Microsoft Considered Acquiring Sega, Bungie, IO Interactive, and More - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 03 July 2023 / 6,113 Views
Microsoft at one point had considered acquiring Sega, Bungie, IO Interactive, and more. This is according to an email sent by Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Microsoft CFO Amy Hood in November 2020 has been posted as part of the Microsoft vs FTC hearing, as well as a Microsoft internal April 2021 merger review document.
"We believe that Sega has built a well-balanced portfolio of games across segments with global geographic appeal, and will help us accelerate Xbox Game Pass both on and off-console," reads the email from Spencer via The Verge.
Spencer added, "The global appeal of Sega’s beloved IP will help expand Xbox Game Pass's reach to new audiences around the world, most notably in Asia, where localized content is critical to success."
The 2021 merger review document does list eight studios including Bungie, IO Interactive, Zynga, Thunderful, Supergiant Games, Scopely, and Playrix.
Bungie is now owned by Sony and Zynga is owned by Take-Two Interactive. Microsoft's internal document on Bungie states the "acquisition of Bungie will include securing valuable IP, Destiny (and its community) and integration of its dev & live ops infrastructure into Xbox Game Studios."
Microsoft is currently focused on trying to acquire Activision Blizzard.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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I hope from the bottom of my heart that Microsoft never gets close to Sega.
Leave SEGA ALONE!
Leave multiplats be multiplats.
There's that old Microsoft spirit from the 360 era.
C*ck-block Japanese series like Persona and SMT from the people who actually buy those games to try and sell them to people who will never buy Xbox and to Xbox owners who will never play those games.
Yep, that´s the spirit I wanna see from them. Those people who "will never buy Xbox" can stay happy with the barrage of GAAS games that is coming their way.
you can just use your smart phone and gamepass. you have a smart phone right, like everyone else in the world. one door is closed to you but another is open to you. i tried gears 5 on my phone and it runs better than the og xbox
Smartphone? Are you serious? Why would I want to play console games on my phone instead of on a PlayStation? Why would I play console games on a telephone to begin with?
Sorry, dude, but that was so ridiculous that I can't even tell if you're trolling or not.
fine not you. but its an option that lots of people like. im not one of them because i have a decent laptop and soon a series x [starfield preorder]. i tried gears 5 just to see if it can function .it does you just need to buy the switch like attachments that make the feeling more natural . hows that trolling? im just giving a helpful alternatives that works. you just attack my helpfull comment. ok you dont like phones , but you are not everyone. also anouther great option is the xbox app on newer smart tvs. dont like phones then how about xbox app on tv?=) now i just got a new tv a few days ago, ill let you know if i can download and play well on the tv app
How about I would rather not either play on a telephone or have my content chained to a subscription service I do not want?
The games would still be on PC though.
right. with gamepass pc you can have access to those games on your phone. after the price hike its 11 bucks still a good deal
You can look through these same documents and see they would keep Sega multiplatform for varies reasons if they did acquire them.
Then why buy them? Not like MS has a great history of managing studios or projects
Likely for better brand awareness in Asia knowing every Sega game would be coming to Xbox and be on Game Pass. Sega has a presence in the PC market and several of their IPs.
At the end of the day, MS didn't buy them (may still try of course) and got mostly what they wanted which was more games coming to Xbox and some coming to Game Pass.
Why buy them? For gamepass.have Sega titles and properties day one for gamepass. If its not for exclusives than it's for day one gamepass titles
Would have been weird seeing them go after Bungie, given Bungie is already a former MS first-party studio that became independent.
That said it was still a bit weird (not, not wrong) to see them end up being bought by Sony.
Nintendo should buy sega
I remember reading MS wanted to buy Nintendo and Nintendo just laughed loll
Sega is a Japanese company, would the Japanese government allow an American company like Microsoft to own more than 49% of Sega? I believe there’s restrictions over foreign companies owning Japanese companies?
I'm just asking not to attak you just cuss I'm curious. Why is it hard for Americans to buy Japanese companies not the other way around?
My understanding is that the Japanese government and its regulators take a dim view of foreign acquisitions to Japanese companies, and that there are both rules against it, and attempt to block the transactions for transactions that don't run afoul of the rules. But I am decidedly NOT an expert in this. :)
Thank you
If the shareholders want to sell I don't think there's anything the Japanese government could do to prevent them from doing so.
IIRC the provisions allowing them to block foreign takeovers only apply to businesses integral to Japan. I think the intent is more defence/security oriented stuff, or companies that are an absolutely massive part of the economy (like Samsung is in Korea). I don't think Sega really fits that billing.
