What are Sega working on - A look at their studios
Sega ended 2022 with a bang for Sonic Fans, but their entire year was pretty strong, with titles like Total War: Warhammer 3 and Two Point Campus releasing.
2023 should be an even bigger year for the group with new titles in the Like A Dragon series, formally known as Yakuza, more Persona and an all-new Company of Heroes. What else do they have in the works, let us take a look at what we can find out.
Sega Group
CS1 R&D/Asia & Japan Studio Div. 1
Series known to them: Yazkua series, Virtua Fighter series, Super Monkey Ball series
After having a big 2021, 2022 went by without any major release from this division, that does not mean they were quiet though, as they had some big news to share. The first is that over the next two years, there would be three new Yakuza titles released and that the series would also be dropping the Yakuza name. Going forward the series will be known in the West by its Japanese name, Like A Dragon.
The first title to be released with the new name is Like a Dragon: Ishin! a remake of the PlayStation 3/4 title that previously never left Japan. The game is coming out in late February for most platforms, so we should likely hear more about it soon. Later in 2023 we shall see another title release Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name, but beyond 2023 there is no date for it. 2023 will also mark 2 years since the most recent Super Monkey Ball title and 4 years since the series came back, so we could hear more about it this year.
CS2 R&D/Asia & Japan Studio Div. 2
Series known to them: Sonic series, Olympic Games series, Puyo Puyo series
2022 was a big year for this division, because Sonic Frontier sped to release on all platforms, even if one of them should have been ignored. While Sonic Frontiers will keep the content coming in 2023, the rest of the division is a bit of an unknown, well potentially.
2024 will be the year of the Paris Olympics and recent job postings on Sega’s career website have some folks believing that there will be a new game for Mario and Sonic. Honestly given that the series hasn’t missed an Olympics since Beijing and the fact that it is a big money maker, the odds of there not being one this year are microscopic. This year will also mark 3 years since the last Puyo Puyo game released, excluding older titles, so something new in that series could make an apperance.
Div. 3 & SEGA Sapporo Studio
Series known to them: Phantasy Star series
Around 12 months ago, actually to the day of posting this, Sega opened a new studio in Sapporo Japan and rearranged what was Mobile R&D/Asia & Japan Studio Div. 3, to just be the name above. In an interesting turn the Phantasy Star series is now being run out of this group, moving away from the Div 4 team. The division is also responsible for another Yakuza/Like A Dragon title that has never left Japan, Ryu Ga Gotoku Online a collectable card game for mobile.
Since 2021 and the release of Phantasy Star Online 2 New Genesis, the game has been receiving pretty consistent updates, and continues to do so with free events and such, even plenty coming this month. It is possible the team have a larger piece of content coming, if they stick to the 2 year cycle most MMOs do, but that is not something even hinted at right now.
Online R&D/Asia & Japan Studio Div. 4
Series known to them: Pro Soccer Club o Tsukurou! series
It has been many years since there was any release in the Pro Soccer Club o Tsukurou series, but that is really all this group has with them now, with Phantasy Star Online moving to Division 3. Given that change only happened last year, there is no telling what the studio has been up to since then.
Atlus
Creative Department 1st Production (Team Maniax)
Series known to them: Shin Megami Tensei series
Best known for their work on the Shin Megami Tensei series, since the release of SMT 5 in 2021, which is still a Switch exclusive, the studio has been pretty quiet. They did reveal that they had big plans in store for 2022, which likely indicated the release of Soul Hackers 2.
As they tend to release a game a year, or have for a few years now, we might see something from them this year, but the team could also take a year off to continue working on whatever game is next, it is coin flip either way.
Creative Department 2nd Production (P-Studio)
Series known to them: Persona series
Given their moniker is P-Studio, it isn’t a big leap to the realisation that they are working on Persona. With Person 5 Royal hitting additional platforms last year and Persona 3 Portable and Persona 4 Golden hitting more this month, the studio has been very busy over the past year and change.
Excluding the dancing spin-offs, the team tend to release a mainline Persona game every 3-4 years, then the enhanced version a year or so later. If they are sticking to that, Persona 6 - or whatever it’s called, likely won’t arrive until… this year. Persona 5 was released way back in 2016 in Japan and if that cycle holds true, Japan could see the release of the new game later this year, for the west though, it might be another 12 months. They could buck the trend and deliver more dancing titles, but once the ports of Persona 3 and 4 are done, the team will likely focus on whatever mainline entry is next.
Creative Department 3rd Production (Studio Zero)
Series known to them: Catherine, Project Re Fantasy
It has been a while since this group within Atlus released a game, they were responsible for the updated version of Catherine: Full Body that hit most platforms in 2019 and 2020. But since then, the studio has been very quiet, though internally they will have likely been pulled onto other games.
