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INTERVIEW: ‘We've learnt from Sega Rally mistakes’

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INTERVIEW: ‘We've learnt from Sega Rally mistakes’

Strategy was wrong for critically-acclaimed racer, admits UK management team

Sega has told MCV that disappointing sales of last year’s Sega Rally have taught the company a lesson – and that they are now ‘really getting going’ on PS3 and 360.

Despite a good critical response and winning a BAFTA last year, the title didn’t hang around the sales charts very long.

Sega UK managing director Alan Pritchard told MCV that releasing the title in October last year meant it ran “into a brick wall at retail that was FIFA and Halo 3”.

He added:

“Sega Rally reviewed well and won a BAFTA but didn’t resonate with customers.

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“But now we’re really starting to get going on 360 and PS3. Vikings and Condemned 2 have done well, Iron Man is performing in line with expectations.

“There is much more to come on those formats, when arguably we had under-performed a little as a next-gen publisher until now.”

To read the full interview, click here.

editor

posted by techgamer Jun 05, 2008 at 12:58 pm
1

Halo 2?

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lol

posted by ka0znrky Jun 05, 2008 at 1:10 pm
2

"Iron man is performing in line with expectations"

lol you've got to love industry speak

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Fools

posted by Sam Jun 05, 2008 at 1:16 pm
3
Sam

AGAIN : Sega should have fired the managing team and NOT the dev team, wich did a great job with Sega Rally.

Marketing ? Sega will never learn.

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Re: Fools

posted by ka0znrky Jun 05, 2008 at 1:22 pm
4

@Sam: Very very true.

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Re: Re: Fools

posted by Jun 05, 2008 at 3:35 pm
5

I thought the uk dreamcast marketing was brilliant personally.

......

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Re: Re: Re: Fools

posted by jane Jun 07, 2008 at 8:38 am
6
jane

Sam is spot on.
A lot of the public think Mario & Sonic is a first party Nintendo title (notice Mario is first in the name!). This is the main reason it sells. Not because of anything Sega UK have done.
In four years they have had this one hit so I don't think that EA, Ubi, Viacom/Activision, Warners etc have even noticed that they are around.
In fact Sega Rally is the best yardstick of their abilities. A well established brand. "Dream team" big budget development and a marketplace devoid of Sony's WRC and EIDOS's Richard Burns. Yet they screwed up totally and were forced to take a huge amount of egg on face.
Sega are a long way from being a force to take seriously as the interview proves.

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We won a BAFTA? No one told us!

posted by Workings Jun 30, 2008 at 11:51 am
7
Workings

Thought we just got nominated. Just how marketing can turn things around :-)

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Re: Re: Re: Re: Fools

posted by JC Jun 30, 2008 at 11:51 am
8
JC

We didn't win the BAFTA, just nominated.... lying scum cost us our jobs! We all complained about release date!

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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Fools

posted by PH Jun 30, 2008 at 12:20 pm
9
PH

‘Learnt from SEGA Rally mistakes’ – obviously they haven’t or else they’d have had us knuckling down and knocking out a cheap high profit game like a SEGA clone of Mario Kart to recoup any losses using the 3yrs of tech that’s now gone to waste after one game and destroyed a high quality dev team.

It's the marketing and Sales team that should have been sacked/restructured - however you want to dress it up, not the dev team, so much work has gone to waste - how is that learning from mistakes?????? They pumped in millions and have thrown it all away just as it all came together.

Whats screws up SEGA is their insistance on sticking to financial quarters rather than looking at the bigger picture and releasing games when its most effective, SR could have been released a month later which would have helped sales. Despite what they say Viking suffered similarly, having been released, in this case, to early.

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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Fools

posted by john Jul 01, 2008 at 12:24 pm
10
john

the reason that game ****ed up was the management on all levels never listened to an idea from anyone most of them good ideas that would have made it a more comercial game, dev team made the game, management destroyed it

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MCV is the leading trade news and community site for all professionals working within the UK and international video games market. It reaches everyone from store manager to CEO, covering the entire industry. MCV is published by Intent Media, which specialises in entertainment, leisure and technology markets

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