Sega Announces Plan To Make A "Super Game"

Sega has announced plans to create what it's calling a "Super Game," and it sounds like it'll be a new FPS from a European studio. As part of the company's latest earnings release, Sega outlined some of its plans for future growth, and one element of this was the creation of a so-called Super Game.

A slide from the publisher's report said Sega is undertaking the challenge of creating a "large-scale global title," and that this process will take between three and five years. Sega said this will be a new FPS from a European studio, but no further details were divulged. The company did, however, outline its bold revenue predictions, saying it is hopeful this Super Game can reach lifetime sales of 100 billion yen, which is about $900 million USD.

Sega's Creative Assembly studio in Europe is working on a new sci-fi shooter in the FPS genre. The studio says the "ambitious" multiplayer game offers a "fresh taker on the FPS genre that will allow players to embrace a variety of creative playstyles."

Whether or not this is Sega's planned Super Game, however, remains to be seen.

Beyond this Super Game, Sega said it is also planning to take advantage of its numerous existing franchises and utilize them in new ways to help fuel growth. This includes remastering older games, remaking games with new features, and rebooting franchises. Sega also listed off its "active" and "dormant" franchises on the slide discussing these plans.

Sega has already begun to change its strategy for new releases to embrace a more global approach. The new Lost Judgment game from Ryu ga Gotoku Studio will be the first worldwide simultaneous launch from the team, which usually releases games first in Japan before bringing them to the West.

This is part of Sega's strategic endeavor to make its existing IPs more global in nature. In addition to releasing games in more regions at the same time, Sega aims to prolong the lifecycle of a particular product through "multi-monetization" and also via "media mix," which means adapting franchises for different mediums. Sega is already doing this with the Sonic the Hedgehog series, which had a successful film adaptation in 2020 that is now getting a sequel in 2022.

Sega's latest earnings results for the year that ended March 31, 2021 showed a dramatic drop-off for sales and revenue. Revenue for the year was 27.7 billion yen, which was down 24% compared to 36.6 billion yen the year prior. Operating income, meanwhile, was 6.55 billion yen, representing a sharp decline of 76.3% compared to last year's 27.6 billion yen.

Sega said these major declines were due in part to the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result of the health crisis, pachinko halls across Japan were closed, and this is a major component of Sega's business beyond traditional video games. You can read Sega's full earnings report on the company's investor website.