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Games Entertainment

Sega Cancels Merger With Sammy 157

Posted by simoniker from the crazy-taxing-negotiations dept.
After many complicated and confusing rumors, Bloomberg Japan seems to have confirmed that Sega Corp has abandoned plans to merge with Sammy. Apparently, Sega couldn't agree financial terms with Sammy, who specialize in pachinko machines, and also have some home and arcade-based videogame development. The front-runner for a Sega merger/sale is now Namco, but Microsoft and Electronic Arts have also been mentioned as possible suitors. The saga continues..
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Sega Cancels Merger With Sammy More

Sega Cancels Merger With Sammy

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  • maybe i'm weird... (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Synic ( 14430 )
    ... but a merger with capcom would be pretty cool
    • It may well be cool, but it's rather unlikely at the moment. Capcom's financial situation, while not desperate, isn't particularly good right now. They've been forced to cut down on the number of games they're developing by a significant margin, and rethink their marketing strategy. Apparently, the decision to make the Resident Evil series a GameCube exclusive isn't working out as well as they'd hoped, and they're moving that series back to cross-platform status, for instance.

      The long and short of it is th
      • Apparently, the decision to make the Resident Evil series a GameCube exclusive isn't working out as well as they'd hoped, and they're moving that series back to cross-platform status, for instance.

        I think the reason they didn't sell well is that they are remakes. Older games already had them on the PS1 and newer gamers seem to rise up in open revolt at the crap control scheme.
    • Street Fighter vs Super Smash Bros.

      WORD EM UP!

  • Namco (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Microlith ( 54737 ) on Thursday May 08, 2003 @01:05AM (#5908269)
    Preferrably Namco would be the one to get Sega.

    Microsoft getting them will just kill the fun for everyone else, as you'd never see a Sega game for anything but XBox.

    And we all love the XBox, now don't we?

    EA isn't much of a choice either, their focus seems to be too much on the sports games, and I fear Sega's other divisions would be pared down in favor of the soccer/baseball/etc. divisions.

    Just gotta wait and see.
    • I'd be afraid that EA would squash Sega's sports games. Now that would be a shame. No more NBA 2K# or NFL 2K#.

    • Microsoft getting them will just kill the fun for everyone else, as you'd never see a Sega game for anything but XBox.

      Because Microsoft does not make a handheld system for under $180 MSRP, Microsoft has published a few games on Nintendo's Game Boy platform, such as this one [mobygames.com]. Sega's Sonic Advance 3 can't come out on the Xboy if there's no Xboy, that is, unless Microsoft wants to re-brand the Game Park GP32 as the Xboy.

    • Re:Namco (Score:4, Interesting)

      by rf0 ( 159958 ) <rghf@fsck.me.uk> on Thursday May 08, 2003 @01:43AM (#5908395) Homepage
      You can't help but wonderd if Namco took over Sega if you might get Virtua Fighter vs something.
      That would be cool

      Rus


    • While I dont like the Merger idea, I think Sega is better of just learning how to run a business. The best company for Sega to merge with would definately be Namco.

      Imagine Sega/Namco coming out with a system and games like Virtua Fighter, Tekken, and all that, just dont let the system come out under Segas name, let it be the Namco Dreamcast2 and it might have a chance.

      • Re:Well (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Yorrike ( 322502 ) on Thursday May 08, 2003 @06:31AM (#5909024) Journal
        I am of the opinion that the best company Sega could ever merge with would be Nintendo.

        Think about it. They have similar values, they're both soley games companies, they both have superb development houses, they've been teaming up on things such as the TriForce arcade board, F-Zero GC/AC and the like, and neither of them are afraid of trying new gaming genres out.

        Plus, imagine a company that imployed Yu Suzuki,Yuji Naka AND Shigeru Miyamoto. The thought just makes me giddy. It'd give Nintendo one hell of a boost too. With Shenmue, Sonic, Mario, Zelda and Sega Sports titles being GameCube exclusive.

