Sega president stresses ‘quality’ is key to brand future

The Sega brand has went off the radar in recent years, and the company's very own President, Hajime Sato, has suggested that gaming 'quality' might have been the issue.

Sega is a Japanese company well known for giving the world the popular Sonic the Hedgehog franchise back in 1991, subsequently creating a demand across the West for more Japanese video games. However, recently Sega has fell away from other large American and European companies, and Mr Sato believes the company's issue is rather fundamental.

During a sit-down interview with Famitsu he said: “As far as the Western market goes, we learned a lot from Atlus. If we can make a title with proper quality, I believe there’s a good chance for it to do well even in the West for players that like to play Japanese games.”

For those that are not aware, Atlus (the company that Sato refers to) is a Sega-owned Japanese video game developer, best known for it's Megami Tensei franchise.

In addition, Sato made it clear to fans that Sega still holds aspirations for it's games moving forward, seemingly drawing comparisons with another successful Japanese gaming console.

“It may look rough if you look a it from a Japanese standpoint, but on a global scale the  PS4 has a record-selling history, so I believe there’s a good opportunity there.

“I’ve been talking to the employees about how we should start putting serious consideration into quality from this point on. Especially in North America and Europe, where it’s always been more of a focus on schedules, I believe that if we can’t maintain quality, it would be better to not release anything at all" he added.

Sato has been pretty critical of Sega's switch to mobile gaming, suggesting that console gaming is still a focus for video game developers, which is good to hear. However, while reflecting on Sega's success in recent years he seemed pretty adamant to turn things around.

“Sega in the ‘90s was known for its brand, but after that, we’ve lost trust and we were left with nothing but reputation. For this reason, we’d like to win back the customers’ trust and become a brand once again.”

So, Sega plans to return as strong as ever, which is very good to hear. The general consensus seems to be that Sonic and other franchises have so much to offer. With the right strategy they can succeed again, for sure.

There is demand, now all fans need is… supply.

[Famitsu]