For any kid who grew up in the '90s, Sega meant games like "Sonic," "Shinobi" and "Streets of Rage." Sega dominated the console industry then with its cartridge-driven game machines until the PlayStation came into the scene.
Sega left the console business and focused on making games. Yet despite producing a plethora of titles like "Stormrise," "Viking: Battle of Asgard," "Condemned," or "Planet 51," they couldn't recover the former dominance they once wielded.
Although the company never went into the red, its string of misses in games eventually caught up with it.
However, Sega's current strategy of focusing itself on winning titles seems to be once again putting wind behind the firm's sails.
Reports say that Sega's European boss, Jurgen Post, believe that the company is making the right decision of focusing on publishing a few games rather than spreading itself too thin like it did in the past.
"We were a little bit opportunistic, signing a lot of titles and doing things that were not necessarily very good. There was a time when you could sell a lot of products, for example on Wii, but that market has gone," Post said.
Post believes that Sega is in a much better place now than before, saying: "Today if you want to survive, you need to focus on quality. We want to create games that are very good and have a long tail. We scaled down to the very bare minimum. For us to restart, we needed to set-up a new strategy, and that is now paying off. So we can start to add more pillars to the structure."
Sega began to streamline its operations in 2012 focusing on three key series -- "Sonic," "Football Manager" and "Total War." When the company found success in these games, it slowly added games and acquired "Relic," along with the "Company of Heroes" and "Dawn of War." In 2016, it purchased "Endless Space" creators Amplitude to its portfolio of game studios.
To further support its resurgence, Sega said it's also not looking into making AAA games but also games produced by independent studios.
Sega buys games that have the potential to make it big later. An example is Sega's mobile game "Motorsport Manager." The game got downloaded 1.6 million times. The success of the game prompted Sega to release more mobile games which the company will announce in the coming months.
Another pillar in the company's path to growth was its decision to reduce its retail business. Sega lately has focused on distributing their games mostly through PC and digital downloads.
Sega's management admitted in a recent interview that Brexit will impact their ability to attract talent but reiterated that despite the challenges, the firm will not stop until it has regained its former glory.
