SEGA released their recent Q&A session for investors for their latest financial results briefing and talked a bit more about Sonic Frontiers and their ambitions for a new 3D Sonic game. First the game aspect Metascore reached out to SEGA admitting that the score was lower than they expected despite it being “widely accepted (the game) by a lot of people around the world” and that they would be building on the game’s “recently announced DLC” along with promoting “Sonic Prime , the third Sonic movie and sales opportunities.” SEGA also admitted that overall development costs have spiraled and with their next 3D Sonic game, they are “continuing with a bigger budget, even from the basic research stage.”
Q: Although the Metacritic score for Sonic Frontiers isn’t as high as hoped, we know it’s been well received by fans. How do you rate the quality of this title?
A: It’s true that the Metacritic score was a bit lower than we expected, but the user score was very high. With this, we believe we have found a title that is widely accepted by many people around the world. It is to be believed that we can increase repeat sales of Sonic Frontiers through pricing, discounts and the recently announced DLC. We plan to further promote the Sonic franchise in the future, such as the release of Sonic Prime, the third Sonic movie, and merchandising opportunities.
Q: Even though you’ve been selling for Sonic Frontiers, the average unit price hasn’t gone down that much. Tell us your future sales strategy.
A: We are proceeding with this title based on the strategic sales plan. We did intensive promotions around the release in November, and as recently announced, we have managed to achieve good results so far. A temporary sale was held around Black Friday, but the sale price has since returned to normal. We were able to achieve these results while maintaining a certain level of quality, and the number of units sold greatly exceeded our original estimate. In the long term, we will continue to sell based on sales strategies such as pricing, promotions and development of further DLCs.
Q: With the strong performance of Sonic Frontiers and other global titles, will you be focusing more on products like it in the future?
A: We expect the cost of developing new titles to increase even more in the future. We will strive to ensure solid quality in the development of major titles from our existing franchises. However, development labor costs will rise due to the impact of the global external environment and we expect this trend to continue for the foreseeable future. Because it is necessary to accept these challenges for major titles, we are proceeding with a larger budget, even from the basic research stage. Therefore, we assume that development costs for future new titles will rise accordingly.
Q: Given your earnings forecast for this fiscal year and the current market environment, I imagine there will be a lot of uncertainty around the next fiscal year. How do you plan to increase repeat sales during the current period and what is the status of new titles?
A: Because there were many new titles in the previous fiscal year, we took the resell strategy into our plan for this fiscal year, and it continues to fall short of our forecasts. On the other hand, despite the not very favorable market environment, we managed to maintain the same level of repeat sales as in the previous fiscal year. We believe that the prospects are somewhat clear, given that titles that performed well this term, such as Sonic Frontiers, and with the upcoming DLC, we believe that its sales will increase even more. We also consider sales strategies. New works are planned for Like a Dragon series, HYEN, and more. Keep your eyes open for upcoming titles.
