Eurogamer has had the chance to chat with SEGA president Shuji Utsumi and took the opportunity to discuss all aspects of the company’s successful business. SEGA has been on a bit of a resurgence lately with the well-received Sonic x Shadow Generations, the popular Sonic the Hedgehog movies, the brilliant Metaphor and the various Yakuza franchises. Talking about SEGA’s role in today’s gaming industry, Mr. Utsumi said that SEGA has set out to invent rock and roll with its slew of comeback titles that have been announced and Nintendo has continued to create pop music – popular music, which he describes as good music. Here’s his thoughts:
Sonic’s made a comeback in both games and now with the movies, which is symbolic of Sega’s resurgence. But you’re reinvesting in some of the classic Sega IPs as well, Jet Set Radio, Crazy Taxi…
Utsumi: We made that announcement at the Game Awards [2023]… With the first round [of announcements] I was basically focusing on trying to revive Sonic, Yakuza, and Persona. Three IPs that can be even stronger. And to make Sega more like Sega… Sega has so many great IPs and they’ve aged very well, and they could appeal to the market again.
Some have been dormant for so long.
Utsumi: Sega somehow invented – if you compare the game business to music business – Sega’s role was to invent rock & roll, compared to Nintendo. Nintendo’s like pop music, good music, jazz…
“We’re trying to revive it with a little bit of the flavour of hip-hop now”
But then Sega comes along and is like Led Zeppelin?
Utsumi: Exactly. Pink Floyd, Abba, and Queen!
Sega always had a fun edge.
Utsumi: Sega had that kind of style [back then]. Sega’s position was like, ‘If you have attitude, Sega’s the company for you, rather than Nintendo’, because of the games, because of the style, because of coolness or the kind of attitude. We have such beautiful content value in Sega, and some other IPs, so we’re trying to revive it with a little bit of the flavour of hip-hop now.
Looks like the full quote was “Nintendo’s like pop music, good music, jazz…”
I’m now offended that they don’t consider rock as “good music”.
Oh gosh, hip hop no :/
Rock on! 🎸🤘
Sega:
i love rock n’roll…
Is that why Nintendo still have their own consoles? Sega are weirdly obsessed with Nintendo.
To be honest Nintendo is more like heavy metal…
I’d dare say that Nintendo is more Queen than sega wishes to be, Nintendo is always reinvesting themselves.
Sega is more like the emo bands from the noughties and not in a good way…
Hi ice, lol.
I think the Queen comparison is more suited to Nintendo, like Ninty Queen tackled lots of styles.
Nintendo is far from Heavy Metal, they’re too tame
The Mario Kart franchise is the definition of the heavy metal spirit, it’s like you’re in a mosh pit.
the sonic series is edgy just to make its characters look cool.
Shigeru Miyamoto, the true rock star of video games.
what about the f-zero x soundtrack?
That’s the heaviest of Ninty’s soundtracks, while you are at it let’s mention the DK: tropical freeze soundtrack too, the snowmads songs are amazing and it’s curious why the GOAT David Wise went with heavy metal for the boss songs 😋, let’s not forget the “rock meteo” from star fox adventures and the kickass final boss song from yoshi’s island.
My bad, you are right!
They are not heavy metal…they are symphonic metal!!!!
More like deathcore but yes.
You know what Sega?
The main difference between you pink floyd, abba and queen is that they aren’t seen as a joke and weren’t mismanaged during their hey days.
Also this interview shows how sega only cares about the looks and not the whole content, sonic may look cool but most of his games are not fun and remember how “pop music” Nintendo kept Sonic relevant with super smash bros. Brawl during the franchise’s dark era, as much as i dislike most of Nintendo’s choices they have different flavors instead of vanilla sega.
Not a bad take tbh. I know pop music is like an ick but it makes money lol
Jazz which they mentioned is more apt for Nintendo imo. They improvise and do their own thing without actively trying to seem impressive – but if you sit down and really take in their art you realize what a masterpiece they’ve created
Mega Man: Can you not take wverything from me FOR FIVE MINUTES?!
So then, microsoft is country music
=p
Microsoft music is no music
Can’t reinvent something that already exists and is still around .. sega isn’t reinventing rock … And def isn’t hip hop…
Does something need to become irrelevant before someone can innovate on it?
Blah harasses devs over his character wars, the successor to the console wars because he’s jealous of Rosalina
I guess Capcom’s role is to reinvent that one song from Tom & Jerry: The Movie (you know the one).