Never before have I felt a bigger sense of pride and accomplishment for services rendered. Forget all that loot box nonsense, screw actually getting qualifications for good test results, get out of here: meaning connections with loved ones; you've all been trumped by the holy news that graced us just recently. What is that news? Well, unenlightened ones, allow me to elucidate. You see, during an investor call, Sega made the startling admission of their new strategy going forward from today; to 'aggressively' pursue PC ports like the entire gaming world has been begging them to do for literal decades now. (It's almost as though you work in an industry where your consumers literally tell you the things they're willing to pay for or something. Weird.) And what was it that paved the way for this absolute paradigm shift in direction? The performance of this year's port of 2012's PS Vita re-release of Persona 4; 'Persona 4 Golden'. (champagne all round boyos!)
Of course, there are a great number of factors that have gone into play for this latest turn around and each one of them should be given their deserved due. First there is the global pandemic, who remembers that thing? (If it weren't for the sweeping changes to daily life that touches everything outside my door I might've forgotten) Well due to the understandable loss of physical sales (with every games store being shut down) it only made sense for everyone to be heading digital which would naturally lead them towards storefronts that have gone completely digital years ago such as the entire PC ecosystem.
But do you know what really gets me? The fact that honestly knocks me for six everytime I hear it? The fact that Sega are apparently surprised by this outcome. That's right, after the years of pressure, pleading, reasoning, begging, they say that Persona 4 Golden on Steam performed "Significantly higher than expected". Well ain't you just the easiest to impress people in the world... (Quick, get a ball and string and they may give you a three-game contract.) Okay, maybe it sounds like I'm being mean (I am) but it's because this is just such a simple equation in my eyes that I cannot comprehend the apparent bewilderment here. You have an entire franchise built upon being a turn-based RPG, don't you think it'd be best received on a platform ideal for spending hours going through stats and strategising, over one that values high-octane excitement and instant gratification? Why do you think Epic didn't release Valorant on Switch first, because you go where your key demographic is! Am I talking to a wall? I feel like I'm talking to a wall.
So it very much seems that, if we hand't have flocked to the Steam store in order to snap up Persona 4 Golden and make it one of the most played games on Steam at release, maybe Sega wouldn't have come to one of the most basic conclusions ever; That JRPGs belong on PC. (And Switch, to be fair. I love me some casual Xenoblade Chronicles 2.) So pat yourselves on the back all those that spared the odd $15 ATLUS' way for the good of a clueless publisher. And know that I say that as someone who hasn't even had the chance to play my copy (which I bought literally the moment I found out it existed) due to the dual reasons of being too busy at the time to spare anything and that the Port was laggy for me with seemingly no fix. Something they refrained to patch for a heck of a long time. In fact, I'm going to check right now if it's still laggy... Yep, still is. (That's just a bullet I'm gonna have to bite, huh.)
So what does this move actually mean? What will we as a gaming community get out of Sega moving to make more PC ports out of their games? Quite simply, this pretty much confirms that Persona 5 Royal is coming to Steam and I couldn't be more jazzed right now. Perhaps, however, we'll start to see some of Sega's future titles make it Steam at the same time as other consoles, which could mean that Shin Megami Tensei could end up on PC, or... well I don't really care about anything else to be fair. But this could set a precedent for these Japanese developers realising that outside of Japan their RPGs are much better served on PC than on Console. (So perhaps we can avoid this irritating situation with Final Fantasy 7 Remake still being a bloody Plash Speed exclusive. Yes, I know it's not a traditional JRPG but an action adventure that's perhaps best served with a controller, but damned if I still want some consistency out of my FF releases. If the original's on Steam, this should be too.)
Although to be fair, this isn't a move that's entirely unprecedented by the Sega team, so there must be someone in the decision making team with their head screwed on right. 4 years ago there was actually a plethora of great Sega titles that were nowhere to be seen on PC. Vanquish, Platinum Games' decent shooter-slasher; Bayonetta, Planitum Games'... other shooter slasher... and Yakuza were all noshows. In fact, many didn't even believe a localisation of Yakuza would ever happen, let alone a port. Yet here we are with complete HD remaster ports of Yakuza 1 & 2, Bayonetta and Vanquish on Steam, and no word on Bayonetta's other games because Nintendo's still an arse who lives in the last century. (Get with the times Old man, cross pollination is the future!) It was just Persona which really started breaking records for Sega to really push them other the edge, and I think it's going to be a change for the better. (at least I hope so.)
Now before I close this out I do want to talk about how much of a victory this was, not just in turning the heads of a classic mile-long-ship scenario, but in proving something that has been postulated on for so long now; that voting with our wallets works. For literal years now the gaming industry has been fraught with anti-consumer practises, greed, extortion and down-right idiocy from the people in power, and these have been situations that have persisted. More than that, we as an industry have often rewarded these people. Whenever we hear a new story about a studio being wrecked with crunch hours or toxic behaviours and work cultures, that very rarely comes to effect the commercial success of the product being made, reinforcing the crappiness and ensuring it'll continue. Just a few days back I wrote about a particularly pernicious fall out between developers and their company, a situation where every developer ended up quitting/getting fired due to not being paid. And even in that extreme I'm only 50% sure that it'll have a tangible effect on the sales. I'm not sure if people don't hear about stuff or they don't care or they don't feel like they can do anything, but they can! This proves it. SEGA were mincing no words when they said that the commercial success fuelled their decision. Same for the turn around of Star Wars Battelfront 2, achieved because customers simply played with their incredibly powerful chip, their willingness to purchase. I know it's weird to get so meta with a post like this but I need to let this out somewhere, just as we're responsible when something celebratory like this happens, we're complicit when the opposite is allowed to thrive, and coming to terms with that could really allow the community to affect the good of the games Industry going forward. (Chew on that. Or don't, what do I know anyway...)
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