Sega's boss says reviving the company will be his "greatest achievement"

During The Game Awards 2023, Sega had a surprise that made tons of fans go wild with joy. They said they're finally getting back to making the games that made Sega the beloved company it is today.

Titles mentioned included Crazy Taxi, Golden Axe, Jet Set Radio, Shinobi, and Streets of Rage—and since then, reboots of Ecco the Dolphin and Virtua Fighter have also been added to the list. In other words, it's time for new generations to learn to love Sega, but recreating these brands for a modern audience won't be easy since it's been decades since we last saw them.

The task of taking Sega back to the top is not one that CEO Shuji Utsumi is taking lightly, and in an interview with The Game Business, he explains that the company's revival will be his "greatest achievement":

"Now I've rejoined Sega and I am working on reviving Sega... I want to say that this is going to be my greatest achievement."

Utsumi is a veteran in the gaming world. He worked at Sony on the first PlayStation and was at Sega during the Dreamcast era, and has also worked at Disney. In this interesting interview, he talks about his love for traditional consoles, where he seems a little concerned about the future:

"Since I was a member of the PlayStation launch team, I have a big attachment to the console business. And Nintendo has been playing an amazing role... Jesus, they made a great contribution to this area. I didn't expect Switch 1 to be that successful. Nobody did. But the big huge trend is PC, with its global market reach, and mobile, of course, which is getting better and better in terms of graphics.

"Sometimes you want to play in different styles. Sometimes you want to relax and play in the living room with the big screen. That's one way. Sometimes you want to kill time on some mobile games. And a PC game... it's sitting in front of a desk, doing something more serious. There are lots of ways to enjoy games, and among all those activities, I want to believe the console is going to give us very nice opportunities."

Whether Utsumi will actually succeed in making Sega a giant again based on the company's most beloved franchises remains to be seen, of course, but we can at least say that he is well on his way. During 2024, Sega was the highest-ranked publisher on Metacritic thanks to titles such as Metaphor: ReFantazio and Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth.