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Sammy Finally To Purchase Sega

Posted by simoniker on from the better-late-than-ever dept.

roadies writes "USAToday/Reuters has a story indicating that Japanese videogame/slot machine company Sammy is finally going to acquire Sega, following 'an unsuccessful attempt last year'." Gamesindustry.biz notes regarding the stock deal, worth $1.4 billion: "[Sammy president] Satomi-san, who will be president of the new merged company, has previously expressed his desire to see Sega focusing increasingly on the arcade market, and hopes to use the company's development talent and wealth of intellectual property to build on the success of Sammy's low-cost Atomiswave arcade system", and it's also argued: "The Sega acquisition will also give Sammy a strong base from which to build its overseas operations."

2 of 35 comments (clear)

  1. "Massive Announcement?" by wheresdrew · · Score: 5, Funny
    I wonder if this might have been the "big news" Sega was supposed to reveal at E3 last week? Maybe the deal wasn't close enough to being done at that point to speak about it.

    It would've been much bigger than their news about The Matrix Online or Phantasy Star Universe.

  2. Re:Well one more out. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Well, there's no sign that Sega's going to be pulling out of console games any time soon, although it would be clear why it would seem appealing to Sammy to do so.

    The Atomiswave (Sega/Sammy), Triforce (Sega/Nintendo/Namco), and Chihiro (Sega/Microsoft) boards are working well in some awesome games. Sega's prize games are also very strong in the Japanese market - they practically own it, in fact. Virtua Fighter is still the current fighting game of choice in Japanese arcades, and Sega's networked arcade games are the main driver of that technology in Japan. It would be foolish for Sammy to scale back or withdraw from all of that.

    As for console game sales, Sega's been kind of hurting. They have had no breakout sales hits on any of the consoles, despite the generally high quality of their games. They certainly don't have the same appeal that they once had, since they no longer have a native platform. And whereas once they were seen as contemporaries of Nintendo, they are now seen in the same light as Namco and Konami - great game houses, but they don't drive console technology, they just go with the flow. And yes, in terms of "who's who" among power players in the industry, that's a step down.

    Anyhow, I'd miss them if they were to step out of console games, but I still expect them to stay in the business. The Sega name has a lot of sway with gamers who were around in Sega's console heydays. And to tprime: Even if they were to pull out of console games, there's just no way they'd stop making arcade games. That would be the stupidest thing that Sega Sammy could do (speaking in terms of their own sanity and economic well-being).