Post by eh on Jul 20, 2005 15:26:33 GMT -5
Simon Jeffrey, President of Sega, has a lot on his mind and Nintendo Power is there to help lighten the load. From Sonic and Shadow to the return of Gunstar Super Heroes, Sega has loads in store for its fans in the coming year. The following is the full version of the interview that appears in the September 2005 issue (v. 195) of Nintendo Power.
Nintendo Power: First, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and how you came to work at Sega?
Simon Jeffrey: Yes, I’ve been in the video game business for about 18, 19 years, both in Europe and North America. I’m in the business because I’m a gamer. I work with games all day, and then I go home and play games all night. That’s kind of my life.
NP: Judging by the success of Sonic games on GCN and GBA, Sega fans seem to have flocked to Nintendo hardware. Why do you think that is?
SJ: That’s a really interesting question. I think a lot of it is because of the demographic. There seems to be a good match there with the kind of player that Nintendo hardware appeals to. The Nintendo fan, I think, is very similar to the Sega fan of old. And I think Sega and Nintendo have similar software philosophies. A product like Sonic is very family-oriented. It’s all about entertainment rather than trying to be controversial or anything like that. It’s pure, good old-fashioned entertainment. So there’s a very similar set of values, I think, shared between Sega and Nintendo in that respect.
NP: Speaking to that, the collaboration between Nintendo and Sega on F-Zero GX turned out very well. Do you foresee the two companies working together like that again in the future?
SJ: Well, there’s nothing that we can talk about at this point in time. But there’s absolutely nothing to rule it out, either. (Wry smile)
NP: Some of the beloved Sega franchises such as Panzer Dragoon and Shinobi haven’t done as well as they deserved on other consoles. With the success of Sonic on GameCube, why not bring some more of the classic franchises to the GameCube, or moving forward, Revolution?
SJ: I think that’s something that we’re absolutely looking at, to be honest. I think we’re really looking at which of our classic IPs are appropriate for different platforms. We’re very interested in Revolution at the moment. We obviously haven’t made any announcements, but we, like other people, are talking with Nintendo about what Revolution will be, about potential opportunities on Revolution. With regard to GameCube itself . . . it’s interesting how something like Panzer Dragoon Orta would have done on GameCube if it had come out on that versus Xbox. That’s an interesting scenario. I’m not sure what would have happened there. We’re always really looking at what we can do that best exploits for us the classic IPs that we’ve got for a particular market. A GameCube player, like you say, is very, very different from an Xbox player.
NP: Why do you think Sonic has enjoyed continued popularity while so many other popular franchises of the 16-bit era have fallen into obscurity?
SJ: It’s classic character design. It’s the same as the Looney Tunes characters or the Disney characters that were created back in the ‘40’s and ‘50’s. So much thought and process went into building Sonic originally back in those days. Many of the other characters that came out of the 16-bit era were created in very a reactionary way. Game companies saw how well Sonic was doing, saw how well Mario was doing, and then they all decided they have to have the cute, woodland critter game. There wasn’t really a whole lot of thought process that went into creating those characters. Sonic has, as a franchise, been very, very scientifically and creatively evolved, really. And so each iteration of the Sonic franchise has had a lot of thought and care and attention and love put into it. So it’s really about that. It’s maintaining the integrity of the original character rather than just exploiting and diluting what Sonic is all about.
NP: Speaking to that, there are quite a few Sonic games coming out in the next few months. Are you concerned at all about potentially diluting the brand with too much of a good thing? How do you strike the balance?
SJ: We don’t think so, because, certainly all of the research we’ve done and being as close to the market as we are, we can see that gamers have different expectations for their different platforms. So, someone who has a DS and a Game Boy and a GameCube might be completely comfortable with playing three totally different Sonic franchise games on those systems. And so we see that as an opportunity to grow the franchise and bring more Sonic satisfaction to gamers, rather than just confining a particular series to a particular platform. So we really don’t believe that we’re diluting the franchise, we believe that we’re expanding it.
NP: Back in the Genesis days, much of Sega’s success stemmed from its unique combination of Japanese and Western content. Recently, the company seems to have renewed that philosophy. Talk to us a bit about the motivation behind that, and what your plans are moving forward.