        Makes sense to me.

        • This is probably the only intelligent merger idea I have seen on this thread. I have been thinking the same thing since Sega discontinued the Dreamcast. Unfortunately, I don't think a merger between the two is very financially sound. Nintendo may be going the way of Sega, in that they have a system that is struggling to make money. But it is nice to dream.

          • Re:Well (Score:3, Insightful)

            by Yorrike ( 322502 )
            One thing people tend to overlook, is the fact that Nintendo isn't losing money. They're gettin glower than expected profits, which is sending their share price down, but they're profits all the same.

            Nintendo isn't going away, they're a strong company with a monopoly grasp on the handheld market.

        • It would never happen in a million years. I agree with all the things you're saying, but Nintendo's survived all this time by not overexpanding, and staying very conservative with how many risks they take. That isn't to say their games have been stale, just that anything Shigeru Miyamoto produces is really no risk at all. They know who they're selling to, and how to do it right.

          Sega, on the other hand, has released risky game after risky game...they've been fantastic, but sadly who knows about Panzer

        • Sega and Nintendo? Merge? That's heresy! I suppose next you'll be telling me that Square and Enix will merge.

          Seriously, Sonic on the cover of Nintendo Power? Come now!

        • Re:Well (Score:2, Interesting)

          by goofrider ( 598120 )
          They have similar values?

          1. Nintendo is conservative and family-oriented. Sega generally aims at an older audience. The "family" is the very principle audience for Ninendo (it has publicly admitted that), everything it does has to be appealing to this audience.

          2. "they're both soley games companies" Well they still make hardware, but 2 different kinds of hardware with 2 very different philosophies. Nintendo's hardware is merely a plaform for them to sell their games, Nintendo's consoles are designed to be
    • Or MS could do what they did with Rare and not release a game after buying them. I mean look at Rare's track record. Sure they had some amazing games but they only made like 7 games for nintendo in about that many years.

      To me MS Buying Rare is just more wasting money and shooting themselves in the foot.
      • I don't think MS shot themselves in the foot. The have plenty of money, and the games that Rare have put out have been fairly well recieved before. Having rare make games exclusivly for Xbox is not a bad thing for MS.
        • The only problem is that right now Rare is dead weight for MS. By the time they make one decent game people will have forgotten about the X-box and will be on to the X-box2 or whatever they are calling their 'sequel' to it.

    • Re:Namco (Score:2, Informative)

      by bravni ( 133601 )

      It seems that Namco just announced that they are cancelling their offer for a merger with Sega.

      Japanese link here. [nikkei.co.jp]

    • For a while Sega joined the few who were putting out arcade machines. Many people thought that arcade games were dieing out. But their coming back hard. I could see many new systems showing up, like the Merit Megatouch systems. Only with Microsofts name on them.

      Now games on the Xbox, fine I can deal with that. But it would be strange to see Microsoft throwing their arcade machines around.
    • Jet Set Radio Future, Crazy Taxi 3, and Shenmue II are pretty much the reasons I hopped on the XBandwagon in the first place. C'mon, Suzuki, I made the $400^H^H^H^H$299^H^H^H^H$199 commitment. It's, like, H.B.O., man. Help a Brother Out.
      • My friend desperately wanted Shenmue II but waited to get a japanese dreamcast and the Japanese release to avoid having to do so.

        Apparently Yu Suzuki was disappointed by the XBox release's performance of Shenmue II, and the next release will be on a more prevalent platform.
    • Namco withdrew it's merger offer, [gamesarefun.com] which leaves Sega out in the cold with no current offers. There's always the rumors about EA or Microsoft buying them out though, which would be a real disaster in my opinion. Namco or Sammy would have been good, but failing that, maybe Nintendo will decide to play white knight since i'd far prefer them to EA or Microsoft.

  • Sammy? (Score:1)

    by chill ( 34294 )
    Not knowing who the hell "Sammy" was, the first thing that popped into my mind was a technician I used to work with. I was thinking "either he's really come up in life, or Sega is REALLY getting desparate!"

