Sega of America-Siskal and Ebert you're not!

Renn Shion
T027@ACADEMIC.TRUMAN.EDU

"Could you go into detail about Sega's new "Five Star Games" policy? What kind of games would be rejected? Will this have a major effect on which games Sega will publish in America?"

" The kind of games that get rejected are ones that we believe have little appeal to US gamers, based on storyline, characters and graphic quality. We also reject games that have limited playability and/or limited replay value. It's done by committee review which involves representatives from marketing, product development and the executive staff."

This editorial is short, but questions the five-star policy. Sega was asked this question, and the answer has me a bit concerned. I think SOA already has a bad enough problem rejecting GOOD games (Sakura Wars,etc. ). If we let them reject games they don't like (cause let's be honest here, they are totally unaware of what the public keeps asking for, so the games rejected will be the ones they wouldn't like to see in the U.S .), America is going to see even LESS games than we are getting right now. I'm afraid for the reputation SOA is getting, this 5-star policy is going to be more harmful than helpful. What's to stop SOA from rejecting the new Treasure game because its 2D or Grandia because RPG's "don't sell" and it would interfere with Panzer Dragoon RPG? What if certain movies got rejected from home video because of bad reviews from Siskel and Ebert? This is just a foolish attempt to justify the laziness SOA has been feeling lately. Why don't you ask US the gamers to pick the games? SOA, why don't you take a trip to www.sega-saturn .com and find out what the gamers REALLY think! Oh, I forgot the internet according to SOA is "unprofessional." No wonder we never get our E-mails answered.:)