Sega has revealed that it's planning on releasing a new "super game" in the next five years (thanks, VGC).
The plans were published as part of the company’s recent financial results briefing, which also outlines precisely what Sega has planned for its short-term future.
Listed as a 'priority strategy for the next five years, an undisclosed "super" release will be a brand-new IP, and will therefore have low profitability, at least in the short term. However, Sega adds that growth potential is high, as the game will be sold globally.
Also over the next five years, Sega will look to leverage its existing catalogue of IP in the form of sequels, reboots and remakes. This approach was mentioned back in 2017, and has already given us Streets of Rage 4 and Panzer Dragoon: Remake, while House of the Dead is also getting remastered. Funnily enough, Sega cites Streets of Rage – as well as Shinobi, Crazy Taxi, Jet Set Radio, Space Channel 5, Rez, Virtua Fighter and Altered Beast – as potential candidates for this approach.
In the shorter term, Sega plans over the next three years to “strengthen existing IPs to build a solid structure” with brands such as Sonic, Phantasy Star Online 2, Persona 5, Yakuza and Total War being the main targets of this strategy.
Elsewhere in the report, Sega revealed that 4.4 million Sonic games had been sold in the past year, despite no new Sonic title being published in that timeframe. 4 million Total War games were sold in the past year, as well as 3.8 million Football Manager titles and 3 million Persona games. It wasn't all good news, however; the Covid-19 pandemic had an impact on Sega's pachinko business, which suffered an operating loss of 10.6 billion yen ($96.7 million) in the past year.
[source videogameschronicle.com]
Comments 76
I’m in! As long as it’s not a mobile or free-to-play 🤢
Skies of Arcadia is not on the list. Now I am sad.
Certainly interesting news.
Pretty much all of those "candidates" for sequels or "remakes" I would take if done well enough. Street of Rage 4 was done quite well. Hopefully they make it to the Switch though unlike Persona 5.
Can't imagine what the new IP would be.
Could be interesting, but hard to tell until SEGA are ready to reveal their hand.
It's interesting that they list Streets of Rage and Panzer Dragoon as dormant IPs, when both have recently gotten new titles.
I guess dormant in the sense that they are not headline products for SEGA.
Good, but I wonder why at this point they have yet to reveal any plans for the 30th anniversary of Sonic. I mean, even a comprehensive Sonic collection would be something to expect from Sega, but for now crickets singing is all we hear.
Stop fannying about Sega, and just bring back Ages
Wow, fingers crossed it's a new Football Manager!
It bothers me when they say Virtua Fighter is a dormant franchise and then they don't even state Eternal Champions.
@Moroboshi876 SEGA didn't announce Sonic 25th anniversary stuff until July 2016 so E3 2021 seems a realistic guess for the earliest time for Sonic 30th anniversary news.
Won't mind a proper SHINOBI games. Like shadow dancer and others in that category.
Compare that to Sony who would rather remake a game not even that old that already got remastered on the PS4
well here is hoping they make some great quality games.
AKA a Battle Royale game.
I do not see Golden Axe. Arcade1UP recognized its worth with their first Sega arcade cabinet, it's a shame SEGA does not share this enthusiasm, always found the gameplay more rich than Altered Beast
Skies and Dragon Force localisation
Give me all the Sega. Conversions of Manx TT, Scud Race, Daytona 2, Touring Cars. Oh, and OUTRUNNERS.
Come on Sega, we're all waiting for this!
Step 1: Sega promise to leverage their IPs and fans get excited.
Step 2: We maybe get one or two games from old IPs, e.g. Panzer Dragoon, Streets of Rage.
Step 3: Sega tease something big is coming.
Step 4: Sega release the same Megadrive ROM collection again because someone, somewhere still hasn't played Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine.
i have never heard of 'super game' as an industry term. To me, it just sounds like they are talking about a global release of a new AAA IP. Which isn't unusual?
Looks like they took the survey they did seriously. Hopefully Sega come up with the goods.
@RupeeClock It's because they outsourced both Streets of Rage 4 and the Panzer Dragoon Remakes to outside developers. Sadly, anything outside of Sonic or Yakuza is pretty much dead to them in-house anymore.
DISCLAIMER: This is copied from my post over at IGN on this same topic.
