SEGA Says Sonic Is Especially Popular With Western Tourists as It Tailors Stores by Region

SEGA is using more than franchise popularity to decide what goes into each of its physical stores. The company is also studying who actually walks through the door.

Speaking to AUTOMATON during a media preview for SEGA STORE OSAKA, SEGA President and COO Shuji Utsumi explained that Tokyo and Osaka attract noticeably different groups of tourists, and that those differences are already influencing which franchises receive greater emphasis at each location.

“The tourist demographics differ between Tokyo and Osaka. Tokyo has more visitors from the U.S. and Europe, and Sonic the Hedgehog is popular among them.”

That Sonic-specific point helps explain why SEGA is not simply copying the same merchandising balance from one store to another. Osaka is expected to attract more visitors from East Asian markets, while Tokyo sees comparatively more tourists from the United States and Europe.

SEGA transmedia head Justin Scarpone pointed to the store’s large-scale Atlus area as one example of that regional approach. Persona has a particularly strong following among fans in Korea, China and other parts of Asia, so SEGA designed the Osaka store with those visitors in mind rather than simply recreating SEGA STORE TOKYO.

The decisions are not based on assumptions alone. Scarpone revealed that SEGA’s earlier pop-up at Shinsaibashi PARCO was partly used to study the customers coming through the venue, the kinds of products they wanted and which characters were proving popular. SEGA then used that information while developing the permanent Osaka store.

The experiment also produced some surprises. SEGA expected Persona merchandise to perform well, but Scarpone said the Like a Dragon series proved even more popular than anticipated among Osaka customers. Utsumi linked that strength partly to the series’ connection with the city, with its fictional Sotenbori district based on Osaka’s Dotonbori area.

That pop-up strategy could become increasingly important as SEGA looks beyond Japan. Utsumi previously told Famitsu that the company was considering additional permanent SEGA STORE locations in regions including the United States and Middle East. His latest comments add another piece to that strategy: SEGA intends to keep experimenting with pop-ups, studying individual markets and moving toward permanent locations when the right opportunity appears.

For Sonic, the interview provides a particularly useful look at how the character’s international popularity can influence decisions far beyond game releases. Sonic’s long-established strength in Western markets is showing up in the tourists visiting SEGA’s Japanese stores, while different franchises are being emphasized where other audiences are stronger.

Sonic City has already covered SEGA STORE OSAKA’s exclusive Sonic merchandise, Osaka artwork, opening bonuses and Sonic greeting appearances, so the bigger story here is what is happening behind those products. SEGA is gathering real-world audience data, testing demand through temporary stores and using the results to give each permanent location a different identity.

SEGA STORE OSAKA opens October 2 on the sixth floor of Shinsaibashi PARCO, becoming SEGA’s first permanent flagship store in Japan’s Kansai region.

Stay tuned to Sonic City for more Sonic the Hedgehog News and Updates!