From the Sonic movies to Amazon’s drama series Like a Dragon: How Sega brings its games to the screen

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Sega found great success with the Sonic the Hedgehog movie franchise – so much so that it inspired the company to more actively continue to adapt its treasured game franchises for the substantial and compact screen. Next up is Like a Dragon: Yakuza, an Amazon Original series based on the first game in the beloved series, which will be released on October 24 – and Sega plans to do even more.

During Gamescom Asia, IGN Japan sat down with Justin Scarpone, global director of transmedia at Sega, whose resume includes 17 years in games and entertainment at Disney, and who joined Sega in April 2024. From the adaptations of Shinobi and Golden Ax to early forays into the park space thematic Scarpone gave us a summary of Sega’s plans to reach novel audiences beyond game consoles.

“France Like a Dragon is one of our main pillars,” said Scarpone when asked how the novel series was created. “We released a live-action film many years ago, but I think the new series originally came out of conversations between people at Amazon Studios and our Like a Dragon studio and became a Pacific-spanning project where you had both US and US talent. and Japan are working on the project. The film was obviously shot in Japan, with Japanese talent, but it took advantage of some of the creativity that a foreign perspective brings. So this is a unique project for us.”

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Streaming TV is a great home for episodic dramas set in Japan, with Shogun breaking awards season records and Tokyo Vice showing the shocking sides of the (fictionalized) Japanese criminal underworld. Scarpone said the success of these shows is encouraging as Amazon prepares to premiere its novel Like a Dragon series.

“‘Like a Dragon’ is a very Japanese story, but at the same time very universal,” he said. “One of the differences between the previous live-action film and the new drama showing on Prime Video is that in the years since the film’s release, the Like a Dragon franchise has become largely a global franchise. We have an international team that has been thinking from day one how to create a compelling story set in Japan with universal themes that resonate across cultures.”

He says the development team at Ryu ga Gotoku Studio is supporting Prime Video, which is partially based on the original game but will tell its own original story.

“(Masayoshi) Yokoyama has been very supportive of this series,” Scarpone said. “As a truly creative person, he sees a very interesting interpretation of the intellectual property he lives and breathes, and is very pleased with the quality and results. I think he’s excited to see someone else’s perspective on it.”

We have an international team that, from day one, has been thinking about how to create a compelling story set in Japan with universal themes.

The action of the Like a Dragon game series balances massive crime drama with more amusing gameplay themes. The Amazon series seems to lean more towards the former, but when condensing a game with a several-dozen-hour-long plot into a TV show, it must be challenging to choose which elements to include and which to leave out.

“In a series format where you have about five hours of storytelling, how can you tell a compelling, exciting, dramatic and concise story?” Scarpone became thoughtful. “Some of the games in the series can be played for over 80 hours, which gives you much more flexibility to weave in other aspects of the characters than you would with a condensed, linear format. So I think the director, actors and writers of the Amazon show had to decide how to tell the best story within that time frame.

“The game series has evolved over time, so if the Amazon series were to continue, I think we could experiment as well. We hope that the series will be a good starting point in this format and perhaps there will be more in the future.

Sega’s Sonic Renaissance

Sega found huge success with live performances by its mascot, Sonic the Hedgehog. Since 2020, Paramount Pictures has released two hit films and a TV series, with a third film arriving in December and adding Keanu Reeves to the voice cast.

“We’ve obviously started to think of this period of the last decade as the Sonic renaissance,” Scarpone told us. “There were many stops and tries to bring Sonic to the silver screen – it didn’t happen overnight. But once we were locked down and working on the first movie, that was really Sega’s entry point into transmedia and thinking about Sonic as a franchise and in the way that companies like Disney, Universal and Warner Brothers had always done for decades.

“We offer new stories and new ways to experience characters across different media. And so for Sonic, the movie really expanded what Sonic could be in the eyes of fans – and probably many people at Sega as well.”

Indeed, in a 2022 interview with IGN, Sonic Frontiers director Morio Kishimoto told us that the success of the Sonic movies inspired him and Sonic Team when creating the games.

Sega also has many other film adaptations of its games in the works, including versions of series that have been dormant for decades. One of them is Shinobi, which is in the works for both a game and a live-action adaptation. The film is produced in conjunction with Universal, the company that made the hit film Super Mario Bros., and is directed by Sam Hargrave. Scarpone confirmed to us that it is still in the “early stages” of development.

When we reboot some of these series, it’s critical that we really work on the story and update it for younger generations.

The classic series Golden Ax also returns, both as a game and as an animated series for Comedy Central. A Streets of Rage movie was also announced, with a script by John Wick creator Derek Kolstad.

On adaptations of older Sega series, Scarpone said: “Our mainstays are franchises like Sonic, Like a Dragon, Persona and Angry Birds, but our so-called Legacy Initiative is really exciting because while these stories have the basics, we have a lot more new stories to work on, which is really cool. When we reboot some of these franchises, it’s important that we really work on the story, work on the plot, to update it for younger generations that weren’t even alive when the Sega Genesis existed.

Scarpone also confirmed that Sega has a number of other screen adaptations in the early stages of development, but has not yet revealed what games these unannounced projects are based on.

And it doesn’t end with screen adaptations. In recent years, Nintendo has had great success with its theme parks at Universal Studios, while other games such as Monster Hunter and Resident Evil have been re-engineered as excellent theme park attractions in Japan. Sega already has experience in this industry, with its Joypolis and other entertainment centers. Scarpone said Sega would like to expand on this point, citing the example of its upcoming partnership with the Kai Tak Sports Park mall, which is currently under construction in Hong Kong.

“Within this complex we will have Sonic Stadium, which is a destination especially for families and children, as a ticketed zone where you can immerse yourself in the world of Green Hills, Sonic and friends.

“What Nintendo has done with Universal Studios is the gold standard and we have similar aspirations. Attractions are another way to tell our stories and delight our fans, and we really want to be in that space. We are not launching our own stand-alone theme park, but we are looking at various partnerships.”

Daniel Robson is the editor-in-chief of IGN Japan. Follow him on Twitter Here.

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