It looks like two of Sega’s popular classic videogame IP, Crazy Taxi and Jet Set Radio are poised to make a big comeback— as NFT games with blockchain integration. Japanese game developer and publisher Sega has been eyeing the technology for a quite some time now and have been making moves within exploring the space. With their new “SuperGame” initiative looking to revitalize its classic IP, as well as investing heavily NFT technology, all lights are looking green for Sega speeding into the blockchain.
Sega is one of the biggest game studios in Japan which has responsible for some of the world’s biggest game titles such as the Sonic the Hedgehog, Total War, and the Phantasy Star series. For months now, the Japanese videogame juggernaut has been laying groundwork for their ambitious “SuperGame” project, a huge initiative aiming connect games to one another and strengthen Sega’s IP by produce massive big-budget, high-grossing AAA videogame titles.
The gaming firm has invested heavily in the 5-year project to the tune of $800 million—some of which will be devoted to exploring NFT technology
At the same time, Sega producer Masayoshi Kikuchi also stated his strong optimism with NFT technology to pave the way forward for gaming. They’ve even already made in-roads to the space by partnering with Japanese blockchain game developer Double Jump Tokyo. In an interview on Sega Japan’s recruitment website, Kikuchi stated:
“It is a natural extension for the future of gaming that it will expand to involve new areas such as cloud gaming and NFTs. We are also developing SuperGame from the perspective of how far different games can be connected to each other.”
According to a report by Bloomberg, Sega already has two new games in development for the Super Game Project; Crazy Taxi and Jet Set Radio. Jet Set Radio is a stylish, high-octane game about teens rollerblading,spray painting and rebelling against authority. It was a massive hit for SEGA at the time and still to this day has a cult following. While not a flagship game, Crazy Taxi has had a popular following in the past thanks to a huge arcade pressence in the early 2000s. The reboot has been greenlit for production and is slated for release in 2025. Both
While the hype and the excitement for the reboot is definitely there, many are still cautious because of the inclusion of NFTs and what it means to the game. NFTs are often associated with microtransactions which have plagued many games in the past and have been seen as a negative experience for players.
It doesn’t help that, also according to Bloomberg, Sega wants to build these games in a Fortnite-style model with a free-to-play mechanic but with microtransaction and even blockchain and NFTs integrated with their releases. With Fortnite becoming easily the most commercialized and capitalist friendly game in recent memory, that doesn’t exactly put peoples worries at ease.
Unsurprisingly, there has been backlash from the announcement, especially from the crypto-skeptics in the gaming community. Many have expressed their frustration online with the new project.
However, this isn’t the first time that a big developer received backlash as big game studios such as Ubisoft and Square Enix have received their own criticism for wanting to introduce blockchain gaming but neither seem to be backing down