SJ: The Western gaming markets have evolved in a very different manner from the Japanese gaming market. And I think the word evolved is the appropriate word here, because the kind of games that are being built and consumed in the West are very different from the kind of games that we all played back in the 8- and 16-bit days. Whereas in Japan, the games tend to be very similar in terms of play mechanics to the games back in the 8- and 16-bit eras, but they’re just more advanced now. They’re more technically competent, they have higher fidelity and all that stuff. So the two gaming markets have really gone separate ways, and in order to make the most of the Sega brand in Western markets, we feel we have to be building content in the West for the Western consumer. There, quite simply, is just a disparity of tastes now between the Japanese gaming market and the European and American gaming markets.
NP: Why do you think that has come about? It wasn’t all that long ago when Japanese content did dominate the American market. Why do you think that’s changed?
SJ: Well I think Japanese consumer tastes have changed in a different way from Western consumer tastes as well. Japanese consumers have always been more trend-oriented than American and European consumers, who tend to adopt a form of entertainment and kind of stick to it forever. Japanese youth culture is far more trend-oriented, so it has a much quicker turn cycle. Young Japanese kids in particular are adopting technology, adopting gadgets really, really young. And they’re incredibly mobile, incredibly portable in their entertainment, which isn’t quite the case in the West. So, I think a lot of it that, and also just the fact that the youth culture stuff that drives entertainment tastes have really divulged a lot as well. The manga-driven stuff coming out of Japan is not the same as the stuff that the kids in the West enjoy.
NP: To strengthen its line-up of Western content, Sega recently purchased the Creative Assembly. Is the company actively pursuing the acquisition of other developers?
SJ: As part of its strategy of growing to become a global top player in the video game business, Sega is absolutely interested in looking to do whatever it needs to do to get there. If we work with developers who have very similar philosophies and strategic directions to ourselves, then yes, we’d absolutely be interested in partnering with them.
NP: If Sega is trying to appeal more to the West, why did the company sell Visual Concepts and get out of the sports market?
SJ: Very simple and very honest, we were losing money in that market. The sports market was a space that EA Sports completely dominated. Every business year that Sega Sports was in operation with Visual Concepts product, no matter who matter how strong the quality of that product was, because it was superior to the EA Sports product . . . quite simply, EA’s market penetration was such that they enjoyed total domination. It made business sense for us not to be in that market anymore, so we chose to abdicate it.
NP: Were the league exclusivity deals the straw that broke the camel’s back?
SJ: That really happened after we had made the decision. But it, I think, justifies our decision times ten.
NP: New properties seem to be having a tough time finding an audience. In the 16-bit days, I think a game like Billy Hatcher would have been a major success, but it didn’t do very well in today’s marketplace. Why do you think that is and do you think this trend will continue?
SJ: We’re pretty happy with Billy Hatcher. I think that history has shown when there’s a change in the console tact, when we have a new wave of consoles coming in, it’s a great opportunity to introduce new intellectual properties and new franchises, new brands. And Sega’s absolutely going to be doing that this time around. We kind of missed the wave last time around, and Billy Hatcher was one of those products that came mid-cycle, so it was a victim of the evolution of the market towards licenses and franchises and sequels. To introduce something new and fresh is difficult when you’re up against the powerhouse licenses from the movie industry, etc.
NP: Do you think that the industry will continue to trend toward that, where it’s all about sequels, or do you think that gamers might get tired of that and start looking for something new?
SJ: I think it will be both to be honest. Hopefully the new generation of consoles will expand the marketplace, so we’ll have younger and older and more female players coming into the market. And I think when that happens, we’ll have opportunities for introducing new IPs and new, original concepts. If you look at all of the entertainment industries, the established industries, they’re very, very heavily driven by licenses and established properties. Now that the video game business has matured, the same thing will naturally happen here. But we think one of our opportunities in the market is in the area of original games, because most of our competitors, we kind of think of now as packaged goods companies, whereas we’re all about building great games.
NP: Thus far Sega has largely shied away from Hollywood and other licenses.
SJ: We’re interested in building great games. There’s no reason why we won’t do a movie property, but if we do, we’ll be more focused about making the game a top-tier game rather than making a game of the movie.
NP: At this year’s E3, were there any trends that you saw that concerned you, and any that excited or encouraged you for the future?
SJ: Well, I think selfishly speaking, one of the trends that excited Sega was the fact that most of the next-generation product that was being shown or talked about was simply next-gen iterations of current-gen products. So there were sequels to product that’s on the market right now, just with higher audio-visual fidelity, just with more polish and more Hollywood production values. Whereas the stuff that we’re building on next-gen truly takes advantage of the next-gen hardware capabilities. The new technology that’s afforded by the horsepower that’s in these new boxes. So we see that as a great opportunity for ourselves.
