The Sega brand is currently riding the wave of success and good press the Sonic the Hedgehog movies are bringing to the brand, as well as the steady stream of popularity and acclaim Atlus has garnered with their Shin Megami and Persona line of games. While Lost Judgement, a game developed by Sega's in-house studio Ryu Ga Gotoku (the Yakuza series), has seen, a lot has been relatively silent from Sega's own production lineup. 

In late 2021, Sega stated in an earnings report that an enigmatically named "Super Game" was in the works. It turns out that a part of that was mildly misinterpreted and the "Super Game" in question refers to "...several titles in development". In an interview translated by Video Games Chronicle with Sega's recruitment staff, Executive Vice President Shuji Itsumi spoke about their future prospects and what the "super game" means in their mission statement.

“Sega offers a wide range of game content, including hardware and arcade content, which is made possible by its diverse range of technologies", Itsumi explains. "We have defined ‘SuperGame’ as the development of AAA titles that cross over SEGA’s comprehensive range of technologies, and we will aim to achieve this in our five-year plan.”

It had been speculated that the upcoming Sonic Frontiers, Sonic's newest attempt at a vast open world-styled Sonic game, which was officially revealed after the "SuperGame" announcement. This road map apparently includes MANY games, based on their dialogue, that will be seen throughout a five year plan. Sega has a wide range of dormant intellectual properties, but little has been done with them internally, beyond Genesis/Mega Drive compilations.

(Pictured left to right: Katsuya Hisai, Shuji Utsumi, and Masayoshi Kikuchi. Image: Sega)

While earlier in 2021, Sega was one of the first game companies to speak about their enthusiasm for blockchains and NFT technologies, much to the chagrin of the population regarding this current trend of companies delving into cryptocurrencies.

"Games have a history of expanding through the connections of various cultures and technologies", speaks producer Kikuchi. For example, recently, watching SNS and game videos is typical. In the future, it is natural for the future of games to expand by involving new fields such as cloud gaming and NFT. We are also developing "Super Game" from the perspective of how far different games can be connected to each other.

Throughout the interview, there's little details about the names of projects, but it's without question that Sega is looking forward to taking advantage of new tech, such as Unreal Engine 5, and their partnership with Microsoft with integral plans for the cloud platform "Azure", the resources are their for studios to take steps forward in game development.

However, that does little to explain the dearth of first-line, premium games from the brand in the last generation. Much of their emphasis has been on mobile gaming and the live service model, lead by Phantasy Star Online 2, which still averages several thousand players. Whatever the potential of NFTs and blockchain technology brings to gaming remains to be unseen. Sega seems to be talking up something very big, but it'll be determined if that will be for fans or investors.  

SOURCES: Sega, Video Games Chronicle