About a week ago, SEGA of Japan announced that they were running a series of polls to gauge fan interest levels in particular characters and franchises – most notably featuring a variety of legacy SEGA options.
During today’s SEGA Fes. stream, the results of the polls were announced. The corresponding NeoGAF thread (with specific post cited below) has compiled both the ranked results for each of the three polls and the number of votes each franchise received, with the top ten options being listed for each poll.
To recap, there were three questions: which franchise do you want to see revived, which brand are you most invested in, and who is your favorite SEGA character. The results are as follows (credited to NeoGAF user The Bankslammer, and Phanton River Stone for additional entries):
Most hoped revival
- Sakura Wars (2457)
- Jet Set Radio (1485)
- Virtual On (729)
- Shenmue (727)
- Virtua Fighter (581)
- Panzer Dragoon (538)
- Shining Force (518)
- Skies of Arcadia (483)
- Streets of Rage (437)
- NiGHTS into dreams… (261)
- Space Channel 4 (234)
- Shinobi (144)
- Sangokushi Taisen Trading Cards
- Burning Rangers (115)
- Fashionable Witches Love & Berry (105)
- Alex Kidd (99)
- Outrun (96)
- Dreamcast (89)
- Daytona USA (70)
- Answer X Answer (66)
Brand you’re most invested in
- Sakura Wars (1843)
- Sonic the Hedgehog (1284)
- Phantasy Star Online (1155)
- Virtua Fighter (991)
- Jet Set Radio (913)
- Yakuza (878)
- Panzer Dragoon (873)
- Sega Saturn (658)
- Persona (636)
- Hatsune Miku Project Diva (614)
- Shenmue
- Yumeiro Cast
- Cyber Troopers Virtual On
- Mega Drive
- Puyo Puyo
- Sangokushi Taisen
- Daytona USA
Favorite character
- Segata Sanshiro (1840)
- Kazuma Kiryu (1521)
- Ryo Hazuki (1446)
- Bayonetta (1375)
- NiGHTS (850)
- Dr. Eggman (651)
- Temjin (591)
- Arle (577)
- Alex Kidd (576)
- Ulala (492)
- Erica Fontaine
- Kaito Shindo
- Morgana
- Beat
- Sonic
- Blaze Fielding
- Sakura Shinguji
- Vyse
- The King of Beetles
- Director Yukawa
Clearly, Sakura Wars was a big winner. We hope that it portends great things for this franchise in the future. Hot off the heels of a rigorous year of festivities for Sakura Wars’ 20th anniversary, it would be nice to see this once dominant franchise return to Japan, and hopefully with a presence in the West to accompany it.
Yet again, we can notice the enduring love for Jet Set Radio and Shenmue, and even older franchises such as Skies of Arcadia and Panzer Dragoon. One has to wonder if the latter two might be noticed by SEGA in the future, especially as legacy franchises with a devoted following.
I have to say that I’m shocked that Project DIVA didn’t score higher than 10th in the second poll, especially with Panzer Dragoon beating it. That being said, while Project DIVA franchise sales have been decreasing, it’s likely that not all of the Vocaloid community participated in this poll (certainly not every single fan of each franchise participated in this poll, to begin with.)
In the third poll we have enduring love for Bayonetta and Ryo Hazuki. Kazuma Kiryu now maintains a significant rank with second place, which might make letting go of him as the main protagonist in future Yakuza games even more difficult. NiGHTS, Alex Kidd, and Ulala represent some SEGA classics, and obviously no one forgets Segata Sanshiro. But…why is Dr. Eggman so far ahead?
Tell us what you think about these results! What do you hope for, in the future?
Credit for the featured image belongs to @Kopke.
UPDATE: Phantom River Stone has posted a detailed article with translations of what was said by the panel during the announcement of the results. It explains that we shouldn’t necessarily expect any changes in SEGA’s decision making as a result of the poll, as it was something they only thought of doing at the last minute. They do note the interest from fans overseas, which accounted for around 20% of the total votes.
I want a Sakura Taisen VI so badly, and NY has to be represented somehow.
1. I’m wondering how western votes have affected the final results, unless there is today a love to Shenmue that did not exist in the past in Japan, Shenmue more popular than Virtua Fighter? I doubt it (also Shenmue is already revived, so it’s a waste of a vote unless you are from shenmuedojo lol)
2. It’s funny to see Segata as the most loved character, and he is not even a Sega character lol
3. About project diva, if you are a fan that wants sega to invest in an abandoned franchise, you will not “waste” your vote on a franchise that has seen 4 releases in the past year 😛
4. The total number of votes seem to me very low, so it’s not even worth to take as a market sales approach, only what your most invested fans want, and they are a minority… so we are provably at the same spot.
Fingers crossed they use those results for actual games and not mobile crap, specially Panzer Dragoon…
Shenmue votes probably were from demand of remasters of the first two games. I have to admit it is a bit high on the list. Still, I wouldn’t be surprised if this is common motive for voting for some of these IPs such as a Daytona USA 2 port (since we know a new game is coming to Arcade).