Sega outlines plan to "strengthen" Persona, Yakuza, and Sonic studios, says "Atlus is an important studio for us to expand Japanese IPs overseas"

Following the recent releases of successful titles, including Metaphor: ReFantazio and Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii, publisher Sega says it's turning its attention back to teams like Atlus and Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio.

As reported by VGC, he company discusses its future plans in its quarterly earnings Q&A, describing what's to come within the next fiscal year, running between April 2025 and March 2026. "The plan is currently being formulated," states Sega, "but we expect the volume of new titles in Full Game to be lower than this fiscal year." In this context, a "Full Game" is one that isn't free-to-play, meaning that Sega won't be releasing as many new titles.

Instead, the company is shifting its focus back to studios with proven IPs like Atlus, the Ryu Ga Gotoku developers, and the Sonic Team. "Atlus is an important studio for us to expand Japanese IPs overseas," says Sega, "and we think it is necessary to strengthen it, and the studios involved in the Sonic and Like a Dragon IPs are also short of staff, and we are looking to reinforce personnel through additional hiring and M&A."

It's good news for us Persona fans – especially when the gaming industry is seemingly suffering from widespread layoffs, with a recent Game Developers Conference report confirming as much and finding that out of around 3,000 respondents, a shocking one in 10 developers were laid off in the past year. Sega's financial results look solid, thankfully, with nearly 20 million copies of new games like Metaphor: ReFantazio selling over this fiscal year's first few quarters.

Metaphor: ReFantazio, in particular, according to Sega, has sales that have been "steadily increasing" over time, with the company hoping to continue "raising awareness of the title in the future" so it can reach even more consumers. New games weren't the only significant sellers, though, with some older releases like Persona 5 Royal, Unicorn Overlord, and "past titles in the Sonic series" having "also contributed to repeat sales."

Here are some of the most exciting new games this year and beyond to keep an eye on.