This is more of an ‘inside baseball’ post but for those in the industry it is newsworthy.
When it comes to Sega there is often confusion in the public at large about the different divisions in the company, which operate as their own entities, mainly that the amusement divisions have little or nothing to do with developments for the home and vice versa. That doesn’t stop passionate fans from filling the amusement side’s social media with requests for home developments. Regardless, their focus is on the amusement industry and creating arcade games both for amusement only or redemption/prizes.
A few years ago, the USA division had some organizational changes that led to them changing their name to Play-It Amusements; now the European division, which has been handling a bulk of the game developments outside of Japan is going through some changes that should consolidate the amusement side of their operations under the Sega Amusements International umbrella. Play-It Amusements continues to exist and offer their same services through North and South America but Sega Amusements International will be managing game developments and R&D as well as distributing product into new markets while Sega Japan will keep its focus on Japan. In the news release, Mr. Ogasawara is named as leading game development in both the US and UK; his resumé includes games from Jambo Safari, Gunblade NY, Let’s Go Jungle, Transformers and many others. Likewise in personnel changes, Paul Williams has been promoted from COO to the CEO of the company.
This will also bring changes on the distribution sides of getting equipment into certain international markets. It should be interesting to see how this shakes out in coming years – what are your thoughts on this? (Press release is here below; source)
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SEGA AMUSEMENTS INTERNATIONAL IS OPEN FOR BUSINESS
SEGA Amusements Europe Ltd officially changes its name to SEGA Amusements International Ltd expanding its market to cover all reaches of the globe outside of Japan.
Clarifying many months of speculation surrounding the global organisational changes at Sega, today’s announcement reveals a great deal more about substantive changes being made to strengthen the organisation, keeping it at the pinnacle of the amusement industry.
Newly named SEGA Amusements International Ltd (SAI) is a wholly owned subsidiary of SEGA Interactive Co. Ltd, a division of SEGA Sammy Holdings. SAI will expand its existing reach of the EMEA, Russia and The Americas to cover the entire globe outside of Japan. Sega Japan will now focus their core strength on their domestic market and believe the team at Sega Amusements International are best placed to move the company forward, with greater autonomy to chart its own destiny and develop territory specific products.
By leveraging the company’s strengths in innovation, creativity and research and development, SAI is already looking forward to producing a range of products tailored for these new markets. Dedicated R&D teams based in the UK and USA will be headed up by Senior Game Producer Mr. Ogasawara, renowned for the development of “Transformers” and “Let’s Go Jungle”, who will reside in the UK.
SAI sales teams in Europe and America are dedicated to the core areas of Amusement Sales, Merchandise, Spares and Consumables. These teams, built of industry professionals, possess a huge experience of sales, operations, marketing, product development and manufacturing and will now appoint new sales positions for the Asian market.
The company, whose headquarters will remain in London which is seen as a central time zone for international coverage, will have the full support and commitment of SEGA Japan at its disposal.
The current SEGA Amusements COO, Paul Williams, will be leading the way as newly appointed CEO, from which position he will ensure SAI has a full pipeline of cutting-edge products to further the brand and increase market share.
“We’re extremely optimistic about the future for the entire out-of-home entertainment industry,” said an elated Williams. “The chance to grow into these new markets presents us with exciting opportunities we fully intend on maximizing. SEGA is recognized as a leading industry entertainment company. We now have the means to leverage this valuable brand to a worldwide audience.”
SEGA Amusements International Ltd will do all this and a whole lot more.
For further information please contact Sega on +44 (0)208 391 8090 or sales@segaarcade.com
– See more at: http://www.segaarcade.com/sega-amusements-international-is-open-for-business?utm_source=Sega+Amusements+International+Announcement&utm_campaign=Exciting+News+at+Sega%21&utm_medium=email#sthash.oOZRQQOP.dpuf
Wonder if next month they’ll announce some new games for next months IAAPA show? Nothing’s been mentioned at all apart from mariokart and sonic at the olympics arcade edition. Hope there’ll be some surprises, THOTD 5 anyone?
I was to place bets, I would say Luigi Mansion Arcade and Mario and Sonic Olympics…but I wouldn’t make a very large bet on that 😉 Focus has been on videmption so they will certainly be showcasing Sonic Dash. If there was something new we’ve never heard of, we would likely be hearing about it by now (as an example, last October was when we started getting info on Showdown)
This is significant. VERY significant. It possibly is related to this:
http://www.wipo.int/romarin/advSearch.do?ID=0&searchDatabasePen=on&searchString=+%2FMARKGR%2FCURRENT%2FBASGR%2FBASAPPGR%2FBASAPPN+contains+2015-029514
Key Descriptions: “home video game machines; stand alone video output game machines; parts and accessories of arcade video game machines; apparatus for games; controllers for game consoles;headphones;memory cards for video game machine ”
Expanding SEGA’s core Arcade business is a big step in restoring and rebuilding Sega as a brand. Reviving the global Arcade market and winning back consumers helps open the door for an eventual return to the home consumer business.
Well before everyone gets TOO excited, keep in mind that Sega has a division for prizes to the amusement industry called Tokio. All designed to put product into crane machines or KeyMasters/Axe Masters, etc. Those descriptions if accurate could just be to cover what they sell there, which are generally rebranded technology products:
http://soe-web-arcade2-pub.s3.amazonaws.com/catalogues/Tokio%20Entertainment%20Bundle%202015.pdf
But yes, they need brand rebuilding which this is aimed at working on. We’ll see how it goes
That too. But keep in mind, Sega being mostly and primarily an Arcade Amusement company also had a Research and Development Hardware department under the Sega Amusements,Inc wing back in the 80s and 90s.
All of their home consumer products from SG-1000 to Dreamcast were all developed from the division under Sega Away27 and All home systems and hardware used Arcade parts and silicon.
Sega doesn’t sell peripherals and never had as a publisher, so the descriptions I listed “Home Video Game Machines; Stand Alone Output Game Machines; Controllers for Game Consoles; Apparatus for Games; Memory Cards For Video Game Machine; Headphones; from Sega Live Creation,Inc bears monitoring and watching.
Though the Sega Live Creation division currently manages Theme parks for Sega Holdings,Ltd the descriptions regarding video game hardware and accessories raise alarms that they might be involved with hardware R&D in addition to managing Theme Parks:
http://www.sega-live.com/
Sega Interactive,Ltd also does have a new R&D division called “N Pro” headed by Sega Away co-founder Masami Ishikawa.
http://www.siliconera.com/2013/09/18/segas-original-hardware-developer-talks-about-the-companys-past-consoles/
http://sega-interactive.co.jp/recruit/career/20150902_1.html
We’ll have to wait and see what’s really going on.
The reality is Sega is making not that much profits in arcades currently, and especially western revenue is less than 10%. Rebuilding the Sega brand through arcades is impossible.
Thier latest line-up is also dissapoiting. No higher technology offerings from Japan, which is what the brand built itself on overseas.
At most I could see Sega trying to do Joypolis and Orbi in the West?
Also N.Pro R&D is arcade dedicated, their latest machines are the Edel Sunaba and Nail Print machines. This is what Ishikawa was talking about.