SEGA may create its own subscription service similar to EA Play, Ubisoft+, or Switch Online

SEGA is currently mulling over whether or not it should enter the subscription market.

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Following Game Pass' launch in 2017, a number of big-name publishers also rolled out their own subscriptions. Ubisoft has uPlay, Electronic Arts has EA Play, and other platform-holders jumped in with Nintendo Switch Online and PlayStation Plus. Now it looks like other publishers are ready to jump into the market after years on the sidelines.

SEGA is one such company. In a recent interview with BBC, SEGA president Shuji Utsumi said that subscriptions are "very interesting" and that the house of Sonic was currently "evaluating some opportunities."

"We're thinking something--and discussing something--we cannot disclose right now," Utsumi said.

So what's SEGA up to? If SEGA did launch its own proprietary first-party subscription service, we could see multiple generations of games ranging from the early Genesis all the way to the modern era.

We could also see SEGA pull its games from subscriptions as a response, with titles being removed from services like PlayStation Plus, Xbox Game Pass, and Switch Online. SEGA has been a big part of these subscriptions over the years, especially with Game Pass, where SEGA's games have shown up consistently.

The idea would be to simply make their own subscription service to try to directly monetize core fans rather than having to solely work with third-party partners. That's not to say that some games couldn't show up on other subscriptions, but mainly SEGA could reach a new segment of fans with a batch of ready-made games.

Of course, SEGA would also face the undesirable effects of subscriptions like Game Pass. There's a replacive effect wherein consumers will just stay subscribed to a service rather than buy the software itself, leading to overall lower software volume sales. This could impact SEGA more negatively than others, especially since the company relies heavily on strategically-timed holiday sales and discounts to boost its annual game sales.

Some sort of subscription isn't the only thing that SEGA has planned. They're also working on an innovative new market segment category called Super Games, but the first one won't be out for a while.