SEGA

01

Sega

Levelling-up an iconic gaming giant’s multi-regional website with Sonic-like speed

Agency

Beyond

Year

2023

Role

Creative Director

Skills

Pitching & concepting
Creative direction (content, UI, UX)
UI design
Design systems

02

the challenge

To win and secure an 18 month engagement to overhaul SEGA’s flagship site, a pivotal part of the brand’s vision and transformation to reposition themselves as a modern entertainment company.

After a decade-long relationship with their incumbent agency, SEGA sought for a new partnership to help them reimagine their fragmented digital experience, meeting with the needs of today’s customers, honour their gaming legacy, and to keep moving forwards with their new vision.

Every new IP launch required bespoke development, slowing teams down and making it nearly impossible to deliver the modern, immersive experiences today’s players expect.

As Creative Director on this account, my role was to lead across content, UI/Visual design and XD whilst also working in a hands-on design capacity to keep it steered towards it’s vision for the future.

03

the pitch

SEGA invited Beyond to pitch as the wildcard, the only agency without prior gaming-industry credentials. 

We positioned our consumer-experience expertise as the advantage SEGA actually needed. With just two weeks to pitch, we moved at sonic speed where I creatively lead crafting the proposal, ideating and creating concepts, and designing a phased approach that balanced SEGA’s bold aspirations with technical and organisational realities.

The creative vision was to shift SEGA away from nostalgia and retro cues, and toward a modern entertainment brand built around its worlds and franchises, reflective of its key audiences today.

We reframed the website away from an archive of IP pages. Our ambition was to create a Universe of SEGA: a single destination where these iconic worlds could coexist, evolve and attract new generations of fans, while still honouring the legacy that older audiences hold dear. An entry point for a vibrant entertainment universe, where we could span storytelling, discovery, community and future platform opportunities.

This perspective helped us win the work and establish an 18-month partnership.

We started by understanding the challenges and pain points SEGA were facing that we framed into How Might We statements to ideate on opportunities for the flagship site experience:

Storytelling

HMW improve Sega’s storytelling to increase site traffic and returning visitors

Community

HMW create a community for Sega fans to engage in a content rich experience

E-commerce

HMW foster discovery through to conversion of Sega’s products

Technology

HMW connect franchises, studios and content with brand owner management

Single sign-on

HMW create a personalised experience incorporating play history into the site experience

Informational

HMW create a localised, organised and accessible ecosystem

04

the approach

Younger audiences gravitate toward the worlds and characters they love, not the SEGA name. Meanwhile, SEGA needed a central hub that could modernise the brand and deliver efficiencies across marketing, technology and publishing.

Our approach focused on three guiding principles

Unify the experience, not the identities

Each franchise would retain its own personality, art direction and tone, while sitting within a coherent, intuitive SEGA-wide structure.

Templates that don’t look like templates

We architected a modular system flexible enough for wildly different IP styles from neon-soaked JRPGs to bright, playful platformers while allowing SEGA to publish quickly and consistently.

Build a future-ready foundation

Every component, animation and content pattern was designed with scalability in mind, creating a foundation for the long-term roadmap.

05

the concept

To align the organisation around what modern SEGA could be, we developed three creative territories that tested appetite and clarified the brand’s future direction.

territory 1

Universe of SEGA

A bold, brand-led direction designed to elevate SEGA as the centre of its universe and the portal into the distinctive worlds of its diverse IP.

This route expresses cohesion through typographic structure, a refined use of the iconic SEGA blue and a visual language that links each world without overshadowing it. At SEGA, there’s a world for everyone. Crafted visual cues invite players to dive into an old favourite or discover something entirely new.

territory 2

Immersive moments

Entertainment has the power to change the way we think, to ignite inspiration, or take us away to realms of escapism. SEGA is bringing entertainment to the forefront, and this route is about celebrating its IPs, placing them centre state, celebrating the characters and stories that define how modern audiences connect with the brand.

Each franchise becomes an immersive environment in its own right, with the experience adapting as players move deeper into a world. This route is intentionally more expressive and adaptive, giving IPs the space to reveal their personality, energy and visual identity. It invites players not just to explore SEGA’s universe, but to step inside it, immersing themselves in the sights, sounds and stories that make each world distinct.

territory 3

Discover your attitude

Inspired by SEGA’s rebellious heritage, this direction channels the energy of the ‘older brother’. Confident. Charismatic. And effortlessly cool. When he turns his attention to you, you feel part of something bigger. This route captures that spirit, and making users feel like they’re part of the club, like their cool older brother is telling them the best story of all time. 

Bold typography becomes the hero, replacing logos with attitude and presence. Blocks of colour signify movement between worlds, while multi-column layouts, vertical and horizontal type, and deliberately unexpected graphic interventions create a fresh, editorial edge. This is the new era of SEGA. Bold. Expressive. And not afraid to break the rules.

06

the output

We created a cohesive digital ecosystem that elevates SEGA from a collection of standalone IPs to a unified universe. 

Taking the strengths of Routes 1 and 2, we designed a system where SEGA’s iconic brand presence feels more ownable and contemporary while still giving each franchise the expressive space to take centre stage when it matters most.

The result is a scalable, expressive and future-facing SEGA.com. A platform that strengthens the worlds across SEGA, empowers IP teams creatively, and positions the organisation for long-term growth and innovation.

This vision takes shape through a three-tiered experience model that guides players seamlessly from SEGA’s brand world into its most beloved characters, franchises and games.

tier 1

The heart of the SEGAverse

A bold, future-facing brand layer that positions SEGA as the pulse of its entire universe.

Here, the refined SEGA visual language comes to life through colour, type and motion. Navigation becomes a guiding compass, helping players discover new corners of the universe, while modular hero systems give SEGA the flexibility to amplify launches, moments and global campaigns.

tier 2

Franchise worlds

Each franchise becomes a visually rich world of its own, built on shared foundations with adaptable modules that support the DNA of their IPs.

This ensured every world, from Sonic to Like a Dragon, felt like a true destination, and not just a reskinned page.

tier 3

Game experiences

Our most expressive tier brings individual game titles to life. Each title maintains its own identity from a shared flexible component system. This allows SEGA to honour each game’s creative vision without reverting to costly bespoke builds.

What once demanded a uniquely coded microsite for every release is now a unified, scalable framework, accelerating production and supporting the next generation of SEGA’s storytelling.

07

the impact

This transformation reshaped how SEGA shows up, creates and connects with its players, evolving the brand, empowering its franchises and establishing a scalable foundation for future growth.

A scalable system that accelerates delivery

The shift from bespoke microsites to a modular system drastically reduces overhead. Teams can now launch, update and iterate at speed, with consistency across regions and releases.

Creative freedom without operational compromise

The new experience strengthens SEGA’s core identity while giving franchise teams expressive control for their IP. SEGA now have a shared structure, governance and long-term maintainability of their site. 

A continued partnership and proof of value

SEGA immediately expanded the system, commissioning over 25 game templates and 11 world templates, a testament to the scalability and long-term impact of the work.

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