
Plucky Japanese publisher SEGA has had quite a tumultuous journey over the 64 years since the company was founded. From early coin-operated machines to its own tilt at the console market, these days, the firm is a publisher of games, and it's been putting out some real bangers of late.
As noted in a thread on ResetEra, if you look at the number of games published by SEGA on consoles in 2024 alone, it's hard not to be impressed. We got Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, then Persona 3 Reload, Unicorn Overlord, and SMT V: Vengeance, all of which were well-received by fans and critics. The imminent Metaphor: ReFantazio is looking like a clear Game of the Year contender and another landmark RPG from Atlus. A sign of its enduring identity, Sonic X Shadow Generations is still to come, which fans seem excited about. The outrageous Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza is on the horizon, too.
We just learned that a sequel to Alien: Isolation is in the early stages of development at Creative Assembly, best known for its long-running Total War series of PC grand strategy games. No one is a harsher critic of that particular studio than this humble scribe, but (as a side note) it must be said that CA has done an outstanding job revitalising the initially underbaked Total War: Warhammer 3 and Total War: Pharaoh Dynasties this year, seemingly finding major success in the process.
How do you feel about SEGA these days? Are you a fan of the publisher's many diverse IPs? Proclaim yourself a modern, born-again SEGA kid in the comments section below.
[source resetera.com]
Comments 43
Atlus carrying them with three fantastic releases. Looking forward to Sonic though mainly for the Shadow stuff as i love Shadow.
Sega have aome awsome IPs. Its when they try and maks a Sonic game that things usually go wrong.
For a second I thought this was a soapbox. But either way Khayl is absolutely right on the money. Can’t wait for shadow.
Finally seeing an Alien Isolation sequel in development is fantastic news! I just hope it's a direct continuation of the first game.
@Kidfunkadelic83 you seen the trailer for the “Sega 5”? Lots of stuff there look pretty cool! I was super into streets of rage and golden axe back when they were new.
I gotta catch up so bad, I've only played SMTV V and that's a re release of a game I had already played 😭
My first console was the Sega Genesis so I've been a fanboy for a while. Phantasy Star was my first RPG series and Shining Force was my first strategy game. Currently really into the Yakuza and Persona games. Go Sega!
Wow same here with shining force and genesis. @Dragonaged
@Kidfunkadelic83 lol, exactly what I was going to say.
My fondest memories of SEGA games are all in the racing genre. They did some really amazing stuff back in the day. I’m sure the developers who actually worked on them have moved on, but I’d still be interested if Daytona, SEGA Rally, or Virtua Racing were revived in addition to Crazy Taxi.
Just got the email about 10 years of Alien Isolation and a sequel it's a about dam time. I couldn't believe because it got a stupid score of 7/10 from IGN and not very good sales at the time it wasn't worth a sequel. But then word of mouth and it blew up to be one of the best horror Alien games ever I mean they nailed the atmosphere and world the ship and Alien AI to a T.
I've never crapped myself constantly in a game before like A.I especially on higher difficulty, I felt like one of the crew in the movie Alien
Id love to see Viruta Racing and Daytona but licenses would be far to much now in today's world with F1 being like it is and NASCAR
@Nakatomi_Uk IGN actually scored it 5.9.
@Yousef- yeah man. Some stuff to get exited about there for sure. Its Sonic that always seems to go wrong tho. Im not a lover of sonic tbh in general. I just find the pace too fast until you hit and enemy or a wall for my taste and old man reactions. It just seems alot of Sonic games get fried by the old school fans. Colours for instance.
Great to see Sega and Capcom firing on all cylinders 🙂 such gaming gods for sure. That said, I rolled on the floor laughing when I saw IGN’s announcement for Alien Isolation sequel. Their review of the original game is surely one of the most embarrasing mistakes in the history of game reviews.
@Kidfunkadelic83 I’m definitely not about to defend modern sonic any time soon. Colours barely qualified as a tech demo. Last sonic game I’d call a masterpiece was 3&K. Everything after was too all over the place, even if some I liked.
Even if I occasionally enjoy it, It’s definitely not a serious I’d die to recommend others. Kinda shocking how such a mainstream franchise is more suited for an acquired taste.
As a SEGA girl at heart, this article makes me giggle. They have been one of the best publishers for years and I can’t wait for those “Sega 5” games!
p.s. I was looking at the best games of 2024 by metascore just to get ideas for goty predictions and I must say that Sony also very silently had a killer year, Concord embarrassment aside: they published a trio of quality, diverse offering with Stellar, Helldivers II and Astro, while the last of us remakes and Horizon FW complete were really well reviewed.
