SEGA CEO on turning around Sonic and focusing on quality, teaming up with Mario
Posted on 6 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 0 comments
CNBC recently caught up with Haruki Satomi, the president and CEO of SEGA. There was some interesting discussion between the two sides about trying to make a turnaround with Sonic the Hedgehog after disappointing fans in the past, and wanting to focus on quality. Satomi was also asked if he believes Sonic can beat Mario – which he thinks is possible – but also pointed out how they’ve teamed up in the past for the Olympics titles.
Below are a few notable excerpts from the interview with CNBC:
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SEGA Games CEO on the positive feedback from recent Famitsu interview
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 11 Comments
Haruki Satomi, CEO of SEGA Games, conducted an interview with Famitsu earlier this month. He talked about wanting to make quality games, and learn from its subsidiary Atlus.
Most fans reacted positively to what Satomi shared with Famitsu. He has since commented on the reaction, in which he told Siliconera:
“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.”
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SEGA focusing on quality, wants to regain fans’ trust
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 128 Comments
This week’s issue of Famitsu contains an interview with SEGA CEO and president Haruki Satomi.
At one point during the discussion, Satomi mentioned that the company has “learned a lot from Atlus”, which SEGA acquired in 2013. He also spoke about how SEGA is really pushing the idea of quality.
Satomi stated:
“As far as the Western market goes, we learned a lot from Atlus. If we can make a title with proper quality, I believe there’s a good chance for it to do well even in the West for players that like to play Japanese games.”
“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.”
“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 10 years.”
“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.”
Famitsu ends its talk with Satomi by asking what fans can look forward to in the future.
“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.”
