Sega thinks Definitive Editions of video games potentially can hurt sales
Who delivered the best games in 2024? The question is, of course, subjective, but the closest thing to an answer we can get comes from Metacritic, which compiles lists of this every year. In March, we reported that last year's answer was Sega, which excelled with titles such as Metaphor: ReFantazio, Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance, and Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth.
That said, the games are not selling as well as one might have hoped given their critical acclaim, and in a recent Q&A for investors (via GameBiz), Sega now addresses this fact, saying that it is partly due to so-called Definitive Editions that make people wait for them rather than buy at launch (translated with Bing):
"We believe that factors such as competing titles in the same genre, launch pricing, and concerns that so-called Definitive Editions may be released later could have led some consumers to delay their purchases. Beyond this, we have not yet been able to determine a clear primary cause, but we also see challenges in marketing - for example, that the game's appeal is not being communicated clearly enough to users. We are currently analyzing this further."
Atlus games in particular have often been re-released after a few years, containing extra content. It is unknown what Sega will eventually do, but we certainly hope that they will determine how to better communicate that they have the highest-rated games on the market to offer, so we can have more of that.
