Sega has announced some significant restructuring at the top of its western business’ hierarchy. Shuji Utsumi, who had been serving as Sega of Japan’s co-COO and the head of its game contents and services umbrella, has been appointed as the new President, CEO, and COO of Sega America and Sega Europe. He will take on his new role on April 1.
Utsumi’s long and illustrious career has been marked by a number of notable accomplishments. At Sony, he played a key role in the founding of Sony Computer Entertainment (now known as Sony Interactive Entertainment) and launching the PS1 in North America, before moving to Sega and being involved in the launch of Dreamcast in Western markets. Following that, Utsumi also worked at Disney, where he was involved in the discussions between Disney and Square Enix, which eventually led to Kingdom Hearts. In 2020, he returned to Sega.
In December, Sega announced reboots of five of its classic franchises in Jet Set Radio, Crazy Taxi, Streets of Rage, Shinobi, and Golden Axe. Since then, the company has gone on to confirm that Jet Set Radio will be open world, in addition to revealing new details on Crazy Taxi, Golden Axe, and Shinobi. The company has also confirmed that the next Streets of Rage game will be called Streets of Rage Revolution.
Meanwhile, in the short term, the company has a number of major releases lined up for 2024, including the likes of Like Dragon: Infinite Wealth, Persona 3 Reload, Metaphor: ReFantazio, and Unicorn Overlord.
In November, Utsumi spoke about the success Sega has enjoyed with the Sonic the Hedgehog movies, and said that franchises like Persona and Like Dragon could be next in line for similar adaptations.