Sega has reportedly been working on big-budget reboots of two of its Dreamcast titles. The Japanese company wants to increase its gaming revenue and add new hits to its portfolio.
Jet Set Radio
According to Bloomberg, Sega is now developing reboots of Crazy Taxi and Jet Set Radio. It wants to turn them into live games like Epic’s Fortnite, a free-to-play cross-platform global hit with multiplayer and social elements.
- These titles will be parts of the so-called Super Game, a new strategy announced by Sega to create recurring revenue sources and build online communities across its gaming portfolio.
- Sega co-COO Shuji Utsumi, who previously worked at PlayStation and Warner Music Japan, is in charge of the Super Game project. The company currently has four games in plans under this initiative.
- The Crazy Taxi reboot, which has reportedly been in development for over a year, is expected to come out within two to three years.
- However, these games might still be canceled as they are in the early stages of development.
- As Sega pointed out in one of its financial reports last year, it wants to provide “contents and services that can create a large community” and build a game that can generate ¥100 billion ($780 million) in lifetime revenue.
- “They are more like cult titles with very loud and vocal fan bases, totally different in scale when compared to Sega’s iconic Sonic series,” games consultant Serkan Toto said of these two reported reboots.
Crazy Taxi is a series of racing games where a player should drive taxi customers to their destination as fast as possible, also performing different stunts on the way. The first game in the franchise came out in 2000 on Dreamcast and became the third best-selling title for this console.
Jet Set Radio, an award-winning action game about spraying graffiti across Tokyo streets, also came out in 2000. It received universal acclaim and was praised for its graphics, gameplay, and level design.