I think there is a concern of a trend towards standardization, making it very hard for the consumer to discern between games because they’re all getting to look so good now. That can drive consumers towards buying what’s safe: licenses. So that’s something of a concern, because we think it’s vital that the industry always strikes for innovation and creativity.
NP: One of the major concerns that a lot of developers have voiced is the rising cost of making a game for the next-generation systems. How do you handle that? How do you still make a great game without the budgets getting out of control?
SJ: Well, it makes us look a lot harder at every game we build. We’ve got to be a lot more rigorous about our decision-making processes. We’ve got to be a lot more creative to make those games, when they’re in the concept stage, really stand out, because when games are costing $10 million-plus to build, you can’t afford for them not to be successful. So I think one good thing for the market is that in three years’ time there are going to be less games coming to market. That’s got to be a good thing.
NP: Do you think that those rising costs might lead to even more cross-platform games, and if Nintendo decides to do something radically different with Revolution, is that going to potentially discourage third parties from supporting the platform? Or do you think it might be attractive in terms of trying something different?
SJ: A bit of both, probably. I think it depends how Nintendo rolls out its third-party relations. We’re very excited about the prospects of Revolution, because, like we were talking about earlier, the Nintendo platforms have been great for Sonic and the classic franchises. We think Revolution can absolutely be the same. But I think you’re absolutely right. If Nintendo does choose a different model than Sony and Microsoft, then it might be very difficult for some third parties to adopt this three-pronged, multi-platform approach.
NP: This is kind of a wild idea, but it could be very cool. At E3, Nintendo announced that the Revolution would have the capability to download NES, SNES and N64 games. Would it be at all feasible, do you think, to partner with Nintendo and perhaps add the Sega Genesis to that list?
SJ: That’s a pretty wild idea. (Laughs.) You should talk to Nintendo about that.
NP: Sega used to be a huge player in the arcade market, but now that market is all but dead in the US. What happened?
SJ: We’ve all got consoles at home, and they’re not that far away from arcade quality. I think that arcade gaming was always seen to be ultra-geeky. There’s a performance threshold in the arcade where you’ve got to be as good as your peers in order to hang with them. At home, you can practice in the privacy of your bedroom and no one sees how good or bad you are. But it’s really just about the fact that you can play something that’s as good as an arcade machine in your own home. And you don’t have to pop in a quarter.
NP: Is there any way for arcades to make a comeback or to spark people’s interest again?
SP: I guess it’s interesting in that if you do go into one of the arcades that still exits, the machine that tend to have activity around them are the ones that are more interactive like the dance machines or the snowboard machines, etc. Those arcade companies focus on increased interactivity. In Japan, one of the big trends right now is the collecting part of the arcade experience. There’s a game that’s all about collecting bugs, and these machines where you can take cards around and transfer your profile and things between the arcade machines. So that’s quite a reinvigoration for the Japanese arcade market. Again, because the cultures are so different, it’s difficult to see that kind of thing taking off in the States.
NP: It’s great to see Treasure and Sega working together again with Gunstar Super Heroes. Do you foresee working with Treasure more in the future, and can we expect more of those seemingly forgotten franchise to reappear in the not-too-distant future?
SJ: I can’t say anything confirmed about either of those questions, but they’re both things that we would like to see happen.
NP: How has the merger with Sammy changed things at Sega? Does the latter remain fairly independent in terms of content decisions?
SJ: What the merger with Sammy has really given Sega is this new lease on life. What you’re seeing now at Sega is a rebirth, almost, because it’s given Sega the focus and direction and capital needed to be successful in the contemporary video game market, which is very expensive. It’s given us the motivation to become a top global player again in the next few years. We have a very dedicated and supportive Japanese management team now that is absolutely focused on working with Sega of America and Sega of Europe to make that happen. With regard to content, yes, Sega very much involves Sammy in the approval process, but the content-creation decisions are very much Sega’s.
NP: Finally, what does the future hold for Sega, and Sonic in particular?
SJ: Well, we’re aiming high. We’re aiming high for Sega, we’re aiming high for Sonic. We think that Sonic, as we teased at E3, is going to be a leading character on the next-gen platforms across pretty much all of them, we hope. We are very happy with where we’re headed on current-gen, next-gen, handhelds . . . we think we’ve got it right, and we’re pretty excited about where we’re going.
NP: Sorry, I lied. Your response made me think of one other question. Can you tell us anything about the next-gen Sonic demo that was shown at E3?
