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Forums - Gaming - Why Did Microsoft's Acquisition of SEGA Fall Through?

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foxtail on 08 February 2013
S.T.A.G.E. said:
disolitude said:
S.T.A.G.E. said:

I was focused on Segas sales potential. Microsoft is looking for games that can exclusively sell over 3 million copies or more exclusive to their platform. When I say a "shell of a company" in reference to Rare I was talking about the Stamper Bros taking the money and running, and their star staff moving onto Radical Games which, course is now owned by Crytek. Look at Liohead, that company is now a shell of its former self because Molyneux left and his star staff formed their own company.

There are some major IPs that Microsoft could have used back then that would have helped them a lot. Keep in mind that Microsoft pretty much only had Halo and PGR at the time.

Japan would be all over Virtua Fighter 4 and Shenmue 3. 2K sports series was kicking EA's offerings ass back then, they just needed funding. Sonic games sold really well for sega as a mediocre titles.

Sega had other games in develpment that were potential hits in the making could have used more dev dollars and a marketing push, like Headhunter(cover based stealth shooter).

Moving forward to this gen, Xbox live could be home to many classic sega remakes like Vectorman, Streets Of Rage, Ecco the dolphin, nights...etc.

I agree that it would be risky for Microsoft as talent may have left Sega, but that happen to Sega no mater what. So this alternate reality may have actually worked.

I see your point, but on the other hand you now Microsoft's issue with sales potential.

Here's some sales data from that era:

Sega U.S. Unit Sales (End of October 2005)

Units rounded to the nearest 1,000


GC - Sonic Adventure 2 Battle - 1,224,000
GC - Sonic Mega Collection - 996,000
PS2 - Crazy Taxi - 901,000
GC - Super Monkey Ball 2 - 699,000
GC - Super Monkey Ball - 669,000
PS2 - Virtua Fighter 4 - 624,000
GC - Sonic Adventure DX - 606,000
GC - Sonic Heroes - 595,000
PS2 - Sonic Mega Collection Plus - 544,000
PS2 - Sonic Heroes - 504,000
XBOX - Sonic Mega Collection Plus - 299,000
PS2 - Shinobi - 288,000
PS2 - Virtua Fighter 4 EVO - 273,000
XBOX - Sonic Heroes - 226,000
XBOX - House of the Dead III - 214,000
GC - Phantasy Star Online I & II - 190,000
XBOX - Shenmue II - 177,000
GC - Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg - 169,000
GC - Skies of Arcadia Legends - 151,000
GC - Crazy Taxi - 136,873 (End of January 2005)
XBOX - Panzer Dragoon Orta - 129,000
XBOX - Crazy Taxi 3 - 107,000
XBOX - Jet Set Radio Future - 101,000
XBOX - GunValkyrie - 96,000
XBOX - Sega GT 2002 - 90,000
XBOX - Phantasy Star Online I & II - 87,000
XBOX - OutRun 2 - 71,000
GC - Sonic Gems Collection - 70,000
PS2 - Sega Classics Collection - 69,000
XBOX - ToeJam & Earl III - 68,000
PS2 - Super Monkey Ball Deluxe - 65,000
PS2 - Sega SuperStars - 61,000
GC - Phantasy Star Online III - 52,000
XBOX - Super Monkey Ball Deluxe - 51,000
PS2 - Nightshade - 44,000
GC - Amazing Island - 34,000
PS2 - Shining Tears - 33,000
PS2 - Aero Elite: Combat Academy - 29,000
PS2 - King of Route 66 - 21,000
PS2 - Rez - 21,000
PS2 - Ferrari F355 Challenge - 20,000
PS2 - Virtual-On Marz - 15,000
PS2 - Blood Will Tell - 14,000
PS2 - Headhunter: Redemption - 10,000
PS2 - Shining Force Neo - 10,000
XBOX - Headhunter: Redemption - 9,000
GC - Puyo Pop Fever - 6,000
GC - Virtua Quest - 5,000
PS2 - Virtua Quest - 4,000

GC - Home Run King - 70,000
GC - Beach Spikers - 66,000
PS2 - Bass Fishing Duel - 66,000
PS2 - Soccer Slam - 47,000
GC - Soccer Slam - 45,000
XBOX - Soccer Slam - 32,000
GC - Virtua Striker 2002 - 11,000

XBOX - Spartan Total War - 9,000
PS2 - Spartan Total War - 7,000
GC - Spartan Total War - 1,000

 





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disolitude on 08 February 2013
foxtail said:
S.T.A.G.E. said:
disolitude said:
S.T.A.G.E. said:

I was focused on Segas sales potential. Microsoft is looking for games that can exclusively sell over 3 million copies or more exclusive to their platform. When I say a "shell of a company" in reference to Rare I was talking about the Stamper Bros taking the money and running, and their star staff moving onto Radical Games which, course is now owned by Crytek. Look at Liohead, that company is now a shell of its former self because Molyneux left and his star staff formed their own company.

There are some major IPs that Microsoft could have used back then that would have helped them a lot. Keep in mind that Microsoft pretty much only had Halo and PGR at the time.

Japan would be all over Virtua Fighter 4 and Shenmue 3. 2K sports series was kicking EA's offerings ass back then, they just needed funding. Sonic games sold really well for sega as a mediocre titles.

Sega had other games in develpment that were potential hits in the making could have used more dev dollars and a marketing push, like Headhunter(cover based stealth shooter).

