In Organization Shake-Up, SEGA Sammy Announces "SEGA FAVE" Division from Arcade and Toy Divisions.

This morning, SEGA Sammy announced a few structural changes to their organizational divisions, and while this isn't likely to have huge impacts on the Sonic series itself, the Sonic series was cited as one of the driving forces in their shift.

The short version is that SEGA is fusing their toy division SEGA Toys with the amusement machine parts of SEGA proper to form a new sub-company, "SEGA FAVE Corporation," with Yukio Sugino heading this company. Much as the Sonic series has seen success with its transmedia push of games/movies/cartoons/comics/toys/licensing, SEGA Sammy hopes to continue this push with other major franchises like Persona and Like a Dragon.

Conceptual diagram from IR announcement.

SEGA Toys, despite being a toy company in name and output, isn't a stranger to SEGA's video game business. The company famously produced the SEGA Pico interactive storybook console, and most recently, the Astro City Mini game cabinets.

It's hard to predict what SEGA hopes to do with this new company structure but a transmedia strategy is clearly central to its formation. The Investor Relations statement suggests that both the amusement machines and toy divisions should have solid synergy, and the new name "SEGA FAVE" references "oshi-katsu," cultural movements within Japan focused on supporting someone or something within popular culture (such as a pop idol or series), which often have a lot of events, merchandise, and brand collaborations associated.

SEGA Sammy expects this reorganization to go through "prior to the announcement of the next Medium-term Plan," or April 1 as the above diagram highlights.