SJ: Other than that it’s being built by Naka-san and his team, to be illustrative of what we expect next-gen to be, that’s pretty much all we can say right now.
Nintendo Power: First, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and how you came to work at Sega?
Simon Jeffrey: Yes, I’ve been in the video game business for about 18, 19 years, both in Europe and North America. I’m in the business because I’m a gamer. I work with games all day, and then I go home and play games all night. That’s kind of my life.
NP: Judging by the success of Sonic games on GCN and GBA, Sega fans seem to have flocked to Nintendo hardware. Why do you think that is?
SJ: That’s a really interesting question. I think a lot of it is because of the demographic. There seems to be a good match there with the kind of player that Nintendo hardware appeals to. The Nintendo fan, I think, is very similar to the Sega fan of old. And I think Sega and Nintendo have similar software philosophies. A product like Sonic is very family-oriented. It’s all about entertainment rather than trying to be controversial or anything like that. It’s pure, good old-fashioned entertainment. So there’s a very similar set of values, I think, shared between Sega and Nintendo in that respect.
NP: Speaking to that, the collaboration between Nintendo and Sega on F-Zero GX turned out very well. Do you foresee the two companies working together like that again in the future?
SJ: Well, there’s nothing that we can talk about at this point in time. But there’s absolutely nothing to rule it out, either. (Wry smile)
NP: Some of the beloved Sega franchises such as Panzer Dragoon and Shinobi haven’t done as well as they deserved on other consoles. With the success of Sonic on GameCube, why not bring some more of the classic franchises to the GameCube, or moving forward, Revolution?
SJ: I think that’s something that we’re absolutely looking at, to be honest. I think we’re really looking at which of our classic IPs are appropriate for different platforms. We’re very interested in Revolution at the moment. We obviously haven’t made any announcements, but we, like other people, are talking with Nintendo about what Revolution will be, about potential opportunities on Revolution. With regard to GameCube itself . . . it’s interesting how something like Panzer Dragoon Orta would have done on GameCube if it had come out on that versus Xbox. That’s an interesting scenario. I’m not sure what would have happened there. We’re always really looking at what we can do that best exploits for us the classic IPs that we’ve got for a particular market. A GameCube player, like you say, is very, very different from an Xbox player.
NP: Why do you think Sonic has enjoyed continued popularity while so many other popular franchises of the 16-bit era have fallen into obscurity?
SJ: It’s classic character design. It’s the same as the Looney Tunes characters or the Disney characters that were created back in the ‘40’s and ‘50’s. So much thought and process went into building Sonic originally back in those days. Many of the other characters that came out of the 16-bit era were created in very a reactionary way. Game companies saw how well Sonic was doing, saw how well Mario was doing, and then they all decided they have to have the cute, woodland critter game. There wasn’t really a whole lot of thought process that went into creating those characters. Sonic has, as a franchise, been very, very scientifically and creatively evolved, really. And so each iteration of the Sonic franchise has had a lot of thought and care and attention and love put into it. So it’s really about that. It’s maintaining the integrity of the original character rather than just exploiting and diluting what Sonic is all about.
NP: Speaking to that, there are quite a few Sonic games coming out in the next few months. Are you concerned at all about potentially diluting the brand with too much of a good thing? How do you strike the balance?
SJ: We don’t think so, because, certainly all of the research we’ve done and being as close to the market as we are, we can see that gamers have different expectations for their different platforms. So, someone who has a DS and a Game Boy and a GameCube might be completely comfortable with playing three totally different Sonic franchise games on those systems. And so we see that as an opportunity to grow the franchise and bring more Sonic satisfaction to gamers, rather than just confining a particular series to a particular platform. So we really don’t believe that we’re diluting the franchise, we believe that we’re expanding it.
NP: Back in the Genesis days, much of Sega’s success stemmed from its unique combination of Japanese and Western content. Recently, the company seems to have renewed that philosophy. Talk to us a bit about the motivation behind that, and what your plans are moving forward.
SJ: The Western gaming markets have evolved in a very different manner from the Japanese gaming market. And I think the word evolved is the appropriate word here, because the kind of games that are being built and consumed in the West are very different from the kind of games that we all played back in the 8- and 16-bit days. Whereas in Japan, the games tend to be very similar in terms of play mechanics to the games back in the 8- and 16-bit eras, but they’re just more advanced now. They’re more technically competent, they have higher fidelity and all that stuff. So the two gaming markets have really gone separate ways, and in order to make the most of the Sega brand in Western markets, we feel we have to be building content in the West for the Western consumer. There, quite simply, is just a disparity of tastes now between the Japanese gaming market and the European and American gaming markets.
