http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=17316
I've been saying for a few months now that Microsoft needs to forge new, valuable, and good partnerships in the Asiatic region. As we all know, the Xbox 360 has done much better in Japan, but is still in a mess of a position - it's still well behind in #3. Sales this year have been tepid at best (they're down significantly from 2007, but up from 2006). Microsoft has had some great succuesses with Namco, Tecmo and Mistwaker - but aside from those 3 companies, there have been very little bright spots. Microsoft games have been poor selling mostly (aside from Halo 3), and the system is still viewed as being a POS mostly (again though, it's still going to sell 1.5m units before the end of the generation).
Then enters the idea of strategic partnerships: Microsoft has done such with Toshiba and the HD-DVD addon. Microsoft is also no stranger to aquiring alot of companies. They've bought 2 very good European studios in Rare and Lionhead, and released Bizzarre from their clutches.
So now Microsoft is in a pretty wierd position - they've dropped 2 big-name developers in Bungie and Bizzarre. Even if both work for games on the 360 still, that leaves Microsoft with a pretty bad base of 1st party games, and a diminishing base of 3rd parties that MS can still count as exclusive (mainly Tecmo, Namco, and Realtime Studios).
Maybe it's just me, but I see the idea of Microsoft buying out SegaSammy to be something that would be most advantageous for Microsoft, both in Japan and abroad. SegaSammy sold around 2 million software units in Japan, and 6.25 in the US/Europe for their first 3 quarters in their business year.
But more importantly: Sega systems sold somewhat well in Japan in the Saturn and Dreamcast, despite total failure in the West - the Dreamcast sold 5 million hardware units in Japan, and was regarded fairly well. Sega is the only hardware developer in the East that has any sort of chance for MS to partner with.
And not only this, but Sega has a few key franchises that are/would be critical to some sort of Microsoft revival in Japan -
- Yakuza
- Sonic
- Nights
- House of the Dead (Arcades)
- Phantasy Star
- Skies of Arkadia
- Virtua Fighter
- Crazy Taxi
- Shining Force
- Virtu-On
And a few that do moderately well in the West:
- Football Manager
- Sega Rally
- Golden Axe
And of course, you have the Sega-MS connections that have been forged in the past: Peter Moore worked for Sega before he moved to MS, Sega has used alot of Windows OS'es in development of their products, Microsoft used alot of SegaNet ideas in the creation of Xbox Live, and so on. It's entirely possible that others could buy out Sega, but Microsoft would have alot to gain from it. They have a few strong franchises, and Microsoft would certainly gain a much larger marketshare in Japan. We've seen that with all of the Microsoft moneyhats for Japanese-made games, they haven't been very profitable in Japan. Actually forging a partnership to move hardware is vastly more critical, as the X360 would be a much stronger go-to system by 3rd parties.
Am I crazy for thinking that Microsoft should/could buy SegaSammy out? I mean, the next likely candidate would be Nintendo buying them out since their handheld division has done moderately well with Love & Berry and Mario and Sonic at the Olympics.
Back from the dead, I'm afraid.
