Sega released today its Integrated Report 2023, including some interesting information about its games and businesses.
The 81-page document indicates the plans of the company for its entertainment content business (which is Sega's corporate way of saying games), which includes proactive investment, increasing the company's presence in the global mobile market, strengthening the global branding of existing IPs, scaling up the IP lineup, and ultimately the creation of the much-teased "Super Game."
Interestingly, we get a look at the cumulative sales of many of the company's IPs, which you can find below.
CEO Haruki Satomi mentions that both the Persona 5 Royal remaster and Sonic Frontiers were hits, and the performance of free-to-play games is "brisk."
While Japanese games like the two mentioned above are "enjoying significant growth overseas," Satomi-san mentions that sales of new games made by the Eueopran studios "failed to materialize."
That being said, Satomi-san believes "it is important to continue to maximize the value of [Sega's] powerful IP lineup, delivering high-quality products and services to game users around the world."
Interestingly, the success of the Sonic IP has helped Sega acquire a wealth of knowledge regarding IP development, which the company now plans to use to "expand other excellent IPs on a global scale as well."
We also learn from Sega Corporation Co-COO Yukio Sugino that the company has been conducting R&D activities to create the "Super Game" by the fiscal year ending March 2026.
If you're not familiar with this concept that Sega has been repeating for a while, it's a worldwide blockbuster that is intended to be multiplatform, with global multilingual support, simultaneous worldwide release, and AAA scale.
Incidentally, Sugino-san also adds in his segment that Sonic Frontiers "has generated sales far above our initial plan" (as a reminder, it has shipped 3.2 million units by March 2023)
Speaking of the expansion of existing IP, Co-COO Shuji Utsumi mentions that following Sonic's example, the company plans to expand the transmedia approach to other franchises, creating even stronger win-win relationships with partner companies in other industries.
That being said, he mentions that, since Sega is a video game company, the relevant premise remains to to develop interesting games that captivate fans.
Yet, he also believes that "by launching the best games at just the right time in tandem with the development of video productions and merchandise" the company can "not only grow game sales but also maximize the value of its IP."
We also hear from Utsumi-san that Sega is like a "treasure island" due to the many IP gems from its past. The company is currently moving forward with plans to revive a succession of IPs.
While retaining the nostalgic elements so beloved by fans from the past, we will introduce innovative ideas and technologies that appeal to the current market, aiming to surpass user expectations by providing new experiences that merge nostalgia with a sense of freshness.
He also talks more about the "Super Game," providing more details about what it will entail
We are also making steady headway in development of the “Super Game” that we are seeking to create in the medium to long term. As the name implies, a “Super Game” involves the concept of a game that stands head and shoulders above normal games.
I encourage stakeholders to look forward to the fruit of our efforts, which include R&D to create a game that builds a whole worldview involving the entire gaming ecosystem, including not only players but also streamers who stream the game and their viewers.
It'll certainly be interesting to see what this "Super Game" will be, but for now, we'll have to wait a few more years.