Sure they're one of the best publisher for this year. Although, i would give more credit towards Vanillaware and Atlus since they're the ones who made Sega lineup looks a lot more colorful with Unicorn Overlord, Persona, SMT, and Metaphor. Without these games, Sega lineup are just Yakuza IW and Sonic x Shadow.
I'm waiting what Sega can do with their own classic IP. They showed that trailer for new Shinobi, Jet Set Radio, Crazy Taxi, Streets of Rage, and Golden Axe. But so far there's no new updates about those games which makes me worried.
Also, i would love for a new Virtua Fighter. It's just weird how Sega remastered VF 5 and it got 8 million downloads or something. But there's no follow up after that?
Meanwhile Capcom, SNK, ArcSys, and Bamco are thriving with their fighting games.
@PuppetMaster fellow VF geek here, I played a bit of FS on my Xbox. Stopped because was too heartbroken there’s no new game. 😭
On a silly note though, finding Vanilla SFIV matches in 2023 made me think I’d have some luck in VF5, suffice to say I was back empty handed.
I'm a long a long time Sega fan and whilst their output is a bit different these days, they've still put out some of my favourite games of recent years. Whether that be Sonic Frontiers, the Like A Dragon games and Infinite Wealth still being my favourite game so far this year.
Fingers crossed their revivals turn out well and I'd love to see the return of the Virtua Fighter series and their arcade racing games
Dreamcast is still my favourite console of all time
unpopular opinion i guess but sonic is still mediocre imo , i played generations enough already and wish they’d make an adventure 3 or a new sonic heroes . im so tired of boosting
My first ever console was the Sega Master System, with Alex Kidd as the pack-in game. Due to this, I'll always have a soft spot for Sega.
It's good to see them doing well. Hopefully Persona 6 will be announced soon.
Bring back Condemned, please.
@Yousef- You can try Ultimate Showdown on PS4/5. There's still people playing the game but don't expect you will get a quick matchmaking.
I also heard lately there's plenty of people playing VF 3tb on fightcade.
But yeah, i think you will found more people playing SF IV than VF 5. Outside Tekken, i think most 3D fighters are dead or barely alive which is sad. We used to get Soul Calibur, DOA, Bloody Roar, VF, Toshinden etc etc. But now it's just Tekken...
My first exposure to gaming as a kid came from Sega Genesis so I naturally have a soft spot for them. For a while though I wasn't as into them as I should have been for the PS2/PS3 generations.
Then along came 2017 and I haven't gone a year without buying a Sega published game since. Persona 5 was the catalyst. I hadn't been into JRPGS in a while until I played that and went on to play the rest of the series.
Then I finally gave Yakuza a shot with Yakuza 0 and went back and played all of those and loved every minute of it.
Then I decided to play Valkyria Chronicles for the first time and fell in love with that series. Then I also figured it had been a while since I'd tried a Sonic game and tried Frontiers and ended up having a blast with it...
So yeah Sega has been absolutely crushing it lately. They really have become probably the most important publisher around for me.
How haven't Sega made a 2d metroidvania sonic game yet? It's a very popular genre right now and Sonic potentially fits it like a glove. Put more of the emphasis on platforming and exploration and even a semi-competent game can be a banger for them.
Still waiting on a good 3D Sonic game. Until then, I’m more than happy to play nearly perfect 2D gems like Sonic Mania. Perhaps one day we will actually get a good 3D Sonic after all.
It's atlus and vanillaware that make this gen interesting compared to western AAA slop, I know vanillaware usually don't make sequel, but I hope they make dragon crown 2 this gen
I grew up with sega.with sega genesis.im happy in 2024 sega is doing really good.segggggaaaaaaa.haha word up son
Now name another console
Good for Sega, they have always had their ups and downs but I’ll always be a fan of em.
Yeah, people always treat Sega like it's just the Sonic factory but really they're been putting out great product really consistently for years now.
I don't know exactly when it began, when they really found their feet again after the Dreamcast, but they've been killing it for a decade at least. We're long past the days where they were just making terrible Marvel tie-in games.
At least, so long as your view of Sega goes beyond a bunch of bad Sonic games. And even then, they're kinda sorta figuring that out? The last, what, four have at least been interesting and not complete train wrecks?
