Sega officer states Microsoft relationship is not resulting in acquisition

CEO Shuji Utsumi has stated categorically that Sega would not be acquired in the near future by any company, including Microsoft. When asked by Bloomberg Japan if it may be acquired, the chief operating officer responded emphatically, “No, not right now.”

The possibility of Microsoft acquiring Sega was revealed earlier this week in court documents for the Microsoft v. FTC lawsuit. The hope was that Sega’s library of games would help bolster Xbox’s Game Pass catalogue in Japan, where Microsoft has struggled to get a foothold.

There’s been an interesting dynamic between the two designers for a long time. All of the Like a Dragon titles (known in the West as Yakuza) and the Xbox versions of the most recent Persona re-releases from Atlus, including Persona 4 Golden and Persona 3 Portable, are available on Game Pass at the time of writing.

Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth and Personality 3 Reload will both debut on the first day of Game Pass in 2019, continuing this partnership.

Nonetheless, Utsumi said, “we have an excellent relationship with its management group, and we are really close” with Microsoft. […]Phil Spencer and Sarah Bond, who are responsible for Xbox, are quite serious about the values that gamers place an emphasis on.

Microsoft also enjoys a positive working relationship with rival video game developer Capcom, in addition to Sega. Several Monster Hunter and Resident Evil games are currently available on Game Pass, and this July, the first-day release of Exoprimal will be made available.

The original Octopath Traveller, Dragon Quest XI, and the Final Fantasy XIII trilogies are just some of the Square Enix games that have been available on Game Pass. However, a number of recent major Square products (such as Octopath Traveller II and Forspoken) have actually appeared on systems other than Xbox, suggesting that the two companies’ relationship may have reached its natural conclusion.

However, Microsoft’s connections with three of Japan’s largest video game companies may be the greatest way for it to expand its footprint in the Asian market short of buying one of them outright.

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