UPDATE
Which franchise from SEGA or Atlus would YOU want to see get the mobile gaming treatment? Let us know below!
ORIGINAL STORY
As we’ve seen many times over the last several years, gaming companies, especially leading consoles and content publishers, are working hard to develop their libraries so that they can put out as many games on as many systems as possible. Or put their best titles on their systems exclusively to bring people into the fold. While SEGA isn’t a console maker anymore, they are still cranking out software at an impressive rate, and they’ve been making acquisitions too that can help them in the future. For example, you might recall that they bought the mobile gaming giant Rovio, which has gotten some higher-ups to think big with their franchises.
Specifically, co-COO Shuji Utsumi noted during a show appearance, as reported by Mobilegamer.biz, that SEGA is looking to push their franchises more into the mobile space:
“Mobile is a massive platform for us,” Utsumi noted at the show. “By combining together with Rovio, Sega is now able to pave the way for global mobile game audiences. Currently, Sega and Rovio have been working on new mobile game projects based on our own IP… but Sonic is not the only IP to benefit from the mobile platform expansion. It will be a potential strong tailwind for other key Sega IP such as Yakuza and Persona.”
That last part of his statement is important because SEGA has been pushing those two franchises quite a bit in recent years. The newly named Like A Dragon franchise has seen multiple entries come out, with more arriving in 2024. Then, with Persona, they just released a tactics-based title recently and will have a remake of the third entry coming out next year. Plus, we hope the 6th entry is in the works.
When SEGA acquired Rovio, they noted that they wanted the knowledge and experience of the team to help them with their library, and now we know what they mean.
The question will be how well their IPs translate into the mobile space. Don’t forget that while the mobile gaming industry is packed with titles, and there are many legendary successes, not all of them are based on hit franchises. Nintendo found this out the hard way when titles based on Mario and certain other franchises didn’t hit the mark, and yet the Fire Emblem franchise did incredibly in the mobile space because it conformed to what mobile gamers want.
All in all, SEGA will have a hill to climb to make this work, but it could pay dividends in the end.
