[quote name='dafoomie']The only thing laughable here is your quote.
SCEA does not like 2d games. They don't think they will appeal to the American market, regardless of price point. Some examples of this, other than SNK games, are Vib Ribbon, Goemon, Dodonpachi, Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers, Broken Sword 3, Curse: Eye of the Isis, Shadow Tower: Abyss, Ys 1+2, Syberia 1+2, and many more. They made Working Designs bundle Growlanser 3 and 4, but they let Bandai release 4 short ass Dot Hack games separately, that by all rights should just be one game? If its "quality" they care about, maybe they'd "protect" us from Turok, BMX XXX, Drome Racers, and the other garbage 3d games that got through.
If you're looking at graphics on SNK games, then you're missing the point completely. Its about gameplay.[/QUOTE]
Pretty amazing, since Sony gave Alien Hominid the OK - I guess they must really hate 2D games from unknown companies. How many of those games you listed can you actually prove Sony did not ok, and why? The only one I know of is Dodonpachi, because Agetec wanted to charge 40 to 50 bucks for it, and Sony said it would just rot on the shelves and no one would buy it, and to lower the price. Agetec couldn't afford to, so they decided not to bring it over.
When games like Gradius V and R-Type Final both come out, with an MSRP of 29.99, and are critically acclaimed, you're going to need one hell of a shmup to qualify that 49.99 price tag. Sadly, most games can't. I'm not going to assume whether you've worked in video game retail or not, but shelf space is *very* limited... that game that maybe you or I would buy at 50, will waste space on 90% of retailers shelves, and that space could be better used for something that will sell.
It is too bad Gradius V didn't have amazing sales, because it could have opened the door for any shmup to come through... almost how Disgaea's amazing run away success, or Nocturne's, have opened the door now to very similar games.
And with SNK, no, it's not about the graphics, but when your average consumer can play something like Guilty Gear XX or Street Fighter 3: Third Strike, they aren't going to want to go back to SNK's outdated stuff. It's almost funny: if a company kept using outdated 3D graphics for it's games, it would get slammed repeatedly.
Sony can see this - hell, even as a bundle pack, games like King of Fighters 2000 / 2001 still sold very poorly... why should Sony believe something like KoF: Neowave would have amazing sales? Hell, even Max Impact flopped, so Sony probably believes that any SNK game has such a limited audience that it will just take up valuable space.
Games like BMX XXX and Turok actually sell to the casual gamer - you'd be very surprised what kind of shit people will buy just based on hype. I've sold out of Darkwatch already this week, just because people "liked the commercial". Hell, one guy thought it was like Splinter Cell, for some odd reason =/ (Yea, he still bought it, even after me telling him it was an FPS).
And I know all about SNK's gameplay... I've been a fan since I was a kid, and actually preferred Fatal Fury and Art of Fighting over Street Fighter. I was just playing devil's advocate, since people seem so shocked that Sony couldn't possibly let SNK bring out a game with limited sales for $50. And, imo, SNK's gameplay stagnated until 2003, when KoF finally took a turn for the better.
Maybe if they started offering games themselves through their web site, Sony wouldn't care. This way it would more than likely be going to fans, and SNK can charge whatever they want to, without taking up shelf space.
Also, Sony made WD bundle Growlanser 2 and 3 because 2 is such a short game, they felt that it wasn't worth paying for on it's own, and that people might not buy 3 after going through 2 and being disappointed. The Dot. Hack games were a bit longer I believe, and had some extras... I remember the first one being around 15 20 hours. It was the first and last .Hack game I played.
ing simple!
Are you related to VGM?