Naoya Tsurumi talks SEGA’s failures and future


He had a lot to say, so I will recap it in small points for easy digestion.

  • He is disapointed with sales of Mario & Sonic at the Vacouver Winter Games. It shipped 6.53 million units world wide, they expected to sell 7 million. North American sales are to blame.
  • Says bigger budget games are expanding in the West. “We won’t be focusing just on this market, but we are developing this type of title,” said Tsurumi. “Vanquish, being developed with Shinji Mikami, is a title that targets the North American and European market trend.”
  • Said Bayonetta (1.35 million units) and Resonance of Fate sold well.
  • In Japan, he says Yakuza 4 (560,000 units) had strong sales. Also said Phantasy Star Portable 2 and Hatsune Miku: Project Diva had strong sales.
  • Naoya Tsurumi believes 3-D is the future. “I believe 3D will become a big wave. The Nintendo 3DS is a landmark hardware. We’d like to invest heavily in it.” Will also support 3-D in home consoles.
  • SEGA is also planning to ship 12 to 17 new titles this year, this includes new IPs. This last year they shipped 19 titles.
  • Vanquish coming out world wide this Winter.
  • SEGA working on a license game for the manga Keion and other music games like Project Diva.
  • When asked about a Mario & Sonic game for London olympics, he laughed and said “No comment on that,”
  • He said downloadable games will have a huge push. This includes re-released older games and games made from scratch.
  • No fear, SEGA’s strength will be the retail and not downloadable titles. “Just so there’s no mistake, our core is in package games. This is an area that’s packed with high-end technology and knowhow. We cannot lose that strength. I don’t believe we can do away with that and focus on titles with simple technology.”

[Source: AndriaSang]

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3 responses to “Naoya Tsurumi talks SEGA’s failures and future

  1. Centrale says:

    Uh… isn't the title a bit misleading/pessimistic? The only "failure" in the above list is M&S coming up just shy of their projections. Aside from that I see five titles that sold well.

  2. George says:

    Well, not even a failure tbh, but needed something else outside of 'future'.

  3. SkyeIzumi says:

    Sonic and Mario at the olymics is a game o forget in my view.

    Sega and Nintendo argue on how to make a platforming plot game for Sonic and Mario and can’t agree on what to do.

    Very simple actuallu. Look at Sonic Adventure 1. That had Six different gaming style all based on the Characters strenghts.

    Sonic: focused on Speed.
    Tails: Beating Sonic by making full use of his flight ability.
    Knuckles: Was treasure hunting.
    Amy: Like Sonic stages just much slower.
    E-102 Gamma: Blowing everything up on screen.
    Big: Hmm. Fishing.

    Sonic Adventure 1 had six different gaming styles which for me makes it the best 3D Sonic game.

    If you make a Sonic and Mario game like that.

    Sonic side: Focusing on speed and some platforming.
    Mario side: Focusing on heavier platforming.

    Some may agree other will disagree. To make a game good or epic Sonic and Mario game. I think it needs to be something like Sonic Adventure. Two gaming style that work for each character. Sadly I doubt this will ever happen. But if it does, this is my thought on it.

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