Shuji Utsumi – The New President Of SEGA

 

Shuji Utsumi – The New President Of SEGA

In 2003, SEGA was in a rough and dire situation, with the financial failure of the SEGA Saturn and Dreamcast, SEGA backed out of the console market in 2001, deciding to become a third party company and develop titles for competing console platforms, like Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony. SEGA, despite it’s sacrifice, was still close to going bankrupt, it wouldn’t be until Sammy Corp. an Arcade company that made games and gambling machines, to merge into SEGA Sammy in 2004 would it help the company preform steadily enough to continue. Now, this merger had several effects. SEGA managed to enter new markets, several Sammy employees would join SEGA, including a certain Sonic Team member, and would become a partnership that kept SEGA afloat for many years, however, time shows some interesting stuff, and the effects of the merger to SEGA’s core purpose, of making video games, have become more and more apparent.

Sammy changed the approach of how SEGA would develop games. More experimental titles were left to fizzle out, with only a handful of IP being used to make profit, and for Sonic, only really valued it for the character rather than the games or even media surrounded it. Moon Channel made a great video focusing on this, called “Why Isn’t SEGA Overprotective of it’s IP” and I’d suggest you watch it, it goes into some great topics and overall just a good listen. It hasn’t been until lately that Sammy’s influence has been altered, and the 2020’s have shown a spark of that old SEGA many came to love, might have returned to a position of power. This can be seen with the recent announcements from SEGA about not just their game lineup but also their structure.

The restructure game as of the day I’m writing this. You see, SEGA had two halves, one being SEGA Corp with delt with Video Games and Amusement Machines, and SEGA Toys with delt with the development, manufacturing and sale of toys. This restructure merges the Amusement Business and Toys together in a new corporation called SEGA FAVE, and SEGA will now focus entirely to video games, with a push for multi-platform and simultaneous global release of titles for SEGA’s major 3 IP, Sonic, Persona and Like A Dragon.

Now, why am I telling you all this, because it’s important. Because all of this has happened with the appointment of the brand new CEO of SEGA Of America and Europe, and new President of SEGA, Shuji Utsumi. Now, who is this guy? Well, I’m here to explain. Because with his new promotion, I think the future of SEGA is going to be a lot more, interesting.

Shuji Utsumi began his career in the games industry with Sony as a manager from 1986 – 1993, this role however changed with the establishment of Sony Computer Entertainment America, as for 3 years, helped launch the Sony PlayStation. Yes, the PlayStation, in this role he build third party relations, and was behind the idea to bundle Ridge Racer with the PS1 at launch, and also signed the global deal for Crash Bandicoot on PS1. He then left Sony to work at Disney Asia, in the years of 2000 – 2004. During this time, he found out about the early development of Square Enix’s Kingdom Hearts, and got Disney to be persuaded to green light the project despite not doing so even when the gamer was In development, to the point he became producer on Disney’s side. During his time at Disney Asia, he also made licensing deals with Square Enix, Konami, Capcom and even Nintendo. In 2004, he would leave, and from 2004 – 2019, would work for other companies like Q entertainment, Warner Music Japan and more. In May 2019, would join SEGA Sammy Holdings as Senior Executive Officer in charge of Live Entertainment and Open Innovation, this would also see him come back to SEGA officially, in April 2020 as Chief Strategy Officer and the GM of Asia and Japan Studios. He'd be promoted to CO-COO and in April 2023, would get a extra role as President Of Global Consumer Game and Transmedia, and as of 9^th January 2024m, with the recent restructure I mentioned before, Shuji Utsumi is soon to be CEO of SEGA of America and Europe, and President Of SEGA.

During his time at SEGA since 2020, he’s had major goals, mainly in the use of SEGA’s IP. Let’s break the ice, he’s one of the major heads behind SEGA’s Super Game project, with him doing a interview about it as recently as last year on the official SEGA Japan website. The project plan was made as early as 2019, around the time he joined SEGA, and it’s clear that he has a clear idea what he wants, he states “"Super Game" is defined as the development of AAA (Triple A) ranked titles developed by Sega that aim to become a huge worldwide hit in an online format.”, in basic terms, SEGA’s Super Game plan is the development of several games that can attach themselves to players in a online format. It’s his push to get SEGA to be hooked by players who wouldn’t traditionally play SEGA, and with the amount SEGA is providing these projects, I genuinely hope for these to pan out well, as it would be a huge win for the company.

