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Sega Cancels Merger With Sammy

Posted by simoniker on from the crazy-taxing-negotiations dept.

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..

3 of 157 comments (clear)

  1. EA merger = Nightmare by DrMrLordX · · Score: 5, Interesting

    If you want to know what would likely happen to Sega if EA bought them/"merged" with them(ha ha), take a look at anyone other company that got absorbed by the EA behemoth. OSI/Origin comes to mind in particular, though Bullfrog suffered a horrible fate as well.

    I estimate that Sega would add their sports expertise to the dev team in EA sports and the rest of the company would either fold or become a factory for Sonic games(and even then, not for very long).

    So . . . maybe we should be sad that Sammy didn't merge with Sega or buy Sega.

  2. sega & namco by nsda's_deviant · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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

  3. Re:Sammy? by nsda's_deviant · · Score: 5, Informative

    Sammy is japan's largest pachinko operater, US articles say pinball but its really Pachinko, Japan's equivalent to the slot machine. There was a lot of annalysts questions the merger of Sammy-Sega because both companies don't have a lot in common except the arcade business, and the arcade business has been sliding for years. And yes, Sega is starting to get desperate.