Jeffery: Sega Not Just 'The Sonic Company'

Author: by Brandon Sheffield, Staff

Talking to Gamasutra as part of a wide-ranging interview, Sega's U.S. CEO Simon Jeffery has been discussing the Sonic The Hedgehog franchise, suggesting that mascot gaming isn't "particularly relevant" to today's market, and adding: "I would love for Sega to not be thought of as the Sonic company." Sega, which has been successfully diversifying of late with strong sales for the Iron Man game, as well as Western studio acquisitions including Secret Level and The Creative Assembly, has long been associated with the hedgehog mascot. As part of the interview, former LucasArts president Jeffery explained what the company has been trying to do with the iconic game character: "I think the Japanese side, at Sonic Team, have realized that old Sonic doesn't really gel with today's consumer and today's kids especially. We needed to do something to make something more appealing. That, and the market's gotten a lot more competitive, and Nintendo's success recently has been outstanding. So it was a collaborative effort with western Sega and Sonic Team in Japan to do some reinvention. Part of that reinvention is also being completely made in the west with stuff like Sonic Chronicles being built by BioWare on the DS. That was something we had to strongly petition to Japanese management to allow us to do, but when they did, it's actually a great process." In addition, when asked how important he feels mascot branding is, going forward - given that it's changed a lot since the days when Sonic was a key brand behind the Sega Genesis hardware - Jeffery added: "Yeah, I don't think mascot branding is particularly relevant in today's gaming market, to be honest. There's very, very few. Nintendo has Mario, but they probably don't like the fact that people always associate them with Mario when they've got all these other games and brands and characters. I would love for Sega to not be thought of as the Sonic company. I think we probably will be for a little while, but the more content that we bring out that's successful in other areas, the better." You can now read the full Gamasutra interview with Jeffery, including lots more on the transformation of the company's global development efforts, its acquisition of studios, and the importance of big-name talent to its longevity and success.