Seems like every piece of news out of Sega is depressing if you happen to be a fan of their staple of amazing RPG and SRPG franchises or hope to see more of the classic Arcade games (or even a compilation) appear on consoles. Sega once stood on par with Square/Enix in terms of the quality of its RPGs, from the original Phantasy Star series on Master System and Genesis to some INCREDIBLE titles most gamers never got to experience on the Saturn (Shining Force III Scenarios 1-3, Dragon Force, Panzer Dragoon Saga, Magic Knight RayEarth, Albert Odyssey) to Skies of Arcadia on the Dreamcast and GameCube. Outside of the equally great Valkyria Chronicles series, none of these IPs has seen a remaster or new installment since Sega went third-party two decades ago.
And then there's that insane mountain of beloved Arcade games that generations of gamers poured quarters into, from Zaxxon, Congo Bongo, and Pengo to Afterburner, OutRun, and Super Hang-On, to Virtua Racing and on to Daytona USA 1 and 2, SCUD Racer, Virtua Fighter 1 and 2, Super Star Wars Arcade, and so many others. A few of these made it onto Switch via the Sega Ages line before Sega inexplicably pulled M2 off of it and shut it down.
I'm sure that fans of the franchises mentioned in the article are excited, and I'm happy for them. But the hobby has REALLY missed the old Sega that was so prolific, and who knows if or when we'll ever get to experience those amazing RPG worlds or Arcade games again.
@SpringDivorce As much as I too would love all of those (and others), I have a feeling that Sega's response would channel Judge Smails from Caddyshack: "You'll get NOTHING and LIKE IT!"
@Moroboshi876 a new Sonic Adventure game in 2022?
Not big fan of Shinobi 3ds but would love a new proper Shinobi game
It's about time they started making games for franchises they totally forget about.
JET SET RADIOOOOOOOOOO!
Who would be a good partner for a good new 2D Shinobi? Sabotage Studio, who did The Messenger? Team Cherry? Does Christian Whitehead like Shinobi as much as he does Sonic?
Nice to know that Sega is aware that Panzer Dragoon and Soul Hackers still exist too. I guess the Shining series is getting mothballed.
Aw, no mention of Ristar! A reboot of that would be lovely, I adored that game.
Rez would be great on Switch. Plug in the headphones and feel the controllers pulse to the beat!
So a game of an unknown variety will be released in the next five years? Time to get serious about clearing out the backlog.
I wish Sega would release some difficult-to-find games that have never been re-released yet such as Tempo or Astal. the SEGA AGES line was promising until they decided to abandon it out of nowhere.
I still don't trust Sega, not like I use to. They over promised and under delivered too much plus their support for Switch had been lacking with hardly any epic games, a majority of their old IPs are handle by indies, they still had not give us any new sequel in the Skies of Arcadia and Shenmue series. Shenmue is an oldass franchise that deserves a chance on Nintendo's platform but yet Sega ignore that same for Yakuza, Virtua Fighter, and Phantasy Star. A majority of the people I knew who just got into gaming on 3DS, Wii U, and Switch saw characters likes Ryo Hazuki, Akira Yuki, and Vyse but don't know who they are or what games they're from cause Sega failed to introduced their franchise on the platform that best fit those franchise. If Sega want to win back the fans in me, they need to stop over promised and just make some darn good games, release more exclusives on Switch and bring back all their old classics from Saturn and Dreamcast.
VF? Sega don’t play with my emotions like that!!! Put up or shut up! They haven’t said anything since that esports blurb and it has been driving the VF community crazy.
I do hope shinobi comes back though. Action games feel pretty rare right now.
Well I’m glad they still see potential in video games and their stable of IPs. Hopefully we’ll get more decent console releases like Streets of Rage 4, farmed out with care if Sega can’t be bothered to produce in-house.
If only Sega felt the Switch was worthy of a new Phantasy Star Online game, like Capcom did with MHR. (A Japan-exclusive streaming-only port is such a cruel tease...)
@Peteykins shame really, loved billy hatcher
Here is hoping this they localise Phantasy Star Online 2.
Is Virtual On owned by Sega? I would love to see a revival on Switch.
NINJA APPROVES GIANT ROBOTS FIGHTING
SEGA have been talking about reviving dormant IPs for AGES now.
Seriously though, I really hope they start doing this instead of just talking about it. So many great IPs in their back catalogue. I need more Altered beast, Golden Axe, Panzer Dragoon, Phantasy Star, Shining force, NiGHTS, Skies of Arcadia etc. etc. I miss the old SEGA.
