Sega president explains why it cancelled its 'Super Game' live-service project

Sega president and COO Shuji Utsumi explained why the company cancelled its Super Game project, five years after it was announced in May 2021. In an interview with Nikkei, Utsumi said the project was an attempt to build a popular live-service game, but analysis showed the required scale of investment and operations would grow enormously, making the financial risk too great to proceed given the global situation.

"We hypothesized that we possessed the necessary technology and attempted to pursue this, but as we proceeded with our analysis, we realized that the scale of investment and operations would have to grow enormously to match the scale of the service," Utsumi said via machine translation.

Sega confirmed the cancellation quietly in its financial results in May 2026, in a slide reviewing its live-service efforts. The company had said in November 2021 it would consider investing up to ¥100 billion, then about $882 million, over five years toward the ambition.

Utsumi stressed Sega has not abandoned live-service games, citing Phantasy Star Online 2: New Genesis, Sega Football Club Champions 2026 and Hatsune Miku: Colorful Stage, plus the upcoming Total War: Warhammer 40,000 from The Creative Assembly. Classic IP revivals including Crazy Taxi and Jet Set Radio remain in the works.