@Tevor It changed when they acquired Atlus honestly 😅 It's been since around 2017 (which saw the launch of Persona 5 in the west and was when Yakuza really kicked off again with Yakuza 0/Kiwami 1 after years of abandonment in the west due to the failure of Yakuza Dead Souls on PS3)
It's also basically been PlayStation and the community for Yakuza/Persona that's been carrying them the whole time (both of which were long running PlayStation Exclusives till like 2/3 years ago)
@DennisReynolds not only Atlus. RGG are doing a great job too with Like A Dragon/ Yakuza
I love SEGA, they're releasing great games and with shorter development cycles. For example Like A Dragon/ Yakuza. We now at a point that we get almost a new game every year or so from spin-offs to shorter titles to big AAA ones like Infinite Wealth. Yes they use the same assets again and again but I don't know it just feels new and fresh every time.
This should be good example for other devs of how to shorten development cycle and costs while still deliver great experiences for gamers.
If they were still in the console business, they'd have had the best (and most) first party exclusives this year for sure!
The Japanese love an unwieldy title featuring a colon don't they. I'd be far more inclined to even bother checking any of these games out if they weren't 'All named: So annoyingly'. There is nothing in the word-soup title of Metaphor: ReFantazio that would pique my interest in playing it.
I'm surprised PS staff didn't post the news about Shinobi live action movie by Universal Pict.
https://www.gematsu.com/2024/10/universal-pictures-and-sega-announce-shinobi-movie
But what have SEGA done themselves? They have more IP than you can shake a stick at and this year we get a remaster of a good 3D sonic game (the only one except unleashed I genuinely like) and Yakuza almost a year apart. I'm not a fan of Persona after playing 5, to much of a text dump fest and half the time I wondered why it isn't just a visual novel but these and Unicorn are other Studios games that has the SEGA name attached. I'm really hoping those games they are developing are actually good because this is the company that made in one way or another Streets of Rage, Comic Zone, Shinobi, Ristar, Crazy Taxi, Sega Rally, Virtual Fighter, Fighting Vipers, The House of the Dead, Daytona, Sonic, Golden Axe, ECCO and way more. Man I miss old Sega 😭
@MrRhysReviews I'm a huge Atlus fan but I think that downplays what else they do. Even Yakuza, while not big in the west until Zero, was still almost to part six by that point. It still counts as making good games if Americans don't care.
And there's just this bizarre erasure of their entire European division. Alien Isolation was 2014. But we're talking about everything Creative Assembly has done since 2005, Amplitude Studios since 2016 and from 2013 to 2024 Relic Entertainment as well.
Total War or the Endless universe games may not scream "Sega" to certain people, but they are hugely popular, high quality games that sell extremely well.
And Football Manager is a whole world unto itself, killing it to this day. 2024 has over 7-million users.
Plus they kind of have the right idea of it with all sorts of old IP. Whether it's all their cheap, accessible, improved legacy ports of classic games by M2, or their willingness to just let independent studios take cracks at dormant IP like Wonder Boy, Street of Rage, etc, resulting in multiple bangers, or even misses like the Panzer Dragoon remakes. But at least they let people try.
PSO2 has been quietly killing it since like 2012 and was still popular enough that they did a whole 2.0 in 2021 completely reinventing it. AND keeping the original running.
AND THEN (lol, I'm passionate about this, sorry ) when people bug them about bringing back old IPs that were never huge financial successes? Completely ignoring their new initiative of bringing back IPs, which is a different thing, they made sequels to cult, but under preforming, franchises with Shenmue, Valkyria Chronicles AND, of all things, a new Sakura Wars. I think all of these under preformed, kind of as expected, but they did it. And two of them kind of rule.
I dunno. I could go on, I know that. But I dunno. To me? Sega's been doing great stuff for the better part of 20 years. Certianly some stumbling moments, Marvel and Sonic were low points. But mostly it's been great.
I didn't even mention Bayonetta or their other Platinum publishing partnership games. There's a ton of great stuff there.
@Tevor To be fair, with the emphasis on (in the headline pic) Atlus and Yakuza specifically that was all that came to mind in the moment, plus it's those franchises that have been doing the lifting for them lately (plus Sonic of course)
I was there for everything you mentioned too and loved it all, Sega has always been one of my favourite Devs/Pubs in the industry in general 👌
Sega have commented recently that they have no intention of leaving older consoles such as Switch and PS4 behind unless technically impossible.
SEGA absolutely killing it. I'm happy that they are doing great again. I know they won Publisher of the Year once recently, I hope they win it again.
Also SEGA should finally give us Vanquish 2.
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