Another area that Utsumi is working on is revivals of legacy IP. As I said, SEGA has been reliant on the same few IP to stay afloat, however in recent years, SEGA have been dabbling in their older IP, Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania released in 2021, Soul Hackers 2 in 2022, and Samba De Amigo: Party Central in 2023. Of course, I can’t bring up dead IP returning without mentioning the 5 game bomb-shell at The Game Awards 2023. During the days leading up to The Game Awards 2023, streamers were sent letters by SEGA about a Power Surge and to tune in for an announcement. On the night, SEGA revealed the return of five legacy IP being given new entries. Jet Set Radio, Streets Of Rage, Shinobi, Golden Axe and Crazy Taxi. These were new entries, with later details revealing that Jet Set Radio was going open world and being worked on by the original developers, and Streets Of Rage being called Streets Of Rage Revolution.

This, of course, was one of Utsumi’s plans for SEGA. In a interview with Gene Park for the Washington Post, Utsumi felt that SEGA’s recent successes with Sonic, Persona and Like A Dragon has allowed the company to begin branching out and returning to developing games from IP that back in the day, would have been forgotten or given cult status. “The concept of games like ‘Jet Set Radio’ is advanced. The original creators are involved again, and its time is now,” he said. “It’s a good time where people can appreciate all kinds of concepts.”

It shows his embrace of the side of SEGA that made the company so beloved in the first place. During the period of the announcement, SEGA also trademarked several IP that haven’t seen games in a long time, and while some where IP recently revived, some are still absent as of right now, including Alex Kidd, After Burner, Altered Beast, Eternal Champions, House Of The Dead, Kid Chameleon, and Outrun. While Alex Kidd and House Of The Dead have been revived, they were IP that were outsourced and not published, however, these recent trademarks could single SEGA taking at the very least a publishing approach to their older IP.

Some other things he’s done at SEGA is help with the recent acquisition of Rovio, was an executive producer for Sonic The Hedgehog 2 in 2022, was the person who said that SEGA wasn’t interested in being sold to anyone, talked about how the blockchain is unknown to SEGA and are taking a watch and see approach, as they want to protect the integrity of their IP.

Now, personally I’ve read into his history in the industry and I am impressed, it’s clear the guy has the right idea on where SEGA’s future lies, and that is it’s IP. He has a respect for SEGA’s weirder concepts, and that I believe is instrumental to what I believe is Utsumi’s “Master Plan”.

I believe Utsumi is focusing so much on SEGA’s IP due to the possibility of growth on a plentiful scale. In a SEGA Report in 2022, Utsumi described SEGA as a treasure island of IP. Now, the term treasure island means buried treasure, like gold. He believes that SEGA has a legacy of Ip that if tapped into, can lead to immense success and riches for the company. SEGA’s recent revivals were said to be the beginning of a initiative to tap into that legacy. With all this said, I believe that Utsumi’s goal is to build up not only the active franchises they have been supporting, but also to bring back their older IP to help bolster the company’s portfolio and set those franchises up for a multimedia push. Utsumi has even teased this, saying in interviews that he’s keen in the idea of a Persona and Like A Dragon movie similar to Sonic. We’ve even seen this before as SEGA announced a few years ago that Space Channel 5 and Comix Zone were getting film adaptations.

Sonic has several pillars. Games, Shows, Movies, Merch, Comics, and Toys. These different avenues of growth has allowed the series to obtain a high value that SEGA can take advantage of with other partners, like Netflix, Paramount and more. Now, imagine that level of value but applied to SEGA’s other franchises, and that I believe is Utsumi’s goal, to increase the value of SEGA’s core and legacy IP to help grow the company. I also believe that SEGA’s recent revivals are the first steps to getting those franchises value up, leading to future avenues of growth, with either merch, apps, shows or movies.

If you’re a fan of SEGA, it’s legacy and future, the appointment of Shuji Utsumi as SEGA President should be something worth interest. It’s clear he has a vison for the company, and this vision’s key criteria is the preservation and growth of IP that we all love, but some of us have never had the chance to support. However, this isn’t the only think worth paying attention too. I do hope he can work with the recently formed SEGA Of America Union and provide SOA workers with a better standard in the company. Also, as SOE CEO, I hope he can support Creative Assembly in the future so that the cancellation of Hyenas and most importantly, the layoffs in the team are not repeated, or if done again, is as small as humanly as possible.

I wish Utsumi luck in his new position, and I hope he can prioritize the success of SEGA’s core and legacy IP into the future, and the safety and stability of workers in SOE and SOA.

Thank You For Reading.