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The success of Persona 4 Golden on Steam seems to have convinced Sega that future investments in the PC as a platform will be worthwhile. "We will continue to actively promote porting previously released titles to Steam and new platforms," said a Sega executive in response to an investor question about plans to sell newly released games on Steam.

That internal push is likely to result in more old Sega games, and probably more Atlus RPGs, to be ported to Steam. It'll also likely mean an acceleration of series like Yakuza coming to Steam soon after their release elsewhere—as we've seen with Yakuza: Like a Dragon coming later this year.

- PC Gamer
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Sega Sammy recently released their Fiscal Year Ending March 2021 first quarter financial results, consisting of the period from April to June 2020 inclusively. Alongside this, an investor questions and answers presentation was held on August 5th, and Sega has released it publicly today.

The respondents for the Q&A were Haruki Satomi (President and Group COO) and Koichi Fukazawa (Senior Executive Vice President and Group CFO). After discussing the strong performance of Steam regarding Sega’s repeat sales for the fiscal quarter—most effective in the West—an investor asked about the recently released Persona 4 Golden on PC.

- Persona Central
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Question: “Persona 4 the Golden” has been selling well on Steam, but do you have any plans to sell newly released games on Steam as well?

Answer (Haruki Satomi): We remastered “Persona 4 the Golden”, a title previously sold on the PlayStation Vita, and released it for sale on Steam this fiscal year. Because of the game’s critical acclaim and its low selling price, sales were much stronger than expected. We will continue to actively promote porting previously released titles to Steam and new platforms. We are also negotiating with platform holders for new games in the future, and we’re considering ways to sell under favorable conditions for each title. Among them are measures such as preparing PC versions of the titles from the beginning, with multi-platform releases in mind.

 

[SLoWMoTIoN]

If they port their 3ds library, Sega will finally have some actual good games on PC. Not that PC gamers don't already emulate 3ds games.

 

[Guilty_AI]

Persona5
Also Yakuza 3 onwards pls

 

[Mhmmm 2077]

Judgment would be nice, also Vanillaware titles.

 

[RNG]

Persona5
Also Yakuza 3 onwards pls

If Atlus is reading this we want Royal not Vanilla just in case .

 

[teezzy]

Here... we... goooo!!!

 

[TGO]

I just wanna know when they gonna release P4GOLDEN Remaster on PS4
It's weird that they haven't yet, why go to all the bother to release just in steam the sales will obviously be bigger on PS4

 

[Danjin44]

Also notice that none of the Vanillaware's games are on PC even the upcoming 13 sentinels: aegis rim is not coming to PC.

 

[The Shepard]

Just put persona 4 golden on everything and it'll sell. Much prefer it to 5 personally.

 

[EDMIX]

Also notice that none of the Vanillaware's games are on PC even the upcoming 13 sentinels: aegis rim is not coming to PC.

I like how you were committed to getting that word out lol

I wonder if its cause Sega feels those games might not work well on PC. Cause we got a Persona game on PC, Yakuza, Sonic games, Valkrie Chronicles etc, might not be the whole series 100%, but they tested the waters, yet like you pointed out...they haven't done that

 

[Danjin44]

I wonder if its cause Sega feels those games might not work well on PC. Cause we got a Persona game on PC, Yakuza, Sonic games, Valkrie Chronicles etc, might not be the whole series 100%, but they tested the waters, yet like you pointed out...they haven't done that

Maybe it has to do with Vanillaware themselves not willing to release their games on PC.

I like how you were committed to getting that word out lol

Yep, don’t mind me, I’m kind of in hype mode towards Vanillaware games because of 13 sentinels and I’m also kind of obsessing over Odin Sphere.

 

[sid2vicious]

I better understand what you mean as Namco Bandai out of all of them is the one that has been putting the deepest investment on PC as of late. Regardless, I think the always knew they could make money multiplatform, simply that cost was too much, but a series like Dark Souls was the type of IP that both install bases would buy. So I think they know more systems mean more money to make, it also means more money to spend so they must be careful. You can do that with a Dark Souls, not many IP from those publishers can do that though. I think most of the publishers you stated simply treat it like a game by game basis thing, like how those Gundam games don't really come to PC often or XB lol

Had to copy and paste here, but I have to disagree with some of your points, if a game like Persona can make a lot of money on Steam, it's proof anime games sell, not just Dark Souls like games. I also don't think porting is as difficult or costly as you make it sound, seems like an easy transition even if the outcome isn't as profitable as they expect, some profit is better than no profit, so I think it's worth the minimal effort to at least give it a shot. Lastly the games you mention, may be questionable here in the west, Japan always have to worry about censorship and what's deem acceptable in the west, so some titles will never see the light of day here in west because of western mentality.

 

[Stilton Disco]

Persona 3 and 5 are obvious, then they need to get them all on Switch.

 

[EDMIX]

Had to copy and paste here, but I have to disagree with some of your points, if a game like Persona can make a lot of money on Steam, it's proof anime games sell, not just Dark Souls like games. I also don't think porting is as difficult or costly as you make it sound, seems like an easy transition even if the outcome isn't as profitable as they expect, some profit is better than no profit, so I think it's worth the minimal effort to at least give it a shot. Lastly the games you mention, may be questionable here in the west, Japan always have to worry about censorship and what's deem acceptable in the west, so some titles will never see the light of day here in west because of western mentality.

