Co-Chief Operating Officer Shuji Utsumi says SEGA isn’t looking into any offers from Microsoft after it was revealed during the FTC v. Microsoft court hearing that they were a target for the American technology corporation.
After it was revealed during the FTC v. Microsoft court hearing, which centred around Microsoft’s attempted acquisition of Call-of-Duty maker, Activision-Blizzard, that they had several companies in mind for potential acquisitions, including long-time game company SEGA, Co-Chief Operating Officer Shuji Utsumi spoke to Bloomberg to squash any rumours surrounding the future of the Japanese developer and publisher, stating: “No, not now.”
“We are very close with Microsoft and have a great relationship with its management team,” Utsumi continued. “Microsoft particularly has a high regard for us. Xbox’s Phil Spencer and Sarah Bond are really serious about values that video game fans emphasize.” SEGA currently has partnered with Microsoft with the studio Creative Assembly working on Halo Wars 2 and Age of Empires 4, with no plans to end that fruitful relationship in its current state.
The discussion around Microsoft and its acquisitions to bolster its Xbox Game Pass service has been ongoing for several years now, with the FTC v. Microsoft court hearings confirming that several companies have been looked into as potential partners, including Square Enix—the maker of Final Fantasy—as recently as 2019, as well as the former Halo developer, and current PlayStation studio, Bungie.
While some analysts argue SEGA could consider finding a new parent company because Sega Sammy Holdings, which formed as a partnership between SEGA and pachinko pinball machine maker Sammy, offers limited growth on the game development and publishing side of things, it doesn’t appear that, for the time being, that ownership will come from Microsoft, as they seem set with their current deals in place, including talks of a strategic alliance back in 2021 to allow SEGA to make “big-budget” games.