    • Re:Sammy? (Score:5, Informative)

      by nsda's_deviant ( 602648 ) on Thursday May 08, 2003 @01:29AM (#5908354)
      Sammy [bloomberg.com] is japan's largest pachinko operater, US articles say pinball but its really Pachinko [fresco-shinjuku.com], Japan's equivalent to the slot machine. There was a lot of annalysts questions the merger of Sammy-Sega because both companies don't have a lot in common except the arcade business, and the arcade business has been sliding for years. And yes, Sega is starting to get desperate [bloomberg.com].
      • Sammy also has some Arcade and Console games. Namely the Street Fighter/MK killer Guilty Gear(and X and XX and XX Reload). To me Guilty Gear is the first fighting game to not really take itself seriously. I mean look at some of the charecters. You have a 9 foot tall doctor wearing a bag on his head that has an instant kill(they aren't very easy to pull off) move where you blow the opponent up after throwing him onto an opperating table.

        But the best part has to be that every charecter and background is hand

  • EA merger = Nightmare (Score:5, Interesting)

    by DrMrLordX ( 559371 ) on Thursday May 08, 2003 @01:12AM (#5908298)
    If you want to know what would likely happen to Sega if EA bought them/"merged" with them(ha ha), take a look at anyone other company that got absorbed by the EA behemoth. OSI/Origin comes to mind in particular, though Bullfrog suffered a horrible fate as well.

    I estimate that Sega would add their sports expertise to the dev team in EA sports and the rest of the company would either fold or become a factory for Sonic games(and even then, not for very long).

    So . . . maybe we should be sad that Sammy didn't merge with Sega or buy Sega.
    • Some companies chose instead to merge with EAs one time rivals, Acclaim. Look what happened to them. Other companies were taken over by Infogrammes (renamed "Atari" as of today). Look what happened to them. It is a rough industry for developers.

    • If you want to know what would likely happen to Sega if EA bought them/"merged" with them(ha ha), take a look at anyone other company that got absorbed by the EA behemoth. OSI/Origin comes to mind in particular, though Bullfrog suffered a horrible fate as well.

      Yeah, but at least they could bring sweet revenge on EA.

      The Sims: Altered Beast

      Sims turning into werewolves and killing sims! Woohoo!

      Or make a new Sonic game where Sonic destroys a Cube, Sphere and a Tetrahedron. Or something. Probably not

  • When they launched their first console, Sega had some horrible commercials with people singing a horrible song about their hedgehog. I could never think about sega without those commercials bringing up bad associations so I never bought any of their systems. Since Soul Edge was one of my favourite arcade games, I would have bought a DC just for Soul Calibur if it weren't for that.

    Jason
    ProfQuotes [profquotes.com]


    • Segas problem, they release Dreamcast, they spend $100 million on advertisements, they spend make 100+ games a year, and only maybe 5-6 of these games sold over a million copies.

      Sega spend a fortune on Shenmue instead of developing Virtua Fighter 4, lost more money, invested in SegaNet, good plan but they just ran out of money. The games werent selling fast enough. What good is buying the system if you dont buy 100 games along with it? (yeah right like a person could buy 100 games)
      • Actually, the problem is that people wouldn't even buy five games for their Dreamcast. It pretty quickly became even easier to pirate games for the Dreamcast than the Playstation (due primarily to the fact that you had to put a mod chip in the latter but not in the former) and to add insult to injury Playstation was already ahead of any other console in nearly 10 years and the PS2 was announced with specs that made the Dreamcast look like garbage (mostly the DVD compatibility).

        Had even half of the people

        • Actually the average dreamcast owner did buy around 4 games, the problem is they werent 4 Sega games.

          Soul Caliber sold millions of copies but it was made by Namco who for whatever reason hated Sega and decided not to make any more games.

          Segas best selling Games were Sonic, NBA2k, etc.

