In their Road to 2020 business presentation, SEGA said part of their strategy to create titles that will become global hits is the “revival of past IPs and active utilization of external IPs, etc.”
Additionally, the company wants to expand intellectual property development channels to consoles, PC, and mobile devices, while expanding development to release games simultaneously across the globe as well. SEGA also wants to “transition from diversified investment to focused investment,” and they’ll do this by focusing investment on promising titles and selecting titles carefully (they want to aim for big hits).
The presentation then highlighted the major points for both the digital and packaged games fields:
Digital Game Field (Phantasy Star Online 2, Hortensia Saga, and others listed as examples)
- Create titles that will become global hits
- Establish digital marketing business
- Expand overseas publishing business
- Maintain profits through long-term operation of existing titles
- Develop next-generation titles
Packaged Game Field (Persona 5, Yakuza 6: The Song of Life, and others listed as examples)
- Expand existing IPs and obtain new IPs for North American and European PC games
- Build revenue base by being entrusted with outsourced development
- Challenge for new IPs
- Revival of major IPs
- Effective utilization of development engines
On Twitter, Alpha Protocol developer Obsidian offered up this potential tease:
You don’t say.
What if…? https://t.co/29s7TG3Mqr
— Obsidian (@Obsidian) May 15, 2017
Obsidian then added, “What we’ve learned: A lot of love for [Alpha Protocol] still (Thank you!), and us doing Phantasy Star or Shining Force sounds great. You’re all glorious.”
In their report for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2017, SEGA mentioned that they sold 10.28 million games during the year, and sales of Persona 5 and Total War: Warhammer performed well. Looking at this fiscal year (ending March 31, 2018), SEGA expects to move 11.6 million units, thanks to games like Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War III, Endless Space 2, and Total War: Warhammer 2.
[Source: SEGA Sammy (1), (2), Obsidian (1), (2) via Gematsu, VG247]
