Image credit: Sega
The recently announced Sega Universe project from the storied gaming publisher looks to be tapping into the long-forgotten franchises from its history. While you may think of Sega nowadays purely for Sonic the Hedgehog, Yakuza, Total War, or Persona, it was once a major player in the landscape, with iconic game series and leading hardware. It’s been decades, but this new initiative could bring dormant IP back to life.
What is Sega Universe?
“No Old, Stay Gold” is the mission statement of Sega Universe, with the Japanese game company triumphantly announcing that the “diverse titles Sega has released are not relics of the past”. But which games does it mean? It specifically outlines a few key franchises by name: Fantasy Zone, OutRun, Streets of Rage, Rent a Hero, Guardian Heroes, Nights, Dynamite Deka, Sakura Wars, and SGGG.
The introduction states, “With changing eras, some things were lost. Still, there is an impulse that never changed. A glare that never faded.” It’s as poetic as it is vague, hinting that the Sega of old could triumphantly return and give us back brand new exclusive games from those aforementioned licenses. We’ve seen many retro revivals over the years, even from Sega itself, such as last year’s Shinobi: Art of Vengeance, showing that there’s still life in otherwise inactive IP to reawaken, which begs the question of exactly how far this new Sega Universe initiative could go in the near future.
Which other franchises could Sega Universe resurrect?
While Sega Universe makes obvious callbacks to the company’s early franchises (primarily those rooted in the 1980s), it leaves a massive gap for some of its largest names from after this time period. You only need to look as far as Phantasy Star, Skies of Arcadia, Crazy Taxi, Jet Set Radio, Vectorman, Ristar, and Space Channel 5 to know how deep the well could be tapped. The Saturn and Dreamcast are (arguably) just as iconic as the Genesis, with series that deserve a revisit, themselves all verging towards the three-decade mark.
How Sega Universe could be successful
To speculate on where Sega Universe could go, it’s first important to look at the current state of those named game series from which it pulls its namesake. We can do so in a linear order to best create a throughline. Fantasy Zone was released for the Master System in 1986, as a flagship game for the 8-bit console. It spawned a few sequels, but the IP has been dormant since 1999. OutRun pioneered a near-3D driving aesthetic, which was revolutionary for the time and spawned a few sequels, including a bona fide reimagining two decades ago, OutRun 2006: Coast 2 Coast, to give it the full title, before being iced. Rent a Hero debuted in 1991 as a solid action RPG, before being remade for the Dreamcast in 2000. It hasn’t resurfaced since.
You’re starting to get the point here, so I won’t agonize over any further examples. There is one outlier, though, and that’s the dedication to bringing back Streets of Rage. The initiative doesn’t quite carry the same weight in this regard, given that we received a new game in the storied beat-’em-up sidescrolling franchise six years ago with 2020’s Streets of Rage 4. Developed and published by DotEmu, with support from Lizardcube and Guard Crush Games, it garnered rave reviews with an average Metacritic score of 84 and sold over 2.5 million copies.
In other words, there’s potential for Sega Universe to spark a similar level of critical and commercial success out of its other once-dormant series, even if the devotion to Streets of Rage has already been covered. As previously touched upon, there’s a wealth of other franchises to draw from, and that’s where things get incredibly exciting. A new OutRun racing game could be a fully open-world game similar to Forza Horizon; we could finally get that third Nights game, following the cancellation of Air Nights and Nights – Twilight Adventures. The sky really could be the limit here, as it’s a lovely idea.
Sega Universe is just a proposal, not a promise
For as whimsical and magical as Sega Universe sounds like for those of us who grew up playing the Genesis and remember its old IP well, you have to remember that this is (ultimately) just a rough outline, and not a guarantee or promise of new franchise entries. It’s the mid-2020s; game delays, cancellations, and skyrocketing budgets are abound, and as idealic as it would be to get brand-new bona fide entries in some of our favorite franchises after so long, we have to face the reality that it may never happen.
Nostalgia is incredibly powerful. People clearly remember the Sega of old, as do I, as I write this. In the official X post, dozens of people are already asking for Shenmue, Alex Kidd, ChuChu Rocket, and Daytona USA, among others. While Sega hasn’t made hardware in over two decades, and it’s now better known for Sonic, Yakuza, and Total War, this announcement breathes a little hope that we could be returning to the good old days. I’m not convinced, personally, but it’s such a wholesome endeavor to embark on that I can’t help but blissfully try to manifest it into existence. Alongside a timeline where NEOGEO returns and retro revivals finally get the respect they deserve.
FAQs
Sega Universe is a new initiative that aims to revive old franchises for the modern era.
The Sega Dreamcast was defeated by Sony’s PS2 and, to a lesser extent, Microsoft’s Xbox. It was due to their better software and multimedia functionality.
The Sega Saturn is widely considered a financial flop and marked the beginning of the end for the company as a hardware developer, due to its high price tag and lack of game support.
The best-selling Sega game of all time is Sonic the Hedgehog for the Genesis, which sold over 15 million copies. It spawned one of the biggest franchises, which continues to go strong to this day.
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