GIMME CRAZY TAXI.
Wild hopes for a modern crazy taxi: Two modes, a classic mode that's just essentially the arcade experience, and a "story mode" which doesn't have much of a story but does have vehicle customization and character (vehicle) progression - speed, acceleration, handling, knock-stuff-out-of-the-way-ability, etc. Make it stupid, make it silly. Put it on the Switch.
@RobHughes Why? You can play it just fine right now, and as huge of a fan of PSO games I have been, this is a pretty bad game. It's just a barfy kludge of FTP microtransactions and 8 million confusing mechanics.
Personally I'd love to see what Team Cherry could do with Altered Beast and I reckon Tecmo Koei could make a great Golden Axe game similar to Hyrule Warriors.
Oh heck yeah plz more jet set radio
Really wish they would bring PSO2 to the switch in the west.
And I’d love to see more dormant IPs return
I really need a new Virtua Fighter
I'd be so down for a new Crazy Taxi and Jet Set Radio (especially a JSR game with modern controls). But please for the love of Sonic make an HD port of Skies of Arcadia! That's all I really want
I would like to play Shining Force III and Panzer Dragoon Saga on the Nintendo Switch.
Sega like to try to whip up enthusiasm but any Sega fans have been here too may times before and this just seems like more hyperbole that normally does not pan out. I would love to see Sega come out strong with a new IP or reimagined IP from years past but they seem to be a company without focus and direction.
A Capcom Arcade Stadium style collection of their incredible 90's arcade games is my number 1 wish. Not only would it make them a lot of money from old games they're doing nothing with but it would also allow them to assess what games are being played the most and best placed to make a succesful comeback.
Bring back Shining Force
Bring Phantasy Star back to it's JRPG roots (no more MMO)
Bring back SEGA AGES and release games that people actually care about.
Just adding to the pile here: SKIES OF ARCADIA
@AtlanteanMan
Ha ha ha most probably. Oh well, I can dream. Although, they did say when they ended the AGES range that they still had plans for more re-releases. I think Virtua Racing took them quite a bit of work, so maybe they'll happen at a more expensive price-point rather than the budget-priced AGES releases.
Good news all around then. Any bad news in the pachinko industry is good news for literally everyone else.
Obviously it's going to be the Mr. Bones remake that was rumored about a while back, which would make me EXTREMELY HAPPY. Along with like at least five (5) other people!
@Slain New Shining Force and Phantasy Star games like the old series will probably never happen ever again, all we'll get are just more of the Shining RPGs or Phantasy Star Online games. As for Panzer Dragoon we already got a remake so we'll probably going to see a remake of the sequel soon like Zwei and maybe Orta but I don't think they will ever do Panzer Dragoon Saga unless they want to completely start from scratch cause they lose the source code for that. Virtua Fighter is coming back but probably as an esport title only, it'll probably took the Killer Instinct or Fighting EX Layer approach where they'll have a free version and you buy characters along the way or a premium version where you just get all the characters. A new House of the Dead remake is in the making as well as its sequel, Yu Suzuki and YS Net is planning Shenmue 4 but will probably be published by Deep Silver instead of Sega and will probably be Epic Game Store exclusive instead of been widely available for Switch and Steam. It'll probably also not finish the story either.
Remastering Dragon Force would be incredible. They seem to forget that IP exists though.
Shame they didn't mention Fantasy Zone and Alex Kidd in the dormant franchises, since they were old SEGA mascots.
Lol, Sega doesn’t know it’s arse from it’s elbow!
Doubtless we’ll see these words again in another 5 years, with Sega’s legacy still running on fan-made content. Super Game....lol
Please don't lock any more long-awaited sequels behind Apple Arcade, thanks.
I really hope Sega even remembers what a "Super Game" looks like..
Can we get a Phantasy Star V in my lifetime?
Where’s the love for Burning Rangers???
Crazy Taxi and Jet Set Radio are obvious but our controllers haven't changed much over the years and Chu Chu Rocket would still be a lot of fun, especially with today's modern internet speeds. That and I'd like to see more Sega Swirl.
Seeing the main graphic for this made me a little sad. I LOVED Sega Heros on Mobile, and have yet to find another game to play instead of it. That was the only free to play game I ever spent money on, and spent WAY too much on it. So maybe it is a blessing they killed it. They day they killed that game, I swore off SEGA and have not bought a game of theirs since and probably never will.
