FirstLook, the player relationship platform for game studios and publishers, has been adopted by Sega, which will use it for playtesting and interacting with players.
The deal is a good one for FirstLook, as the Japanese game publisher is one of the world’s leading game companies. Sega will use FirstLook’s player customer relationship management (CRM) and playtesting platform to support player engagement and playtesting across a portfolio of titles.
Acquired by backend services firm Pragma, FirstLook was started to get players to playtest games in early stages. FirstLook became so popular that Pragma changed its name to FirstLook. Now, FirstLook has millions of players, and it can get interesting insights from those players, like figuring out that 93% of large game studios can’t predict a game’s success.
It signed players up by allowing players to play games in early stages for free. But it evolved into a CRM platform, where FirstLook can follow up and send a sales pitch for the final version of the game — and also send pitches for more games to test. In short, FirstLook has become a platform for engaging with customers while it provides an invaluable service for both big and small game companies that want to know if their games are resonating with players — or need bug fixes.
Founded in 1960, Sega has grown into one of the world’s most iconic games companies, with a portfolio spanning globally recognised franchises including Sonic the Hedgehog, Crazy Taxi, Like a Dragon, Persona, Total War, Football Manager, and Virtua Fighter.
The partnership reinforces Sega’s continued investment in player engagement, giving teams a more unified approach to player relationships, playtesting and structured feedback throughout development and beyond launch.
The partnership will extend to upcoming titles including Crazy Taxi: World Tour, which will open signups for its Multiplayer Closed Network Test on July 28, 2026, ahead of its full release in 2027. Playtesting will be hosted on player.gg, FirstLook’s consumer-facing platform for playtesting and game discovery, giving players the opportunity to experience titles before launch while enabling studios to use their feedback to help improve game quality.
As player communities become an increasingly important part of modern game development, studios are looking for more connected ways to engage players before and after launch. By bringing player relationships, playtesting and structured feedback together in one platform, FirstLook helps studios build stronger communities and make more informed development decisions throughout a game’s lifecycle.
Eden Chen, CEO of FirstLook, said in a statement, “Across the industry, the studios that succeed are the ones that listen to their players early, consistently, and meaningfully. Sega is home to some of the most iconic, beloved franchises in gaming history, and they’ve achieved that by constantly putting their players first. We’re proud to partner with this iconic publisher as its player CRM and playtesting platform, helping support the next generation of Sega titles
The announcement follows Player.gg’s role as an official player destination for Summer Game Fest at the beginning of June, which attracted more than 100,000 player registrations during the showcase.