A rumor about Nintendo buying Sega

[Kent]

Microsoft should've bought Sega when they had the chance - back when they had real worth, and when their then-president was practically begging for it (and those stellar Xbox-exclusives from them were part of an "offering" of sorts to try and get the deal sealed).

In a lot of peoples' eyes (that is, people who've been part of gaming since at least the Genesis/SNES era), the general attitude behind the Xbox and its games were a logical evolution of what Sega used to stand for. Though it's certainly still the case that the more "hardcore" audience pretty much defaults to the Xbox nowadays (as does, well, pretty much the casual audience as well, when they're not on their phones), and at least that part still harkens back to the idea people have of Sega back in the day. I'm not entirely convinced they still fit into that part though, despite that I have a lot of respect for the IPs they've established over the years.

Granted, I'd rather see Microsoft get ahold of Sega's IPs than Nintendo, but that's primarily due to the fact that we'd then actually see Sega's IPs all over systems that are actually popular with the people I know. Practically every single one of them grew up loving Nintendo and Sega both, but most of them have lost faith in Nintendo outside of the occasional Zelda game and Smash Bros., which is kind of sad, but then finds that the Xbox 360 suits their modern gaming needs pretty much entirely (that and the PC, for indie games and the flavor-of-the-moment MMO).

Of course, I don't think many people, in a general sense, are very confident in Nintendo when it comes to the Wii U. At least the 3DS proved that a system with a weak launch lineup and slow start can pull through with eventual great games, but winning back the faith of people who were disappointed by the Wii at least, will be problematic.

[Griffin]

What... the... hell!?

That can't be real.

Well I know for a fact that the image is clearly Photoshop'd.

Anyway, expect sanic movies if Disney buys Sega. Watch it actually be good.

[Retehi]

If Nintendo bought Sega, PSO would be PSWIFI. Have fun with that.

[Outrider]

well basicly it wouldn't be all that bad for nintendo to buy sega. when i was a kid i loved nintendo gamesssssss vewitful Joe

That... that was Capcom.

It was also on PS2.

What is this I don't even

What... the... hell!?

That can't be real.

That's a pretty well-known piece of trivia.

http://www.businessinsider.com/befor...-hotels-2011-8

Yamauchi (the previous president of Nintendo) had a fondness of love hotels.


BACK ON TOPIC:

Hopefully somebody can step in to save Sega from some of the troubles they've had recently. Who would be a good fit to buy them or merge with them? Again, I don't think that any of the big three make sense, but who else could you guys and gals see dropping some cash on Sega?

[Sinue_v2]

but who else could you guys and gals see dropping some cash on Sega?

Perhaps Apple if they wanted to jump in on the console market? That would be a pretty long shot though, despite Sega having some experience working with them in the mobile market - Sega is hardly the revered brand it used to be. I think Apple would want to keep them at an arms length away from any new device launch lest their own brand be damaged by Sega's reputation.

Besides, I doubt Apple would want to join the console race. After being bogged down in the home computer market for so long, I don't think they'd relish the idea of jumping right back into direct competition with a set-top box against Microsoft and Sony given how high the financial stakes are if you lose. Apple only successful today because they broke away from all of that and created a new market for itself to expand into - and I think they're going to keep doing that. At least, that's pretty much what I gathered Jobs' take on it was. Though you never know, there are rumors, and now that he's gone - the company could go in any direction.

[Mike]

THopefully somebody can step in to save Sega from some of the troubles they've had recently. Who would be a good fit to buy them or merge with them? Again, I don't think that any of the big three make sense, but who else could you guys and gals see dropping some cash on Sega?

Even after becoming a part of Sega Sammy Holdings, the Sega parts have been in the red more often than the black. This is balanced by Sammy being in the black. This year's numbers aren't up yet but you can look through SSH's annual reports (in Japanese) and get a good feel of where Sega sits at the moment. Any company that would want to buy the Sega bits from SHH would have to be willing to deal with the unpredictable track record Sega has left in recent years.

The second quarter reports for this year from SHH include notes on how well Sega's forays in to F2P and social gaming (PSO2 and Kingdom Conquest) have been doing. With the declining number of box sales and increased consumer money in F2P games, "social" and "non-social" alike, Sega is probably shifting more interest and money in to developing these kinds of games over regular video games and any potential buyer would also have to take that in mind. Sammy might not even want to let go of Sega and then you'd have to deal with the sticky business of Sammy's gambling machines and that might be a problem for some companies with a cleaner image.

[Noblewine]

It would be a miracle if someone would buy sega but who would be as bold to do it.