The biggest disaster that went through the entire Japanese side of the videogame industry like wildfire was almost certainly caused by the influence of Western games. Beloved franchises (especially JRPGs and SRPGs) were redesigned from the ground up until many weren't even the same genre anymore. Just a few examples:
1) Shining Force Shining Force III was not just the best SF entry ever; it was one of the best SRPGs ever made, period, with three interlocking Scenarios where the decisions you made in one determined which characters might be available in the others, With 190 hours of gameplay including EPIC battles late in Scenario 3, from an optional dungeon whose boss could take more than an hour to defeat to the final, multi-stage battle featuring all three of your armies (a possible total of roughly 50 characters) and one of the best storylines ever, it was arguably the Saturn's finest achievement.
The problem was that Sega completely bungled its release, not even bothering to release Scenarios 2 and 3 in the West (which left Western gamers with an eternally unresolved cliffhanger). Their meddling was so bad that Team Camelot left to form their own studio. Since then Sega has turned the IP into a series of bland, forgettable Action RPGs.
2) Front Mission Square/Enix once had a fascinating and deep near-future SRPG series in Front Mission. Players could build and customize their own squads of huge mechs to go into battle against everything from infantry, tanks, and aircraft to other mechs. The storylines had political intrigue and complexity. Unfortunately with the last entry, Front Mission Evolved, Square/Enix thought it would be a good idea to turn it into a third-person mech shooter. The game bombed, and we haven't seen this IP since.
3) Final Fantasy/the Tales series/etc. Figuring they could squeeze more money out of what were already profitable RPG franchises by switching their turn and menu-based mechanics out for button-mashing, combo-heavy ones where the player controlled only a single character at a time, Square/Enix, Namco, and others fell into the trap of "Westernizing" those IPs by trying to make them appeal to the more ADD-addled, FPS and fighting game-loving crowd. To some degree it's worked out for them, but at the cost of much of what made those franchises so beloved for more "old school" players.
4) Valkyria Chronicles Sega tried the same thing they'd done with Shining Force when they made Azure a third-person action title. The game bombed and the blowback from fans was fierce. It's no small miracle that they actually made Valkyria 4 shortly thereafter; they haven't done the same for any of their other JRPG/SRPG IPs since.
Let us now pause to remember some of the great JRPG and SRPG franchises that have long since left us, and which will likely reappear in the form of "spiritual successors" made by the original creators (examples: the Shenmue 3 and Eiyuden Chronicle Kickstarters) if we ever see them again:
Suikoden
Vandal Hearts
Dragon Force
Panzer Dragoon Saga
Breath of Fire
Shining Force
LUNAR
Phantasy Star (the Algol series)
Final Fantasy Tactics (although Project Triangle Strategy seems to qualify as a "spiritual successor)
Front Mission
Skies of Arcadia
I love Sega but I'm not holding my breath for any amazing revivals. Hope they prove me wrong.
I wish they would make another console.
@FantasiaWHT You're talking about PSO2?
Every couple of years Sega says this and all they make is more Yakuza games.
I remember all the hype of Sonic 2006. How it was supposed to be the supposed "greatest Sonic game, nay, the greatest Sega game of all time." Now... Well let's just say I'm at a point in my life that anything Sega announces as "big" will be a "I'll believe it when I see it" sort of feeling from me.
@Ghost_of_Hasashi yeah and it's a pity because it's the old style of Phantasy Star and Shining Force I want to see.
I picked up Panzer Dragoon remake from Limited Run and am looking forward to the Zwei Remake later this year as Zwei is my favourite in the series. I'm just hoping SEGA do some new entries.
At least there's been a bit of a revival of the Wonderboy games in the last few years and a new Alex Kidd remake which looks okay, and of course SoR4. It's a start I guess.
Sega Smash Bros!
Still trying wrap my head around Sega halting the Sega Ages line!!! Oh God the potential that was there!!! Crazy Taxi begs for a new release still a very fun game for any gamer.
Us retro gamers really have to give some respect to Hamster and the parade of classics they’ve put out! Ok some of them are obscure and yea some suck but they’ve still released a ton of quality arcade games! Cmon Sega let’s go!!!
Just put the entire Dreamcast library on Switch, Sega. Let's port over Shining Force 3 while we're at it.
Skies of Arcadia... ;_______;
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