Being the holiday season, one item that has always made a good gift, if you could find them, was the influx of Mini-consoles we started receiving many years ago. These consoles have ranged from the NES classic, which was a nightmare to find, to my favorite, the Commodore 64 Mini. Sega had also gotten into the Mini console market as well, releasing several versions of the Genesis mini, taking their most successful console and making it compact with a large library of games.
Unfortunately, it looks like Sega plans to stop short of the requested mini consoles of their Saturn platform, as well as the Dreamcast, with the latter being the last foray into the console market before becoming a third-party studio. There was some hope that these platforms would get mini-versions as, despite both platforms having performed poorly they left behind a lasting legacy of titles such as Panzer Dragoon Saga on the Saturn or the likes of Blue Stinger on the Dreamcast.
Sega’s America and Europe CEO Shuji Utsumi, in an interview with the Guardian, has firmly stated that Sega is currently looking towards the future rather than the past. I’m not going for the Mini direction. t’s not me. I want to embrace modern gamers,” he stated in the interview. He went on to say:
We are not a retro company. We really appreciate our legacy, we value it, but at the same time, we want to deliver something new — otherwise we’ll become history. That’s not what we’re aiming for.
Despite this, the company has placed some investment in reviving some of their older IPs with titles such as Crazy Taxi, Golden Axe, and Jet Set Radio to name only a few sets to get modern. Very little has been showcased of these titles yet, outside of the new graphics, but they are definitely ones to watch for.
Looking towards the future seems like a strong goal for Sega currently as the future looks very bright. Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth became the fastest-selling title from the long-running Yakuza franchise, and Atlus’s new IP Metaphor became one of their fastest-selling games as well. Recently Like a Dragon developer RGG Studios announced a new IP entitled Project Century.
“We’re thinking something — and discussing something — we cannot disclose right now,” Utsumi stated in an interview with the BBC, where he suggested the Sega is currently working on a streaming platform similar to Xbox Game Pass or PlayStation Plus.
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