Sega has announced that it has canceled its "Super Game" initiative following its games as a service struggles, but the rebooted Crazy Taxi and Jet Set Radio games are still coming.
In its latest financial results, a slide titled "Reviewed the strategic positioning of GaaS" details that the company's free-to-play titles like Sonic Rumble Party struggled after releasing. Alongside this is a note, which says: "Decided to cancel Super Game."
This was an initiative first announced back in 2021, with Sega positioning it alongside Creative Assembly's Hyenas – which was also canceled despite being quite fun – with word that Crazy Taxi and Jet Set Radio were being rebooted to chase the Fortnite trend.
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In 2023, current Sega president Shuji Utsumi teased that "we are also making steady headway in development of the 'Super Game' that we are seeking to create in the medium to long term," and added: "As the name implies, a 'Super Game' involves the concept of a game that stands head and shoulders above normal games. I encourage stakeholders to look forward to the fruit of our efforts, which include R&D to create a game that builds a whole worldview involving the entire gaming ecosystem, including not only players but also streamers who stream the game and their viewers."
Back to today, and Sega notes that it has lowered the priority of free-to-play titles, and says "some of F2P development personnel (over 100 people) have already been transferred to Full Game development team focusing on the mainstay IPs." And, despite Crazy Taxi and Jet Set Radio being pegged to lead the Super Game charge, the titles announced as part of its "Power Surge" reveal at The Game Awards 2023 appear to still be coming. Crazy Taxi and Jet Set Radio are both listed as upcoming titles alongside Golden Axe and Streets of Rage.
As refreshing as it is that a company is seeing the writing on the walls with games as a service instead of giving us the next Concord or Highguard, I can't help but think about what had already been invested into the "Super Game" in the past half a decade that Sega has been talking about it, and the games that could've been made in the meantime. At the very least, Sega has been releasing a steady stream of quality single-player games too over the years, and it's not a Sony situation where the games people actually want to play take 40 years to come out while the publisher continues chasing doomed live service projects.
Sega president says "reviving" the Sonic maker will be "the greatest achievement in my career," despite also working on the first PlayStation and helping make Kingdom Hearts happen.
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