    • Sega utterly failed to market the Dreamcast properly here in the the UK, and seemed to just give up as soon as the PS2 was released. Its a shame, it was a great little console with some brilliant games. Certainly the PS2 has a faster release rate, but at the moment I'm finding it difficult to find a single new game that I like. It seems to me that Sega need a business training course rather than a merger.

  • sega & namco (Score:5, Insightful)

    by nsda's_deviant ( 602648 ) on Thursday May 08, 2003 @01:23AM (#5908333)
    A Sega-Namco would consolidate into Japan's largest arcade operater and hold 30% of the arcade market. Their consolidated software sales would command 10% of the market (Sega is 9th, Namco is 8th) but they would have some of the most coveted longterm licences on the planet like Soul Calibor, Virtua Fighter, Sonic & Tekken between them. An older news.com article points out [com.com]. The real hope for gamers is Sega independence from Microsoft and EA so gamers could truly get more platform independent games. It would suck to see another Bungie/Halo exclusive to happen. Here's for Namco's success and gamers being lucky enough to see a Virtua Fighter-Tekken Crossover
    • A Sega-Namco is now unlikely to happen as Namco has just announced that they are withdrawing their offer for a merger [nikkei.co.jp] .

      Babelfish translation:

      Merger proposition to Namco and Sega revocation

      The Namco announced on the 8th, the merger proposition to Sega is withdrawn. The document which verifies the intention to merger proposition in the reply time limit was submitted, but " it continues from the Sega side and examines, but at present time it is not the circumstance which replies concretely ", there is re

    • How about TWO Virtua Fighter/Tekken crossovers?!? One could use the VF engine and control scheme and be called Virtua Fighter/Tekken and the other could use the Tekken engine and conrtol scheme and be called Tekken/Virtua Fighter. THAT would rock. :)

  • Sega + EA, could be interesting (Score:3, Interesting)

    by hhknighter ( 629353 ) on Thursday May 08, 2003 @01:26AM (#5908340)
    I don't know about everyone, but for me, I have switched from being a EA NBA Live fan to NBA 2k fan. From my opinion, I think EA Sports really tear their NBA series apart; given, they really don't have lots of other competitors on other sports games. NBA Live series has turned into "hip" action pact nonsense, while Sega's NBA 2k series are realistic and well designed in many aspect.

    It would be interesting to combine these talents and see what the will come up with next. I am not a savvy sega fan, but it would be interesting to see if Sega can bring better games (especially in the RPG section) through EA.

    Although as some posters mentioned before, that is if EA doesn't eat Sega for breakfast, just like they did with some previous companies

    • Re:Sega + EA, could be interesting (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Babbster ( 107076 ) <aaronbabb@@@gmail...com> on Thursday May 08, 2003 @02:34AM (#5908527) Homepage
      First of all, if Sega were under EA, there's every possibility that everyone in the Sega Sports division would be let go. Why? Because EA doesn't need them. The EA Sports line already eats Sega for lunch in that market and they have no fiscal reason to change that by messing a lot with their staff (note that I consider Sega's sports offerings superior but the market buys Madden and the rest based on both the EA name and the fact that Sega Sports was on Dreamcast which got crunched by PSX and PS2).

      The same would be likely to happen to all of Sega's software units to one degree or another. It's relatively rare when EA takes a chance on something without a big-time brand behind it (see The Sims and Ultima Online) and, unfortunately, Sega just doesn't seem to get that brand recognition anymore. While some of us might say "Yay! Shenmue!" or "Cool! Panzer Dragoon!" the majority of EA's market would shrug and keep looking for the latest Medal of Honor game.

      Except for annexing existing and potential competition in the form of Sega, EA would end up with very little by scooping up Sega. It would probably end up as a plus in the profit column just by disbanding the majority of the development units and selling the arcade unit separately - along with a few of the brands like Virtua Cop - to another company (like Namco, Konami or even Sammy).

