Sega is the latest publisher to make its views about physical media clear, in the wake of Sony’s controversial decision to kill off the manufacture and sale of discs by 2028. The president of the Japanese publisher, Shuji Utsumi, noted that he believes physical media is still important, though digital distribution is “crucial”, mostly thanks to the “steadily increasing” number of people playing on PC.
“When it comes to titles we call ‘full games’ for consoles and PCs, we believe that a digital shift is crucial,” he notes in an interview with Japanese publication Famitsu. "Of course, consoles are important, but the proportion of people who play on PCs is steadily increasing. Even in areas where consoles are not widely available, there are many people who say, 'I can play it on PC.
“In order to cultivate that market, we believe it is important to strengthen our digitalisation. We tend to think from a physical perspective, so I think we need to be more digitally conscious and become more global.”
He then draws on Sega’s own legacy, noting that - once upon a time - the company was in the hardware market itself. It learned some pretty important lessons back then, and since dropping out of the hardware race, Sega has found massive success as a publisher. This seems to colour Utsumi’s belief in physical media.
“We were originally a platform provider, and of course, we still value the culture of physical media. Rather than completely abandoning that, we are currently challenging ourselves to shift so that we can think about and act on the important aspects of digital media in parallel.”
Given the response to Sony and PlayStation’s decision to move away from physical media altogether, this is quite refreshing. Many have outlined how a digital-only future could impact consumer rights, whilst others have begun petitioning Sony in the hopes the company will change its mind. The hardware giant seems immovable in its stance at the moment, however, likely emboldened by the fact that even the EU will be unable to influence its decision.
Other creators have begun weighing in on the matter, too, with the most recent comments coming from the creator of the RPG series, Disgaea. Sohei Niikawa believes that if PlayStation kills physical media, it should “get rid of the hardware” too.
Right up until they don’t. I remember Android phone makers championing the 3.5mm headphone jacks when Apple decided not to have them anymore. Now Samsung and Google don’t have them either.
I mean, good for Sega, but I have a hard time not expecting them to just be saying this for P.R.
I mean Sega doesn’t even make consoles anymore, so it’s not like they can make a move one way or the other.
Motorola would never betray me!
…for the next year or two…
Yeah they’ve already done away with the headphone jack on their mid-high end phones. They still have a microSD slot though, and they’re in talks with GrapheneOS to release a device. Oh and the bootloader is still unlockable, unlike Samsung.
DREAMCAST 2 OR WE RIOT
It would be wild if Sega took another stab at hardware
Hypothetically, if some of these companies start just making little steam machine style computers, with their own Linux distro and themes and etc, do you think they would sell? Like the mini-retro console craze from a few years ago, but just modern computers.
Sell them basically as a console, in this case maybe default to Sega’s store, but it’s still just a Linux PC. Install steam if you want. But out of the box it looks and feels like a sega console. And maybe just promise that it’ll play any game they make for the next 10 years. Which really wouldn’t be much of a promise, just a defined “minimum specs” target for them.
Sega still has a lot of fans, which is why I think something like that could work for them, and it’s way less commitment than making their own walled garden console like they used to do. They wouldn’t be competing for exclusives or even work with other devs and publishers for ports. Just a fun themed pc to get some sega hardware out there again.
Imagine if they all banded together behind FOSS and sold directly to the consumer, each as a plugin to a client like OpengamepadUI. Inputplumber is also developing Steam API like features. Imagine a Steam Controller with a VMU !
If the hardware market wasn’t so bonkers they might do that but that’s not the reality we live in.
Oh yeah, now would be a terrible time to do something like that. But when* the hardware market chills out
If they make physical exclusive games, unique hardware, and at a decent price, maybe. But if they essentially just make a Sega branded Steam Machine, I see no point. If a console does nothing to differentiate itself from the rest of the market, there’s no reason to really get it over a PC.
That’s the problem Xbox is having and is the same one Playstation is about to have when it drops the disc drive. Look at what Xbox did with the ROG ally. Instead of making an actual unique Xbox device, they just took something that already existed and slapped their branding on it. What reason would anyone ever really have to go for that instead of a less restricted option for cheaper?
The Xbox is almost the exact opposite of what I’m talking about, and I think that’s their problem. There’s nothing special about it, it has no exclusives, and it doesn’t have access to the practically infinite number of pc games, mods, emulators, etc.
So what I’m proposing is just a prebuilt pc. A prebuilt pc with a unique case, distro, and maybe a cartridge slot of some description. And with the cultural cache of a company like sega, I think it could easily earn its spot as a prebuilt living room gaming and media pc, much like the steam machine.
I think just a prebuilt PC would be pretty niche for the average person. I think they’d need to do something a little more innovative to compete. A cart slot could be one part that could help it’s appeal. But I think they’d need to give it a controller and make exclusives for it. And maybe include some new kind of feature that other systems don’t have. If it’s just a PC in a Sega case, unless it’s a great price, the only reason to really get one would be nostalgia.
I think I might actually buy it. I’d love to see them give it another go. The market at the time they were in it was a constant arms race to push boundaries. That proved to be very challenging for them, but they always had pretty wild ideas. They weren’t afraid to take risks. I think the current industry could use some fresh ideas and competition. Kinda like how Atari is trying out some new things.
Dreamcast successor when?
Bonus points if it runs Linux by default.
Is that why every single Sega title on Switch 2 is a Game Key Card?
“Of course, consoles are important, but the proportion of people who play on PCs is steadily increasing. Even in areas where consoles are not widely available, there are many people who say, ‘I can play it on PC.’”
This quote hits a little different when you know that Sega sells almost everything digitally for PC in the Americas and Europe, but virtually nothing within Japan and other selected countries.
They do not care about making their games available to customers. They care about profits. Overseas, the PC segment is big enough to be worth pursuing. In some countries it outstrips the console segment. But in Japan it’s small enough that it makes more sense not to support PC, but rather to try to keep customers locked in to consoles, where they have tighter control and less competition.
Maybe Sega isn’t the best company to be making this point.
This just sounds like SEGA is saying they want to get rid of physical media too. “Shift to digital” just means “end physical,” just like PlayStation.
I hope this points towards what I think is going to happen, which is an increased push for physical media special/collectors editions.
Maybe even a slight chance of seeing physical PC games in places like GameStop again.
I don’t expect it to ever be mainstream, and probably shouldn’t even expect restocks of most games, but just as a collectors item for fans and collectors. And I think that does fit in with the current business model of places like GameStop, which is mostly collectibles sales.
