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People in here don't know SEGA's massive? They have 2 billion cash on hand? EA by comparison has around 1-1.2 billion. SEGA could have afforded to buy out THQ entirely and are, as far as we know, the top bidder on the bankrupt Index (parent company of Atlus, the makers of persona amongst other games) at $200 million.

The secret to SEGA's success historically, outside their only console success (MegaDrive/Genesis depending on your locale) has been arcades which continue to make them millions in Japan as well as the other half of the company, Sammy, which is the largest producer of pachislot machines in Japan. Pachislot for those of you who don't know are basically pinball machines that you gamble on, they dominate Japanese gambling parlors much like slot machines dominate western gambling parlors.

Not to mention mobile, SEGA is huge on mobile, their f2p Sonic game has nearly 15 million users IIRC and the port of the first game did over 8 million on feature phones. Not even smart phones.

As for console/PC IP, they have Total War, Company of Heroes, Football Manager, Phantasy Star Online 2 (hugely successful in Japan, not available anywhere else, yet), Yakuza (massive in Japan), Sonic (over 80 million sold on consoles since 91) and Hatsune Miku (rhythm games featuring a rather popular Japanese computer idol who sings with a synthesized voice). They also have some other franchises that do moderately well, a Japanese only soccer manager for handhelds, Virtua Fighter (makes most of its money in arcades but does ok on consoles too), Virtua Tennis (widely seen as the best Tennis series), Shining Force (which has been ruined now) and the occasional one off title overseen by their Chief Creative Officer, Toshihiro Nagoshi (dude behind Daytona USA, Yakuza, Binary Domain, Super Monkey Ball).

SEGA also has a toy division in Japan and owns multiple animation studios, including Tokyo Movie Shinsha, who is probably most famous in the US for animating the excellent animated Batman series in the 90's. They also own a CG film studio that's currently working on a Space Pirate Captain Harlock movie, that studio is called Marza Animation Planet.

Also they used to make fantastic games at their Japanese studios, I wouldn't say the quality has fallen overall but they've become more western centric and as an old school fan of theirs I super miss the likes of Jet Set Radio, Shenmue, Panzer Dragoon, the old (and better) Sonic, Shinobi, old Shining Force and Phantasy Star, they made fantastic games at SEGA of Japan. Still occasionally do but it's a lot less common.

People in here don't know SEGA's massive? They have 2 billion cash on hand? EA by comparison has around 1-1.2 billion. SEGA could have afforded to buy out THQ entirely and are, as far as we know, the top bidder on the bankrupt Index (parent company of Atlas, the makers of persona amongst other games) at $200 million.

I don't know how you get to those figures, but they are pretty far off from the actual FCF. EA still has a bigger marketcap than Sega Sammy. Besides, the video game industry represents not even 30% of the net sales of Sega Sammy.

I don't know how you get to those figures, but they are pretty far off from the actual FCF. EA still has a bigger marketcap than Sega Sammy. Besides, the video game industry represents not even 30% of the net sales of Sega Sammy.

FY13 report for SEGA reported 176,540,000,000 yen in cash and deposits, which at the time with the stronger yen was around 2 billion. It's since fallen to ~1.8 billion USD.

EA's FY13 had ~1.3 billion in cash and deposits.

FY13 report for SEGA reported 176,540,000,000 yen in cash and deposits, which at the time with the stronger yen was around 2 billion. It's since fallen to ~1.8 billion USD.

EA's FY13 had ~1.3 billion in cash and deposits.

I was afraid you might say that. Cash on balance sheet is in no way a financially comparable indicator as EA and Sega Sammy have very different obligations, expenses, dividend payouts etc. The cash dropped to 114,536 million yen after the first quarter of 2014. Next to that, the currency translation of such an annual report is done in a different way.

I was afraid you might say that. Cash on balance sheet is in no way a financially comparable indicator as EA and Sega Sammy have very different obligations, expenses, dividend payouts etc. The cash dropped to 114,536 million yen after the first quarter of 2014. Next to that, the currency translation of such an annual report is done in a different way.

I think you mean billion, financial report says billion? Typo?

I think you mean billion, financial report says billion? Typo?

No, no, it is not a european comma, which is obvious as these financials are followed by 3 digits.
114,536 million yen = 114,536,000,000 yen = 114,5 billion yen.

If Sega has this numbers, relic should have no problem to implement serwer to the game instead of p2p.

If Sega has this numbers, relic should have no problem to implement serwer to the game instead of p2p.

