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SEGA's reputation as a game publisher has been all but completely tarnished over the past ten or so years, thanks to a slew of lacklustre Sonic the Hedgehog sequels and an astoundingly poor job at importing Japanese hits to the Western market. The company seems to be trying to turn things around, though.

In an interview with Famitsu, which was translated by Siliconera, SEGA CEO Haruki Satomi said that his company is going to be putting much more of an emphasis on quality from now on, and that it learned that lesson from Atlus. "As far as the Western market goes, we learned a lot from Atlus," the executive explained. "If we can make a title with proper quality, I believe that there's a good chance for it to do well even in the West for players that like to play Japanese games."

When Famitsu asked what the publisher would be focusing on when it comes to home consoles, Satomi went back to the point of quality, saying: "I've been talking to the employees about how we should start putting serious consideration into quality from this point on - especially in North America and Europe, where it's always been more of a focus on schedules. I believe that if we can't maintain quality, it would be better to not release anything at all."

Satomi even said that he feels that some of SEGA's less impressive titles have "betrayed" longtime fans. "We did our best to build a relationship of mutual trust with older fans of SEGA, but looking back, there've been some titles that have partially betrayed that [trust] in the past ten years."

Famitsu questioned if we could look forward to a new release sometime this year, to which Satomi said no. However, SEGA may have something to show off at September's Tokyo Game Show. "Since we're seriously considering quality, I can't make that promise for the time being, but I believe we will announce something for home console at Tokyo Game Show."

One thing is certain: this sounds like a step in the right direction. If the House of Sonic the Hedgehog wants to win back critics and consumers, well-made games are the first step. With that, we leave you with one final quote from Satomi: "SEGA in the '90s was known for its brand, but after that, we've lost trust, and we were left with nothing but reputation. For this reason, we'd like to win back the customers' trust, and become a brand once again."

Update: The original version of this article included an attribution error. Famitsu was actually talking to SEGA CEO Haruki Satomi, who provided us with the following comment: "Seeing our fans across the world respond to our recent interview with Famitsu, lets us know we've made the right first step in acknowledging who we are and where we want to be. SEGA is dedicated to bringing you quality gaming experiences and becoming a brand you love and trust again."

[source siliconera.com]