Sega fans - has it been tricky following your favourite franchises?

[Ostro]

Kresnik said:

At least, I thought Microsoft always got the cool ones.  I was just wondering what made Sega decide upon that.  Did MS pay for it, or was it just a decision on their part?  Was it part of an attempt to try and sell the Xbox in Japan, like they went for at the start of this generation? 

Maybe SEGA was just of the opinion that Microsoft would follow their route of online gaming, audience, variety etc. (as I did. Sure, PS3 has a lot in common now)

But could have been money, of course. MS spent a lot to create the Xbox brand and there are surely lots of studios and games that they acquired just to offer big names.