On the heels of the success of its Sonic the Hedgehog movies, Sega revealed that it would like to adapt more of its franchises into movies. Sega COO Shuji Utsumi, speaking with CNBC, mentioned Persona as well as the Like a Dragon franchises as potential targets for movie adaptations.
Talking about the success seen by Sonic the Hedgehog thanks to the movies and the recent slate of games, as well as a host of collaborations, Utsumi talks about the franchise, and how Sonic is being revived.
“We just revived Sonic in a big way, not only through games but also movies and TV shows, and actually Sonic is in Roblox too,” Utsumi said. “And we’re working closely now with Lego. So now Sonic is reviving.”
“We have other major IPs and, I cannot say too much about it but we are thinking of reviving other classical Sega IPs too,” said Utsumi. “Right now there are two big IPs other than Sonic. One is Persona. And also our Yakuza titles. Yakuza is really unique. But that big one is also coming next year too.”
“But also, as I say, we are trying to be in a lot of different kinds of business areas, like Roblox, movies. All these IPs can be somewhere else other than games soon.”
In mentioning Yakuza, Utsumi is, of course, talking about the Like a Dragon franchise, which recently saw its name changed from the traditional Yakuza titles to Like a Dragon with the release of Like a Dragon: Ishin! earlier this year.
Sega is currently gearing up for the release of its next major Like a Dragon game, Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth. The company is also getting ready to release its next game in the Persona franchise, Persona 3 Reload, which is essentially a complete remake of the original Persona 3.
