SEGA financial report “Beyond the Status Quo” brings new plans for old IPs, including Persona and Sonic the Hedgehog
SEGA’s 2021 annual financial report is here with good news for old IPs.
SEGA Sammy has released the annual SEGA financial report “Beyond the Status Quo”, reporting SEGA’s vision moving forward to “Be a Game Changer”, along with a three-point plan to extend the life of their IPs.
Five of SEGA’s biggest IPs have increased by 40% from last year’s sales, including Persona, Sonic the Hedgehog, Yakuza, Total War, and Phantasy Star Online. In order to keep this momentum going, SEGA plans to utilize a three-point plan: remaster, remake, and reboot.
“Remaster” includes focusing on remastering previous games into HD quality. “Remake” aims to include significant additions while still maintaining the overall gameplay that the originals have. “Reboot” intends to entirely transform old IPs into new games while keeping previous worlds within the IP.
As translated by NME, the SEGA financial report notes that “previous titles are still good enough to be sold today”. Persona 4 Golden follows this logic, having sold over 1 million copies on Steam despite its re-release eight years after the original. Longtime fans are likely to agree with this statement and will look forward to SEGA’s new strategy of bringing more of their old favorites into the spotlight
SEGA foresees digital products to continue progressing over the next few years, noting they will likely surpass physical releases, and thus, the constraints of physical production. The Persona series is one example of this, where it continues to have a strong hold. The Persona series sold over 15 million digital and physical products, including games and merchandise, over the course of 2021. Following SEGA’s three-point plan, the Persona series will likely keep a large presence in the community, digital or not.
While the SEGA financial report has yet to be translated into English, the original Japanese document is now available to the public. Once a full translation is available for English fans, there will surely be more exciting information to learn about SEGA’s plans for the future.
