA/DS.
I was simply replying to the questions about ports of Saturn games. There is always the option of doing a Rally game for PSP, yes. Just because it hasn’t been announced or isn’t currently being developed, doesn’t mean Sega wouldn’t like to do it.
(And Sonic is multi-platform o_O)
As for your earlier comment about Orta not being released for X-mas: gamers complain all the time when a game is “released too early,” and is full of bugs, un-tuned levels, etc. But, when a game doesn’t release within a certain window or slips, gamers complain. You can’t always have the best of both worlds.
Had Orta shipped “on time,” it would have been a steaming pile of crap. It was due to the extra time that helped it achieve the quality it reached.
Very small bit of extra info on the Sega Ages Panzer Dragoon: from the text at the top of Sega’s lineup page, it looks like the next batch of Ages games (including PD) are going to be released from March 2006 onwards. Anyone who actually understands Japanese, feel free to correct me. 