Sega has joined a growing list of video game industry giants that have expressed an interest in cloud gaming developments and are keen to embrace streaming services. Speaking to Games Industry, Executive Vice President of Publishing, John Clark, said that although the company has previously worked with Gaikai, OnLive, and PlayStation Now, this is an “interesting time for bigger players” to make an impact.
“We’re really interested to see how all the players push forward with significant streaming announcements and services,” said Clark. “I think bandwidth is a very important thing, just to see how the services function. So we’ll look at Google Stadia‘s rollout with a lot of interest to see how that maps out. And for the future, we’re all interested to see how economies of streaming are going to work, the business models, etc.”
Sega Europe’s Chief Operating Officer and President, Gary Dale, added that cloud gaming and streaming services will offer the company growth potential by reaching new audiences.
“What’s interesting about a lot of the philosophies of the operators of the streaming services is the idea of extending the audience reach,” said Dale. “They’re trying to find new users and give them access to games in a way that hasn’t been done before. We’re seeing growth coming from new markets or markets that are starting to open in a different kind of way, particularly in Asia and particularly China.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Sega was quizzed about Phantasy Star Online 2‘s European release, which was curiously left out of the E3 2019 reveal. Vice President of Marketing, Anna Downing, said that the company doesn’t have an announcement to make at this time but it will continue to talk to its fans.
Phantasy Star Online 2 will first debut on the Xbox One and PC in North America, followed by other platforms.
[Source: Games Industry]
