At least KOFXII got released though.
VF5R hasn’t.
I’d be happy with a bare bones port of the game. Single player, VS, and Training mode. That’s it. Don’t need the quest stuff or the costumes. I would easily pay $100 for it.
:sad:
lmao, we’ve got dedicated VF players who would sleep with SOJ, give em’ a blowjob, cook their breakfast, have hot sex with them, give them full foot massages, cough up money, worship them, even bear their children and clean out their houses wearing a pink apron half-naked and still they refuse?! :tdown:
VF5 sales were really terrible, Sega’s probably scared to give VF a second chance, even if many of the reasons for the poor sales are gone now.
Sega always did what Nintendon’t- things such as profitability and forward-thinking business sense. 
Really- Sega wouldn’t have to do a whole lot. You don’t need Blazblue-like content if you’ve got the most character customization system of any fighter. (SC4’s system was better- because you weren’t char restricted like you are in VF or Tekken, just gender restricted.)
Proof or shut up. I love the always ambiguous “sales were awful” line. First define ‘terrible’ then quote hard sales figure (and no VGChartz does not count) and then compare VF5 sales on both platforms (PS3 and 360), adjust the figures for the release dates (accounting for how many consoles were available at the time), and then make your statement.
VF5 was already ported to both consoles. So VF5R, if it was a barebones port, could easily be done by a third party (though I’d hope they’d be more competent than Backbone).
That being said I would balk on a barebones port and quit VF5/R altogether. Quest Mode is a big draw for many people at VFDC including myself. Without online competition, just to casually fire up the game, nothing is better than having an excellent A.I. to play against. One of the reasons that VF4:EVO was so much better than all other fighting games was because, despite the lack of an online component (meaning no regular human competition), you could still learn almost the entire game through the fully comprehensive Training Mode and Quest Mode.
Sega needs to make VF5R like VF4:EVO was, meaning it needs a Training Mode that teaches beginners the entire game, and has A.I. that is modeled after top player input data. Anything else is pointless especially considering how long we’ve been waiting for this game.
Did VF5’s quest mode opponents have data based on top players as well? I thought it had the names and mottos but not sure about the actual AI.
Anyway, I really do hope Sega has something planned for VF5 Final Tunes (if they plan on one) or VF6 to bring them to consoles. I’ve still got my fingers crossed for something at TGS (I think that’s next month now), but I don’t have my hopes up.
I don’t think anyone has any hard numbers save for SoJ, but it must be low enough to not warrant porting the game over. The general consensus was that the game sold around 750,000 total (worldwide, both consoles combined), at its peak. Even if the game continues to trickle some sales through, the numbers must not have added up.
Remember, aside from the cost of development / porting (Sega did state that 5R’s graphics engine were an overhaul), everything from licensing, distribution and delivery, returns, plus taxes have to be factored in, and that’s without advertising (cost of developing the advert, paying the actual advertisers such as television channels, etc.).
If you run a business, and say, invest $15M (I’m guessing that’s how much VF5 would have cost including the price of developing the original arcade version), and your profits are just above break-even (say, $20), why would you spend another $15M just to make a profit of 5M, when you can invest on a different product for much less (say, Bayonetta for example), that has a much greater chance of giving you a large ROI.
There’s a lot of number crunching going on behind the scenes (I know, I used to do some consultancy work for online game-publishers in Asia), and from an outsider’s perspective, based on the evidence and historical data, Sega’s point of view is probably that a console VF, at the moment, is not an acceptable investment risk. Why else would there be no plans to port it at all? If there were plans, it would be brought up during budget meetings (which happens at least a good 9-12 months before any distribution of funds are made).
Honestly, I would be VERY surprised (happy though) if we saw an announcement at TGS, but what I’m expecting is that we won’t be seeing a new VF for a few years.
I can see where you are coming from with regards to return on investment, but saying that something like Bayonetta would cost less than a VF port to consoles? That doesn’t sound right at all.
A VF port would obviously be of considerable cost, as any game would be, but I think it would be relatively cheap compared to other games in Sega’s lineup.
It was just as a matter of example. We wouldn’t know unless we actually saw the production costs. Did Bayonetta need motion capture? Did it need a separate studio? Did VF need one? etc. We’re just guessing unless we actually know what really went on behind the scenes.
What we do know is that Bayonetta’s being made, 5R isn’t. So the former’s numbers must add up for Sega to put money into it.
One thing I forgot to mention is that the numbers don’t end at game sales: Some of the questions I’ve had to regularly assess are:
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Merchandise? Can money be made via 3rd party outlets, such as toys, swags, videos, books, etc. If a game can be made into a comic or cartoon, it creates involvement and intimacy.
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Franchise-able? Can this concept be extended into more games (Generally has to be 3 or more sequels nowadays), and/or other complimentary business opportunities (think: Pikachu stuffed toy arcade claw-games).
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Extended experiences? Can the game experienced be enhanced by other hardware (think: Namco’s gun, or a racing wheel) that the company can produce or partner with another company to help promote the game (racing game + racing wheel = more shelf space = greater visibility).
As you can see, there are so many factors outside of just plain vanilla development. Sega would have looked at all these numbers, looked at their financials, looked at each of their IP’s, and thought: Ok, these we do, these we don’t.
Sadly (and curiously), a lot of the past IP’s seem to have fallen in the “don’t” category.
Why are people bringing this shit up again?