      As for Microsoft, they too would probably prefer to sell off the arcade unit, but there the Sega software development teams would be far more likely to remain intact (at least based on history). It would give Microsoft an exclusive big-name fighter brand (Virtua), a mascot to call their own (Sonic), a solid Japanese-style RPG brand (Phantasy Star) and a sports game division that could really take off (Microsoft's own sports games aren't bad, especially for being so new; and combining those efforts could end up being brilliant). In the sports area, I could see Microsoft going multiplatform if only to make EA sweat some 44-caliber bullets.

      I guess my second-favorite choice for a merger would be Namco, but that's entirely sentimental. Both companies have problems and I'd be less concerned about an arcade monopoly (even with DDR, the arcade scene in the US is abyssmal so I consider that a Japanese problem) than I would be about two troubled companies merging into one bigger troubled company. Don't get me wrong. I would be as happy as anyone to see "Soulcalibur vs. Virtua Fighter" (once - I'm looking at you, Capcom) but I really have to wonder about the advantages, at least in console terms, that particular megacompany would gain from such a merger.

      Then again, I'm no business expert. I'm just a guy who plays video games and likes to think that he's smart. Kinda like Ryo Hazuki, but without the butt-kicking.

  • Sonic (Score:2)

    by rf0 ( 159958 )
    Sega should really survive as they have produced some great sucesses over the years (Sonic the Hedgehog) and some not so great things (32X + MegaCD). But they never gave up and I have very fond memories of Sonic as a kid even if it was a bit easy :)

    Rus
  • - how big are Sammy?

    all I get are images of rows upon rows of those little gambling one-arm bandits all over Asia,
    are they involved with PC Baangs or something else similerly non-west perhaps?

    - do Sega actually do a lot more than you might think now? I know they've shrunk since Megadrive etc and tried Arcades as sideline but have they pushed in a few markets I don't know perhaps?

  • A new renaissance? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by aleonard ( 468340 ) on Thursday May 08, 2003 @01:44AM (#5908400)
    So Sega has cancelled their merger with Sammy. The other options now are Namco, Microsoft and Electonic Arts. I hope Namco wins, or maybe even Microsoft. Microsoft, to be frank, would not be a bad choice at all. Microsoft and EA are kind of polar opposites; they are the two largest entertainment PC software publishers, I do believe, but while EA buys a company and siphons all its talent into what a boardroom wants to see published -- works for earning money, but kills the spirit and originality of the companies like Bullfrog and Westwood -- Microsoft has a tradition of "do as thou wilt" when it comes to its attendant developers. MS gives them money, they give MS good games.

    There is, however, one possible problem with Namco merging with Sega -- there would be no more competition left in arcades except between divisions of the same company, and while internal competition can be fierce, it's no replacement for honest to god competition. Witness the WWE. When it bought WCW, it changed its structure to be the Monday show vs the Thursday show. But its quality and ratings have faltered since it lost its real competition.

    Dance Dance Revolution was the last great major revolution in arcade gaming. It did what arcades used to do, but haven't done for some time - Provided a gaming experience you cannot get at home. Note the past tense, since I know home pads are now available, but I do believe DDR revitalized a lot of arcades. The atmosphere around a DDR machine is something you simply can't get at home. If I'm not mistaken, DDR had the first new control scheme (used in more than a couple of games) since the light gun.

    Arcade competition tended to be between Namco, Williams and Sega. Capcom had its own private war with SNK as well. Then Williams completely folded its arcade division, which leaves Namco and Sega, with Konami running DDR machines. So instead of incrementally improving fighters, racers and light gun games (Tekken vs VF, Time Crisis vs House of the Dead, etc) maybe this would give them a chance to truly compete with the home market and provide games that can only be provided in an arcade setting.

    How do you compete with the home market? Present games that the home market cannot handle. Again, I give you DDR. Focus on games that are completely impossible, at the present time, to do at home. DDR did that. A huge eight player fighting game would do that. Daytona's multi-racer network did that. Light gun games do that, for the most part, since the atmosphere is different, which is why arcade light gun games are still being made I suppose.

