Sega Cancels Merger With Sammy

After many complicated and confusing rumors, Bloomberg Japan seems to have confirmed that Sega Corp has abandoned plans to merge with Sammy. Apparently, Sega couldn't agree financial terms with Sammy, who specialize in pachinko machines, and also have some home and arcade-based videogame development. The front-runner for a Sega merger/sale is now Namco, but Microsoft and Electronic Arts have also been mentioned as possible suitors. The saga continues..

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sega & namco

[nsda's_deviant]

A Sega-Namco would consolidate into Japan's largest arcade operater and hold 30% of the arcade market. Their consolidated software sales would command 10% of the market (Sega is 9th, Namco is 8th) but they would have some of the most coveted longterm licences on the planet like Soul Calibor, Virtua Fighter, Sonic & Tekken between them. An older news.com article points out. The real hope for gamers is Sega independence from Microsoft and EA so gamers could truly get more platform independent games. It would suck to see another Bungie/Halo exclusive to happen. Here's for Namco's success and gamers being lucky enough to see a Virtua Fighter-Tekken Crossover

Re:Sega + EA, could be interesting

[Babbster]

First of all, if Sega were under EA, there's every possibility that everyone in the Sega Sports division would be let go. Why? Because EA doesn't need them. The EA Sports line already eats Sega for lunch in that market and they have no fiscal reason to change that by messing a lot with their staff (note that I consider Sega's sports offerings superior but the market buys Madden and the rest based on both the EA name and the fact that Sega Sports was on Dreamcast which got crunched by PSX and PS2).

The same would be likely to happen to all of Sega's software units to one degree or another. It's relatively rare when EA takes a chance on something without a big-time brand behind it (see The Sims and Ultima Online) and, unfortunately, Sega just doesn't seem to get that brand recognition anymore. While some of us might say "Yay! Shenmue!" or "Cool! Panzer Dragoon!" the majority of EA's market would shrug and keep looking for the latest Medal of Honor game.

Except for annexing existing and potential competition in the form of Sega, EA would end up with very little by scooping up Sega. It would probably end up as a plus in the profit column just by disbanding the majority of the development units and selling the arcade unit separately - along with a few of the brands like Virtua Cop - to another company (like Namco, Konami or even Sammy).

As for Microsoft, they too would probably prefer to sell off the arcade unit, but there the Sega software development teams would be far more likely to remain intact (at least based on history). It would give Microsoft an exclusive big-name fighter brand (Virtua), a mascot to call their own (Sonic), a solid Japanese-style RPG brand (Phantasy Star) and a sports game division that could really take off (Microsoft's own sports games aren't bad, especially for being so new; and combining those efforts could end up being brilliant). In the sports area, I could see Microsoft going multiplatform if only to make EA sweat some 44-caliber bullets.

I guess my second-favorite choice for a merger would be Namco, but that's entirely sentimental. Both companies have problems and I'd be less concerned about an arcade monopoly (even with DDR, the arcade scene in the US is abyssmal so I consider that a Japanese problem) than I would be about two troubled companies merging into one bigger troubled company. Don't get me wrong. I would be as happy as anyone to see "Soulcalibur vs. Virtua Fighter" (once - I'm looking at you, Capcom) but I really have to wonder about the advantages, at least in console terms, that particular megacompany would gain from such a merger.

Then again, I'm no business expert. I'm just a guy who plays video games and likes to think that he's smart. Kinda like Ryo Hazuki, but without the butt-kicking.

Re:Well

[Yorrike]

I am of the opinion that the best company Sega could ever merge with would be Nintendo.

Think about it. They have similar values, they're both soley games companies, they both have superb development houses, they've been teaming up on things such as the TriForce arcade board, F-Zero GC/AC and the like, and neither of them are afraid of trying new gaming genres out.

Plus, imagine a company that imployed Yu Suzuki,Yuji Naka AND Shigeru Miyamoto. The thought just makes me giddy. It'd give Nintendo one hell of a boost too. With Shenmue, Sonic, Mario, Zelda and Sega Sports titles being GameCube exclusive.

Makes sense to me.