Henry Spencer wrote: So basically: "I got nothing".
Persona 5 - Atlus
Total War - Creative Assembly
Valkyria: Azure Revolution - Media Vision
My point was, the last internally developed SEGA Japan game that's worth a damn is basically just Yakuza series, they make little else nowadays and even then we had to fight tooth and nail to actually get the newer games released over here (thanks Sony, no thanks to SEGA). Even Sonic is outsourced now. Phantasy Star Online 2 doesn't count since we never got it.
I can't get into Total War and Football Manager since those games aren't for me (I can't force myself to enjoy sports games as I can't force myself to enjoy PC strategy games; they fit a specific niche). It's kinda silly to say "that's on you, not them" when it only appeals to certain demographics. When I think "SEGA" I don't think of games like that. I think of games like "Virtua Fighter", "Panzer Dragoon", "Sonic", "Shining series", "House of the Dead", "OutRun", "Ristar", "Skies of Arcadia", "Valkyria Chronicles", "Yakuza", "Shenmue", "Phantasy Star", "Streets of Rage", "ToeJam & Earl" - games like that.
And no, I don't hate SEGA, I'm just really disappointed in them nowadays. Even the stuff they are making nowadays they don't want to give us.
So basically, you've missed the point completely. Granted, your question was loaded to begin with but still several examples were provided, showing how Sega continues to create great games today. It's just that now, having been presented with several valid examples; you've decided to play semantics instead by denying that any of these games belong to Sega.
First to all, by definition each of these games rightfully belongs to Sega as a company, they've all been published as part of Sega Sammy Holdings. It's a simple definition but one that's highly effective nonetheless, that is so long as you don't have an axe to grind against Sega and its business practises as a whole. More to the point though, it's worth understanding that Sega continues to expand as a publisher, acquiring new developers and IPs whenever the opportunity presents itself, as has always been the case throughout Sega's history.
Your criticism of Sega's Western development teams is the strangest argument of all. Sega has a long history of encouraging western development alongside the output of their Japanese studios. This was the whole idea behind the Sega Technical Institute in the 90s; which saw the release of great games like Comix Zone, Kid Chameleon and even assisting in the creation of Sonic The Hedgehog 2. Today Sega's Western development teams like Creative Assembly and Relic Entertainment are some of the finest studios in the world, making games that are both highly lucrative and popular amongst gamers.
I understand that Sega is a different looking company today, that shouldn't come as any surprise after 15 as a third-party publisher. There were even pretty big structural differences between the Dreamcast era Sega and the Master System era Sega, that's just the nature of surviving in the fast moving games industry. There have been key people who have left Sega along the way, while whole studios have amalgamated or disbanded entirely. Yet, there have also been a lot of new blood added to Sega as well. Creative Assembly has been part of Sega for over 10 years now and that's worked out splendidly. More recently, Atlus has almost completed work on Persona 5, which might well prove to be one of Sega's biggest JRPGs ever.
So, leading back to Shenmue 1 and 2 HD, the original point of this thread. It's quite reasonable to think that Sega is being sincere in their intention to bring Shenmue to modern platforms. Giving Yu Suzuki the chance to fund Shenmue 3 on Kickstarter was a bold move, unprecedented by any major publisher, and one that has been rewarded by the enthusiasm of Shenmue fans all over the world. Preparing to release Shenmue 1 and 2 HD is a real possibility now, more so then ever before, since interest in the Shenmue franchise is at its greatest level since the Dreamcast days.
I won’t mind if Sega gives the task of porting Shenmue to an internal studio and I certainly won’t be upset if Sega partners with an external team which specialises in old-school ports. M2 has a great relationship with Sega, they’ve handled all the Mega Drive and arcade ports on the 3DS, sourcing everything from the original Sega hardware. There’s also Little Stone Software, who handled the PC port of Valkyria Chronicles. Both external studios, I would trust either to port Shenmue 1 and HD as much as would Sega’s internal teams like AM2 and Creative Assembly.