In recent years, there has been a surge of Japanese game companies expanding their presence in Southeast Asia and SEGA is one of them, from their recent establishment of a Singapore subsidiary to their exhibitions in many regional gaming conventions such as Comic Fiesta, Thailand Game Show, Indonesia Comic Con and more.

Active for more than 60 years, SEGA is one of the most notable gaming companies in the world, shaping the childhood of many with their consoles from the 1980s to 2000s and is best known for many acclaimed franchises such as the Sonic series, Like a Dragon series, and the Persona series by ATLUS, just to name a few.

We were fortunate to have an opportunity to have a conversation with Yoshinori Akiyama, the Managing Director of SEGA Singapore as we discussed SEGA’s presence in Southeast Asia and what the future holds.

Yoshinori Akiyama is a veteran who has been in the industry for more than 20 years, first started his career in publisher relations at PlayStation for more than 6 years before being posted to Hong Kong for sales and channel management, when he became much involved in the Southeast Asia business. After Hong Kong, he went back to the publisher relations team in Shanghai, working alongside Chinese gaming giants such as Perfect World, Tencent, and miHoYo.

Akiyama went back to Japan in 2020 and joined SEGA in July 2022 as the Head of Sales in Asia, where he oversaw the console PC sales, including downloads in the region. In October 2022, Akiyama was appointed as Managing Director of SEGA Singapore when it was established.

Establishing in Singapore and Managing Culture

SEGA Singapore was established in 2022, shortly right after the COVID-19 pandemic and that certainly would make for a challenge to form new teams.

When asked about the difficulties when establishing SEGA Singapore, Akiyama responded “hiring talent and building a team with the right culture can be very challenging. We want to get a team with experience in managing the multi-platform nature of SEGA games as well as the right mindset. During the period when we were hiring, there was various restructuring among the big technological and gaming companies. So, we were quite fortunate and blessed to have the current team we have.”

“Balancing PnL (Profit and Loss) while taking strides towards success is an art. Numbers always come with a cost. There are various costs involved in establishing a new office, and with the rental hikes in Singapore, it is very expensive. This can be quite challenging for expansion and relocation so we are cautious about our spending while making sure that we’re growing our presence in Southeast Asia.”

Culture can exhibit significant changes across regions, and SEGA, a Japanese company venturing into establishing an office in Singapore is likely to encounter some cultural conflicts.

When it comes to the work culture, Akiyama said “SEGA Headquarters is situated in Japan and has a rich history rooted in Japanese culture and the local market. Meanwhile, my team here, used to work with American companies such as Activision and Twitch, so the mindset is quite different. We spent almost a year adjusting that mindset from both my team and the headquarters.”

In terms of growth and SEGA’s goals in Southeast Asia, Akiyama highlighted the importance of mobile games in the region, mentioning Hatsune Miku: Colorful Stage! as well as noting more mobile titles are coming. While the console and PC market is still a large part of SEGA’s business, the company is showcasing its ambition in entering the global mobile market and expanding its mobile business to reach a broader audience of mobile players worldwide.

SEGA compared to Other Publishers

As mentioned earlier, Akiyama is an industry veteran who has worked with Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE), also known as PlayStation, for around 17 years. Knowing his colourful career, we asked Akiyama about the difference in work culture between the two gaming giants, SIE and SEGA. To which, Akiyama replied, “In short, platform versus publisher”.

“SIE also develops and publishes games, but the way a platform company works when compared to a pure game publisher thinks and works is very different. SEGA has a lot of experience in the platform business back in the 90s, and we adopted it for better game development and publishing, which makes us unique compared to other gaming companies.”

Aside from experience in the platform business, Akiyama also further elaborates on the difference between SEGA and other companies, noting that speed is one of SEGA’s biggest strengths. He describes SEGA as fast and aggressive, making decisions swiftly as compared to other publishers around the world. “Maybe it’s the Sonic effect,” Akiyama said jokingly.

With over 60 years of history, SEGA also owns a large pool of IPs, and Akiyama mentioned that the company would utilize their assets for various fields and transmedia, including merchandise, movies, anime, game collaborations, and many more, in ways that constantly unlock opportunities for the publisher.

Joy and Positivity from Fans 

Over the last year, SEGA has been making its presence known throughout Southeast Asia as mentioned earlier, frequently making appearances at exhibitions with huge regional gaming conventions for fans to visit and experience playable demos of upcoming titles. Given their active pursuit of growing their presence, we wondered how was the reception over the various exhibitions they have organized.

“The feedback was very positive,” Akiyama said. “We joined four events in four different countries between October to December and we had more than 5,000 people trying out our games, such as Sonic Superstars, Persona 3 Reload, and Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, for example.”

“We did surveys during the shows and thousands of users participated. Majority of the comments were about how they appreciate SEGA to be here. As you know, not many Japanese gaming companies would join events in Southeast Asia, maybe Thailand Game Show, but not in Comic Fiesta Malaysia, Indonesia Comic Con, or so on. So, a lot of fans came to us and took photos and shared their appreciation for SEGA. I think the feedbacks were generally good and we also do appreciate fans who come down to those events.”

Collaboration Events in SEA

Regional game shows are not the only place where SEGA establishes its presence as we have seen the company collaborating with brands in the Philippines, making a Persona 5 Tactica café a reality and greeting fans with a Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth launch event.

While the Philippines looks to be having a lot of special events, Akiyama assured that SEGA is not only focusing on one country but also looking for event opportunities in other countries within Southeast Asia.

“Philippines is an important market for us and there are always business priorities. The events that happened in the Philippines are just that we felt would be suitable for the market but we are not only focusing on the Philippines. Say maybe if we had a Sonic event, we might do it in Singapore, Thailand, or Malaysia as it suits.”

Persona 3 Reload & Upcoming Titles

During the first few weeks of the highly anticipated launch of Persona 3 Reload, the physical copies for the Southeast Asia version were unfortunately shipped in the wrong language, and fans would receive a Chinese version instead of an English version as promised.

When asked if Akiyama had any comment on the situation, he stated “It was a bad arrangement from us, that is for sure. We were trying to at least serve the fans with a game code first, before preparing the physical goods for exchange at retailers. For that, we do apologize for what happened and hope that users can get their physical copies as soon as possible. We’re trying our best to replenish the stocks as swiftly as we can.”

Aside from the recent release of big titles such as Persona 3 Reload and Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, SEGA has also multiple upcoming games launching this year. Among the titles, including the likes of Unicorn Overlord, a new tactical RPG by ATLUS x Vanillaware coming March 8th, 2024, and the recently announced Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance, an enhanced edition of the critically acclaimed 2021 RPG which will be available on multiple platforms this time.

Regarding if there is anything to share about the aforementioned titles, Akiyama smiled and said “We developed the games and the quality is looking good. That is what I am quite sure about and this is all I can say for now. Please stay tuned for the latest news. More information will be announced soon.”

Future of SEGA in Southeast Asia 

As we mentioned, SEGA Singapore was established only about a year but they are already hard at work in expanding the company’s presence throughout Southeast Asia. When it comes to the Southeast Asian market, Akiyama has this to say:

“We see huge potential in the Southeast Asian market, and we have not done much in this region in the past. We’re only, you know, a one-year-old company as SEGA Singapore but we will be engaging and providing better services, better experiences for users in Southeast Asia. Please stay tuned for all the news we will be announcing in the near future.”

Here concludes the interview. We would like to thank Akiyama for taking the time to answer our questions with insightful answers and SEGA Singapore for this wonderful interview opportunity.

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