NP: Why do you think that has come about? It wasn’t all that long ago when Japanese content did dominate the American market. Why do you think that’s changed?
SJ: Well I think Japanese consumer tastes have changed in a different way from Western consumer tastes as well. Japanese consumers have always been more trend-oriented than American and European consumers, who tend to adopt a form of entertainment and kind of stick to it forever. Japanese youth culture is far more trend-oriented, so it has a much quicker turn cycle. Young Japanese kids in particular are adopting technology, adopting gadgets really, really young. And they’re incredibly mobile, incredibly portable in their entertainment, which isn’t quite the case in the West. So, I think a lot of it that, and also just the fact that the youth culture stuff that drives entertainment tastes have really divulged a lot as well. The manga-driven stuff coming out of Japan is not the same as the stuff that the kids in the West enjoy.
NP: To strengthen its line-up of Western content, Sega recently purchased the Creative Assembly. Is the company actively pursuing the acquisition of other developers?
SJ: As part of its strategy of growing to become a global top player in the video game business, Sega is absolutely interested in looking to do whatever it needs to do to get there. If we work with developers who have very similar philosophies and strategic directions to ourselves, then yes, we’d absolutely be interested in partnering with them.
NP: If Sega is trying to appeal more to the West, why did the company sell Visual Concepts and get out of the sports market?
SJ: Very simple and very honest, we were losing money in that market. The sports market was a space that EA Sports completely dominated. Every business year that Sega Sports was in operation with Visual Concepts product, no matter who matter how strong the quality of that product was, because it was superior to the EA Sports product . . . quite simply, EA’s market penetration was such that they enjoyed total domination. It made business sense for us not to be in that market anymore, so we chose to abdicate it.
NP: Were the league exclusivity deals the straw that broke the camel’s back?
SJ: That really happened after we had made the decision. But it, I think, justifies our decision times ten.
NP: New properties seem to be having a tough time finding an audience. In the 16-bit days, I think a game like Billy Hatcher would have been a major success, but it didn’t do very well in today’s marketplace. Why do you think that is and do you think this trend will continue?
SJ: We’re pretty happy with Billy Hatcher. I think that history has shown when there’s a change in the console tact, when we have a new wave of consoles coming in, it’s a great opportunity to introduce new intellectual properties and new franchises, new brands. And Sega’s absolutely going to be doing that this time around. We kind of missed the wave last time around, and Billy Hatcher was one of those products that came mid-cycle, so it was a victim of the evolution of the market towards licenses and franchises and sequels. To introduce something new and fresh is difficult when you’re up against the powerhouse licenses from the movie industry, etc.
NP: Do you think that the industry will continue to trend toward that, where it’s all about sequels, or do you think that gamers might get tired of that and start looking for something new?
SJ: I think it will be both to be honest. Hopefully the new generation of consoles will expand the marketplace, so we’ll have younger and older and more female players coming into the market. And I think when that happens, we’ll have opportunities for introducing new IPs and new, original concepts. If you look at all of the entertainment industries, the established industries, they’re very, very heavily driven by licenses and established properties. Now that the video game business has matured, the same thing will naturally happen here. But we think one of our opportunities in the market is in the area of original games, because most of our competitors, we kind of think of now as packaged goods companies, whereas we’re all about building great games.
NP: Thus far Sega has largely shied away from Hollywood and other licenses.
SJ: We’re interested in building great games. There’s no reason why we won’t do a movie property, but if we do, we’ll be more focused about making the game a top-tier game rather than making a game of the movie.
NP: At this year’s E3, were there any trends that you saw that concerned you, and any that excited or encouraged you for the future?
SJ: Well, I think selfishly speaking, one of the trends that excited Sega was the fact that most of the next-generation product that was being shown or talked about was simply next-gen iterations of current-gen products. So there were sequels to product that’s on the market right now, just with higher audio-visual fidelity, just with more polish and more Hollywood production values. Whereas the stuff that we’re building on next-gen truly takes advantage of the next-gen hardware capabilities. The new technology that’s afforded by the horsepower that’s in these new boxes. So we see that as a great opportunity for ourselves.
I think there is a concern of a trend towards standardization, making it very hard for the consumer to discern between games because they’re all getting to look so good now. That can drive consumers towards buying what’s safe: licenses. So that’s something of a concern, because we think it’s vital that the industry always strikes for innovation and creativity.
