Microsoft Studios hosted Sega executives last week, raising the specter of a purchase that would bring more exclusive titles to the Xbox.
It’s no secret that Microsoft wants more exclusive titles for Xbox One. The company sees their lack of exclusive blockbusters to be seriously hurting their bottom line in comparison with rival Sony, who continues to knock it out of the park with games like Horizon: Zero Dawn and Uncharted 4: A Thief's End.
On top of that, Microsoft is sitting on oodles of cash they need to spend before US tax laws change start including offshore accounts. Buying up a larger developer to shore up their lineup of exclusive titles seems like a smart move.
There was some wild speculation that Microsoft would buy a gaming giant like EA or Valve, but now it seems like the Windows company had their sights set overseas.
On February 22nd, the official Japanese SEGA Twitter account tweeted a set of photos from the inside of Microsoft Studios in Japan. There weren’t any other details released, but one can only assume the talks were of a closer working relationship, one that might even involve the outright purchase of SEGA.
This wouldn’t be the first time Microsoft considered SEGA as a dance partner. Back in 2000, when Microsoft was first considering joining the console game market, MS execs considered purchasing SEGA to jumpstart their entry into gaming. But then-CEO Bill Gates shot down that plan saying that SEGA didn’t have the staying power.
"There were three companies at that point in time, I think this was [Sony,] SEGA and Nintendo,” said Joachim Kempin, a former Vice President at Microsoft, in an interview with IGN back in 2013. “There was always talk maybe we buy SEGA or something like that; that never materialized, but we were actually able to license them what they call Windows CE, the younger brother of Windows, to run on their system and make that their platform.
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"But for Bill [Gates] this wasn’t enough, he didn’t think that SEGA had enough muscle to eventually stop Sony so we did our own Xbox thing.
"There were some talks but it never materialized because SEGA was a very different bird. It was always Sony and Nintendo, right? And Nintendo had some financial trouble at that point in time, so Sony came out with the PlayStation and bang! They took off, and everyone else was left behind."
Adding SEGA to the Xbox lineup would give Microsoft access to a ton of exclusive IP, not the least of which being the Persona series from ATLUS’ catalog.
Other likely titles to make into an Xbox exclusive franchise could be Vanquish, Jet Set Radio, or Bayonetta.
There’s no official word yet from either party, so it could be these talks will also fall through. Time will tell if we’ll see Sonic the Hedgehog donning an Xbox logo on his furry blue behind.
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