Shacknews Best Publisher of 2024 – Sega

It’s not often that a company is able to release more than five AAA games in a year and almost all of them are hits with a single audience, but somehow Sega has pulled it off. Of course, Sega has its own name in the picture. Kind of like Sonic

We might start with Ryu Ga Gotoku, creator of the Yakuza/Like a Dragon series. The results from RGG Studio are amazing. Not only is a new and exciting Like a Dragon game coming out with Infinite Wealth, but it’s also helping Sega develop a new Super Monkey Ball game for the Nintendo Switch, which is also pretty cool. Add to that the fact that RGG is preparing for Like. a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii in February 2025 and Virtua Fighter after that, so you have one studio spread out.

And then there’s Atlus, which had another incredible year. Persona 3: Reload by itself was enough to praise Atlus’ efforts in 2024, but then the group spun off into developer Studio Zero and created Metaphor: ReFantazio as well. It’s on a lot of people’s game of the year lists. Not to mention winning a few awards at Shacknews VanillaWare might be a lesser-known entity in Sega’s stable, but it’s still adding to the year flawlessly with Unicorn Overlord, an incredible strategy RPG.

Hit and miss with the Sega banner attached to it this year, and Sega still has exciting things ahead, the Sonic universe continues to be exciting both in games and in its growing universe of movies and media, including Virtua Fighter and Yakuza. New ones that are about to be launched as well. Of course, there’s also the legendary Sega Super Game to consider. But even if you take that away, Sega has some outstanding games in 2024 and doesn’t seem to have any intention of slowing down next year.

Be sure to read about the rest of the Shacknews Awards in our Year of Games: 2024 feature.