Ima have to disagree wit your disagree (mad face). Nah, thats proof that Persona sells. I love the series and buy every entry day 1, that doesn't mean I just randomly buy any and all "anime games" lol

Looking like an Anime doesn't mean its getting a sale by me as it starts to become a bit belittling and rude. Do you just think I'll buy any game cause it has Anime? Come on now sid...

"I also don't think porting is as difficult or costly as you make it sound" I'm not saying its extremely expensive, simply that those publishers are conservative and only want to spend if they feel a install base exist to buy that IP vs (anime game). Big different between what you can spend and what you can afford to spend.



" so I think it's worth the minimal effort to at least give it a shot " I don't disagree with you as I must state I"m just stating what Sega, Square and many Japanese publishers are doing, its not like I support them not porting titles, simply that I fully understand the reasoning behind them doing it on a game by game basis is all. I'd love to know SMTV is coming to PS4 or PS5 so I could play it in 4K lol, but I understand why Sega, Square and many more trickle it out over time. I see both views as valid.

I get why they should port often as its pretty low cost, I get why they should only do it with select games and wait to see the response.

 

[sid2vicious]

Ima have to disagree wit your disagree (mad face). Nah, thats proof that Persona sells. I love the series and buy every entry day 1, that doesn't mean I just randomly buy any and all "anime games" lol

Looking like an Anime doesn't mean its getting a sale by me as it starts to become a bit belittling and rude. Do you just think I'll buy any game cause it has Anime? Come on now sid...

It's fine if you disagree you have the right of your opinion, but I don't get your point on why it would be "belittling and rude" to you? Even if you don't like anime, it doesn't mean it doesn't sell, have you seen how many anime games are currently on steam? https://store.steampowered.com/tags/en/Anime/#p=0&tab=TopSellers
That's 238 pages worth and counting, sure most of it is shovelware, but there's some real gems in there, contrary to what you say. Anime games don't sell? C'mon Edmix...

 

[Barnabot]

i'd like to see p5 royal and vf5 final showdown coming to pc.

virtua fighter is a game that i don't understand why it didn't receive enough love in the past.

 

[EDMIX]

It's fine if you disagree you have the right of your opinion, but I don't get your point on why it would be "belittling and rude" to you? Even if you don't like anime, it doesn't mean it doesn't sell, have you seen how many anime games are currently on steam? https://store.steampowered.com/tags/en/Anime/#p=0&tab=TopSellers
That's 238 pages worth and counting, sure most of it is shovelware, but there's some real gems in there, contrary to what you say. Anime games don't sell? C'mon Edmix...

It can be a bit rude as you are boiling down me liking Persona as liking Anime as if I'd buy any game with Anime.

I like Anime.
I like Persona.

That doesn't mean I bought Persona cause it has Anime characters in it lol. I bought it cause its a great series. So no, Anime games don't all sell like Persona or Tales series or something. The game still actually needs to be good.

 

[sid2vicious]

It can be a bit rude as you are boiling down me liking Persona as liking Anime as if I'd buy any game with Anime.

I like Anime.
I like Persona.

That doesn't mean I bought Persona cause it has Anime characters in it lol. I bought it cause its a great series. So no, Anime games don't all sell like Persona or Tales series or something. The game still actually needs to be good.

I believe that goes without saying. So no I'm not boiling you down with anything, where do you get that assumption? Also Persona is an anime game period, people tend to forget that because they're ashamed to associate them together, so they dissociate them by liking one but not the other, the irony, there's no shame for liking anime games.

 

[Vandole]

Finally, we are getting that Congo Bongo port I've been asking for.

 

[SinDelta]

What about a bringing a Skies of Arcadia remaster to PC?

 

[diffusionx]

Anybody notice that this is what every dev says after they reluctantly port one game to PC?

You’d think they would just cut straight to it at some point. Sony will be saying this before long too.

 

[Graciaus]

Start with royal and Sakura wars. I don't think I'd even play royal but I'd still buy it.

 

[a multicultural team of v]

How bout put it on PS4 u fuckin idiots

 

[Carna]

Sonic Unleashed PC Port, here we go!

 

[DeltaPolarBear]

Note that the reason PC ports are neglected by Japanese developers for so long, because in Japan PC gaming is a much smaller market than the West. Japan has smartphones much earlier than the West, using private PCs in general is just less important.

I interpret this news as part of the pivot towards Western customers. I don't mind, I just hope that in the long run Japanese games can stay Japanese. That was the reason I play their games.

 

[Danjin44]

Sakura wars

I’m still surprised this didn’t came to PC, Saga brought both original VC and VC4, so why not this game? It’s not like Japanese Visual Novel games are uncommon on PC.

 

[OuterLimits]

I just wanna know when they gonna release P4GOLDEN Remaster on PS4
It's weird that they haven't yet, why go to all the bother to release just in steam the sales will obviously be bigger on PS4

It's Atlus. They really don't make sense at times. You would think releasing SMT V on PS4/5 and Persona 5 on Switch would make them money as well.

 

[IbizaPocholo]

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Question

Sega Emphasizes PC (Steam) and Console Ports After Persona 4 Golden Success, Talking With Platform Holders for New Games

https://personacentral.com/sega-pc-steam-ports-persona-4-golden/ Sega Sammy recently released their Fiscal Year Ending March 2021 first quarter financial results, consisting of the period from April to June 2020 inclusively. Alongside this, an investor questions and answers presentation was...

www.neogaf.com

 

[MetalSlug]

I just hope that they port more of their Dreamcast stuff over to Steam.

Games such as:

• Toy Commander
• Metropolis Street Racer (If they own the IP)
• Zombie Revenge