Nah-Nah-Nah-Nah Nahhh.
For many moons now, Sega has been laying hints at its upcoming “Super Game” project, a closely-held in-house concept that, while expected to be one of the company’s most ambitious ideas to date, has raised eyebrows with its possible connections to the blockchain/NFT market — controversial technology that Sega has made no bones about eyeing up.
The latest news on Super Game comes via a new ‘insider’ report from Bloomberg, which states that Sega has already begun development on big-budget reboots of two of its most popular and beloved franchises from the early ’00s: Crazy Taxi and Jet Set Radio. Bloomberg cites that both of the punk rock Dreamcast classics have been officially greenlit for the reboot treatment. Production on Crazy Taxi is allegedly already underway, with Sega aiming to launch the new game around 2025.
While the return of these two lines would generally be greeted with dizzying excitement, fans are instead acting toward the news with trepidation. And with good cause. According to Bloomberg’s sources, Sega is eyeing a “Fortnite-style” service model for both titles, offering the two high-speed arcade titles as free-to-play games, and littering them with crossover content, microtransactions, multiplayer emphasis, limited-time events, and, presumably, the possible inclusion of blockchain/NFT elements.
Sega’s Super Game initiative hopes to see the legendary developer release a line of new, big-budget, multi-platform, AAA titles worldwide — which in and of itself is a fantastic idea, especially given the brilliant catalog of IP on which Sega can draw upon. But, as with so many wonderful-sounding opportunities, the devil’s in the details. It must be clearly iterated that none of the above news has been officially clarified by Sega, but if Super Game simply translates to “Multiple Games as a Service titles with added NFT implementation,” then you can keep it, brother.
Sega reboots Crazy Taxi/Jet Set Radio to chase Fortnite riches [Bloomberg]