Sega explains Golden Axe co-op absence

50 Comments by Jason Dobson Jul 16th 2008 12:00PM
Filed under: Sony PlayStation 3, Microsoft Xbox 360, Action

As totally rad as arcade classic Golden Axe might have been in 1989, developer Secret Level's decision to axe co-op from the game's upcoming sequel is akin to castrating the series of the one thing that made it worth playing at all. Since hearing of the studio's misguided design choice, we've been pining for the opportunity to ask anyone who'd listen for an explanation, a chance we got this week at E3 when we cornered Sega's VP of marketing, Sean Ratcliffe.

"Rightly or wrongly, we don't have co-op multiplayer in the game," he offered, a statement that was met with a short, yet uncomfortable pause. "I think as much as anything it's taking inspiration from the original series but in terms of that multiplayer co-op the developer decided that they didn't want to take the game in that direction."

"If Golden Axe: Beast Rider is successful," he added, "we can then come back with something else that maybe will have the co-op mode that everyone is wishing this game has." Or, you know, you could give people what they want in the first place instead. Just a thought.

Tags: e3-2008, e32008, golden-axe, goldenaxe, sega

(Page 1) Reader Comments

Mr.ESC: Jul 16th 2008; 12:06PM

I think they want to do a game like God of war and if they succeeded, with Sega you actually never know, they may bring back Golden Axe.

C’mon you could at least add a Split screen mode.

I'm still a Sega Fanboy so I´ll check this.

Wiinterfang: Jul 16th 2008; 12:06PM

Not that interested in this game.

Jagzi11a: Jul 16th 2008; 12:21PM

Touche, I used to be a Sega whore, but this games looks boring.

Wes: Jul 16th 2008; 2:02PM

I agree. Its shaping up to be Age of Golden Axe: Beast Rider. Buy our game now, we'll add the features later you really want in six-twelve months when the next game comes out.

They are better than Age of Conan though. They haven't lied ot us saying features would be available at release and then not deliver upon them ...yet.

BrotherSimon: Jul 16th 2008; 12:07PM

It looks rubbish anyway.

I was hoping it'll be like the classics..

arrrgh: Jul 16th 2008; 12:08PM

FAIL

fuck you sega. way to ruin an amazing classic. Why don't you bring back shinobi and butcher the fuck out of that too>?

juju187: Jul 16th 2008; 12:17PM

they did on ps2

Nigeria: SSBB: 0731-6347-2110: Jul 16th 2008; 12:19PM

Shinobi was actually quite good. I enjoyed it as much as Ninja Gaiden - the orignal Xbox version, not the disappointing sequel.

Dadidito: Jul 16th 2008; 12:09PM

This will fail. No co-op in a golden axe game. Blasphemy!

ill trooper: Jul 16th 2008; 12:10PM

"we can then come back with something else that maybe will have the co-op mode that everyone is wishing this game has."

Yeah, we all know that they might have that backward: it might be more interesting to more people (and possibly more "successful") if they gave us the co-op.

Well, "early adopters," go in there, and make that game a success. Then we might get a co-op. Thanks ahead of time. like 18 months (or whatever dev time is) time.

Bucket: Jul 16th 2008; 12:18PM

Welcome to how the new game industry works.

1) Revive franchise
2) Omit critical element that made game fun
3) Get poor sales
4) Conclude it wasn't a good franchise anyway
5) Find another childhood memory to rape

Really, you could replace "game" with anything. I sometimes worry about what our children are being exposed to.

Mike: Jul 16th 2008; 5:07PM

I replaced "game" with "The Smurfs Movie" and it worked quite well. My childhood memories just got smurfed.

Xaijin: Jul 16th 2008; 12:11PM

gg, I hope this game fails. If you know everyone wants that feature, and you dont deliver, then you deserve to fail.

Rahabib: Jul 16th 2008; 12:13PM

it was "wrongly" I wont touch it.

Zertoss: Jul 16th 2008; 12:15PM

Man I'm excited for this game! I remember playing Golden Axe with a friend as we carved our way through wave after wave of baddies.

"Rightly or wrongly, we don't have co-op multiplayer in the game."

