Sega signs up Silicon Knights

SEGA
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[quote=“Abadd”]How do you define AAA title, then?

With maybe one or two exceptions, the titles I mentioned were given AAA support. The term “AAA” has nothing to do with quality. Granted, it is usually a good indication of high quality, but rather, AAA simply means that the game has a high level of expectation to sell.[/quote]

I’m talking about the quality of the game itself. But AAA can extend to a series of games that has a high reputation among gamers because of the consistency of good gameplay and improving on something that was already perfect.

I did n’t feel that some of the games you mentioned are AAA because they were that good but in what your saying they are AAA titles because they are expected to sell a lot of units.

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“AAA” simply means “blockbuster.” It doesn’t necessarily have to be good, just that the marketing/business people expect it to sell (doesn’t mean that it actually will…).

But, if you’re coming from a quality standpoint, sure… not all of them make the list, but a surprising number of ones do. But if that’s your criteria for AAA, then you gotta drop Sonic from being Sega’s AAA title (because let’s face it… it’s not AAA quality).

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As long as the games sell, then that’s all that matters apparently. :anjou_sad: I honestly hate that kind of mentality.

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??

When did I say that?

That’s what determines whether a game is a AAA title. Ico wasn’t a AAA title, but it doesn’t mean it’s not respected.

I honestly think too many gamers get too caught up in the lingo. Who cares if your favorite game or whatever isn’t a AAA title?

The point I was arguing was that 3rd party publishers need AAA titles (i.e. blockbuster hits) in order to stay in business. You can have all the quirky, artsy titles you want, but if none of them sell, the company is going bye-bye.

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Geoff : Matters to whom?There are many people involved in this each with a different objective.

The gamers want to have fun.The developers make it for the money and for the sake of expressing themselves (their artists after all); granted the importance each person gives to each of those components varies alot.Most other people do it just for the money tho…

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Sorry, I was just speaking in general.

I don’t like to measure a game’s worth by how many copies it sells, but a lot of people do just that. I just think that’s wrong because how many games that didn’t deserve to sell at all sold surprisingly well?

[quote=“Gehpnaet”]Matters to whom?

Most other people do it just for the money tho…[/quote]

You’ve answered your own question.

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It was rethorical ya know? :anjou_happy:

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[quote=“Abadd”]“AAA” simply means “blockbuster.” It doesn’t necessarily have to be good, just that the marketing/business people expect it to sell (doesn’t mean that it actually will…).

But, if you’re coming from a quality standpoint, sure… not all of them make the list, but a surprising number of ones do. But if that’s your criteria for AAA, then you gotta drop Sonic from being Sega’s AAA title (because let’s face it… it’s not AAA quality).[/quote]

That’s always been my standpoint. What do you think i meant when i said Sega released AAA title after AAA on the DC. Half of those games which you stated did n’t even sell well on the DC. And in a gamers point of view I would have thought it meant the game you have to play. About Sonic I never included that as being sega’s AAA titles although it sold beter than any of he other Sega games. In that criteria that you stated it was a AAA
title.

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Didn’t sell well on the DC? Soul Calibur and RE:CV sold extremely well. Other than those, I don’t know what you could be talking about…

As for AAA Sega titles on the DC, there were only a few true AAA titles. There were a lot of A titles, but only a handful billed as being AAA. And you’re right, to a certain extent. AAA titles are “must-have” games, but remember, there are a lot of people out there with very different tastes than those of the people on these boards. So, just because you may not consider a game a must-have title, there may be 100’s of thousands of people (or even millions) who think otherwise.

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Why should there be a “video game common sense”?I’ll never understand that…

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[quote=“Abadd”]Didn’t sell well on the DC? Soul Calibur and RE:CV sold extremely well. Other than those, I don’t know what you could be talking about…

[/quote]

If you’re talking about Sonic Adv on the DC. That’s one of the best (if not the best) sellers on the DC. It went on to sell 3, 500,000 copies world wide.

