My my you must be a ground hog. You've still got your head in your ass.....or was it in the ground. I don't seem to recall or was that an ostrich. 

As for everyone else, are you nuts sega would only help in the west, other than Yakuza and Love & berry sega hasn't been so hot in Japan.

 well if they make shenmue for 360 it would be a win for microsoft

Sega could sell and market the Xbox360 in Japan. It could definately give the console some traction there. They could even call it the "Sega Xbox360" If they wanted to.

Theres a lot of console experience in Sega, which would be quite valuable to Microsoft, but they have to approach it as equals rather than conquerers.

Sega? No 10x.
I want Epic and Bioware!

If this happened (I know it's just a hypthetical), what would happen to Platinum Games? Would they have to find a new publisher, would all their games become 360 games, or would Sega be allowed to continue to publish games Platinum developed for other systems? Obviously, I'm specifically talking about Madworld.

With microsoft funding them I reckon they could make some pretty good games. Plus Microsoft would gain more credibility in Japan and gain lots of exclusives. Makes lots of sense to me.

http://vgchartz.com/games/game.php?id=2111
http://vgchartz.com/games/game.php?id=7499
http://vgchartz.com/games/game.php?id=14440
these games are good
nothing else good this gen though

So would they buy Sega back from Sammy or buy the whole Sega Sammy thingy?

Months ago there were rumours that Microsoft was considering buying Capcom, and now this rumour. It appears Microsoft really wants to make a significant move in Japan by purchasing a major software house.

Well, Microsoft wants to have some kind of sales in Japan too. Maybe Sonic would be the mascot for "sega 720" or something, could sell in Japan. ;)

Anyway, there are some games I really wish to see on 360. Like a new phantasy star. :)