Today Sega published the questions and answers in its latest financial results briefing, providing interesting insight on how the company sees the success of its games.
In the documents provided by the publisher, we read that Makoto Takahashi (Managing Director of Corporate Planning Division) was asked what successful initiatives have led to reviews of its games improving in recent years.
Takahashi-san explained that games developed by Japanese studios have been highly acclaimed for a while due to the efforts to strengthen the company’s external and internal evaluation process.
Sega is also gradually extending the process to its European studios.
“We think the titles developed by our domestic studios have been highly acclaimed for a while already, and we believe that our efforts to strengthen the external and internal evaluation process have been successful.
On the other hand, we understood that the fact that the similar process was not being carried out properly at our European studios was one of the factors that led to structural reforms in the previous fiscal year, and we are gradually introducing the processes that have been successful in Japan from this fiscal year.”
Interestingly, we read that both Sonic X Shadow Generations and Metaphor: ReFantazio are selling better than expected, and Sega actually expects the latter to continue selling.
“The recent number of units sold [of Metaphor: ReFantazio] has been steadily increasing and is on pace to exceed our initial forecast. Those responses support our confident about the title, and we believe we can expect the further sales by raising awareness of the title in the future. We will continue the effort to increase repeat sales while always closely monitor the appropriate price levels.”
Another interesting point made is that Sega is planning to strengthen some of its Japanese Studios, including Atlus, Sonic Team, and Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio, either via additional hiring or even acquisitions.
“Atlus is an important studio for us to expand Japanese IPs overseas and we think it is necessary to strengthen it, and the studios involved in the Sonic and Like a Dragon IPs are also short of staff, and we are looking to reinforce personnel through additional hiring and M&A.”
This likely isn’t too surprising considering how popular the games made by these studios have been over the past few years, so it’s entirely understand that Sega would be willing to invest further in them to boost their success even more.
If you’re interested in Sega’s financial results, you can read all about them in our recent article outlining all the figures and relevant comments.
Metaphr Re: Fantazio is currently available for PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.
Sonic X Shadow Generations is available for PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC.