• July 25, 2003    Home > Games News > Article

    Sega Studio Mergers: Full Details

    We examine the way in which Sega's studios will be merging, and bring you analysis of what each new team will be up to. New details inside.

    Studio Power: Sega Japan
    Following Sega Corporation's conference earlier this week, more specific details have emerged concerning how Sega's existing studios will be merged. Hisao Oguchi, the recently appointed president of the mega-publisher announced the changes to make Sega's research and development processes more efficient, promising sustainable profitability and doubling their sales performance over the next five years.

    For Sega fans, the details of how the studios are merging is a huge point of interest, with the teams combining key talent and franchises to offer some incredible videogames - the possibilities are pretty exciting.


    Naka: Will merge Sonic Team with Mizuguchi's UGA studio.
    Sonic Team and United Game Artists - The studio responsible for Sonic, Billy Hatcher and NiGHTS is merging with Mizuguchi's UGA, the people who brought you Rez, Space Channel 5, to concentrate on titles for the younger audience. Naka's established franchises, combined with the innovation found in UGA titles, should make for some great projects. In our recent discussion with Tetsuya Mizuguchi, the president of UGA, he said he would be interested in making a sequel to Rez, as he wasn't satisfied with the sales performance of the original.


    Oguchi: His old Hitmaker team will combine with Sega Rosso.
    Hitmaker and Sega Rosso - The studio previously headed up by Oguchi which brought you Crazy Taxi, Power Smash and Virtual On, is to merge with the team responsible for hits such as the Sega Rally series and Initial D to concentrate on original titles. However, we know that Sega Rally 3, which has been complete since January and pending license finalisation, will also be released by this studio.


    Oba: The crazy guy will merge with Nakagawa's team at WOW.
    WOW Entertainment and Overworks - Nakagawa's studio, which brought fans House of the Dead and Sega GT, will merge with Oba-san's Overworks, to focus on next generation games for all ages. Titles such as Kunoichi, the follow up to Overworks' Shinobi, fall into this category and will be published by the new studio. WOW-originated projects such as Sega GT Online will obviously be included in the mix as well.


    Nagoshi: Dream merger with equally talented Kawagoe and co. from Smilebit.
    Amusement Vision and Smilebit - a killer combination that sees Nagoshi-san's popular division of F-Zero, Monkey Ball and Virtua Striker fame, merge with the team that brought you the Panzer Dragoon series. This team will focus on epic and film-style titles, presumably in the style of Panzer Dragoon. Having built the fundamentals of arcade polygon visuals almost single-handedly, Nagoshi remains one of the most talented people at the company, and this combined studio cannot fail to impress moving forwards.


    Suzuki: Will still oversee AM2 and other studios.
    Sega-AM2 - the only studio that will remain standalone, will focus on fighting games such as the forthcoming Fighting Vipers 3 and more Virtua Fighter games, along with games for Sega 'otaku' like Virtua Cop 3 and Outrun 2. Under the direction of newly appointed AM2 boss Hiroshi Kataoka, AM2 remains strong. And despite the news surrounding New Studio 2 (see below), supposedly headed by Suzuki and to focus on hit game series, it is thought that Shenmue III will remain with AM2 and Kataoka.

    New Studio 1 - the first of two new, as yet unnamed studios, to focus on sports titles. This opens several questions, such as the fate of Sega's US-based Visual Concepts which focuses on sport, and whether sports games from other studios such as Power Smash / Virtua Tennis from Hitmaker, will finally be transferred to this new team. Nobody at Sega has an answer to these questions just yet.

    New Studio 2 - reportedly the new project of Yu Suzuki, who has been promoted to Non Executive Board Director and leaving direction of AM2 down to Kataoka, this studio will be dedicated to hit game series.

    However, it has been suggested that the whole prospect of this second studio might be some kind of translation error, since Suzuki's new role at Sega is to oversee all creative research and development, and the Shenmue series (which anyone would immediately associate with the focus of this supposed studio) is almost certainly still an AM2 project. The likely scenario is that this studio is in fact aiming for some entirely new big-hit Sega titles, with Yu leaving Shenmue to Kataoka. We will keep you posted on this one, as we remain suspicious.

    Nobody at Sega has answers to the questions raised here regarding the new studios, Visual Concepts, nor the status of WaveMaster (which we assume is to remain in-tact as Sega's primary sound studio) - no matter how senior the Sega employee you ask. The reason for this, which is currently an accepted fact inside Sega Japan - is that it's all still up in the air. Details are still being finalised, and these mergers are the first stage or the re-organisation plan.

    The changes are not going to be effective until October 1, 2003 - so there is still plenty of time for Oguchi, Suzuki, Nagoshi and Naka (the killer executive team that always should have been!) to work everything out.

    We'll keep you fully updated on everything that happens at Sega. I think we all know why.

    Adam Doree
    Director, Kikizo.com

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