So it's not ok the other way around ? Sounds like a double standard to me. How's that fair. Kinda seems like Ms is expected to fight the console war with a hand tied behind its back and drugged to make sure it can't recover. Why double standard? Japanese should be able to buy American companies and American companies should be able to buy Japanese companies, more so if they want to be bought, like platinum games been hinting to get snatched by Ms. Its a democracy not communist business......to the most part lol
I'm surprised at all the negativity on here for MS potentially acquiring Sega. They were the first company to attempt to breathe life back into Sega and although things didn't work out as well as they hoped, the history is there.
Because Microsoft is a predatory corporate conglomerate who knows little about the industry and has a bad track record with fan favourite companies (see Rare). They lack an innovative or inventive spirit. Their only instinct is to to try to buy their success with their hundreds of billions. But I shouldn’t even need to point out their mediocrity, they admit it themselves: https://www.vgchartz.com/article/457612/microsoft-xbox-has-lost-the-console-wars/
It's an ironic statement considering it was that exact tandem that implemented online gaming for home consoles. Innovative? No, but they absolutely ushered in a new era to arguably the most important
feature on consoles today. I agree MS has made plenty of mistakes but I think with the right approach, a Sega and MS merger makes sense on so many levels.
Buy Nintendo and Sega please then we can get the Master Zelda Chief's Phantasy Star House of the Crazi Taxi game we always wanted
I'm sure many entity considered acquiring Sega throughout it's existence. I expect MS to have studied about every entity in the business' and I expect the same from Sony too and probably Netflix, Amazon , Apple and Google too. There's nothing wrong with assessing possibilities.
Sega makes alot of sense, buisness wise and spirituality
I can envision Spencer saying we are making a play for Sega and we expect it to go through since our spirits are aligned, followed by reporters asking exactly how is it spiritual followed by Spencer "it's spiritual because we once considered buying them" LMAO.
Lol it could work
The most frustrating thing about all this is that, with $70b, they could have bought all of this and still have money left. I have been saying from the very beginning that MS should have followed Tencent and Embracer's strategy.
Honestly, reading some of the documents, I think if the activision deal gets abandoned they will make a hard push for Sega. It makes too much sense for the brand, and I think a soft relaunch of the Xbox brand in japan and the rest of Asia under the Sega brand name could actually really help sales in that region.
Yes. But Sega really isn't comparable to Activision in size. So I'm not sure that the outcome of the Activision deal has much bearing on it. People have been mentioning for years that It would make sense for Microsoft to buy Sega. And now we know that Microsoft believed, maybe still does, that it makes sense as well. So, if they think Sega can be purchased at a number that makes sense, I'm not sure why Activision would really change their thinking on that.
That said, they are unlikely to make any purchases in the gaming space, with a possible exception for small, individual developers, while they're still trying to get the Activision deal over the finish line.
It does have a bearing. Considering how much scrutiny is on the Activision deal already, if it does go through then Microsoft would probably have a very difficult time acquiring any more large publishers any time soon.
If there are already monopoly concerns, then an even larger Microsoft trying to buy companies is going to increase those concerns for awhile.
I wouldn't be surprised if they still go after Sega even if the ABK deal is approved. Sega includes Sonic, Yakuza, Persona, Total War, Football Manager, Jet Set Radio, Puyo Puyo, and a lot more.
Would Sega agree to being bought tho. They recently acquired Rovio, and it just doesn't feel like they will agree to an acquisition. I don't see Capcom, Bandai Namco, and Square Enix either. The only JP companies that I think Microsoft has a chance are Koei Tecmo, Konami, Level 5, and some smaller studios.
Any publicly traded company, has to do what is best for it's stock holders. If Microsoft offered something outrageous like 10 billion dollars, all the stock holders would sue Sega if they didn't accept it.
Hostile takeovers in Japan do not happen.
no it does happen, I'm pretty sure. But hostile takeovers rarely happens in general
I think that's only the case if majority of stock holders agrees. But companies usually has control of majority of their own stocks. If majority are owned by the company themselves then the company has the right to refuse. If Sega doesn't want to be acquired, that already means majority will not accept it even with an outrageous offer (assuming they do have control of the majority)
There is zero chance that MS would buy a company for purposes of getting their developers if they sense that the developers don't want to come to MS. If they believed that the vast majority of the developers wanted to join MS but management was trying to stand in the way of a deal for some reason, there is maybe a remote possibility that they would go around management and the board to go straight to shareholders to make their case.
Like I said before Microsoft should buy Sega
