Letter to Vic
Dr. Cossack
sirenj@iu.netSaturn gamers appreciate that Working Designs has accelerated its efforts to publish Saturn games, yet it seems that you feel we do not. Because Sega of America neglected WD at E3, you apparently feel that Saturn gamers no longer appreciate WD's Saturn games, as you will begin work no new ones. Why is that? When has one company's trade show mismanagement equaled another company's customer's apathy?
After reading that SOA has given you a hard time about Thunder Force V and neglected WD's E3 booth, it is not hard to understand why you are angry at them. However, your choice to abandon Saturn will help nothing and harm much. How would it improve the situation, and what would it do for your fans? Even thought it is easier to abandon someone who has angered you than to work with them, it will produce nothing. Everyone agrees that SOA has no idea what to do, but almost two million people have already purchased Saturns, many of them for WD's games, and they do not intend to throw them away.
There is no excuse for the fact that SOA neglected 3rd parties at E3, especially considering that they wasted so much space with Genesis and GXTV items instead. We appreciate your strict quality standards; the industry needs more companies with such high standards. However, you must realize what you affect when you punish other companies for breaching your standards. E3 has passed. Because of the internet, we knew what you have planned far in advance of the show, and from our perspective, SOA's mismanagement hasn't harmed your work any more than it already has. What has SOA destroyed that must exist for a company to publish games? We know that SOA is in trouble and not much can save them, but if you abandon Saturn you will hurt the gamers.
Ultimately, the reason WD must not abandon Saturn is because WD would abandon its fans as well. You have made a point that WD serves the gamers before anyone else, and we have returned the favor to you. Abandonment will only deprive fans of the titles that they have looked forward to for so long. Without WD, no one, save a few importers, would have ever played Cadash, Parasol Stars, Cosmic Fantasy 2, Exile, Exile: Wicked Phenomenon, Vasteel, Lunar: the Silver Star, Vay, Popful Mail, Lunar: Eternal Blue, Iron Storm, Shining Wisdom or Dragon Force. But WD did bring those games over and gamers did get to play them! We have looked forward to these games, enjoyed them, and we thank you for bringing them over. We now look forward to Albert Odyssey, Sega Ages, Rayearth, and Lunar: Silver Star Story, but we also want Iron Storm 2: Last of the Millennium, Lunar: Eternal Blue Remix, Lunar: Magic School, Grandia, Sega Ages Phantasy Star and Thunder Force V/Gold Pack, among others. SOA has not destroyed our desire for these games. If you abandon Saturn, who will bring those games over? Will you now tell us that, because SOA disadvantaged you at E3, that we should not look forward to these games nor ask for more? Do we not deserve them? Do you think that we no longer lie awake at night hours past our bed time excitedly anticipating the next WD title? It would certainly contradict what you have said up to now, especially since you have enthusiastically announced that you plan to bring over Saturn games beyond those currently announced.
Lunar is a part of WD, as you have said. If you go without translating Lunar: EBR and Lunar: MS, you will abandon a part of WD and the series will become patchy and confused the way Enix and Square have let the Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest series become in the US. It is nearly impossible for fans to search for a Genesis, Sega CD and the Sega CD version of Lunar: EB just to keep up to continuity. If we have to do that, you will have not done your job. Lunar: SSS will create much demand for this game, and fans will be very angry if you do not follow up with the sequels.
You are certainly a gamer yourself. What if Sega of Japan had neglected Game Arts' booth at the Tokyo Game Show, and Game Arts then canceled Gun Griffon 2 or Grandia, or said that they would not make any more Saturn games? Would you accept the fact that they have quit, let alone their reason for their quitting? Of course you wouldn't! Likewise, gamers haven't given up on WD's Saturn games!
Many people bought their Turbografx CDs, Sega CDs, and Saturns because WD publishes games for them. For many of those purchases, so much faith was put in WD that they did not buy other, more popular systems that WD did not support. Many people who bought Saturns for WD's games cannot afford to buy a PlayStation to follow your efforts. You have created enthusiasm for this platform and we cannot nor wish to go to another. For that reason, and for the fact that Saturn has at least a year and a half of life left and dozens of games to port is why that if WD abandons Saturn, it will have abandoned its fans. Perhaps you will have new fans on PlayStation, but that is a very crowded market. How many games will Sony allow you to publish? How easily will they work with you? Will your games make a difference in a market that has as large a glut of lackluster games as that one, or with as many companies that do what WD does? Every game WD publishes for Saturn draws attention and support. You will be competing with SCEA, Atlus, and Konami for titles. SCEA already has almost all of PSX's RPGs that you are interested in. What is left may be picked up by the others simply because they have more money to do so. People will not appreciate your games as much. We do not ask you to discontinue to publish PlayStation games, but we feel that to abandon the market in which you make the most difference is a mistake. The platform is unimportant, as you have said, but the games are important, and the most games that deserve translation and are available for WD to do so are only on Saturn! Perhaps WD would make more money if it focuses on PlayStation games, but money has never been WD's goal. WD's goal has always been to bring games to players that no one else will.
A neglected trade show presence is no reason to abandon your fans and everything you have done. Sega of America obviously no longer does anything correctly, but if they are not stopping you from publishing the games you want to publish, then WD is obliged to continue. Antagonization hurts everyone; WD, SOA, and the gamers. If you take out your anger on them, then you will simultaneously take it out on us. We will continue to support you as long as you make Saturn games. Saturn game sales have increased considerably this year, so your efforts will be well rewarded. Please remember that if you abandon Saturn, you will have abandoned your fans. However, if you continue to support Saturn, we will support you, and so will many new people with each release. We look forward to every game you publish, no matter how much you endure to release them. Iron Storm, Dragon Force and Rayearth exemplify that. Live for the gamers, not for the politics.
If this argument will not return WD to Saturn development, at least tell us what SOA must do to bring WD back.