In an interview published on SEGA’s own website, Second Division Manager Osamu Ohashi shared some lofty goals for the Sonic franchise: surpassing Mario.
The most distinctive feature of the 2nd division is that it produces Sonic, SEGA’s biggest IP. Although it is not that major in Japan, it has achieved top-level results at the U.S. box office as a game IP movie. Simply put, I want to surpass Mario. Sonic is a game that was originally developed to compete with Mario, and it still hasn’t achieved that goal. Our goal is to catch up and surpass Mario because we respect Mario.
I want people to play it all over the world, including Japan, like Mario, and I want the movie to be a bigger hit than Mario. I would like Universal Studios Japan to create a “Sonic Area” as well. That’s our goal for those of us who love Sonic.
The two mascots of SEGA and Nintendo have indeed had a long rivalry, but in terms of critical reception, there’s never been much of a contest, with the Italian plumber handily beating the blue anthropomorphic hedgehog. The most recent example is Super Mario Wonder getting a 9.5 here on Wccftech, while Sonic Superstars only earned a 7.5.
Osamu Ohashi also mentioned that the franchise should branch out into different genres.
Sonic is an action game, but if you keep making the same games, people won’t be able to play them for a long time. Our role is to expand the possibilities of Sonic while challenging various game genres. We need to create games in genres that fit each IP, not just Sonic. Therefore, one of its features is that you can try out all kinds of genres, such as sports, action, and simulation RPG.
Moreover, Ohashi-san revealed that SEGA’s Second Division aims to revive another classic IP to become a similar global hit.
Another important mission of the 2nd Division is the “Legendary IP Strategy” which revives hit IPs in the past. We will create the “Second Sonic” by leveraging the know-how that made Sonic a hit around the world. Of course we want to strengthen the IP, but we also want to build a team that can mass-produce worldwide hit titles following Sonic. I would like to apply the know-how that has made it a hit around the world into a reproducible framework and develop other characters into IPs that can be used around the world.