True, but before Sega makes a move as costly as that, they need to know that it is profitable. They aren't just going to throw money at coh2.

With the online population dwindling away, putting money into servers don't sound like an attractive option

A lobby is really what the game is lacking at the moment. At least community wise.

Yup and we sold millions and millions of copies of CoH over it's lifetime. It was regularly on sale for $5 or less on Steam and there was the THQ Humble Bundle as well. If anyone was vaguely interested in playing CoH they would have been able to get the game and both expansion packs for under $10 a number of times.

We've been selling well, but we're not at original CoH numbers yet and won't be for a long time. If anything strong CoH numbers speak well for the future of CoH 2, in that it shows that we make games with lasting popularity and that take advantage of the long tail.


Edit: I just wanted to clarify the statement "we're not at original CoH numbers yet" is talking about CoH's total lifetime sales. We're doing quite well compared with CoH at the same point post-launch.

Thanks for sharing your feedback. Customers can be satisfied with single player but still very frustrated with multi and that's a common problem in games.

Perhaps this is because multi just doesn't bring extra income to game developers from existing customers, so its given less priority/resources.

It's great to know that Relic is working on improving their product but why couldn't they have released an excellent multi player experience to their customers from the beginning?

I don't know how you get to those figures, but they are pretty far off from the actual FCF. EA still has a bigger marketcap than Sega Sammy. Besides, the video game industry represents not even 30% of the net sales of Sega Sammy.

which makes IGN's headline that noun quoted less than credible.
to be a bit more precise it represents 17% of their revenue.

double post

Single playernis typically played through once, and doesnt need much post-launch support.

Replayability and community retension happens through multiplay balancing/support and additional content bundles.

Makes more sense, post launch, to invest in keeping the multiplay community playing.
If they go, so does the public profile of the game diminish, leading to less future sales.

Also DLC does not sell well if no ones playing the game anymore.

true, less than 1,500 users last night.
the game peaks over 5,000 for a couple of hours a week and that is it.

So from the sound of things, what's the value in the new player sticking around? I enjoy this game despite not being very good at it, but from the sound of it the community is already drying up. This is not heartening from the perspective of someone who just discovered the franchise and was looking for a new RTS to occupy themselves with.

Steady decline in COH2 players

Constant games lagging and players dropping is killing the game more than the lack of other features/stuff or balance. While in-game, I started asking players if they have been having lag or players dropping or being dropping. The amount of yes ---to lagging and dropping was pretty overwhelming. Normally this is an easy thing to ask in a public chat lobby lol, but since the game doesn't have one...how convenient, eh?

The last time I tried to play an evening of COH2. A couple of games played pretty flawless. But then it started, you know the old --- get into a game and 5 or 10 or 15 minutes into the game it starts the stuttering and a drop and another drop. 8 games in a row someone would drop in a game or I would get kicked. I spent a few hours trying to get a game in. What an utter waste of an evening trying to play this game. Please note this seems to happen almost every evening for weeks now. In beta there was the odd drop here or there...but now it is a constant game destroyer.

Just thinking of it right now....I don't think I want to torture myself with another evening of "try playing COH2 Multiplayer" with no one dropping or getting dropped.

And I have been gaming online since 1995 (since Kali and Warcraft 2). Yes,I know about port forwarding.

I am sorry guys....I really really tried to play COH2 (I played COH for almost 5-6 yrs online). I just can't take another evening ot trying to get a good game without droppers or dropping in.

I quit around 3 weeks back

The breaking point was ludicrous Goebbels style single player campaign (which I didn't play but was horrified by its review)

Bought the game expecting excellent multiplayer, as many friends hailed vCoH. Then I put up with ridiculous unrealistic and counter-historic units hoping it was done in favor of balance. Then survived several patches that unbalanced the game even more. Then I had enough, there is nothing in this game I like anymore. Let it die

I have the same problem as Lionred and it is extremely offputting. Would play more if that were fixed. If it's on my end I'm not able to fix it, and a lot of people I'm seeing in game have the same thing regularly.

I quit around 3 weeks back

The breaking point was ludicrous Goebbels style single player campaign (which I didn't play but was horrified by its review)

Bought the game expecting excellent multiplayer, as many friends hailed vCoH. Then I put up with ridiculous unrealistic and counter-historic units hoping it was done in favor of balance. Then survived several patches that unbalanced the game even more. Then I had enough, there is nothing in this game I like anymore. Let it die

Don't accuse a campaign you didn't play of being Goebbels style and of being your 'breaking point'.