When people talk about the leading game publishers, rarely does the name Sega pop up. With the exception of the hit title, Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games, released for the Wii, it’s hard to think of any other titles that have been successful for Sega in the last few years.
But Sega plans to change all of this by aggressively releasing 16 different console games in just the first three months of 2008. To put this in perspective this means that Sega will actually be releasing more games during this period of time than Activision, Electronic Arts or Ubisoft.
The most surprising thing from this development is that out of the 16 titles that Sega will be releasing, half of them will be entirely brand-new intellectual properties– in other words, no sequels or franchises but brand new games you’ve never seen before.
This is an extraordinary risky proposition for Sega as many game companies shy entirely away from investing in any new IPs, let alone half of their expected title releases. It is a daring move by Sega to try to kick-start the once dominant leader of video games during the Sega Genesis era of the 1990s.
If Sega is successful in this move to innovate and re-invent itself, it may spur on the game industry into reevaluating its rather conservative approach in producing middle-of-the-road video games and franchises.
Hopefully Sega’s experiment will work and prove that new IPs really can be successful in a game industry that is fearful of change.
[via next-gen]
