Rehabilitating a SEGA Franchise

I wrote a Note last April about SEGA’s $86 million fiscal loss that year and a plan of taking complete advantage of digital distribution channels with new franchise entries made in 2D on low budgets. Fast-forward to now, and I have a more fleshed out perspective and understanding of selling something a SEGA fan or gamer in general would want at a low affordable price that reflects high quality on those low budgets.

In the same way that I study and analyze the professional wrestling business from a promoter and booker’s perspective and learned by listening to stories by the great minds of the business via shoot interviews on the internet, I took on the task of a fantasy business plan for SEGA’s dead franchises and how to make money with them today. They currently sit on a mountain of dead IPs that only see the light of day as non-stop digital re-releases on every platform available and, for their extremely low prices, they do okay. But how many times can you buy a digital copy of the Streets of Rage trilogy before you want to see something new out of it? Or Golden Axe, or Vectorman, or Toe-Jam & Earl?

It starts with re-educating the public. The vast majority of gamers today, regardless of age, do not go out of their way to specifically learn anything about SEGA. They’re not a major entity in their eyes. They’re only followed by their fans which tend to be older and are dwindling in number each year. So because they don’t know anything about the company, they don’t know anything about it’s franchises that put them on the map.

Also, the company does not have a face. There’s no single person that speaks for the company like Reggie does for Nintendo or Kaz for Sony; no one individual with a style and charisma that embodies what SEGA is about.

When you have a figurehead, the people have someone to endear themselves to. Because of this, they couldn’t even talk about their own upcoming Sonic Lost Worlds that they’re banking so heavily on, Satoru Iwata from Nintendo cut the promo FOR them.

So this is where it starts, you need a voice for the company to re-educate the public on the company’s history and these franchises we’re going to revive. TV time would be far too expensive and not see enough returns so the best route next to that is making your own videos for your YouTube page and main website and also spreading those to the gaming news outlets and sites of the platforms that will be carrying your new games.

to be continued…