Sega aims to double software market share within five years
Speaking at a press conference in Tokyo, Sega president Hisao Oguchi has outlined his future ambitions for the company - including a target of doubling the company's global market share in the next five years.
Speaking at a press conference in Tokyo, Sega president Hisao Oguchi has outlined his future ambitions for the company - including a target of doubling the company's global market share in the next five years.
The recently appointed president identified a number of ways in which the publisher hopes to grow its sales, particularly in the area of mass-market titles and online content delivery. He also stated his belief that the launch of the next-generation consoles was a major opportunity for Sega, which wants to deliver key titles early in the lifespan of those systems.
Delivering titles for the mainstream audience is also an important part of the plan. "In the past, we primarily made games for hardcore fans," Oguchi-san told the 800-strong audience, "but from now on we also want to create games for the casual player and the beginner."
Online gaming is another area which Sega hopes to exploit to its benefit, and Oguchi-san believes that downloadable games and game content will continue to be a growth area in future - and will probably gradually reduce the market share of traditional boxed game sales. Sega's experience in this area, both in terms of online games and downloadable content (in Japan the company offers a variety of games for download across broadband connections), will be useful in future developments, he claimed.
The press conference came as Sega announced details of its unit sales in the first quarter of this year, which topped 1.45 million units - well ahead of the 1.22 million unit target for the quarter. Key titles which exceeded expectations in the quarter were racing game Initial D Special Stage, which sold 260,000 units (as opposed to a predicted 160,000) and Let's Make J-League Pro Soccer Club! 3, which sold half a million units, ahead of predictions of 460,000.
Along with the announcement of Sega's future plans, the changes to the company's development structure which we reported a couple of weeks ago were also made official at the conference. The number of internal teams is being reduced from nine to seven, with four studios being dispensed of and replaced by two new ones - an dedicated sports game studio, and a new studio under the direction of legendary developer Yu Suzuki, which will focus on developing hit titles.