    Instead of trying to increment the quality of competing fighters and racers, how about making them more of an arcade experience? Instead of competing with each other, compete directly with the home market. Gyroscoping shooting games. Masive light gun games. Massive fighting games, with huge screens. Networked arcade games, particularly shooting and driving. And, of course, DDR started this trend, so improve upon that some more.

    Make arcades a place to go to to play games you can't play at home. Apart from DDR, arcades haven't been like that for a very, very long time.

    (sorry if this rambles a bit, it was originally brainstormed on IRC and reformatted for this post)

    • Re:A new renaissance? (Score:3, Insightful)

      by fishexe ( 168879 )
      Witness the WWE. When it bought WCW, it changed its structure to be the Monday show vs the Thursday show. But its quality and ratings have faltered since it lost its real competition.

      I know this is a cheap shot, but when did the WWE (or WWF before) ever have any quality to begin with?


      Dance Dance Revolution was the last great major revolution in arcade gaming. It did what arcades used to do, but haven't done for some time - Provided a gaming experience you cannot get at home. Note the past tense,

    • The atmosphere around a DDR machine is something you simply can't get at home.

      Perhaps not in a single-family residence, but at the school I went to, there was a weekly meeting of the DDR club [rose-hulman.edu], complete with region-modded PS1 systems, and that was full of atmosphere.

      DDR had the first new control scheme (used in more than a couple of games) since the light gun.

      Sorry, but Nintendo beat Konami to it: Power Pad [everything2.com]. (This cartridge is fake [pineight.com].)

      • Sorry, but Nintendo beat Konami to it: Power Pad

        Yes, I had one. :) And Sega had the Activator, etc. But I was specifically referring to *arcade* control schemes. Joysticks; light guns; steering wheels; handlebars; trackballs; but DDR was the first one with more than a few games to pop up in a very long time.

    • Instead of competing with each other, compete directly with the home market. Gyroscoping shooting games. Masive light gun games. Massive fighting games, with huge screens. Networked arcade games, particularly shooting and driving. And, of course, DDR started this trend, so improve upon that some more

      How about forgetting about all these and do real 3d ? I don't mean 3d projected on a screen but real 3d displays: maybe a cube that can be viewed from all sides and contain smaller cubes that can be lighted

    • Part of what killed the old school arcade was increasing popularity of specilized hardware. With special machines, case, and controls, it means three things.

      First, you can use and old machine for a new game, by just buying a new board. You need to buy the whole rig, which means it costs more to get new games.

      Second, it means that the machines are more complicated and harder/more expensive to fix. Which means games end up costing more.

      Third, if the game is a flop you've wasted more money on trying it o

  • Sega and Microsoft (Score:4, Funny)

    by R33MSpec ( 631206 ) on Thursday May 08, 2003 @01:53AM (#5908423) Homepage
    Oh great I can see it now - Sonic the Hedgehog replacing the frickin' Paperclip in MS Office.

  • Game over... (Score:4, Funny)

    by roalt ( 534265 ) <slashdot.org@ r o a l t . com> on Thursday May 08, 2003 @01:58AM (#5908446) Homepage Journal
    Sega couldn't agree financial terms...

    ...Insert coin to continue...

  • X-Box2 (Score:5, Interesting)

    by forgoil ( 104808 ) on Thursday May 08, 2003 @03:25AM (#5908629) Homepage
    Microsoft sure would do a good move for themselves if they bought Sega, and launched X-Box2 as Sega in Japan.

    That plus all the games. If Microsoft do buy them, I don't think they would close them down, but rather make use of them.

