Sega’s classic gaming catalog has an incredibly devoted following, and it regularly takes advantage of this fact. The old-school Sonic the Hedgehog games have seen more rereleases than one could count. And thanks to the myriad Genesis collections that have come out over the years, fans don’t have to worry about its library potentially becoming lost to time. More recently, Sega has cranked out plenty of remakes and remasters of its most beloved games, with Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania and the unfortunately shoddy Sonic Colors Ultimate standing out as noteworthy examples. It looks like Sega has plenty more where that came from, as it aims to release several titles that fall into the “remake/remaster, spin-off [or] change of theme” category in the near future.
Sega revealed this news when discussing its earnings during the previous fiscal year, which ended on March 2022. According to the company, it managed to see increased profits from game sales compared to those of the 2021 fiscal year, and it predicts that those profits will increase further by March 2023.
Profitable nostalgia
Sega suggests that the “significant increase in titles” released throughout 2021 contributed to this rise in profits, and a notable portion of those games fall into the aforementioned “remake/remaster, spin-off [or] change of theme” category. In the 2022 fiscal year, sales of games in this category totaled around 4 million, which provides a clear incentive for Sega to make more.
One can only wonder what kinds of remakes and remasters Sega currently has planned. Of the possibilities, a simple HD remaster of Jet Set Radio Future would be one of the most welcome, as that game has remained stuck on the original Xbox ever since its release. Of course, such a release would only be worth it if it came out polished, which Sega doesn’t always do consistently, to say the least.