No sense in discussing a company who’s true intentions are shrouded in mystery. It’s apparently not about money. Discontinuing Eternal Champions series just so it wouldn’t potentially compete with VF, and VF could be the premier fighting game franchise. They’re unable to have multiple like Capcom, Namco, etc. Profiting from two franchises would make too much sense I guess. So you kill one of your own creations just to ensure your other one gets even bigger, yet you still don’t take the risk of expansion(localizing a console 5R)?
Sega is an evil and weird company that hates the U.S. and will eventually be responsible for the genocide of whole countries and companies. Why don’t you people understand that?
750,000 global sales is low, but higher then KOF12 and BB will likely end up being (well maybe BB will inch higher). Here’s the thing, how much did Sega really sink into the VF5 home port? They already had most of the work done from the arcade version. I’d say it’s a fairly low-risk venture to try - since Sega already has the netcode good enough (for 360 at least), they’d just need to do a straight port, which would sell more then 750k copies.
That said, it’s not as slam dunk profitable as Wii shovelware is, and Sega doesn’t like making money of good games anyways- so I don’t expect anything. I know one thing- no VF, no buy anything Sega.
Honestly, quest mode- just copy VF5’s, but allow people who want to play online to gain items/gold/etc that way as well. I hated having to get items via playing a shitty AI, it turned me off the game some. Hopefully Tekken allows you to gain things via netplay (though allow for SP too), but usually Namco is good about giving people multiple paths- they did a real good job with SC4 in terms of giving people multiple ways to get things.
just put out the damn game
In the end, it’s the same thing though - you and I are still just speculating why they won’t do it because we don’t have any numebrs.
If BB sells more, it might encourage Sega to try again (oh, fighting games not dead?), or they could be following Namco’s progress closely. If Namco sells a bajillion copies, they may try to jump back into the fray. Who knows?
::EDIT::
One thing I will point out is that you can’t say that most of the work was already done in the arcade: most of the planning and design work, yes, but not development. Sega’s using a board that’s not based off any of the consoles (although they did say it wasn’t that difficult porting it to the 360), but by their own statement, VF5R’s graphics were revamped: I’m guessing it was in order to accommodate the deeper customization options. With that in mind, that would mean that a 5R port would need to be developed from scratch.
Now for the sake of example: say if they ported 5R with 5’s graphics engine, which meant they would have to sacrifice customizations, and to keep costs down, there would still be no story mode, just* quest, would that be considered that an acceptable port? I’m sure a lot of casual players (e.g. the people who are supposed to buy the game too) wouldn’t think so. If that’s all they got for say $40, when compared to a package like what BR offers (or even SC4 in fact, which is now selling at a discount), nobody would pick it up still. In this economy, and against the current competition (BR, GoW, MW, WoW, StarCraft, Uncharted 2, etc.) it might even sell less than 750,000.
Now imagine how that would look to a Sega exec: VF5 sells 750k. 5R (an improved game) sells just 500k. If that happened, we might not even see a VF6. :shake:
*I said “just” quest because for us fighting game players, quest mode’s fine. But we’re the exception, not the rule. Quest would be considered a grind to pretty much everyone else.
What? Does VF5 and R not run on the same hardware?
http://www.system16.com/hardware.php?id=731&page=3#2248
Oh, and fuck casualfags and what they think of a beloved series. I hate to say it, but I’d rather see VF die off than cater to a bunch of ignorant people’s bullshit. They’re the sole reason SCIV exists and other mediocre stuff on the market gets far, far more credit than they deserve.
VF needs the special chars to get the casuals interested which is why VF6 will feature JCVD and Segal. In your face Star Wars/Soul Calibur fanboys.
Same hardware, different graphics code IIRC. Same story with T6 and BR. Same hardware, different code.
Well I was talking in terms of the VF5 ports rather than the Arcade Machine AND the port. I would be willing to bet good money that a port of an Arcade Fighter (running on Linbergh (sp?) Arcade Board which translates easily to consoles) would cost less than a game as big and elaborate as Bayonetta built from the ground up.
I don’t know how the sales were for VF5 though, so I can’t comment, but either Sega feels they weren’t enough to warrant a port at this stage, or they were happy with them but are waiting for the next VF to make console version.
I wouldn’t be surprised if they were thinking that an update of VF5 wouldn’t sell much since the less hardcore players won’t think it’s worth upgrading or pick up VF5 Vanilla for cheaper, meaning they would only get a fraction of the sales.
You know what I thought of something today.
In VF4 days Sega made 3 versions (not revisions) of good ole four. Original, Evolution, and Final Tuned.
VF5R has almost been out for a year if not more so maybe Sega is planning to make a VF5 Final Tuned (or any catchy name for a big update) and perhaps maybe THAT edition might be released over here. It’s not like R is perfectly balanced.
PS: and maybe in the new version sega will stop being a bunch of fucking nazi’s
There aren’t any perfectly balanced FG’s anyway. Just small gaps between tiers and/or counter pick grids.
I too would like to see a 5R:FT …but they can’t, and shouldn’t, release a bare bones VF anymore. It ought to be pumped it full of features and extras.
V4FT and VF5R are the most balanced games for fighting games period and nothing else comes even close. Of course nothing will have perfect balance but those games are the only two to come even close with their tier compression. Nothing holds a candle to VF4FT in terms of depth, variety, and balance.