The European arm of Japanese publishing giant Sega is looking to create more new intellectual properties as many of its hit franchises mature.

That's according to Sega Europe chief studios office Tim Heaton (pictured), who told GamesIndustry.biz that it wants its developers to create new series on top of their work on their existing franchises. This includes the likes of Sports Interactive with the annual Football Manager, as well as Total War from Creative Assembly.

"Each one of our studios really does own a franchise, and they're all mature now by and large," he said.

"So what we're trying to do now is look at new IP. There's a new FPS game coming from Creative Assembly, and they're growing teams around new IPs. Our internal studios have this two-pronged strategy: do more with what you've got, and think about new IP."

This is on top of the work it is doing this is through its Searchlight initiative, whose aim is to find third-party developers to work with and incubate new IP. It was via this business that Sega acquired Two Point Hospital maker Two Point Studios in May 2019.

We caught up with head of content Bobby Wertheim last year to discuss Sega Searchlight's aims and successes to date, as well as what precisely the outfit is looking for.