While only 10% of Prope's initial funding will come from Sammy-Sega, it's seen as part of a plan Sega has to allow existing internal developers to become independent (but still Sega-affiliated) companies. Sega fans may recognise the structure - during the Saturn and Dreamcast years Sega separated it's internal dev teams into autonomous studios (such as Sonic Team and Amusement Vision), but after some bad decisions and heavy losses (mostly from underperforming PS2 projects after they went third party) Sega were forced to merge with Guilty Gear maker Sammy, and most studios were consolidated back internally. Sega may now be be trying to do implement the 'autonomous studio' idea again, but with less financial risk to the parent company.
Naka says he hopes to “bring games much closer to users, establishing closer ties between users and us, and creating near future entertainment.” - which sound suspiciously like what Nintendo are saying about their upcoming Wii console. Could this all be related to the rumours of a NiGHTS Into Dreams sequel for Wii? We'll find out soon enough!
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