Oh... Well... How about that Samba de Amigo?

BLee: Jul 16th 2008; 12:15PM

Its like taking a franchise.. say.. rockband and making it into single player only guitar hero...
the main draw was the co-op? Why even attach the Golden Axe franchise? just call it "crazy warrior lady game"

Benny: Jul 16th 2008; 12:16PM

It's a bloody joke.

As someone else pointed out on here a while back, this was probably just a game pitched as 'Beast Rider' that's had the GoldenAxe name slapped on it to garner a bit more interest.

Sam: Jul 16th 2008; 12:16PM

"Well, see, we have no idea what game we're making, or what we're doing in general. Seriously, we're close to putting Alien ships in there somewhere. I'm going to be honest here . . . most of us can't tie our shoes."

nmezib: Jul 16th 2008; 12:20PM

lmao you need three hearts NOW. and some cookies.

Red Leader: Jul 16th 2008; 2:07PM

Nice!

Veko: Jul 16th 2008; 12:17PM

"We didn't feel like it"? That's why you don't have co-op? Funny thing is that I use that same reason for why I won't be buying Golden Axe.

J: Jul 16th 2008; 12:17PM

If it is "successful" without co-op, what would be their incentive to add it to the next iteration? By his logic, if it fails without co-op, it will never be given the option to not fail with it.

The original arcade version holds a special place in my heart because it was the only thing my sister and I could get along for long enough to actually do together... well, usually until I stole her animal or kicked all of the elves and took all of the magic for myself.

Vidikron (FU): Jul 16th 2008; 12:25PM

Heh... my friends and I used to play together fine until one of us would head butt the other one down a pit, then the fight was on. So many of our game end prematurely due to that. Good times.

Erluti: Jul 16th 2008; 12:48PM

The accidental hit didn't even have to knock someone into a pit with us! Hitting someone once was enough to incite a battle that would cost everyone at least a continue...

J: Jul 16th 2008; 12:57PM

Co-op with "friendly-fire off" option in the 3rd version: confirmed!

nmezib: Jul 16th 2008; 12:20PM

God that is NOT an explanation! "Rightly or Wrongly, we do't have Co-op in this game..." WTF, you mean WRONGLY, the developers CHOSE to IGNORE one major part of the classic series for absolutely no apparent reason. The sad part is, I bet they know it was a shit decision over too many gin and tonics during the planning stages, and it's too late now to incorporate it into the game.

Just... bollocks. They might as well write the script for the Castlevania movie with Simon Belmont's main weapon as a sword. Oh wait...

liquidate: Jul 16th 2008; 4:20PM

I sort of doubt it was the developers that chose to ignore multiplayer. Instead, I would tend to lay the blame at the marketing and upper middle management folks.

Of course, I have no idea but this is typically where the decisions and money come from.

tifosiotaku: Jul 16th 2008; 12:27PM

Why is Sega wasting their time on this when they could be making Daytona USA 3?

Headgamer: Jul 16th 2008; 12:36PM

You gotta be kidding me! BWAHAHAHA.

The ONE thing that made that game great. And they drop it from a NEXT GEN sequel. It ain't like the consoles can't handle it.

Pathetic.

I DeX I: Jul 16th 2008; 12:38PM

Didn't to go in that direction. He must mean the direction of the consumer. In a market flooded with great games, games like this will fail. Step it up, lazy developers.

Dwag: Jul 16th 2008; 12:39PM

Why won't my Avatar change?

oh i've never played golden axe other than the XBLA one so i'm not gonna comment.

Nikonov: Jul 16th 2008; 12:51PM

Too late.

zaglis: Jul 16th 2008; 12:43PM

How the hell beast raider can ever be successful without a coop. But NAME SELLS, for example Turok

Giroro: Jul 16th 2008; 12:43PM

"if (insert game here) is successful than we'll try to put (insert standard features here) in the sequel . . . if there is one"

Developers have been saying this more and more recently, and it's a little sad.

Pureshooter: Jul 16th 2008; 12:45PM

Sega VP of Marketing: "Dude, I totally agree with you. It's Golden Axe! It has to have co-op. Unfortunately, this wasn't my call to make and the developers are idiots. I've been updating my profile on Careerbuilder.com all day."

