The company who made a speedy blue hedgehog a worldwide hero is coming back to Australia.

Until the late 1990s, Sega was a powerful distributor of video games including Sonic the Hedgehog as well as pub favourites Daytona USA and The House of the Dead. But the company bled after heavily promoting the futuristic Dreamcast console in 1999. Punters preferred to wait for the Sony PlayStation 2, which caused massive losses for the distributor - and angry retailers.

Now they're back and Sega Australia's new chief executive Darren MacBeth said the company has big goals.

"The plan is to be a major player and we're putting the money in to make that happen," he said today.

MacBeth was formerly the local head of French distributor Ubisoft, who, with market leader Electronic Arts, Activision, Atari and THQ, comprise the largest distributors of video games in Australia.

Worldwide, Sega moved out of making game machines after the Dreamcast debacle, and focused on making games. The Australian arm of the company is returning to take advantage of a rising market. Video game industry sales grew 7 per cent to a record $925 million last year, boosted by the introduction of two new consoles - Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo's Wii.

By comparison, Australians bought $866 million worth of cinema tickets in 2006.

There are now nine major devices people use to play games in Australia, with the market for games downloaded to mobile phones showing strong growth.

Microsoft and Nintendo distribute games for the consoles they operate and fight with the "third party" distributors for market share.

The first game for the new company is emblematic of where it has headed since it stopped competing with other console makers. Sega Australia's Sonic vs Mario takes a classic character from Sega and former bitter rivals Nintendo - and has them play together.

Submitted by leeman34 24/07/2007 1979 3

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Source URL:

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2007/07/23/1185043005891.html

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