Many people think Shenmue bombed (it a way it did) but it did sell over 1,000,000 copies world wide.

Sales prove nothing to me. ORTA, JSRF, Space Channel 5 pt 2, REZ were all AAA games in my view. Yet they h sold like nothing

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[quote=“Abadd”]Didn’t sell well on the DC? Soul Calibur and RE:CV sold extremely well. Other than those, I don’t know what you could be talking about…

[/quote]

If you’re talking about Sonic Adv on the DC. That’s one of the best (if not the best) sellers on the DC. It went on to sell 3, 500,000 copies world wide.

Many people think Shenmue bombed (it a way it did) but it did sell over 1,000,000 copies world wide.

Sales prove nothing to me. ORTA, JSRF, Space Channel 5 pt 2, REZ were all AAA games in my view. Yet they h sold like nothing

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I was primarily referring to 3rd party software, since he had said “half of the games I had mentioned…”

JSRF and Orta were AAA titles, in the respect that they were expected to sell. Didn’t end up living up to those expectations, though. SC5 pt 2 and Rez are not AAA titles. They are good games, but that’s like calling Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind a blockbuster movie. It’s simply a good movie.

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JSRF and Orta were expected to sell?!

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[quote=“Abadd”]I was primarily referring to 3rd party software, since he had said “half of the games I had mentioned…”

JSRF and Orta were AAA titles, in the respect that they were expected to sell. Didn’t end up living up to those expectations, though. SC5 pt 2 and Rez are not AAA titles. They are good games, but that’s like calling Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind a blockbuster movie. It’s simply a good movie.[/quote]

I’m sorry REZ is a Master price in my eye’s. I only wise I had half the talent and vision of the REZ art Team

T. Mizuguchi is nothing short of a God like Genius.REZ LV 5 with Adam Freelands awesome sound track, is one of the best partsmoments to play in anyvideo game (well for me)
Space Channel 5 Pt5 is the 2nd best music game I’ve played (nothing beats Samba)

BTW, I’m not talking sales here (but gamplay), becasue if you go by that then Medal Of Honor, and Need For Speed Underground II are AAA games all the way. When they are anything but.

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Haven’t played NFS:U2, but 1 was actually really fun. The drag racing mode was an exercise in great game design (how do you make a race that goes in a straight line and lasts less than a minute fun?), and Medal of Honor was a great (scripted) FPS for what it was. Was it a Half Life or Halo? No, but it’s still better than a good 80% of the crap FPS’ out there.

Rez was excellent, don’t get me wrong. But, it’s very artsy. It’s like an independent movie vs. a summer blockbuster. You wouldn’t call movies like Amelie, Eternal Sunshine, the Cube, etc. AAA movies would you? They’re excellent movies, but not AAA. Same thing. Although, to be honest, I was disappointed with Rez simply because it didn’t live up to its full potential. You liked level 5? Well, imagine if the whole game was that well made.

Mizuguchi-san is very artistic, indeed, but genius is a bit of an overstatement.

And yes… JSRF and Orta were expected to sell. Maybe not millions, but sell better than they did.

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For me it was. Also you people nned remember that Lv5 was ment just to be the start of the full story to REZ.

But T.Mizuguchi took a lager part of the full meaning to REZ out. Not just due to time pressures but because he was scared the players wouldn?t get the full story, or they would feel it was too much for a shooter.

The man is a genius, his track record speaks for it’s self. And his 2 latest HH games are supposed to be amazing. M$ were wise to sign this great man up.

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[quote=“Abadd”]Haven’t played NFS:U2, but 1 was actually really fun. The drag racing mode was an exercise in great game design (how do you make a race that goes in a straight line and lasts less than a minute fun?), and Medal of Honor was a great (scripted) FPS for what it was. Was it a Half Life or Halo? No, but it’s still better than a good 80% of the crap FPS’ out there.

Rez was excellent, don’t get me wrong. But, it’s very artsy. It’s like an independent movie vs. a summer blockbuster. You wouldn’t call movies like Amelie, Eternal Sunshine, the Cube, etc. AAA movies would you? They’re excellent movies, but not AAA. Same thing.

