The big-screen success of 1990s video game speedster “Sonic the Hedgehog” has brought new fans to Japan’s Sega, which says it is poised for a comeback after two tough decades.
This year all eyes have been on Nintendo, whose Switch 2 recently became the fastest-selling console in history.
But unlike its former arch-rival, Sega has not sold gaming hardware since its Dreamcast console was discontinued in 2001, instead focusing on making games for other platforms.
Now, as record tourism to Japan helps boost global appetite for the country’s pop culture, the company sees a chance to reinvent itself — including through nostalgic game remakes and movie adaptations like the hit “Sonic” series.
Sega opens its first flagship merchandise store in Japan on Friday, having launched a similar shop in Shanghai in May.
“Opportunities are expanding,” chief operating officer Shuji Utsumi told AFP. “We’ve been struggling… for a while, but now we are coming back.”
The company aims “to expand our business globally rather than focusing on the Japanese market”, he said.
Sega was a top industry player in the 1980s and 1990s, its name synonymous with noisy arcades, home consoles and game franchises, such as beat-em-up “Streets of Rage” and ninja series “Shinobi”.
But it struggled to keep up with intense competition, falling on hard times financially as multiplayer online titles from US publishers, such as “World of Warcraft”, took off in the 2000s.
– ‘Persona’ movie? –
After Sega quit the hardware business, its game offerings “got a little stale”, said David Cole of the US-based games market research firm DFC Intelligence.
But “the kids who grew up in the 1990s are now in their 30s, 40s, even older, and really like those franchises” — and are introducing them to their own children — he told AFP.
“It’s untapped value” that Sega — just like its Japanese peers including Nintendo — is trying to capitalise on through new movies, stores and theme park rides, Cole added.
Last year, the film “Sonic the Hedgehog 3” starring Jim Carrey as the villain zipped to the top of the North American box office in one of the best December openings in years.
It followed the first live-action “Sonic” movie in 2020, as Sega cashes in on a video-game movie craze that saw “The Super Mario Bros. Movie”, based on the Nintendo characters, become the second-highest grossing film of 2023.
“Shinobi” is also being turned into a film, while Sega’s “Yakuza” game series has been adapted for television.