Why Sega Whyyyy

With all that's been going on this week, the releases, the wonderful Halloween Sale on PSN (Seriously, if You're a PS+ Member, inFamous 2:  Festival of Blood is two dollars and fifty cents and Costume quest with the Grubbins on Ice DLC is just under four dollars; you can't not buy them at that price) and my health not being the greatest, I've let something very terrible slip by for this long and it's slightly irked me.  Not only that I just haven't spoken of it, but because it happened in the first place for seemingly no reason, or at least reasons that are very bothersome to consider, since the implications no matter what are rather dire.  These things happen, of course, but when they do, no matter what, it's a hard thing to take and it just makes everyone all-around a little more annoyed at the company which, considering it's Sega that the ire is being directed at here, is a very big problem.  They attract enough negativity as it is, and moves like these only help to further that sentiment.

What am I talking about, you might ask?  Why, Jet Set Radio for Vita getting an 11th Hour Delay of course.  At literally the last possible moment, Sega came out and said that the Vita version of the game had to be delayed for rather unspecified reasons, citing only optimization needs which is rather broad.  Considering that the game was running and playable, and sharply at that, if we can trust those who played it at PAX, this is rather suspect, though certainly not really unthinkable.  If I were a betting man, I'd put it on something that only happens in the long-term - perhaps memory leaks after extended periods of playtime or even a dreaded saving issue.  Redesigning the game to save to something that isn't a VMU could probably be tricky as most things are, after all.  And with Sega, all things are possible....in terms of how little credit I give their QA department, at least.  For games that aren't Yakuza games, that is, since those always come out impeccably, and it's only after playing something that doesn't offer quite that level that you truly appreciate games that are damn near bug-free like the Yakuza series.  Or at least, in my experience, I've never seen something untoward or anything that made me cock a brow and wonder how it slipped by.

The thing that really burns is that they just don't know when it's going to be released now.  Again, that makes sense in the sense that issues take sometime between an hour and forever to fix when they're found, leaving a window of uncertainty out there, but it's already out there for everything that isn't the Vita (or a Nintendo product) and for those of us that were planning on the intrepid little handheld being our home for the game are feeling the burn because of it.  Not only was it going to come out later regardless, necessitating a wait, but now the wait isn't even a completely certain one, just a faint glimmer of 'sometime' now in the Vita's release schedule which is filling up, no matter what anyone says.  If it misses October completely, that'll really burn for those of us who were expecting that $10 to go towards the "Spend $100, get $20" deal that's going on.  At $10 that's, well, 10% of it right there, and only for the grace of options are there about four dozen PSOne RPGs for that price that you could pick up in lieu of the game.  (Like Xenogears!)

Still, this was supposed to be something to Sega, and I can't help but wonder if they're intentionally trying to sink it.  I imagine the endgoal is to release -something- on the Vita (aside from Sonic Racing thing) to see how it sells to gauge whether or not it'll be worth it, but it almost can't be that because the playing field is so goddamn skewed that it's not going to produce results worth any paper they're printed on.  Which I fear Sega will take directly to heart, thereby keeping any other Dreamcast games off the handheld in the future which would break my heart.  Releasing it on day one next to the rest of the platforms it's on would have been a hard enough sale, but then a month after?  And then not even that after a last-minute "NEVERMIND GOTTA WORK ON IT" notice?  God help them if the game runs even less than as smoothly as the console versions after all this, because they will be crucified and it might just be justifiable if it happens.  Because this is amateur stuff right here and we all joke that we expect this stuff from Sega, but goddamnit stop playing along.

It -is- a bit of a blessing, admittedly, that Jet Set Radio will not have to compete for time with everything else out there (as well as the things that I'm just now starting to play like Final Fantasy XIII) but that's barely worth any sway in the areas where it really counts.  I'm still going to buy it the damn day it comes out for Vita just to send Sega the message that I am very, very willing to play Dreamcast games on my Vita, and I can only hope that enough other people out there do it as well for it to be viable.  I'd even take them late, so long as they come around.  Sonic Adventure 1 and 2 would be most welcome to the handheld for me, and I would be more than willing to pay ten of my dollars for each if Sega would just let me do that.  Maybe after figuring Jet Set Radio out, they'll have a firm enough grasp on the whole porting from PS3 to Vita thing to be able to swing it easily, since I can't imagine Sega -not- trying to sell Sonic wherever friggin' possible.  And I'm more than willing to put my money where my mouth is.  Sega just needs to come through with one of these things that I have bet good money on.