A few questions with Group CEO of SEGA SAMMY HOLDINGS, Haruki Satomi

Haruki Satomi, President and Group CEO, Representative Director of SEGA SAMMY HOLDINGS, recently visited Rovio’s headquarters in Espoo, Finland. We had a chance to sit down with Haruki-san to ask a few questions about his history with video games, the future of mobile games, and his favorite thing about visiting this part of the world. Check out the full video, or read on below for answers from Haruki-san!

What is your earliest video game memory?

“Actually, I was not a ‘SEGA hardware boy’. I used to play the Nintendo when I was a kid; especially in Japan, the Nintendo was much more popular. Even before that, my father’s company was literally next door to my house. He also made video games at that time. I would play the games and even invited my friends to test the games before launch. Behind the office, we had a small arcade center. I helped to operate the place to exchange the cash to the 100-yen coin the kids used to play.”

You have experience working with mobile and social games at Sega as early as 2012. What’s been the biggest change since then that you’ve seen?

“Fifteen years ago, video games were available only in developed countries. Buying a console and then buying a package of a video game was so costly for a lot of developing countries. But thanks to the penetration of PC and then smartphones worldwide, everybody can easily access video games. Most of the games are free-to-play anyway, and that has expanded the market for us. That’s drastically changed from the last decade.”

What excites you most about the future of gaming right now?

“Of course, we have really strong brands in Rovio and Sega itself in the developed countries. But there is huge potential for emerging markets like China, Southeast Asia, Africa, or even the Middle East. Those are the new opportunities for both of us.”

What is your favorite thing about Finland?

“I love sauna! The sauna culture comes from this area and is getting really popular in Japan as well.”