Minus a few exceptions, Sega has never been specifically known for its online games. The company’s heaviest hitter, Sonic the Hedgehog, has always been primarily an offline game, although the recent Team Sonic Racing does support online mulitplayer. Still, the majority of Sega’s most famous games are ones that are focus on offline-play. The company aims to change this however, as evidenced by a recent Q&A for Sega’s investors. It showed that it wants to make more online games, particularly for the West.
Apparently, Sega has increased research and development costs, which are being poured into online games in the West. The company is even considering working on a new MMORPG project for Japan. This seems to be an expensive endeavor, as “something in the 10 billion yen class” could be invested into it. Sega also mentioned that one of its core teams, The Creative Assembly has grown tremendously since its acquisition in March 2005, partly due to its focus on online multiplayer games. These include titles like Rome: Total War, Halo Wars 2, and Total War: Warhammer. The success of these games might be why Sega wants to invest into more online-focused titles. If nothing else, it would widen the company’s breadth of games.
One Sega online franchise that has a solid fan-base is Phantasy Star Online, with its most recent entry, Phantasy Star Online 2 turning seven years old in 2019. Perhaps the company is looking to develop another game in this franchise? Perhaps it could be for the next generation of consoles, which are reported to release next year? Or maybe it will be a new IP altogether.
At this point, it’s unclear, but the prospect of Sega expanding the types of games it makes is exciting. What kind of online Sega games would you like to see? Let us know!
[Source: Siliconera]
