Or, as T.S. Eliot once wrote, it lays “Like a patient etherised upon a table.”
The original SEGA Saturn box art.
Unlike the $250 eBay versions of Panzer Dragoon Saga that regularly send eager gamers away wincing, or illegal versions sold secretly online, workable Panzer Dragoon Saga code sits idly in a computer in GameTap‘s Atlanta, GA-based headquarters.
According to Sene Sorrow, GameTap’s general manager in the US, the company (formerly owned by Turner which recently sold the property to Metaboli) has full rights to publish Panzer Dragoon Saga. If you have a subscription to GameTap, you potentially could play it.
GameTap just has to publish it.
Considered a large game at its release, Panzer Dragoon Saga was a four-disc, CD-ROM-based RPG on SEGA’s Saturn, and was filled with long cutscenes, dozens of hours of innovative gameplay, and an intriguing storyline. It’s been billed by many critics as one of the best RPGs ever, and the best RPG on SEGA’s Saturn. This RPG has had many admirers, and in recent years 1Up’s James Milke essentially wrote an elegy about it.
GameTap has held the rights to publish Panzer Dragoon Saga for more than two years and currently offers subscribers the ability to play Panzer Dragoon and its sequel Panzer Dragoon Zwei. GameTap has the rights to publish Panzer Dragoon Saga on its service until March 2010.
So why hasn’t GameTap published Panzer Dragoon Saga?
According to Sorrow, Panzer Dragoon Saga hasn’t been at the top of GameTap’s production list and still isn’t.
“Panzer Dragoon Saga was never fully investigated as a release candidate,” said Jake Armstrong, GameTap’s operations lead. The four-disc game requires extensive emulation work and a demanding test process. “It’s a good game and a very rare title, so there would be a definite cool factor in getting it out there, but there would be other emulation efforts I would think we would want to work on first,” he explained in an email.
Panzer Dragoon Saga used a unique approach to combat, fusing elements of turn-based combat into real-time battles.
In other words, it may be more work than it’s worth.
Currently, GameTap subscribers can play Panzer Dragoon and Panzer Dragoon Zwei.
Assessing Panzer Dragoon Saga’s monetary value as a GameTap game is problematic. Sega’s RPG never had the sales numbers in either Japan or North American to demonstrate its potential appeal to a wide audience. But it’s not due to a lack of the game’s quality; nor is it due to a small audience.
In May 1998 the publisher essentially shoed it out the door with no buzz, support, or marketing muscle at the end of the Saturn’s life cycle. Sega’s original shipping numbers were a skeletal 6,000 units in North America. It followed up with two extra shipments of 24,000 units, totaling 30,000 units all told in North America. (As an example of Sega’s minimal efforts and low disc counts, while at IGN in 1998, I was sent a final reviewable “burn” of the game without labels, instructions or a game box.) In 1998, depending on the title, selling a few hundred thousand units was considered a success. Panzer Dragoon Saga, with its paultry 30,000 units shipped, was never given a chance.
Despite its popularity among the lucky hardcore fans who had the chance to play it, the game’s low sales numbers haven’t convinced the powers at GameTap that Panzer Dragoon Saga is worth the effort.
Yet.
Businesses like GameTap listen to their audience. According to Sorrow, GameTap wants to hear gamers’ interest in the possibility of publishing Panzer Dragoon Saga.
Want to see Panzer Dragoon Saga live again? Tell GameTap about it. Send your letters to sene@gametap.com.
14 Comments
May 13, 2009 at 11:30 pm
[...] doesn’t see a pressing need to publish the title. GameTap operations lead Jake Armstrong told GameInsano, “It’s a good game and a very rare title, so there would be a definite cool factor in getting it [...]
May 13, 2009 at 11:31 pm
[...] doesn’t see a pressing need to publish the title. GameTap operations lead Jake Armstrong told GameInsano, “It’s a good game and a very rare title, so there would be a definite cool factor in getting it [...]
May 13, 2009 at 11:31 pm
[...] doesn’t see a pressing need to publish the title. GameTap operations lead Jake Armstrong told GameInsano, “It’s a good game and a very rare title, so there would be a definite cool factor in getting it [...]
May 13, 2009 at 11:34 pm
[...] doesn’t see a pressing need to publish the title. GameTap operations lead Jake Armstrong told GameInsano, “It’s a good game and a very rare title, so there would be a definite cool factor in [...]
May 13, 2009 at 11:38 pm
[...] doesn’t see a pressing need to publish the title. GameTap operations lead Jake Armstrong told GameInsano, “It’s a good game and a very rare title, so there would be a definite cool factor in [...]
May 13, 2009 at 11:57 pm
[...] doesn’t see a pressing need to publish the title. GameTap operations lead Jake Armstrong told GameInsano, “It’s a good game and a very rare title, so there would be a definite cool factor in getting it [...]
May 14, 2009 at 12:00 am
[...] doesn’t see a pressing need to publish the title. GameTap operations lead Jake Armstrong told GameInsano, “It’s a good game and a very rare title, so there would be a definite cool factor in getting it [...]
May 14, 2009 at 3:47 am
[...] doesn’t see a pressing need to publish the title. GameTap operations lead Jake Armstrong told GameInsano, "It’s a good game and a very rare title, so there would be a definite cool factor in [...]
May 14, 2009 at 4:03 am
[...] doesn’t see a pressing need to publish the title. GameTap operations lead Jake Armstrong told GameInsano, “It’s a good game and a very rare title, so there would be a definite cool factor in [...]
May 14, 2009 at 4:27 am
[...] doesn’t see a pressing need to publish the title. GameTap operations lead Jake Armstrong told GameInsano, “It’s a good game and a very rare title, so there would be a definite cool factor in [...]
May 14, 2009 at 4:44 am
[...] doesn’t see a pressing need to publish the title. GameTap operations lead Jake Armstrong told GameInsano, “It’s a good game and a very rare title, so there would be a definite cool factor in [...]
May 14, 2009 at 9:38 am
[...] GameTap sitting on rights to publish Panzer Dragoon Saga Filed under: Uncategorized — clubstoic @ 9:34 am http://gameinsano.com/2009/05/13/panzer-dragoon-saga-lives/ [...]
May 14, 2009 at 11:18 am
[...] doesn’t see a pressing need to publish the title. GameTap operations lead Jake Armstrong told GameInsano, “It’s a good game and a very rare title, so there would be a definite cool factor in [...]
May 20, 2009 at 5:16 pm
[...] the Panzer Dragoon Lives story I posted nearly a week ago, GameTap posted a story on its blog explaining its position on Panzer Dragoon [...]