Persona and Yakuza could come to mobile thanks to Sega-Rovio buyout

Following Sega’s buyout of Angry Birds studio Rovio, the publisher has teased the potential of adapting other IPs besides Sonic the Hedgehog for mobile, including Persona and Yakuza/Like a Dragon. On Nov. 29, Shuji Utsumi, co-chief operating officer and president of global consumer game and transmedia at Sega, appeared on stage at the RovioCon event in Helsinki, Finland to discuss the future of it and Rovio’s new working relationship.

“Sega has a strong portfolio of numerous IPs and characters which becomes much more attractive by welcoming the Angry Birds IP,” said Utusmi, according to Mobilegamer.biz. “Currently, Sega and Rovio have been working on new mobile game projects based on our own IP…but Sonic is not the only IP to benefit from the mobile platform expansion. It will be a potential strong tailwind for other key Sega IP such as Yakuza and Persona.”

Admittedly, neither series is a complete stranger to mobile, but I wouldn’t blame anyone for not knowing that. There have been several Persona mobile games but the majority of them never launched outside of Japan. The same goes for Yakuza Online, a non-canon entry that actually featured the first appearance of Ichiban Kasuga, the series’ new protagonist, before his mainline debut in Yakuza: Like a Dragon.

There’s a new mobile Persona game already in development, Persona 5: The Phantom X, which is being worked on by Chinese studio Black Wings Game Studio. Between the popularity of the Persona 5 brand and Sega’s new vested interest in the mobile space, you can probably expect this one and any future mobile games to see more of a global push.

Utsumi also announced that, under Sega, not only will new Rovio games come to PC and consoles but there will be more animated Angry Birds projects too—a decision obviously emboldened by Sonic‘s recent successes in TV and film. Utsumi may have coyly teased some kind of crossover between Sonic and Angry Birds as well, jokingly saying the two IPs were “dating.” The two already crossed paths once before with a collaboration between auto runner Sonic Dash and RPG spin-off Angry Birds Epic, but Sega owning Rovio makes any future crossovers much easier to pull off.