Moving forward to this gen, Xbox live could be home to many classic sega remakes like Vectorman, Streets Of Rage, Ecco the dolphin, nights...etc.

I agree that it would be risky for Microsoft as talent may have left Sega, but that happen to Sega no mater what. So this alternate reality may have actually worked.

I see your point, but on the other hand you now Microsoft's issue with sales potential.

Here's some sales data from that era:

Sega U.S. Unit Sales (End of October 2005)

Units rounded to the nearest 1,000


GC - Sonic Adventure 2 Battle - 1,224,000
GC - Sonic Mega Collection - 996,000
PS2 - Crazy Taxi - 901,000
GC - Super Monkey Ball 2 - 699,000
GC - Super Monkey Ball - 669,000
PS2 - Virtua Fighter 4 - 624,000
GC - Sonic Adventure DX - 606,000
GC - Sonic Heroes - 595,000
PS2 - Sonic Mega Collection Plus - 544,000
PS2 - Sonic Heroes - 504,000
XBOX - Sonic Mega Collection Plus - 299,000
PS2 - Shinobi - 288,000
PS2 - Virtua Fighter 4 EVO - 273,000
XBOX - Sonic Heroes - 226,000
XBOX - House of the Dead III - 214,000
GC - Phantasy Star Online I & II - 190,000
XBOX - Shenmue II - 177,000
GC - Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg - 169,000
GC - Skies of Arcadia Legends - 151,000
GC - Crazy Taxi - 136,873 (End of January 2005)
XBOX - Panzer Dragoon Orta - 129,000
XBOX - Crazy Taxi 3 - 107,000
XBOX - Jet Set Radio Future - 101,000
XBOX - GunValkyrie - 96,000
XBOX - Sega GT 2002 - 90,000
XBOX - Phantasy Star Online I & II - 87,000
XBOX - OutRun 2 - 71,000
GC - Sonic Gems Collection - 70,000
PS2 - Sega Classics Collection - 69,000
XBOX - ToeJam & Earl III - 68,000
PS2 - Super Monkey Ball Deluxe - 65,000
PS2 - Sega SuperStars - 61,000
GC - Phantasy Star Online III - 52,000
XBOX - Super Monkey Ball Deluxe - 51,000
PS2 - Nightshade - 44,000
GC - Amazing Island - 34,000
PS2 - Shining Tears - 33,000
PS2 - Aero Elite: Combat Academy - 29,000
PS2 - King of Route 66 - 21,000
PS2 - Rez - 21,000
PS2 - Ferrari F355 Challenge - 20,000
PS2 - Virtual-On Marz - 15,000
PS2 - Blood Will Tell - 14,000
PS2 - Headhunter: Redemption - 10,000
PS2 - Shining Force Neo - 10,000
XBOX - Headhunter: Redemption - 9,000
GC - Puyo Pop Fever - 6,000
GC - Virtua Quest - 5,000
PS2 - Virtua Quest - 4,000

GC - Home Run King - 70,000
GC - Beach Spikers - 66,000
PS2 - Bass Fishing Duel - 66,000
PS2 - Soccer Slam - 47,000
GC - Soccer Slam - 45,000
XBOX - Soccer Slam - 32,000
GC - Virtua Striker 2002 - 11,000

XBOX - Spartan Total War - 9,000
PS2 - Spartan Total War - 7,000
GC - Spartan Total War - 1,000

 


I'm not sure where these sales are from... Looking at this site at Sonic Heroes alone gives very different numbers.

1 Sonic Heroes PS2 2003 Platform Sega 1.04 1.37 0.06 0.49 2.96
2 Sonic Heroes GC 2003 Platform Sega 1.05 0.44 0.06 0.04 1.60
3 Sonic Heroes XB 2003 Platform Sega 0.41 0.43 0.01 0.05 0.90


foxtail on 08 February 2013

The sales are straight from a Sega USA financial report circa late 2005 (rounded to the nearest 1000).   Sonic Heros had about 0.5/0.6M sales then in the US from the data that I posted, and chartz has it about 1M in their North American data through to today.  I'm guessing the game had some legs in the US after the October 2005 date, but the data is in line for the US. 



S.T.A.G.E. on 08 February 2013
foxtail said:

The sales are straight from a Sega USA financial report circa late 2005 (rounded to the nearest 1000).   Sonic Heros had about 0.5/0.6M sales then in the US from the data that I posted, and chartz has it about 1M in their North American data through to today.  I'm guessing the game had some legs in the US after the October 2005 date, but the data is in line for the US. 


Thanks for the list, Microsoft has zero incentive to buy them outside of shaping the franchises they created.



J_Allard on 09 February 2013
torok said:
J_Allard said:
Man. The creative minds and innovation of Sega backed by Windows str8 cash would have created the greatest force in gaming we have ever seen.


Just like Rare?

Not at all.

Sega was still pumping out incredible games when MS started on the Xbox.

Rareware on the other hand was a shell of its former self.



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torok on 09 February 2013
J_Allard said:
torok said:
J_Allard said:
Man. The creative minds and innovation of Sega backed by Windows str8 cash would have created the greatest force in gaming we have ever seen.


Just like Rare?

Not at all.

Sega was still pumping out incredible games when MS started on the Xbox.

Rareware on the other hand was a shell of its former self.

I'm not a MS guy, but if they had made it and we had new versions of Streets of Rage, Echo, Out Run, Altered Beast and After Burner with AAA quality I would buy everything they released.



Bet with jetforcejiminy: PS4 will pass the Wii lifetime numbers.