Sega’s had its ups-and-downs with console games in recent years, but there’s no denying the company has been performing well on mobile devices. The result seems to be Sega’s focusing even more resources on the fast-growing mobile market and reducing its efforts on the console front. It’s even possible the company could exit the console market altogether at some future point, which says something about the overall direction of the industry when such an iconic console game company is shifting strongly towards mobile.
According to GamesIndustry International, Sega has already announced ten mobile game launches for the first half of 2015 alone, and has benefited from big-time sales of mobile-based titles in Japan, including hit games like Chain Chronicle and Puyo Puyo Quest, both of which have earned over 500 million yen ($4.1 million) each.
Out of the mobile games it released last year, only a handful came across as “failures”, earning less than 30 million yen a month. That isn’t stopping the company’s Japanese division from cleaning up on cash, though, with the remaining 13 games making an estimated $15 million in profit on a monthly basis. That adds up to $180 million for the year.
The company has 20 games in development in all, including five internal titles, 10 co-partnered by studios within Sega Networks, and five co-developed and published with third-parties. And, as you might guess, most of them are set to release on mobile. Sega has been working hard to bolster its mobile team line-up, acquiring the likes of Space Ape and Demiruge Studios, among other smaller teams.
Sonic the Hedgehog may not be flourishing on consoles, but on mobile, he’s a hit, as Sonic Dash has surpassed nearly 100 million downloads worldwide. That’s a far greater success than the Sonic Boom titles, and the biggest hit for the hedgehog to date – which could indicate that future releases will, again, be only released for mobile.
The company hasn’t officially abandoned the console front yet, as it’s planning to release Tembo the Badass Elephant, a side-scrolling platform developed by Pokemon creators Game Freak, sometime this spring. However, it’s probably likely that its releases for consoles will dwindle down in favor of more affordable mobile fare – if not altogether.
It’s interesting to contemplate Sega’s journey from top console game manufacturer, competing head to head with Nintendo, to exiting the hardware business altogether in favor of focusing purely on software — and now shifting from console games to mobile games. With Nintendo’s announcement that it will now be developing mobile games, one wonders if the same evolution may lie in Nintendo’s future as well.
