Eurogamer has had the chance to chat with SEGA president Shuji Utsumi and took the opportunity to discuss all aspects of the company's successful business. SEGA has been on a bit of a resurgence lately with the well-received Sonic x Shadow Generations, the popular Sonic the Hedgehog movies, the brilliant Metaphor and the various Yakuza franchises. Talking about SEGA's role in today's gaming industry, Mr. Utsumi said that SEGA has set out to invent rock and roll with its slew of comeback titles that have been announced and Nintendo has continued to create pop music - popular music, which he describes as good music. Here's his thoughts:
Sonic's made a comeback in both games and now with the movies, which is symbolic of Sega's resurgence. But you're reinvesting in some of the classic Sega IPs as well, Jet Set Radio, Crazy Taxi...
Utsumi: We made that announcement at the Game Awards [2023]... With the first round [of announcements] I was basically focusing on trying to revive Sonic, Yakuza, and Persona. Three IPs that can be even stronger. And to make Sega more like Sega... Sega has so many great IPs and they've aged very well, and they could appeal to the market again.
Some have been dormant for so long.
Utsumi: Sega somehow invented - if you compare the game business to music business - Sega's role was to invent rock & roll, compared to Nintendo. Nintendo's like pop music, good music, jazz...
"We're trying to revive it with a little bit of the flavour of hip-hop now"
But then Sega comes along and is like Led Zeppelin?
Utsumi: Exactly. Pink Floyd, Abba, and Queen!
Sega always had a fun edge.
Utsumi: Sega had that kind of style [back then]. Sega's position was like, 'If you have attitude, Sega's the company for you, rather than Nintendo', because of the games, because of the style, because of coolness or the kind of attitude. We have such beautiful content value in Sega, and some other IPs, so we're trying to revive it with a little bit of the flavour of hip-hop now.
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