Alongside a flurry of game announcements, an interview with Sega president Shuji Utsumi.
So began Utsumi’s long association with Sega that continues today.
Utsumi:When I joined, Sega was more in defensive mode.
It was trying to focus more on cost-cutting, controlling the budget, sticking to the current plan.
Google was getting into the cloud gaming market, Microsoft was starting to push Game Pass.
They were trying to control costs.
I [had been] involved with smaller developers at other game companies developing romance games for female audiences.
Or hit into a double play.
Utsumi:Or hit into a double play!
You have so many enemies around you.
Why are we allocating our best developers to the arcade - the business which is declining?
Arcades, even now, technology-wise, they’re not using the best technology anymore.
Consumer hardware is more advanced, targeting the global market, with bigger budgets.
So it’s the law of diminishing returns.
It’s hard for developers to succeed in that kind of operation.
So I just closed the dedicated arcade product development group, and merged them into the consumer development group.
Since they had the Japan-centric mindset, Sega as a whole was in a similar situation.
Therefore, I decided to position Sonic, Persona, and Yakuza as three pillars to go global.
To me, Sonic is the face of Sega.
Three IPs that can be even stronger.
Some have been dormant for so long.
Nintendo’s like pop music, good music, jazz…
But then Sega comes along and is like Led Zeppelin?
Pink Floyd, Abba, and Queen!
Sega always had a fun edge.
Utsumi:Sega had that kind of style [back then].
That’s sort of what happened with Sega too.
Utsumi:In a way it’s a balance, though.
We need to understand global mega trends and the local environment.
For creative, Sega has studios in Japan and Europe.
Each studio has characteristics and unique culture.
My job is making each studio successful in business while respecting each culture.
I’m not really trying to champion Japanese management versus western management.
I was in the US too, as part of a western company, and also at Japanese companies.
That [style of management] could happen to the old Sega.
For Japanese studios, my major requirement was “go global”.
You’re not making it for a specific locale.
He’s trying various ways to make that happen.
One simple formula is having a product have a simultaneous release.
In the past we’d release it first in Japan and then prepare it for the west.
But now we say, ‘No, we’re going to release this simultaneously, globally’.
That’s a simple one.
Nobu [Matsuhisa, Japanese celebrity chef and restaurateur] is an amazingly good example.
He’s providing Japanese food but also understands a western audience.
Of course if you’re a sushi chef, sometimes it’s your call to offer a California roll.
Without it it’s possible for you to still be very authentic and digestible to a western audience.
Utsumi:Yeah, spicy tuna!
But then Sony eventually stepped in and helped localise it and released it digitally on PSN.
Since then it seems like the series made big strides.
This TGA [this year’s The Game Awards], we will show a very small teaser.
Aggressive in what way?
Utsumi:Theme and size.
Yakuza games have always felt like the right size.
Deep, lots to do, and always a satisfying amount of content, but never too intimidating.
I like knowing there’s an end.
I don’t know if I could handle a GTA-sized Yakuza.
Do you have any feelings on how the Yakuza series is doing, veering from action to RPG-style mechanics?
Utsumi:We feel the series is expanding.
We’re trying to have an action base game, and a role-playing game mix of audience.
And the [Ryu Ga Gotoku] studio is likely to take a kind of hybrid direction going forward.
And theme-wise, the studio keeps its Japanese authenticity, with global appeal.
Would you say that Yokoyama now feels empowered to do so?
Utsumi:[Yokoyama-san] looks kind of scary, but he’s really a good leader too.
He encourages young people to really participate in development.
He is also super humourous.
So I think the studio culture is getting a lot of improvement.
A lot of ideas are coming from the team.
When Nintendo puts out a mainline Mario game, it’s a big event.
One only comes out every five years or so.
There’s always a new theme, but it’s still fundamentally ‘Mario’.
It just felt like a fiscal obligation.
What are you doing to increase the quality level of Sonic games?
Utsumi:That’s a very good question.
We were trying to do something creative with Sonic Frontiers.
But the core [of the experience] is the game.
The game needs to be very good or else there is no transmedia effect.
The Sonic X Shadow Generations game is actually very good, I would say awesome, action-wise.
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is out this December.
You worked at Disney Japan, so you know about movies and tie-in games.
Utsumi:In the past we didn’t have a plan.
For the first movie, no one expected that it was going to be that successful.
At the time, there was not a connection between the movie and the game.
But now for the first time, we could make a connection between them.
Also, there’s a lot more connective intentions.
The license programs also focus on Shadow, so it’s a lot of Sonic-and-transmedia coordination taking place.
The Game Awards are about a week before the movie’s release.
Is something going to happen there?
Utsumi:I hope so.
I want to make our own story, I want to control the message.
Now Geoff’s presentation is one of the biggest opportunities, other than new platform announcements.
So I said, ‘Hey, just announcing Shinobi alone is not big news.
So we had to package it’.
Well, you certainly made a splash with those reveals.
Utsumi:I wanted to send a message saying ‘Sega is coming back’.
