How Sega Are Trying To Move Away From Their Old Identity

In a Q&A with Gamasutra, Sega West president, Mike Hayes, explains how the company is trying to avoid relying on Sega’s past identity, and instead, focus more on creating products that are relevant to the modern gaming audience.

“We see ourselves as a software company, and take pains not to play on our heritage overly, unless there’s a good nostalgic reason like a re-release of a [Sega] Genesis title or whatever,” says Hayes.

“But what we’re trying to do is make ourselves relevant for the modern gaming audience. And like any other software company, people remember the names of the games, rather than what they think of us.”

Using Sonic as an example, Hayes explains that Sega feel there are two kinds of Sonic fans — older fans that grew up playing the old games and younger fans who have different expectations of Sonic than older players. While Sonic 4 was meant to appeal to the former, Sonic Colors is an example of trying to appeal to the new audience.

From that perspective, Sonic Generations is unique, Hayes says, because it attempts to appeal to both kinds of fans. It’s an interesting Q&A that sheds a lot of light on how Sega view the role of the Sonic games in particular, in today’s market.