[/quote]

Sorry for my bad grammer but I did mean MOH RS (Rising Sun) as I did enjoy MOH FL my self.

I don?t won?t to come across as having a go at you, but I hate this Blockbuster = AAA notion.
I don?t care about sales as a pointer to an AAA game. For me a AAA game is one that gets most parts of a game categories (Gameplay, story and so on).

Just because a game or film is a deemed an Blockbuster or makes loads of money proves nothing to me.
If you go by that, then the last 2Matrix films were AAA films all the way (when they were utter sh8T) and for me BladeRunner is the true AAA Sc-fi film
Jackie Chan?s AAA films were in fact Canon Ball and the Rush Hour series of films
When I enjoyed Snake & Crane Arts Of Shalion, Shaolin Woodenmen (never mind the rest of his work). At least those films showed off what the great man can really do.

If were going to go by blockbuster sales = AAA games/console. They Sony is best console maker ever ,and EA are the best Software house of all time.

Sorry I can?t agree with that.

And I?m not just saying that because SEGA sells like cr8p these days. For me Sonic CD is the best in the series, but if we go by the Blockbuster =AAA then in fact Sonic II is the best Sonic game ever made.
SAGA isn?t after all a AAA game, but in fact a failure and the FF series are the best RPG?s around. Sorry the Lunar series trounces the FF series.

Sales prove nothing to me (even more so into days market). Saturn Exhumed/Power Slave (best FPS ever), Switch (Mega CD) are for me AAA games all the way .
I Love Switch , and Exhumed as the most perfect Lv desgin ever (Have nothing but the highest respect for the sadly no more Lobotomy) .
Yet barley anybody even knows about theseamazing great games, and they never set the world alight in terms of sales.

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Ah yes… I heard that it was horrible. Haven’t played it myself.

The thing you have to remember is that the term AAA titles was originated by the publishers as a way to describe exactly those types of games. I just think you’re simply getting your terms mixed up. If you consider something a AAA game because of quality, that’s fine and dandy, but that’s not what the term actually means.

[quote=“Team Andromeda”]If were going to go by blockbuster sales = AAA games/console. They Sony is best console maker ever, and EA are the best Software house of all time.

Sorry I can?t agree with that.[/quote]

Like I said before, the term “AAA” has nothing to do with quality. It’s simply a term used to determine how much support/marketing push a game will receive. When I say that the above-mentioned games are “AAA,” I in no way imply that all of those games are super awesome or anything. Simply, they are the games that keep those companies afloat.

As a consumer, you don’t need to care about sales. I’m not disagreeing with you :slight_smile: I’m just saying that the usage of the term AAA is perhaps a little off base. That’s all.

But, on a side note, I’m going to have to disagree with your assessment of why Rez turned out the way it did. There was supposed to be much more in the game. As was the case with Space Channel 5. He’s a visionary… but sometimes has trouble in execution.

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Sorrry Abadd I did get mixed up a bit.

For me an AAA game means that a game that does almost everything right Introspective of how much money it cost, or it?s marketing push.

Case in Point Kung Fu Chaos.
For me an AAA game all the way, I can?t thing of anyway it could be made better. Yet it?s was sadly under marketed by M$, and looked over by the consumer.
VO II (Dreamcast) is much the same, for me that?s the most impressive SEGA coin-up conversion ever made, and so deep it?s hurts. Yet even in Japan it only sold some 170,000 copies, but for me it?s AAA game all the way. I could say the same about O.TO.G II and so many more

As for REZ .
Yes there was ment to be much more of meaning to REZ than what was in the final copy , but it was taken out midway through development.
Shame too as some people say the ?Real? ending to REZ shows off some of this (Have to finish the last boss in the final form)

It?s supposed to be one of the best endings ever made , some say even better than SAGA?s (if that?s possible) . But for the life of me I can’t finish REZ in the last form :(, and GOD’s knows I’ve tried