Sega plans shift to influencers after Sonic and Shinobi sales disappoint, despite strong reviews
Plus, Sega has two unannounced ‘flagship IP’ games coming soon
Sega says sales of its 2025 games, Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds and Shinobi: Art of Vengeance, failed to meet its expectations and reiterated plans to revamp its marketing efforts.
In its latest business report, the Japanese publisher highlighted the two titles as games that have fallen short of its expectations, despite strong reviews from critics and users.
CrossWorlds, which sold more than 1 million units at launch, has a Metacritic score of 82 and a user score of 8.6, while Shinobi has a Metacritic score of 87 and a user score of 8.3.
Sega said the underperformance of the two titles highlighted a need for the company to update its sales and marketing approach. Notably, Sega plans to globalize its publishing structure and shift its focus from targeted advertising more to “fandom”, celebrities, and influencers.
The company is planning a “significant transformation” in both “organizational structure and mindset” towards “building and expanding Fandom that drives sales”, it said, and focusing on “the expansion of third-party recommendations, including those from influencers and users”.
This follows comments from the company earlier this year that it feels it’s “lagging” in initiatives such as digital sales and data-driven marketing, areas in which other big Japanese game makers, such as Capcom, excel.
Sega said it’s currently reviewing its publishing organization, which is divided by region, and will transition to a structure with a more unified global strategy.
Elsewhere in the business report, Sega says it’s planning to release two new titles from its flagship IPs by March 31, 2027, in addition to already announced titles, Stranger than Heaven and Personal 4 Revival.
Sega has recently announced a strong lineup of titles, including Crazy Taxi: World Tour, Virtua Fighter Crossroads, Persona 6, Total War: Warhammer 40,000, Total War: Medieval III, and Alien Isolation 2.
Sega and industry veteran Shuji Utsumi took over as president in 2024, and has notably put efforts into globalizing the company’s development approach, following a prolonged period when most of its successes were coming out of Europe.
