State of Sega

[JC34]

Will SEGA go out of business this decade? Vote and leave a comment explaining why.

[JC34]

I personally think they will because there is so little interest in all their franchises and they've lost so much money from their failed games. It's sad to say but that's not to say that they might go out with a bang.

[Roareye]

I don't think so. Namely there are several aspects to the company that I think will see it survive in one capacity or another (outside of a buyout from another company).

Being third party, they don't have costs of hardware anymore, so I don't think the threat looms as large as it once did. Still, they're not in the best of positions by anyone's standard in the home console market. Some of their games sell gangbusters still, Yakuza has picked up from being a mediocre seller to a powerhouse brand globally for example. On top of that SEGA has plenty of brands I personally couldn't care less about that still sell, such as Football Manager, Mario & Sonic Olympics etc. None of these are Mario Odyssey or GTA in terms of sales but they also don't demand the same level of budget. Still, from just a home console perspective, it is likely they're failing - mostly due to a lack of solid releases. SoR4 seems to have sold well, as did Sonic Mania, so there's a chance the higher ups will see this and finally cash in on all those currently unused brands they have locked away.

However SEGA is much more than just the home console market. They have a major stake (arguably the biggest of any company) in the Arcade gaming market. Again, yes, this is a somewhat dwindling market due to lack of innovation, but there are still releases here and there such as the recent new Daytona USA and the fact that almost every arcade STILL has Outrun 2 in it (I live by a load of arcades, several still have the two-seater sit-in red/yellow Ferrari's). An OutRun 3 would no doubt smash their brand back into high stakes in the Arcade field, as would a new Virtua Fighter (in Japan at least for VF). Again, they're sitting on brands that would literally just print them unending wads of cash for some reason - easily rectifiable. They still own a large number of SEGA Arcades and the SEGA Joypolis theme park in Japan too, if they sell those off that is when I will start to worry.

Thirdly SEGA are connected to Sammy, arguably one of the biggest Pachinko machine brands in the East. And Pachinko is big business. Unless gambling is cured worldwide (or in the East), it's unlikely that side of the company will drop. They may drop the SEGA brand, but I think the global and Arcade recognition of the SEGA brand makes that unlikely. Alternatively they may wind down the SEGA side of the company, I do hope that's not what they're doing (would explain a lack of innovative new product or revival of existing brands) but considering they just launched the Game Gear Micro, my bet is on they're feeling out the market.

SEGA's output is nowhere near as in-your-face and frequent as it once was, and that is concerning. But they only replaced their CEO a couple of years ago who promised to change things around - since then we've had Sonic Mania, Streets of Rage 4, Daytona USA and several Yakuza titles. Hopefully that's just the beginning of a new golden age.

[McGaffryson]

I mean, have you seen the sales of Yakuza 6? Bruh, they ain't going anywhere.

[Xiden]

They are owned by a very rich pachinko business Sammy Corp. Also https://www.pocketgamer.biz/asia/news/7 ... s-q4-fy20/ They made 421% in profits They aren't going anywhere. They have been acquiring companies in fact. If worst case scenario ever happened I'm sure MS will buy them.

[beanboy]

I don't think they will go out of business. I think that currently, they are in an okay state. Even if some of their new releases, or sequels to old classic games aren't as good as the original games, they'll still sell reasonably well enough to stay in business, and make more Yakuza games which make alot of money. And they have Puyo Puyo which is very popular.

But in the case of Virtua Fighter........interestingly enough, I have a strange feeling this Virtua Fighter X Esports thing, might be a huge deciding factor on the future state of sega. Hopefully, that thing doesn't end up as a huge disappointment, and they get back the large amount of VF fans, that left after being disappointed with VF5 Final Showdown.

It would be a smart idea for them to also cater to their original large fanbase. Since they are the ones, that helped push and popularise, alot of sega's great classic franchises.

[247]

no way they are failing, they may not be big as in the past but they are not going anywhere, in if they will eventually fail, but they won't, they are too valuable not to being brought by someone else...

[Ian Micheal]

No way there on the up swing right now with the 60th i bet some nice things going to be coming out the next few years.. ask me about 10 years ago might thought so..

[dubcity]

Sega is fine. Like someone else said profits are up.

We might want all their old franchises back but their current ones are doing fine. Their strategy games sell. Yakuza series is a big seller. They own Atlus and Persona is huge. Puyo puyo is big in japan. Genesis mini sold a lot.

None of their young in house devs want to touch the old franchises. they want to make new ones. That's why Sega has smartly given monster boy games, shenmue 3, panzer remake, streets of rage 4 and sonic mania to other devs to make. If they continue to do that I will be happy.

I really want new virtua fighter tho. I hope that announcement is a new game.

[Tarnish]

They won't go out of business, but they'll never be the creative powerhouse they once were. They're just gonna focus on a few of their IPs, going with the flow, following trends instead of setting them, and we'll feel lucky when occasionally they drop a few low budget indie games of their old IPs.