A video message from President and Group CEO Haruki Satomi is streamed via the companyʼs internal web portal at the start of each month with the aim of stimulating communication between management and employees in SEGA SAMMY Group. In his December 2021 message, Mr. Satomi spoke to employees about the importance of environmental problems and other aspects of sustainability. He also described recent trends in thinking about these issues and shared examples of the linkage between environmental issues and business activities. The February 2022 message focused on human rights issues, diversity, equity and inclusion. Mr. Satomi shared his thoughts about initiatives and decision-making in this area. Other topics covered in Mr. Satomiʼs messages include the Group Mission (“Constantly Creating, Forever Captivating – Making Life More Colorful”), his thoughts on various initiatives, and interviews with employees who are playing key roles in the Group. Group employees in Japan and overseas watch these messages and recognize their value as a new communication tool. SEGA SAMMY Group will continue to develop working environments in which diverse individuals can enjoy exciting careers.

To ensure the safety of its employees during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Group has adopted workstyles that combine remote and onsite work according to work and operational requirements. We will continue our efforts to prevent the spread of the disease while maintaining and improving productivity.

In order to improve work efficiency amid the growing shift to remote working and the adoption of diverse workstyles for the “era of coexistence with COVID-19,” the Group companies such as SEGA SAMMY HOLDINGS, SEGA, and Sammy began introducing electronic contract systems in October 2020. These systems are progressively being introduced by other companies within SEGA SAMMY Group. An electronic contract is concluded by means of digital signatures on digital documents, in place of paper documents imprinted with seals. Contracts are stored on corporate servers as digital data. The introduction of electronic contracts represents another step toward the paperless office. It will also facilitate contract administration in a remote working environment by eliminating the need to use seals. We will continue our efforts to digitalize contract processes with the understanding and support of our customers and suppliers.

SEGA SAMMY Group promotes LGBTQ+ understanding around the world.

In 2023, Sega of America donated to Orange County Pride, an organization that helps organize Pride-related events. During Pride Month in June, employees participated in a parade at OC Pride, a rainbow pride event held by the organization in Orange County, California, where the company is based, and gave away rainbow-colored items such as sunglasses and stickers at the SEGA booth.

Additionally, Sega of America also started an Employee Resource Group initiative in 2023 which includes the formation of an internal group to support and celebrate its LGBTQ+ employees year-round.

At the start of Pride Month, SEGA Europe posted a tweet expressing solidarity with the LGBTQ+ community, garnering 4.3 million views on X (formerly Twitter) and increased engagement on other social networks such as Facebook and Instagram. The company’s social networking team also held a livestream event where officially partnered streamers played various SEGA games live on stream to receive donations from viewers. The livestream raised a total of £12,588 (about ¥2.29 million) in one week, which was donated to the Kaleidoscope Trust, a UK- based charity that works internationally to promote the human rights of LGBTQ+ people.

SEGA SAMMY Group organizes a town-hall meeting between managers and employees of our group companies to discuss.

In 2022, a town-hall meeting was held to discuss how to raise each group company employee’s awareness of gender equality and measures for promoting women’s participation and career advancement in the workplace between the CEOs in the group companies and five women managers. In the meeting, as QA tools were used to consider anonymity for sensitive agendas, smooth communication was performed, including active debate and questions.

In June 2020, Sega of America responded to growing support for the “Black Lives Matter” anti-racism movement by issuing a statement condemning discrimination against people of color. In addition, in March 2021, both Sega of America and SEGASAMMY HOLDINGS expressed their support for efforts to eradicate all forms of racial discrimination and violence following a rapid increase in the number of hate crimes being committed against people of Asian descent.

We are saving electric power at the SAMMY Kawagoe Factory by using timers and motion detectors to turn lights on and off. We will further improve environmental performance by replacing more than 8,400 lights with LED lights from July 2021 to the end of March 2023. 

The Puyo Puyo eSports system has been updated to provide a color adjustment function for people with color vision deficiency, who have previously been hesitant to try Puyo Puyo games due to difficulty distinguishing the colors used in these titles. With guidance from the Color Universal Design Organization (CUDO), a non-profit organization, we added support for three types of color vision deficiency—protanopia, deuteranopia, and tritanopia—as well as color intensity adjustment. In addition, we removed the flickering effect used on falling Puyo and increased the number of Puyo shapes to 16 to make it easier to distinguish them by their outlines. We also updated the online matchmaking system so that players using one of the three color vision modes can chose, through their personal screen settings, whether to play only against people who are also using those modes, or to play against people using the default settings. As a result of these changes, it is now possible for large numbers of people to play together.

On February 20, 2021, we staged an online Puyo Puyo experience event for people with color vision deficiency at the 47th CUD Supporter Association Conference hosted by the CUDO. The CUD Supporter Association is a group of people with a shared interest in the issues faced by people with color vision deficiency and color universal design (CUD).