    But I am sure someone will stop it before it happens. Best chance for the Sega legacy to live on though.
    • Actually, that isn't too bad of an idea. I really think Microsoft could do well for themselves by using Sega-named hardware, esp. in markets where the Dreamcast did sell well (asia). Not only that, but perhaps they would see fit to disregard the Microsoft name in the console world as it brings a lot of negative conotations. I would bet slashdotters would not have had second thoughts of supporting the giant if it had "Sega Dreamcast 2" on it instead.
      • 1) It would ruin part of the "big plan" which is to make the Microsoft name resonate outside of the PC room.

        2) If the Sega name really sold that well, they wouldn't be in these straits.

  • Sammy, EA and MS don't need Sega. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Rolman ( 120909 ) on Thursday May 08, 2003 @03:49AM (#5908681)
    Sega and Namco already have a long term relationship in a joint venture the two of them went together with Nintendo when they created the Triforce, which is an Arcade Board based on the Gamecube architecture.

    This joint venture is not likely to break in the near future, because Nintendo is practically giving them access to a revenue stream using not only the hardware, but also with high-profile franchises such as F-Zero and Star Fox, in exchange of their development expertise. I think this is going to work great and could help to define how things are going to be in the future. (e.g. show executives how things are done right)

    It's widely known that merging with Sammy, EA or M$ would actually bring Sega to the black sooner than merging with Namco, because even Namco is not on a very strong financial situation by itself. But Sega developers like Namco the better, because it would be the only way they could stay at the company doing things the way they like.

    Meanwhile, Sammy, EA and M$ have the same problem: They don't actually need Sega's developers. They'd basically buy it for the trademarks, branding and IP because they have very different methods on game design, development and marketing.

    Mostly every Sega team would be in danger of being disbanded. There are people with different skills, different approaches to gaming and trained in different pieces of hardware. A merger with any of these three companies can only result in the loss of this core philosophy. EA likes very short development cycles with very poor execution, M$ likes exclusivity and Sammy likes amusement machines.

    Imagine if Rez, Panzer Dragoon, Shenmue and many other great games could never exist were Sega under any of these three companies' wings. A situation like this can really be an issue for any potential buyer, because it can also affect the buying price, and that's where Sega and Sammy disagreed.

    I truly felt something was wrong with this merger when I first heard about it. I remembered another merger Sega planned with Bandai some years ago, which failed miserably, possibly because of the same reasons.
    • MS actually isn't very much like EA or Sammy for that matter when it comes to making games... They would be far more open to new series & franchises than either of those 2... Also it's unlikely that MS would even move a single person from their current development team, why? Well they haven't touched a single soul from Bungie or Rare, those companies when they merged with MS have stayed as is with MS simply funding their efforts...
  • ... or does this really read the SEGA continues...??
  • Buy the metal balls, put them in the machine, watch them shoot along gaining points you can exchange later more metal balls.

    Or, take the metal balls to your friendly ganster outfit round the corner and exchange them for dodgy Chinese cameras and Hello Kittys. Great!

    Why on eather could Sega see the marketability of this game?

  • Nintendo + Sega = Dream Combination (Score:3, Interesting)

    by adamsmith_uk ( 670868 ) on Thursday May 08, 2003 @05:53AM (#5908935) Homepage
    Nintendo and Sega over the last 2 decades have built up the video games business and have got a lot of IP. Rather than Namco, EA and Microsoft get their hands on Sega brand, characters and classics game titles only to release sequels, it would be fitting if Nintendo would move in for the IP atleast. Combining characters and concepts between Nintendo and Sega titles would allow Nintendo to possess a full set of genre titles. Plus it always opens the possibilities of Mario - Sonic adventures etc. The above is highly unlikely... but would be nice to see.
  • I still say EA is the best company for Sega to merge with. EA does good games. EA has the capital. EA has the inovation. Namco hasn't done anything last few years. The keep rehashing the same titles.

    • I still say EA is the best company for Sega to merge with. EA does good games. EA has the capital. EA has the inovation. Namco hasn't done anything last few years. The keep rehashing the same titles.

      You're kidding, right?

