SEGA has been enjoying a resurgence in Sonic popularity in recent years, thanks to a few good releases on the game side of things, and the surprising success of the first two Sonic films, with a third on the way.
With that, the storied developer and publisher is looking to increase the price of its games to what has become the new standard of $70 or $69.99, from the previous $59.99 standard, which was the price of its recent 3D Sonic experiment, Sonic Frontiers, when it launched.
“In the global marketplace, AAA game titles for console have been sold at $59.99 for many years, but titles sold at $69.99 have appeared in the last year.” the company said during a Q/A period of its full-year earnings report.
“We would like to review the prices of titles that we believe are commensurate with price increases, while also keeping an eye on market conditions.” This doesn’t mean every game coming from SEGA going forward will now be at the new, higher $70 standard, but it is definitely more likely now when a sequel comes for something like Sonic Frontiers, it is likely that it will launch at that higher price.
Beyond that, SEGA is looking to continue expanding its other IP when it comes to film and tv ventures, thanks to the Sonic films success. In many ways, anyone currently enjoying the higher quality of video game adaptations to the big or small screen have the Sonic films to thank, for showing that it not only can be done well, these adaptations can be good, and profitable.
“We would like to take on challenges outside of the Sonic IP should the opportunity arise,” SEGA said in the aforementioned report. “If we can match the timing on the game launches to the release of movies, it would be extremely effective from a marketing perspective and there are also significant benefits, such as increasing awareness of our IP and increasing the number of touch points for customers, as we achieved with the Sonic movie.”
Of course, with game development being as easy to schedule as walking across a tight-rope doing a handstand, we’ll have to see if the plan of releasing movies and games together actually comes to fruition, and if it does, whether one or the other falters in order to hit the schedule.
As Sonic fans have done for years now, they’ll just have to hope for the best.
Source – [VGC]