SEGA president and COO Shuji Utsumi recently talked to The Nikkei about the company’s pursuit of a global “transmedia strategy” in recent years – including the expansion of popular gaming franchises through movie adaptations, merchandise and other media. One of the topics he discussed within this context was the phenomenon of “game fans who don’t play the games” and why Sega considers such audiences important.
According to Utsumi, the company has in recent years seen an increasing number of fans who don’t necessarily play games. While he mentions this is true of all of Sega’s IPs, he singles out the Like a Dragon series as an example. Like a Dragon-related merchandise has been performing extremely well for Sega, with about 60-70% of customers being women. Utsumi explains that this layer of the fanbase often becomes acquainted with Like a Dragon’s story and characters through official YouTube content or by watching streams by popular content creators, and “many of them have never actually played the games.”
But even if someone has never played a game, Utsumi says Sega still considers them a fan and a “gamer.” The fact that people are growing interested in gaming franchises through different entry points is a benefit of Sega’s transmedia strategy, according to the president. Not only that, but Utsumi says that in some cases, engagement from such fans can be even higher than that of fans who actually play the games. He does not clarify what exactly this engagement entails, but it’s probably safe to assume that the company is seeing significant revenue from casual/non-gamer fans when it comes to merch, adaptations, events, and other media related to its major IPs.
Going forward, Utsumi says Sega will continue to strengthen its transmedia efforts, with 2026 being a big year for Persona and Angry Birds.
Larpers
Oh I see so basically people who do not play games and purchase merchandise are real gamers then and people who watch movies will just buy the games? If any Investors in the Video Games industry fall for this statement by a CEO, they really need a reality check before they lose their money. Make SEGA restructure please, have someone younger than 50 who knows what they are doing. I am not going to buy anymore games until this company restructures, not even Persona 6. It’s obvious this leadership has no idea what it’s doing anymore other than holding onto LAD and Persona and the Social Media audience who says they like games but never plays them and watches Youtube summaries instead.
Someone needs to take their medicine 😂😂 is it so inconcievable that chronic youtube watchers might become attached to the games without playing them?
They do not become attached because by the end of the day it does not translate to sells and they do not know anything about the game to begin with or the series. If you think opposite that is perfectly valid but it’s not correct to say they are fans just casuals.
So he’s not saying much other than women typically engage with IP other through playing games and how social media allows people to garner information. Problem I see with that is he doesn’t say how long engagement persists. In the past, Gundam was carried by female fans who watched and bought merch in early years. Little surprise in the age off calling customers consumers they care about the casual audience and how to rope them into spending money…except if youth, they have no money, so I’m curious if age range and from where.
Dude…Rockstar, Ubisoft, Epic, and of course Sony as whole…are far worse then Sega…If people are buying merch who cares. If the games do shit there will be no merch. I just mean let them make money from merch, better then all the micros, subs, etc… besides why they need to know our genders at all? Maybe some of these consumers are Wives, girlfriends… Not all gamers sit in the basement drinking Mt Dew. Some 👉👌
You know what kind of Sega game would sell really well?
A new sonic game with a chao garden.
We could never be so blessed. I dont know what those guys are thinking over at sega but probably the single most impactful game they ever made was sonic adventure 2 and an entire generation of children spent dozens of hours in the chao garden. Why are these people incapable of realizing this??
Maybe there would be more engagement of games like Performai if I was able to access it… Cough cough…
Yeah, their called LARPs
Oh yay… now theyre gonna start watering the games down to attract those who don’t play the games, and those who do play the games or have them in their backlog will suffer in the future for it. *How do they expect merch to sell to the AWFULs if nobody plays the game and streams it for them to watch?*
I didn’t understand what he said. Is he talking about people who never play Sega games? Do they buy them? Do they play other games? What does the percentage of women buying them have to do with it?
If I understood correctly, he’s talking about people who didn’t play the old games but bought and play the new ones. People really ought to express themselves better. Human beings are losing the ability to communicate.
He’s saying lots of people don’t play the games but buy related merchandise because they like the aesthetics of the franchise, what they’ve seen of the games from streams, etc. In Japan tons of merchandises are produced for any vaguely successful franchise, it’s a big part of the entertainment economy.
