{"id":70055,"date":"2026-07-24T15:15:05","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T06:15:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=70055"},"modified":"2026-07-24T15:15:07","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T06:15:07","slug":"sega-considers-a-shift-to-digital-crucial-for-boosting-game-sales-but-has-no-plans-of-abandoning-its-physical-media-culture-president-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/sega-considers-a-shift-to-digital-crucial-for-boosting-game-sales-but-has-no-plans-of-abandoning-its-physical-media-culture-president-says\/","title":{"rendered":"Sega considers a &#8220;shift to digital&#8221; crucial for boosting game sales, but has no plans of abandoning\u00a0its physical\u00a0media culture, president says\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In a recent interview with&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.famitsu.com\/article\/202607\/81143\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Famitsu<\/a>,&nbsp;Sega&nbsp;president Shuji Utsumi discussed the company\u2019s stance on game distribution. While&nbsp;Sega&nbsp;sees a shift to digital distribution as crucial for improving the performance&nbsp;of its full-priced games&nbsp;across PC and consoles, physical media will still be an important part of its culture.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to Utsumi, the&nbsp;rise of the&nbsp;PC player base is&nbsp;part of&nbsp;what&#8217;s&nbsp;driving&nbsp;Sega\u2019s&nbsp;shift to a more digital mindset. Even in regions where consoles&nbsp;aren\u2019t&nbsp;widely adopted,&nbsp;dedicated players can still access games on their computers.&nbsp;Sega&nbsp;aims to strengthen its digital offerings to tap into these specific regions, which falls in line with its goal&nbsp;of&nbsp;becoming&nbsp;a more&nbsp;\u201cdigitally-conscious&nbsp;and&nbsp;globally-focused&nbsp;company.\u201d&nbsp;Interestingly, Utsumi notes that Sega\u2019s corporate culture tends to default to a&nbsp;\u201cphysical-first mindset,\u201d thus the conscious effort to change.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Additionally,&nbsp;Sega had a \u201ctough year\u201d in 2025.&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/segas-full-price-game-revenue-was-down-12-in-the-past-fiscal-year-but-it-anticipates-a-big-comeback-with-four-major-upcoming-releases\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Titles that were positioned as major releases<\/a>&nbsp;failed&nbsp;to meet&nbsp;their&nbsp;sales targets&nbsp;(Sonic&nbsp;Racing:&nbsp;CrossWorlds,&nbsp;in particular, fell short of its sales&nbsp;goals&nbsp;despite&nbsp;favorable reception from&nbsp;critics).&nbsp;Following these results,&nbsp;Sega&nbsp;plans to implement measures that will allow them to sell more of their games.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">However, Utsumi notes&nbsp;that,&nbsp;as a former console holder, Sega still values physical media and is currently aiming for a model of distribution that&nbsp;will allow it to pursue digital without abandoning the former.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Related:&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/sega-president-emphasizes-importance-of-taking-risks-not-just-relying-on-legacy-ips\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Sega president emphasizes importance of taking risks, not just relying on legacy IPs<\/a>&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sega president Shuji Utsumi recently talked about the company&#8217;s stance on game distribution.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":67,"featured_media":70057,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","autoblue_enabled":true,"autoblue_custom_message":"","autoblue_shares":[{"did":"did:plc:uzrrhkfyjrfdsynj2voztcf2","date":"2026-07-24T06:15:11+00:00","uri":"at:\/\/did:plc:uzrrhkfyjrfdsynj2voztcf2\/app.bsky.feed.post\/3mrep7sn36o25","response":"{\"uri\":\"at:\/\/did:plc:uzrrhkfyjrfdsynj2voztcf2\/app.bsky.feed.post\/3mrep7sn36o25\",\"cid\":\"bafyreidczwy2qypzu4r6l2dlinomjn6targ7pfaqbmvbddkypnivrumun4\",\"commit\":{\"cid\":\"bafyreihpcy76lnhmrtxoazhhp6spda2kl7jt435gw3afsww4gd3a4fnoee\",\"rev\":\"3mrep7sna2w25\"},\"validationStatus\":\"valid\"}"}],"autoblue_post_url":"","autoblue_publish_document":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[17],"class_list":["post-70055","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-japan-related-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Sega considers a &quot;shift to digital&quot; 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