Makers of popular franchises like Sonic the Hedgehog and Like a Dragon, Sega has been an icon for gaming culture for many years now. Under recent speculations, fans assumed that the company would be acquired by Xbox. However, Sega’s COO has politely refused the claim.
Moreover, the company worth billions of dollars is looking to expand its horizons even more, with an interest in several platforms like mobile, movies, and more. With such high ambitions and the grit to nonchalantly refuse possible deals from Microsoft, it’s fascinating to see how Sega will go about expanding further.
Sega Has Subtly Refused Any Possible Advances from Xbox
After the massive $69 billion deal between Microsoft and Activision Blizzard, it’s safe to assume that Microsoft will now go about acquiring any promising studio that will add to its collection going forward. However, this simply won’t be true in the case of Sega, because the Japanese video game giant has a plan of its own.
In a tech conference (in Lisbon, Portugal) recently, the COO of Sega, Shuji Usumi stated his belief in the company’s future:
Many companies are interested. We feel honored. We have attractive IPs and potentials. Companies owned by the owner. A strong owner. I don’t think that kind of transaction is going to happen.
This was in the context of an interview with CNBC, where Shuji was asked a question in light of acquisitions. The statement itself shows a lot of promise, and it seems like the company will likely find innovative ways of working on (and, reworking) some of its most popular franchises. After all, the Sonic movies grossed over $306.8 million and $405.4 million respectively.
Moreover, Utsumi also stated how quite a few European studios are struggling to make ends meet, and many need to recover from the problems faced during the COVID-19 pandemic. According to him, in contrast, Japanese studios are doing much better. There’s a coat of confidence in saying something like this, which hints at how much further the company really wants to expand on a global scale.
Sega Has Plans to Grow Even Further
Sega recently acquired Rovio, the company behind the extremely popular Angry Birds games. Rovio evolved from making simple games for mobile phones to expanding on multiple platforms and having movies of their games.
In the somewhat out-of-the-blue deal, Sega spent a good $775 million to make Rovio a part of its framework. We can only imagine the kind of games that will arrive in the future. Sonic the Hedgehog crossing paths with Angry Birds would be a nice idea, huh?
In the interview, Utsumi further spoke about how the company wants to shed light on its popular franchises that might follow up on the success of the live-action films:
As I say, we are trying to be in a lot of different categories, different areas like Roblox, movies. All these IPs can be somewhere else other than games soon.
Imagine a Persona or Like a Dragon film next. It won’t be surprising to see more video game characters come to life on larger screens across the globe. However, this still doesn’t mean that the company will tie up with large organizations such as Microsoft, which makes things a bit more competitive.
Since Sega has quite a few games in the Game Pass listing, it’ll be interesting to see how a future partnership (and not acquisition) might actually benefit both companies. There’s always strength in numbers, and Activision Blizzard has proven to be a positive case so far.
However, with more movies and platforms, the company will continue to push the boundaries of its franchises. That can either inspire or threaten competition, and we’ll have to see how it affects the gaming community at large.
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