#VirtualOnGoWest

[randomisedgaming]

OK Virtual-On fans time to start moaning at SEGA for a PS4 western release of the Masterpiece Collection and more!

Right, that trailer looks lovely doesn’t it? Three arcade perfect ports of all the Virtual-On arcade games in one shiny 4k PlayStation 4 package. Trouble is, it was released in Japan almost a year ago now and we still haven’t had one word of a possible release date in Europe or North America yet. Seeing as both SEGA of Europe and America failed to release the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions of the original Virtual On Cyber Troopers and Virtua Striker, gonna be honest it's not looking good.

SEGA have a long history of not releasing their Japanese games in the west. Their failure to do so has steadily damaged their brand and image over the years, hugely reducing their audience size as players become unaware of their games. With many gamers now born after SEGA's console glory days, they need to keep on top of their historical gaming library to keep awareness of it as much as possible.

How long must we wait to see this?

So not re-releasing collections of classic SEGA titles makes them look either incompetent, lazy or just don't care. Maybe all the Staff currently working in their western branches have never played or heard of Virtual-On? More realistic and if I put on my industry experience hat on, could well be SEGA don't want to fork out for the translation costs as they feel it won't sell that well in the west.

Trouble is even that's a really bad argument. As with the PlayStation 5 just around the corner, if you release on the PlayStation 4 now and have it set up to run on the PlayStation 5. Then you have an evergreen collection of the three Virtual-On arcade games for the lifespan of the PS4 & PS5. So you won't need to look at releasing again until the PS6 hits. Smart developers and publishers are also aware that you have a captive audience right at the start of a new console generation. Making it the perfect time to release new IPs or update and re-release old ones. Around a price point of £15-20 and I'd say you can't go wrong.

Atlus 2020 re-release of the SEGA Saturn classic Princess Crown on PlayStation 4 is also in the same boat right now and as SEGA now own Atlus! Well you know how this story goes...

OH SEGA! Why do you do this to yourself... Even SEGA's Mega Drive library collections have been underwhelming, every time they stick about 50 games on it and leave it there. Often we get stuck with the same turkey's in the collection time after time too, like Altered Beast. While high quality later Mega Drive titles like The Ooze and the Japanese only Pepenga Pengo are often totally ignored. Really SEGA need to re-release every SEGA Mega Drive / Genesis game they every did (legal issues allowing) on one of these MD collections or split it over a couple of packs if needed or even sell them singly, at say a £1-2 price point each.

Yes that is Sonic hiding in the crowd at the back of the box artwork for Pepenga Pengo

Certainly SEGA have missed a trick by not doing an open Mega Drive emulator software game, that would allow other developers like Electronic Art, Capcom, Namco to also release their old Mega Drive games on it as separate downloads to plug into the main game. Which would then allow SEGA to re-release just about every Mega Drive game on Modern systems. Bar all those old license sports games that would be a legal nightmare to re-release and many were just awful in the first place. Yes, Altered Beast should be re-issued every time, but not at the expense of better titles, fans just want them all. Doing this SEGA could well find some of their classic games and character gain a whole new legion of fans. That's not even talking about where are the Master System, Game Gear, Mega CD, 32X SEGA Saturn and Dreamcast retro collections or re-releases.

So if like us here at the Randomised Gaming team, you want to see the Virtual-On Masterpiece Collection get a release in the west on PlayStation 4 along with Princess Crown. You are going to have to shout about it.

So reblog and like this post and get tweeting, chatting on forums etc.. as the old saying goes if you don't ask you don't get! Let's go with #VirtualOnGoWest & #PrincessCrownGoWest as hash tags and see how many western Virtual-On fans are out there and Princess Crown ones who want these collections released here.

Feature by Random Gamer Riven.

Twitter: RDGamerRiven

E.mail: randomgamerriven@gmail.com

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