The former Hollywood exec looking to transform Sega into the next Disney
As part of its latest financial report, Sega highlighted that it plans on building on the current momentum of its games business by "accelerating the transmedia development of the group's IP."
This strengthening of its transmedia strategy has been at the heart of the firm for a few years now, with the success of the Sonic films of course, but also the Angry Birds Movies, a Like A Dragon series for Amazon Prime, a recently announced Shinobi series with Universal Pictures, and more.
Earlier this year, it appointed former Disney exec Justin Scarpone as head of global transmedia to spearhead those efforts. We caught up with him at Gamescom Asia last month, with Scarpone telling us he wants to help make Sega an entertainment company that can compete on the global stage.
"Honestly, my aspiration for my time at Sega is that this is a great global gaming company, and through the transmedia segment in our initiatives, [I want to] help them become a great entertainment company. And it's a very grandiose statement but I'm pretty earnest about that.
"Gaming is [today] the irreplaceable form of entertainment for the entire world, far greater than any other form of entertainment, [and] it's high time that there is a replication of the studio system from Hollywood for the gaming industry."
He adds that it's a model that would work for the "top five, top ten global game IP companies," where games would introduce new IP, from which sequels could be made, and the property expanded and licensed in a Marvel-style approach. Scarpone spent 17 years at Disney, so it's a strategy that he's very familiar with.
"Game companies don't have that content flywheel history that Walt Disney basically invented, of taking that IP and having a five-year, ten-year roadmap of content, like Kevin Feige does for the films," he continues. "And connecting that into all the other businesses and evolving story over these different experiences, you know, content product and services.
"Helping Sega get to that level
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