Some major shake-ups are happening at Sega and they’ve renewed rumours of the company potentially being bought out. Konami’s recent restructuring efforts kicked off a wave of rumours and theories about the company selling off its IPs. Now, something similar is happening with Sega. Earlier today, the company announced that it too will be doing some restructuring, with the purpose being to separate its video game and amusement divisions. According to Famitsu, Toshihiro Nagoshi, creator of the Yakuza series, will also be stepping down from his role as chief creative officer, though he will remain with Sega as a creative director. It’s the splitting of divisions that has some thinking Sega is preparing itself to be bought out by another company, since it would allow for any potential purchase to go as smoothly as possible. There’s obviously no evidence to support this rumour, but there has been speculation like this before. Only last year, some people were convinced that it was being acquired by Microsoft. What has likely only fuelled the rumours are recent rumblings of Microsoft making another substantial studio purchase, one on the same level as its Bethesda buy-out. Ever since Microsoft made it clear it was eager to buy more studios, Sega’s name has regularly popped up in discussions about it, especially since it being a Japanese studio would help Xbox’s standing in Japan; something Microsoft is eager to improve. As for what Sega has officially said, the structural reform is simply ‘to transform its business structure to adapt to the external environment’ and ‘build an even more efficient structure for the head office operations.’ Read more: https://metro.co.uk/2021/01/29/sega...-spark-baseless-acquisition-rumours-13989699/
I like that URL. They introduced a bizarro structure x months/years ago in which it went Sega Sammy Group -> Sega Group -> Sega Corporation Sounds like they've cut out the "Sega Group" bit. Which is sensible.
Quite old news by now of course. The cycle of websites reporting misleading info on restructures of complex multimedia conglomerates and gamers who actually see monopolisation as a good thing touting it around isn't ever going to end. (although to Metro's credit, "baseless" is indeed a very good word for this)
I thought American companies like Microsoft couldn’t buy up Japanese companies? Anyway if Sega is sold I hope Nintendo gets it. I think the two companies have a lot of fit in their ethos to making games.
If Nintendo ever buy Sega that would 100% mean the death of fangames. I don't think the trade-off is worth it
I doubt there's any legal reason they couldn't, but with Japanese pride and all, I'm sure they would refuse any American company.
I feel like no one has ever given a concrete answer on this, but it seems like Western companies are incapable of buying Japanese ones for some reason while JP companies have bought lots of Western companies in that same time-frame.
They can, just generally there's a lot of intense screening for foreign investment into Japanese companies.
This is just as much of a non-story as the last time it was tried. It is exceedingly difficult for a Western company to buy a Japanese one and yes there are hurdles involved. https://www.bakermckenzie.com/en/insight/publications/2019/11/japan-rules-on-foreign-investment Microsoft is not buying Sega.
I think it's a cultural thing. When Microsoft tried to buy Nintendo, Nintendo laughed them out, for literally an hour.
Sega was established in America, after all... Microsoft hasn't given up on a 1st party Japanese studio. That ZeniMax acquisition will net them Tango Gameworks.
I just want to point out (ignoring the issue of MS buying Sega) that YES, it is possible for a foreign company to buy a Japanese company. According to this 2013 article, 28% of Japanese companies are foreign-owned: https://web.archive.org/web/2017062...22/business/28-of-listed-firms-foreign-owned/ There are plenty of examples of this. One of the most famous was Walmart buying 100% ownership of Seiyu, a massive Japanese grocery chain (they sold it last year). Another example is Sharp - 66% owned by a Taiwanese company. Mitsubishi Fuso (a truck/bus manufacturer) is 89% owned by Germany company Daimler. There are several Japanese insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies which have been purchased by foreign companies. In 2012, Germany company Bosch bought the manufacturing company Eisai. I could go on and on about this. Sure, foreign companies are wary of buying Japanese companies due to business culture differences and enhanced scrutiny, but it's entirely possible and not uncommon.
If Sega were to merge with another game/tech company, it should be Atari. Having brand new, platform-exclusive games on the new Atari VCS would really give the latest iteration of the gaming company and its newest console the jump start they need, and they would make a solid competitor to Nintendo and its platform-exclusive games. Frankly, I kind of hate it when games are platform-exclusive in principle (wouldn't it be nice if you could get new Mario games on Steam instead of having to buy a Switch?), but if the less-dominant two of the old big three teamed up, it could really re-establish their place in the market.
I can't imagine a worse big name company for SEGA to cozy up with than Atari, to be blunt. Modern day Atari is a mess when you look into it. Luckily for all of us none of these join-ups are very likely any time soon.
