In a keynote address at this year’s Tokyo Game Show, newly-third-partied SEGA unveiled its new global strategy that it says will make the company the #1 independent game publisher in the world. And if its slides are anything to go by, Sonic Team classic NiGHTS into Dreams could be a part of that strategy.
SEGA’s plan for world domination is piecemeal; it aims to conquer each territory one by one. First, it says it will focus on the Japanese market this year. This will be followed by a big push on the US in 2003 and finally tackling Europe in 2004. While it makes inroads in Japan, the publisher has made a deal with THQ in the US to publish some of its portable titles, and is teaming up with Sony Computer Entertainment (for PS2 releases) and Infogrames (for Xbox, Gamecube and PC) in Europe so it does not lose steam.
Part of this strategy is leveraging the company’s classic IP and either re-imagining them or re-releasing them on multiple platforms. This is illustrated in the image above, courtesy of Moogle Cavern – on it you can see a number of franchises including Shining Force, Space Harrier and NiGHTS into Dreams (bottom right corner).
Could this mean a new NiGHTS game/remake heading to Nintendo Gamecube and other platforms? Sonic Team in particular has been pretty cosy with Nintendo as of late, so this wouldn’t be a huge surprise. We’ll have to wait and see.