I think it's time SEGA focus on a few key marquee IP and really do some grand stuff with them. Take a page from Capcom; they came back from the brink just a few years earlier, and did so by focusing big on select fan-favorite IP and pushing them forward. A lot of times I feel SEGA leaves some of their choice IP languishing and for a lot of the ones they bring back, they don't do enough with them to command bigger attention. That comes down both to production budgets and release schedules/timing (and under-marketing).
Anyways, SEGA at least consider doing some of the following:
>PHANTASY STAR 5: A legit PS4 sequel, with strong single-player focus but allow for some multiplayer ala Dark Souls. Make it a Sonic Team/Atlus team-up project, with the SMT/Persona teams doing stuff like music and character designs in particular.
Make it 3rd-person, with deep and intricate real-time battle system that still retains sensible JRPG mechanics. The scifi setting could make for some epic setpiece battles, channeling things like Mass Effect and Star Wars in scale even, but still have the classic Phantasy Star touch. And make it so that the game can have some type of cross-compatibility with a future Persona or SMT release, maybe with certain items being transferable between games, or certain bonuses unlocking if you find specific items across both games (doesn't mean they have to share the same universe per-se, although maybe if that next Persona game were a Soul Hackers game that could work too).
>FIGHTERS MEGAMIX 2: Basically, bring the deep gameplay the VF games have, but with more interesting characters. Bring back most of the Fighting Vipers chars, throw in some Streets of Rage, Jet Set Radio, Space Harrier, Virtual On etc. characters too and maybe a few of the Virtua Fighter stalwarts. Make a deal with companies like Capcom and SNK, and bring in some Power Stone, Star Gladiator, Fatal Fury etc. characters too. And some Power Instinct chars too, like from Groove-On Fight.
Take the basic Fighting Vipers gameplay but expand on it to be even more unique. Give it some big production values, and a healthy tournament scene.
>PANZER DRAGOON "SAGA" 2: Even if it means a new storyline, a new Panzer Dragoon would be amazing, especially with some high production values. There's no reason to keep it a JRPG or even a rail-shooter, so I think making it an action/adventure game with freedom of movement both on land and in flight within the Panzer Dragoon world could be special.
Expand on Saga's evolution system, give the game a really moving, sweeping and epic storyline, big setpiece battles, and integrate as much of the classic game mechanics as possible, updating where needed, in a cinematic story-driven action/adventure narrative providing that seamless on-foot/flight gameplay with the dragoon and its rider.
>3D STREETS OF RAGE (OR GOLDEN AXE): Upcoming SOR4 looks pretty good and I'm gonna pick it up, but a 3D SoR using the Yakuza engine would be a huge step-up and imho more appealing to the West, particularly America where SoR has a strong fanbase and heavy nostalgia bonding. There's also more that could be done with the SoR setting compared to Yakuza one.
Or, use a modified version of the engine powering the Yakuza games to do a 3D Golden Axe. It's still a shame Revenge of Death Addar never got a home port, as it's arguably the best Golden Axe game, but a 3D Golden Axe could be a perfect bridge in bringing the type of madness Dark Souls fans would enjoy, into an intricate beat'em up setting. Give it a strong storyline and take some inspiration from the Souls-like games as well but in the confines of a beat'em up, and it could be something big.
---
Because as-is, I do worry about SEGA's long-term prognosis. Sonic's appeal has diminished greatly (the upcoming movie seems like it'll actually do pretty well which could help with bringing more attention back to the series, but they need a
legit good 3D Sonic to come out which capitalizes. No more Forces or Boom BS), and I think because so many of SEGA's other releases are intentionally kept more mid-scale, they don't market them that much as a result. No matter how good a game is, it won't do much in sales if there's no strong, consistent marketing.
And it's crazy to see they're even in this situation, because among 3rd parties they have the best Metacritic average IIRC, so at least some of these games should be selling better than they are. Revamping their marketing efforts would probably help with that a ton, but in terms of SEGA's big marquee titles of late the only two that come to my mind are Sonic (inconsistent quality, wasted appeals to nostalgia in titles other than Mania), and Yakuza (somewhat niche appeal).
They don't really have anything in their stable at the level of a Resident Evil, Street Fighter, Tekken etc. in terms of both overall size and consistent long-term retention. The frustrating part is that they have IP which could be those marquee titles for them, but they don't focus on them, or just let other teams do small-scale things with them. There's just a certain type of presence you get from a company when they push a commanding AAA focus on a given IP and I don't get that from SEGA anymore.
Every company needs at least a
few of those kind of games because they help cover a lot of the potential losses from the smaller-scale games. And like I said before it's not like SEGA's output is even bad; they have the highest Metacritic average among 3rd-party publishers for the past however many years now. But that isn't the perception a lot of people tend to have because they'll either picture the inconsistent Sonic games, or the somewhat limited appeal Yakuza games that might not even be their cup of tea.
SEGA needs to focus on more marquee, AAA efforts, preferably with legacy IP that still carry a lot of nostalgia and can be logically worked for a modern audience without betraying their roots. They have those IP but don't put them on the pedestal they need to be on. Even with the smaller-scale stuff, they could at least bring back more of their classic IP to better execute some of the ideas they shove into some of the Sonic games (like Ristar, for example). That way they wouldn't need to load Sonic with game concepts that would work better in a different IP they own.
Otherwise, if things continue the way they are SEGA might need some investments from a company like Tencent (the way Platinum Games did), or some type of boost from a bigger company, to keep healthy and/or have the funds to invest in some of these marquee AAA games properly. Who knows, maybe they have been in talks with MS or Sony for just that type of financial boost, I guess we'll have to wait and see.
Oh and
cireza
I agree with that part; if anything they should at least outsource downscale ports of next-gen games to the Switch, and for the smaller-scale projects like SoR4, make Switch the priority platform. No reason for them to keep locking certain games away arbitrarily to a single platform.