Roareye wrote:I don't think so. Namely there are several aspects to the company that I think will see it survive in one capacity or another (outside of a buyout from another company).
Being third party, they don't have costs of hardware anymore, so I don't think the threat looms as large as it once did. Still, they're not in the best of positions by anyone's standard in the home console market. Some of their games sell gangbusters still, Yakuza has picked up from being a mediocre seller to a powerhouse brand globally for example. On top of that SEGA has plenty of brands I personally couldn't care less about that still sell, such as Football Manager, Mario & Sonic Olympics etc. None of these are Mario Odyssey or GTA in terms of sales but they also don't demand the same level of budget. Still, from just a home console perspective, it is likely they're failing - mostly due to a lack of solid releases. SoR4 seems to have sold well, as did Sonic Mania, so there's a chance the higher ups will see this and finally cash in on all those currently unused brands they have locked away.
However SEGA is much more than just the home console market. They have a major stake (arguably the biggest of any company) in the Arcade gaming market. Again, yes, this is a somewhat dwindling market due to lack of innovation, but there are still releases here and there such as the recent new Daytona USA and the fact that almost every arcade STILL has Outrun 2 in it (I live
gb whatsapp by a load of arcades, several still have the two-seater sit-in red/yellow Ferrari's). An OutRun 3 would no doubt smash their brand back into high stakes in the Arcade field, as would a new Virtua Fighter (in Japan at least for VF). Again, they're sitting on brands that would literally just print them unending wads of cash for some reason - easily rectifiable. They still own a large number of SEGA Arcades and the SEGA Joypolis theme park in Japan too, if they sell those off
that is when I will start to worry.
Thirdly
SEGA are connected to Sammy, arguably one of the biggest Pachinko machine brands in the East. And Pachinko is big business. Unless gambling is cured worldwide (or in the East), it's unlikely that side of the company will drop. They may drop the SEGA brand, but I think the global and Arcade recognition of the SEGA brand makes that unlikely. Alternatively they may wind down the SEGA side of the company, I do hope that's not what they're doing (would explain a lack of innovative new product or revival of existing brands) but considering they just launched the Game Gear Micro, my bet is on they're feeling out the market.
SEGA's output is nowhere near as in-your-face and frequent as it once was, and that is concerning. But they only replaced their CEO a couple of years ago who promised to change things around - since then we've had Sonic Mania, Streets of Rage 4, Daytona USA and several Yakuza titles. Hopefully that's just the beginning of a new golden age.