A recent meeting was held between Sega Sammy and its investors, with the presentation discussing the various games released throughout 2021 and with the company's future. Many of the company's games were mentioned in this meeting, including Lost Judgment, Football Manager 2022, and Sonic Colors: Ultimate. Other games were also focused on specifically during the meeting, such as the upcoming Sonic Frontiers, Shin Megami Tensei 5, and the Persona series.
Sega considers the newest entry in the long-running JRPG series a big success, with the speaker noting that the marketing and sales status was "quite good." Shin Megami Tensei 5 was met with positive acclaim from many gamers and critics, resulting in it selling over 800,000 copies worldwide according to sales data. While this is good news for fans of the franchise, the meeting also focused on the Shin Megami Tensei spin-off Persona. According to SEGA, the goal is to make the series into a global brand.
This series, alongside other IPs that Sega owns such as Sonic the Hedgehog, Phantasy Star Online, and Yakuza, were mentioned to be a part of this strategy. The main crux of the approach is a close focus on simultaneous global marketing and release windows. Releasing the company's games on multiple systems was also outlined as a major point of success. This can be seen with the well-received port of Persona 4: Golden to the PC via Steam, followed up a year later with the announcement of Persona 4: Arena Remastered on multiple systems.
According to Sega, the approache to expand these IPs will vary depending on what the focus is, but Persona was brought up specifically. The representative says that the company has been satisfied with the Persona series expanding its media outside of video games, through Live Stage plays, concerts, and more. The representative says it will continue to increase its focus with its users and community, even outside of video games.
During the company Q&A session, one investor asked if one of the IPs under Sega could have the same potential as Sonic the Hedgehog regarding popularity, with Sega mentioning Persona as one such property. It goes on to say that the franchise itself has been receiving a lot of merchandising and licensing offers, which can potentially roll-out further. Despite these requests, however, the representative notes that it's unlikely for the Persona IP to immediately grow to the same global scale as Sonic.