      EA, the company that made Origin (creators of Ultima VII, the best CRPG ever made) make Ultima VIII and... um, that other game, I think? The company that once carried Bullfrog's games but somehow doesn't, anymore? The company that gets most of its money from crappy sports games that a

  • This discussion really hurts (Score:3, Interesting)

    by tekunokurato ( 531385 ) <jackphelps@gmail.com> on Thursday May 08, 2003 @08:18AM (#5909459) Homepage
    I'm really not trying to troll, I swear. But I have to say that this discussion so far has been pretty painful to see.

    Merging isn't like putting together a videogame! If Sega merged with Capcom, as one person suggested, it wouldn't result in all kinds of "Capcom Vs. Sonic" games! In fact, whichever company becomes the parent in any videogame company merger has very little effect on what kind of games get produced, except in the most basic risk-adjustment way.

    See, the only synergies achieved in videogame company mergers that can't be achieved through regular partnerships (the ones that produce those "Capcom Vs. Marvel" type games) are publishing or high-level coding synergies. The companies almost always remain very independant, largely because all the intellectual property they all control is up for bid to the highest paying or most promising seller anyway.

    So if you want to see Sega produce the coolest stuff possible, you'd better hope that it gets bought by someone like Microsoft, who's willing to throw tremendous amounts of money into somewhat risky ventures because they want complete and utter dominance, and NOT by some random other company that you happen to like!
    • Reading this discussion reminds me of Usenet's video games newsgroups. Has Slashdot degraded to a buncha 14yos?

      Sega merging with Nintendo is like Apple merging with Microsoft. It'll be a disaster and there'll be nothing left of Sega other than a bunch of exclusive GameCube titles. Nintendo is too conservative and family-oriented, it's only interested in retail, and has very little hardware expertise. This is the same company who refused to license games aimed at matured audience and the refused to use CD-R
  • I wouldn't mind seeing a SeXbox
  • First of all, Sega and Nintendo could never merge. As cool as it would be, Nintendo is on as bad or worse financial trouble than Sega is. That leaves Namco, Microsoft, and EA. EA would do to Sega what they did to Origin, Westwood, etc (destroy it). Microsoft would (almost) hand them a black check and say, go do your thing, but make it XBox only (Sega Xbox?). Namco is where I think most of Sega wants to go. It's the only Japanese company in the hunt, and there is far less risk of things being ruined by
  • buy Sega, but I know I still miss the Dreamcast.

    It could boot regular CD media without any mods. It also still provides a very nice game experience today.

    I get the feeling if the timing on the Dreamcast had been just a bit different, Sega would be in a better position today.

    • Re:Not sure who will (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Babbster ( 107076 )
      You're joking, right? The fact that the Dreamcast could "boot regular CD media without any mods" is one of the things that killed the system. People would buy the system and then simply download the games and/or copy games from friends.
      • Yes and no.

        I know piracy killed the machine. Yet, I enjoyed having a reasonably open machine.

        Today it runs older console games via emulators. Best investment I have ever made. A little more RAM would have made it the perfect MAME box...

      • Piracy DID NOT kill the Dreamcast. The first dreamcast "piracy" tools, the Utopia Bootloader, came out in June of 2000, 2 years after the Dreamcast was released in Japan, and almost a year after the DC was launched in the US-by that time, SEGA had already run out of money.

        As a matter of fact, the only thing that kept it from going software-only after the Saturn fiasco was a 1 billion-yen bequest from a Japanese business tycoon (why anyone would leave huge amounts of money to a corporation is beyond me, bu
  • Namco and Sega have already colaberated on a number of projects, most notably those shooter games like Ninja Assault and Vampire Nights - I've owned them both but I can't remember if those are the titles :/

    Anyhoo, the games are smokin, even if the replay value is limited. However, the one problem I see with a Namco/Sega merger is the competition between the Vitua Fighter series and the Tekken/Soul Blade series. This rivaly brought out the deepest, visually stunning video games in the entire industry (Squar

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