Sega planning to expand IP portfolio, says Sega of America president

In a recent interview (september 21) published by leading UK trade magazine MCV, Sega of America president Simon Jeffrey, talks about their publishing plans for the future. Since the disaster that is most commonly known as “The Apocalypse” (i.e. the fall of the mighty Dreamcast), Sega has re-focused from making their own hardware to specialize in software instead. The last years have also seen the company starting to publish a lot of games instead of just making their own.

Acquisitions such as as the 2005 purchase of UK-based Creative Assembly along with powerful IP’s such as the Total War series have helped the company penetrate markets who would otherwise fall outside their target group. In this particular interview, Jeffrey talks about how the company “is not satisfied”, and are “still on the lookout” for potentional buyouts of US and UK based studios to further the company’s aim to reach into new markets.

All this while another japanese giant, Square Enix, also talks about their ambition to get a breakthrough in the west. This is important to point out because it shows the power of the games industry is now slowly, bur surely, shifting from Japan to the US and Europe. While the japanese gaming industry is declining, the US market has gone up, up and beyond and is now by far the single most important video games market in the world. It’s therefore only natural that publishers like Sega and Square Enix, who develops games to cater mainly to the japanese market, is now on the lookout for new acquisitions or partnering deals with western developers in order to not miss out too much.

It’s going to be interesting to see if Sega will announce any new buyouts in the close future. With upcoming titles like Nights, Mario & Sonic, new Sonic games among others, the japanese market is all secured. But will these games also be enough to satisfy more FPS-oriented regions like the US?