Microsoft at one point had entertained plans to purchase Sega, according to internal documents that were revealed as part of the company"s current court battle with the US Federal Trade Commission. Now one of Sega"s executives has made some comments about this revelation.
Bloomberg reports that Sega co-chief operating officer Shuji Utsumi would not comment on if Microsoft made any kind of formal acquisition offer. However, when asked if Sega was currently interested in being acquired, he responded with, “No, not now.”
Even though Sega is not up for sale, Utsumi did say that Sega does like working with Microsoft. He stated:
We are very close with Microsoft and have a great relationship with its management team. 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 has collaborated with Microsoft in the past, allowing some of its development studios to make games based on Microsoft"s IP. That includes The Creative Assembly team that developed Halo Wars 2 several years ago. More recently, Sega"s Relic Entertainment team developed Age of Empires IV for Microsoft in 2021.
In Xbox"s head Phil Spencer"s internal email about possibly buying Sega that was revealed this week, he stated:
We believe that Sega has built a well-balanced portfolio of games across segments with global geographic appeal, and will help us accelerate Xbox Game Pass both on and off-console.
Microsoft has also put quite a number of game publishers and developers on an internal list it has set up for possible acquisitions for various reasons. The companies have included original Halo developer, and current Destiny creator, Bungie, along with Hitman creator IO Interactive, Hades developer Supergiant Games, Pokemon Go creator Niantic, and smaller publishers like Thunderful, Playrix, and Scopley. However, it"s not clear if Microsoft made any formal acquisition offers to any of these teams.