“The people that dont spend money on our product are just as important as the players who buy product” RIP
“Like a Dragon-related merchandise has been performing extremely well for Sega, with about 60-70% of customers being women. Utsumi explains that this layer of the fanbase often becomes acquainted with Like a Dragon’s story and characters through official YouTube content or by watching streams by popular content creators, and “many of them have never actually played the games.”
The opposite of your comment. Read before you type.
I have to laugh at this, especially as a SAHM who actually played the whole Yakuza/Like A Dragon series.
A gamer is someone who plays games. That’s the minimum. If these ladies are playing other stuff, fine, they’re gamers. But if they’re like those people who buy books to decorate their shelves but never read them/only listen to podcasts about them (I’m excluding audiobooks from this because at the very least they’re absorbing a whole book) and still call themselves “readers” then I can’t take that seriously.
Ugh, now all the comments are saying brain rot crap like LARPers. That’s not what that damn damn acronym means. Just say poseur like normal people.
Anyway, I think Utsumi (like many business people) is actually missing the point for non-player fans. And is especially setting a lot of women up to experience exactly what is happening in these comments. Casual and non-player fans are always and have always been extremely important to fan bases. No, non-player fans are not necessarily gamers (though a lot are, they may just not have time or money for every single game they’re interested in) but they’re the ones keeping fandoms and interest alive for many of these games via fanart, fanfiction, posting about it on social media, discussing theories and analyses on blogs or through video essays, buying merch, and so forth. These sorts of fans are extremely important to the ecosystem of any IP and not explaining exactly how or why or relegating them to simply being poseurs is goofy. And yes, these sort of fans tend to heavily skew women. You WANT these sort of fans because they’re the ones who may get you a third or fourth game in a series you love because of their activities. Don’t shit on them.
Fans buy the product and engage with it. They do not buy merchandise and pretend they are apart of the Fandom. Those types are Blue Ocean or what everyone calls casuals or fake fans. Those people do not support the series as those who engage with the content in a meaningful way.
I know females who do buy the games, buy the merchandise and engage with the content through social media. Inversely those who do not engage with such things and pretend they are fans do not move the needle in any meaningful way whatsoever. An Retweet, buying a product a few times, a view or a comment does not have as much power as those who buy the games, engage with content and keep the franchise going to this day. All of us do not need anymore people who parasitize Fandoms by pretending they are fans overall simply because it’s popular and built by those of us who purchase the games to begin with.
people calling out new fans as larpers really just paints them as crotchety old men who yell at kids on the sidewalk from their porch. for everything’s sake, if you want your favorite series to keep existing, maybe don’t try to run new fans away? you guys are always louder than you have any right to be, this is middle school playground level bs
But they are not fans though. Fans buy the games and play them. This is not like the Anime Industry where Merchandise purchases matter and pays the bills of the Anime Studios. This is Video Games where Merchandise is not as meaningful as buying the games, and engaging with the content on social media overall. Being a fan means playing the games and engaging with the content, not being passive through merchandise and making it about yourself. Do your research before typing next time.
While non-player fans can significantly boost an IP’s commercial value, core players often serve as the cultural foundation of this value network. Mistaking the incremental market for a substitute for the foundational market is a classic case of prioritizing the trivial over the essential.
I mean, if they’re not playing the games they are not gamers. But they are Sega customers and fans and if he wants to refer to them as gamers feel free I guess.
Also, these aren’t LARPers, there’s no role play going on here AFAIK, just buying and wearing branded merchandise and watching videos.
My sisters kids do this (not with Sega stuff specifically), like they have ipads and can’t play any real games on them (just Roblox) but one of them said they were doing a school report on horror games. I’m like ‘Oh have you playd Poppy Playtime?’ ‘Oh I’ve watched that.’ (they had ‘watched’ every recent horror game I could think of.) These semi-linear games with some kind of story, they watch playthroughs. And I think if they had money to spend they’d buy merch for some of them.
If you had to have beat every previous Yakuza game in order to buy the next one that series would have ended decades ago.
Can you be a fan of a game if you fail to complete it?
Let’s let casuals keep the lights on and save our complaining for when they stop producing new games and only put out merchandise.
Can you be a fan if you buy the game? Technically yes but you would still be called a casual if you did not play it.
Can you be a fan if you failed to complete it?
You can be called a fan if you play the games though. There is some games of a series I didn’t beat myself in Dark Souls but the difference is I didint watch a YouTube video of it and claim to be a fan without trying the games out. Playing the games is what matters. Views mean nothing.