We know that the studio is working on Project Re Fantasy, the last reported news for it came back in 2019, so its been a while. Given the lengthy time between its announcement and now, it would not be a surprise if development had restarted at some point, but as Sega have not said anything, there is no way to know for sure. Either way, unless they opt to reveal the game to the world this year, there isn’t much we should expect from the team.
Sega Europe
Amplitude Studios
Series known to them: Endless series
In 2021 Amplitude Studios released Humankind on PC and Mac, with it due to come to consoles in 2022. November 2022 saw the news that the console version, which consisted of both Xbox and PlayStation gens, would be delayed indefinitely due to unique porting challenges. Anyone who pre-ordered the game on consoles was given a refund and Sega and Amplitude both committed to getting the game out at some point, they just had no idea when.
With that bad news to end the year, things can only get better and 2023 is the year when Endless Dungeon should finally see release, with the game having been revealed back in December 2020. Whilst development progressed during 2022, the developers did keep folks updated, they have just failed to deliver a release date, but hopefully that changes soon.
Creative Assembly
Creative Assembly Horsham
Series known to them: Total War series, Alien: Isolation
After a last minute delay, 2022 finally saw the release of Total War: Warhammer 3, which then saw a lot of content for the game release pretty regularly throughout the year. The surprise though was that they revealed Hyenas, a new multiplayer shooter, not a genre they have been known to work in before. The studio did host the occasional tests once the game was announced, they were just never open to those in Australia.
You would think that supporting their Total War series and the reveal of a new multiplayer shooter in Hyenas would be enough for the studio, but you would be wrong. In May 2022 the company revealed that they were working on “a new project that would create unforgettable experiences” but since then, there has been no word further on it, outside of hiring for it.
Creative Assembly SOFIA
Series known to them: Total War Troy
In 2017, Creative Assembly spun up a support studio in Sofia, Bulgaria and for a few years, they created content for a host of the games the studio was working on. In 2020 they actually got to ship a game all their own in Total War Troy, which got a lot of attention when it was made free on the Epic Game Store for the first 24 hours of its release. Since then the studio has been silent, until last August.
In August of 2022, the Sofia arm was revealed to be working on a new game, this is not Hyenas or the other new game, this is a third new game. All that has been revealed so far is that the game is an action title, but given they are hiring like mad in the studio, it is unlikely we will see anything of it this year.
Hardlight
Series known to them: Crazy Taxi: City Rush, Sonic Dash
The studio has not released a new game since 2020’s Two Point Hospital, specifically the console port, their last original titles were in 2019 for Apple Arcade. The studio has been mostly working on supporting Sonic Forces and Sonic Dash, with seasonal content updates.
The studio are looking for a bunch of artists for their next game, we just have no idea what that game is, but as always, given the studio is a mobile game developer first, we likely won’t hear anything until its almost out.
Relic Entertainment
Series known to them: Company of Heroes series, Dawn of War series
After releasing Age of Empires 4 in 2021, many assumed that they would be a quiet studio for a while, outside of supporting that title with updates as needed. However, before Age of Empires 4 even released, they announced that Company of Heroes 3 was coming and would release in 2022. At the end of 2022 the game was delayed for a few more months, in order to give them more time to polish the experience. We got to play it last year and we liked it. It was during The Game Awards 2022 that the studio revealed that it was also coming to consoles in later 2023.
February 2023 will see the release of the game, baring any additional delays, so all of their announcements over the next month and change will be focused on that. Once the PC release is out, expect them to focus on updates for it, whilst working on the console release. 2023 is all about Company of Heroes, though it is possible that the studio is also doing the port work of Age of Empires 4, bringing it to Xbox later in 2023, but there is no confirmation on who is doing that.
Sports Interactive
Series known to them: Football Manager series
2022 saw the team release Football Manager 2023 for all platforms, except PlayStation and that is likely to be repeated again in 2023, except it will be Football Manager 2024 and should hit all platforms. While the name is the same, they actually made three different versions of the game, Football Manager 2023 hit Xbox, Football Manager 2023 Mobile hit iOS and Android and then Football Manager 2023 Touched released for Switch and Apple Arcade.
Given the spread of titles, expect the same formular to take place in 2023. The studio could buck trends though and dive back into NHL Eastside Hockey Manager, which hasn’t seen a release since 2015, but that is unlikely.
Two Point Studios
Series known to them: Two Point Hospital, Two Point Campus
2022 saw the release of Two Point Campus, after a brief delay and since the game shipped the studio has released a fair chunk of content for it. From new lessons to cheesy goodness, there was a lot and of course, a whole host of fixes and improvements, they were very busy.
2023 should see them keep that pace, but while nothing is confirmed, Two Point Hospital got a lot of expansion packs, even after Two Point Campus was announced. If the studio keep that pace going, expect to see some investment into education later this year, we just have to wait to see how it will happen.
So there you have it. All the studios that are owned by Sega, at least that we publicly know about. Do you think we are right in our guesses, or are we way off base? Sound out in the comments