Getter-3: Jul 16th 2008; 12:49PM

No multiplayer makes Golden Axe rather douche-tastic. Next up, Altered Beast...with no beasts!

riggs: Jul 16th 2008; 12:57PM

if they leave out kicking bag carrying midgets, I WILL NOT BE AMUSED.

JonFitt: Jul 16th 2008; 12:59PM

Single player only Goldenaxe. This has total success written all over it!!!

What's next, Soul Calibur without VS Mode?

bounchfx: Jul 16th 2008; 1:03PM

I can explain it too
"We don't want to make money"

Sakura: Jul 16th 2008; 1:05PM

Ah this is sad indeed however most of you don't understand one thing about game business, so stop flaming. What can we say, it's an old franchise and thye're very hard trying to get it back, so they obviously try to make it somewhat like the games that are already out, make new people like it while appeasing the old fans and if it's at least lightly sucessful, they'll try to give their own spin to it, like the old series.

God Sega, if you still had your own console you didn't need to to these game strategies at all. I bet it hurts like hell to those developers that's all I have to say.

Bluebrake: Jul 16th 2008; 1:06PM

Everything about this game is just so horribly wrong. For another thing, it should have had a bright, arcadey, almost cartoony art style, and gameplay to match. Instead we get something that looks like every other game on earth.

ComicShaman: Jul 16th 2008; 1:12PM

"Rightly or wrongly, we don't have co-op multiplayer in the game," he offered.

It sounds like our Sega VP of marketing can smell the failure coming. You don't promote your game by suggesting you've made the wrong decisions about the whole design, or admitting that you're not including the feature that "everyone is wishing for." Not a good sign.

sinai: Jul 16th 2008; 1:14PM

2P's polygons were all spent on the girls tits.

Angelo: Jul 16th 2008; 1:36PM

"It'll be in the sequel." I recall them already giving this excuse before, so, this shouldn't be anything new to us.

The game might surprise us and be rather decent on its own, I imagine. That won't stop people from screeching all sorts of variations of "IT'S NOT GOLDEN AXE", I suppose, but that's nostalgia for you. Lots of series, Sega or otherwise, have deviated from their predescessors--with varying results, admittedly, but there are successes among the failures.

Havockrauser: Jul 16th 2008; 1:39PM

I just don't understand the purpose of continuing a franchise which was successful because of it's multiplayer with the absence of multiplayer...

Teknocack: Jul 16th 2008; 2:30PM

I have hung on for a long time. Ever since SEGA killed the dreamcast I had an expectation of eventually seeing a slew of killer, great playing, and innovative games. Kind like some of the coolest stuff released on the DC. What have I gotten since then. Crappy, derivative Sonic titles that apparently sell enough to keep churning out this drivel. Most of their internally developed games get mediocre reviews at best. And now the new Golden Axe. I'm just ill. Come on SEGA! I'm trying to keep the dream alive but the flame is guttering.

Jigsaw: Jul 16th 2008; 2:42PM

Apart from not having co-op play, the game still looks nothing like Golden Axe to me. It has one character who's the same in name only, and it has wild animals, that's about where the similarities end. Make a real Golden Axe game instead of this boring, ugly, brown "Beast Rider" nonsense! :(

Sparerib: Jul 16th 2008; 3:40PM

So...buy this game for $50 and theeeeen we will give you what you want. I get it.

ianp711: Jul 17th 2008; 12:57AM

If the game resembled the original and had co-op play, i'd be maybe interested in getting it. As it is, no thank you.

Idiot Developers FTL

shouryuuken: Jul 23rd 2008; 12:25PM

so let me get this straight... the "new" sega that was created to focus on games and only games makes smart moves like purchasing a company that was "known" for making games like americas army: rise of a soldier and star wars star fighter, and localizing games like karaoke revolution and final fight streetwise.. and instead of getting one of their internal japanese teams that has been making much better games for years, they get these guys who have "proven" themselves with the lackluster iron man.. and get them to make golden axe? seriously whos in charge there, i owe them a punch.

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