More on Treasure and their caution with sequels

We know we’ve covered Treasure’s plans for the next-gen consoles before, and we ended that report with a note on Treasure’s rather interesting concern that releasing their old rare games through XBLA and VC might turn off their following, as it would somewhat be a mockery of the effort that their fans went through to collect those rare titles.

It is a bit refreshing to hear, and it’s rather interesting to look at the business plans of a game maker whose titles are mostly cult classics. Perhaps it’s because the common business norms that apply to big companies like EA doesn’t necessarily apply to them.

For example, they’re a bit cautious about making sequels:

1UP: Perhaps related, Sega is currently hot on revisiting a lot of its classic franchises on next-gen (such as After Burner, Golden Axe, and so on). Are they coming to you to work on new next-gen versions of games you did for them in the past, such as Guardian Heroes or Gunstar Heroes?
Masato Maegawa: We’ve had discussions, and I personally would want to do some games in those series on the new consoles, but the team doesn’t seem too interested in it. I’ve been pitching them on ideas here and there, but they would rather work on new titles. Sequels have certain expectations attached to them and they’d rather not be limited by those.

1UP: That’s rather rare to hear in this industry. So, we have to ask, are you content with where Treasure is or do you have bigger aspirations for the future?
Masato Maegawa: Honestly, my vision and the company’s vision is to have the team working on games that they enjoy and feel passionate about. That is our sole vision. It’s not what I want to do, it’s what the team wants to do. As long as we feel like we’re making good games and we can stay in business, we’re happy.

Interesting.

Via 1UP

We know we’ve covered Treasure’s plans for the next-gen consoles before, and we ended that report with a note on Treasure’s rather interesting concern that releasing their old rare games through XBLA and VC might turn off their following, as it would somewhat be a mockery of the effort that their fans went through to collect those rare titles.

It is a bit refreshing to hear, and it’s rather interesting to look at the business plans of a game maker whose titles are mostly cult classics. Perhaps it’s because the common business norms that apply to big companies like EA doesn’t necessarily apply to them.

For example, they’re a bit cautious about making sequels:

1UP: Perhaps related, Sega is currently hot on revisiting a lot of its classic franchises on next-gen (such as After Burner, Golden Axe, and so on). Are they coming to you to work on new next-gen versions of games you did for them in the past, such as Guardian Heroes or Gunstar Heroes?
Masato Maegawa: We’ve had discussions, and I personally would want to do some games in those series on the new consoles, but the team doesn’t seem too interested in it. I’ve been pitching them on ideas here and there, but they would rather work on new titles. Sequels have certain expectations attached to them and they’d rather not be limited by those.

1UP: That’s rather rare to hear in this industry. So, we have to ask, are you content with where Treasure is or do you have bigger aspirations for the future?
Masato Maegawa: Honestly, my vision and the company’s vision is to have the team working on games that they enjoy and feel passionate about. That is our sole vision. It’s not what I want to do, it’s what the team wants to do. As long as we feel like we’re making good games and we can stay in business, we’re happy.

Interesting.

Via 1UP