NP: One of the major concerns that a lot of developers have voiced is the rising cost of making a game for the next-generation systems. How do you handle that? How do you still make a great game without the budgets getting out of control?
SJ: Well, it makes us look a lot harder at every game we build. We’ve got to be a lot more rigorous about our decision-making processes. We’ve got to be a lot more creative to make those games, when they’re in the concept stage, really stand out, because when games are costing $10 million-plus to build, you can’t afford for them not to be successful. So I think one good thing for the market is that in three years’ time there are going to be less games coming to market. That’s got to be a good thing.
NP: Do you think that those rising costs might lead to even more cross-platform games, and if Nintendo decides to do something radically different with Revolution, is that going to potentially discourage third parties from supporting the platform? Or do you think it might be attractive in terms of trying something different?
SJ: A bit of both, probably. I think it depends how Nintendo rolls out its third-party relations. We’re very excited about the prospects of Revolution, because, like we were talking about earlier, the Nintendo platforms have been great for Sonic and the classic franchises. We think Revolution can absolutely be the same. But I think you’re absolutely right. If Nintendo does choose a different model than Sony and Microsoft, then it might be very difficult for some third parties to adopt this three-pronged, multi-platform approach.
NP: This is kind of a wild idea, but it could be very cool. At E3, Nintendo announced that the Revolution would have the capability to download NES, SNES and N64 games. Would it be at all feasible, do you think, to partner with Nintendo and perhaps add the Sega Genesis to that list?
SJ: That’s a pretty wild idea. (Laughs.) You should talk to Nintendo about that.
NP: Sega used to be a huge player in the arcade market, but now that market is all but dead in the US. What happened?
SJ: We’ve all got consoles at home, and they’re not that far away from arcade quality. I think that arcade gaming was always seen to be ultra-geeky. There’s a performance threshold in the arcade where you’ve got to be as good as your peers in order to hang with them. At home, you can practice in the privacy of your bedroom and no one sees how good or bad you are. But it’s really just about the fact that you can play something that’s as good as an arcade machine in your own home. And you don’t have to pop in a quarter.
NP: Is there any way for arcades to make a comeback or to spark people’s interest again?
SP: I guess it’s interesting in that if you do go into one of the arcades that still exits, the machine that tend to have activity around them are the ones that are more interactive like the dance machines or the snowboard machines, etc. Those arcade companies focus on increased interactivity. In Japan, one of the big trends right now is the collecting part of the arcade experience. There’s a game that’s all about collecting bugs, and these machines where you can take cards around and transfer your profile and things between the arcade machines. So that’s quite a reinvigoration for the Japanese arcade market. Again, because the cultures are so different, it’s difficult to see that kind of thing taking off in the States.
NP: It’s great to see Treasure and Sega working together again with Gunstar Super Heroes. Do you foresee working with Treasure more in the future, and can we expect more of those seemingly forgotten franchise to reappear in the not-too-distant future?
SJ: I can’t say anything confirmed about either of those questions, but they’re both things that we would like to see happen.
NP: How has the merger with Sammy changed things at Sega? Does the latter remain fairly independent in terms of content decisions?
SJ: What the merger with Sammy has really given Sega is this new lease on life. What you’re seeing now at Sega is a rebirth, almost, because it’s given Sega the focus and direction and capital needed to be successful in the contemporary video game market, which is very expensive. It’s given us the motivation to become a top global player again in the next few years. We have a very dedicated and supportive Japanese management team now that is absolutely focused on working with Sega of America and Sega of Europe to make that happen. With regard to content, yes, Sega very much involves Sammy in the approval process, but the content-creation decisions are very much Sega’s.
NP: Finally, what does the future hold for Sega, and Sonic in particular?
SJ: Well, we’re aiming high. We’re aiming high for Sega, we’re aiming high for Sonic. We think that Sonic, as we teased at E3, is going to be a leading character on the next-gen platforms across pretty much all of them, we hope. We are very happy with where we’re headed on current-gen, next-gen, handhelds . . . we think we’ve got it right, and we’re pretty excited about where we’re going.
NP: Sorry, I lied. Your response made me think of one other question. Can you tell us anything about the next-gen Sonic demo that was shown at E3?
SJ: Other than that it’s being built by Naka-san and his team, to be illustrative of what we expect next-gen to be, that’s pretty much all we can say right now.
YAY!!!! GO SONIC!!! BUT MOST OF ALL Tails!!!!
www.nintendo.com/newsarticle?articleid=5acc7ced-d6a4-4494-83d5-f581dbc608fe&page=newsmain
? 