Sega’s COO Declares Company Not Open to Acquisition

Sega’s Chief Operating Officer, Shuji Utsumi, has stated that the company is not up for sale. In an interview with Bloomberg News, Utsumi clarified that Sega is currently not considering any acquisition discussions, despite widespread rumors suggesting that Microsoft may intervene and merge Sonic and Master Chief.

Some of these rumors surfaced due to the general trend of consolidation in the gaming industry, with big fish gobbling up everything in sight. Microsoft is one of the bigger fish and it’s been many years since Sega took the gaming throne despite still being a solid developer and publisher. The potential merger between Microsoft and Activision Blizzard also led to the FTC filing an antitrust lawsuit, which is ongoing. During a related experiment, it was revealed that Microsoft had many companies on its wish list, including Sega. So the rumor mill continued unabated.

Utsumi declined to comment on whether Microsoft approached Sega with an acquisition offer, but touted the “excellent relationship” between the two companies. This relationship has been on full display in recent years, with previous Playstation exclusives from the Yakuza series to the Persona series appearing on Xbox consoles. Yakuza’s next-gen update: Like a Dragon was even an Xbox Series X/S exclusive for a few months before moving to multiplayer.

The budding corporate friendship (aww) is very important to Microsoft, as Sega games are popular in Japan and Xbox consoles are not. This is another reason acquisition rumors spread so easily. However, Sega will remain Sega Sammy Holdings for now, even though documents show that Microsoft was at one point willing to pay serious money to buy the house that Sonic built. Speaking of which, a new sidescrolling Sonic title will be released later this year, along with a new sidescrolling Mario. What is this, 1991?