INTERVIEW: JURGEN POST, SEGA WEST


Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformedhad good Metacritic scores last year and the last few years the Sonicgames have had better and better reviews. We’re on the right track with Sonic.


After buying Relic is there desire to add more studios? We’re always looking for


opportunties and if something came along we would go for it. We’re still looking – and we are looking at some but I can’t tell you what they are. Fortunately Sega Sammy is a healthy company so we can do it. Last year we changed the


organisation and are now on the right course. If we can add another brand or studio to that, we’d be on the way to being a whole new company.


Your digital offering is also changing Sega into a new business. What are the objectives in that space?


The business models are changing every day, and free-to-play is something we are excited about; at GDC we announced Total War Arena, and then in Japan we are seeing huge success with Phantasy Star Online 2. Phantasy Staris free- to-play on PC and Vita, and doing very well on Vita in Japan. We will bring that game to the Western market at some point.


Mobile is important too, and we have successful F2P games there, such as Kingdom Conquestwhich is monetising well in Japan. And we recently launched Sonic Jumpand Sonic Dash, one of which is entirely free-to-play. Dashhas 15m downloads. We are getting there in terms of these new models, and we are learning. That’s what’s most important. That and taking careful steps, testing out how these brands work in various territories. One other thing that this causes is growth of the value chain, and you end up hiring more people in locally to manage that. We are building a team for free-to-play in Sega West and may even build some tech to support the games I’ve mentioned and some unannounced ones.


F2P has some real posterchild successes. Have you kept much of a close eye on those businesses? It’s hugely inspring, definitely. Companies like GungHo [Puzzle &


www.mcvuk.com


Dragons], Supercell [Clash of Clans] or games like Candy Crushhave come out of no where and are doing millions each day. Same for Wargaming, I am sure.


But you hear those stories, and some of them are very successful, but no one is talking about the failures in that space. It would be great to have Total War Arenabe a breakthrough game, but we have to


If these next-gen machines really are more like PCs we have a lot to take advantage of in terms of tech.


“ Jurgen Post, Sega


be realistic – you need some luck, then good people, a great game, and you might get somewhere. But there’s a huge amount of risk to those games too because you have


ALIEN BREED


SEGA isn’t giving up on the Alienfranchise, despite the negative critical reaction to Colonial Marinesin February. How can it bounce back from a disappointing release? “Aliensis still one of our pillars,” says Post.


“In May 2011 we announced that Creative Assembly is doing something with that brand – we’ve said nothing else so you have to read between the lines there.


“But it’s a great IP, and very rich. Colonial Marines, although it didn’t review well, did sell well to start. So there is an appetite for Aliens. “Going forward Creative Assembly is a good quality developer and our aim is to create a good quality game.” Sega’s kept its cards close to its chest when it comes to this next Alien


title. Colonial Marineswas announced days after a developer deal was signed and before production started – so every twist for that game (and its many delays) became a very public situation for Sega. Comments Post: “Creative Assembly’s Aliensgame is being produced in- house so it’s easy to manage the production of it.”


August 9th 2013 15


to invest for the long-run, you can’t just launch it and forget or switch it off if it fails after a month.


Lastly, what did you make of what happened to THQ earlier this year? Sega was once upon a time one of the ‘middle’ publishers many were saying would struggle. But you pivoted away. Did THQ fail to heed the market problems Sega saw coming?


It’s hard to comment on really. It’s very sad when these companies go bust and close. I always say you have to just look at your business and do the right things. But yes, Sega took a drastic move to adapt to the new market – and you adapt or adjust fast enough you are ready. Would THQ have survived if it had changed the way we had? I can’t really say. This is generally a very risky business. Like other worlds like film or TV or music, we’re making creative things that might not always work – you can’t anticipate what every success or failure will be. Otherwise this would be really easy! And a bit boring.


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