Sega president and COO Shuji Utsumi says the corporate has skilled an uptick in followers who don’t really play the video games it develops and publishes.
In a September 7 interview with Nikkei Gaming, Utsumi mentioned the corporate’s present “transmedia” technique, which has seen a few of its greatest franchises — comparable to Sonic the Hedgehog, Persona, Yakuza, and many others. — cross over into the worlds of movie and tv to develop their manufacturers throughout a number of completely different mediums.
This, after all, has led to an increase in followers of those video games who have not really performed them. Utsumi confirmed this sentiment to Nikkei Gaming’s editor-in-chief, Aya Hirano, after she broached the subject by saying, “Currently, there’s been a rise in followers who like an IP though they’ve by no means performed the sport.”
“We have seen a rise in such followers for each title in recent times,” Utsumi answered. “For instance, the Yakuza collection has been doing exceptionally nicely in merchandising, with 60-70% of its patrons being girls. They’ve change into followers of the Yakuza world, story, and characters after watching our YouTube channel and well-liked YouTubers’ streams. And amongst them are many individuals who’ve by no means really performed the sport.”
Utsumi isn’t calling these followers LARPers, although; as an alternative, he says that Sega considers all of its followers to be players, no matter whether or not they’ve picked up a controller to really play their video games or not.
“Even individuals who have by no means performed video games are thought of followers and players by us. Transmedia’s energy lies in rising the entry factors and call factors for folks to change into considering IP. In some circumstances, their engagement is even larger than that of followers who really play the video games,” he added.
Utsumi went on to clarify that the rise of feminine followers throughout the gaming area has created a shift within the sorts of merchandise that publishers produce, particularly calling again to his expertise working at Cybird, a developer well-known for its Otome romance video games.
“I additionally labored on romance video games for ladies at Cybird. There, along with conventional collectible items comparable to can badges and acrylic stands, we noticed a big shift in merchandising, with the emergence of lifestyle-oriented licensed merchandise like attire and cosmetics that may very well be used each day, in addition to limited-edition and commemorative items created in collaboration with amusement services. That have positively broadened my perspective, and I imagine it has been invaluable in my transmedia technique at Sega,” he mentioned.
Sega’s “transmedia” technique is clearly understanding for it, with all three live-action Sonic motion pictures making financial institution on the field workplace and a fourth to return — to not point out the upcoming Persona collection that’s within the works at Netflix. Whether or not or not these tasks’ recognition interprets to extra gamers appears moot to Sega, although. To them, each fan is a “gamer” at coronary heart.