Published , by Captain Business
Published , by Captain Business
Microsoft and SEGA have announced a strategic alliance that will leverage the Azure cloud platform. SEGA says 'the alliance would form a key part of SEGA’s mid to long-term strategy, allowing the business to move forward with 'Super Game', a new initiative for developing new and innovative titles where the key focuses are 'Global', 'Online', 'Community' and 'IP utilization'."
Here are some highlights from the SEGA press release:
With the world now more connected than ever following the widespread deployment of 5G and cloud services in recent years, consumers can more easily enjoy high-quality entertainment content at any time. Within this highly connected environment, the ecosystem surrounding the games industry continues to evolve and expand as more sophisticated tools and technologies become available. As such, video games continue to grow as a major medium for gamers globally, with access to a vast range of gaming experiences and communities becoming more diverse and attainable. This proposed alliance represents SEGA looking ahead, and by working with Microsoft to anticipate such trends as they accelerate further in future, the goal is to optimize development processes and continue to bring high-quality experiences to players using Azure cloud technologies.
Microsoft and SEGA have agreed upon the foundation for this alliance and through mutual cooperation, will look to build further technological evolutions with areas such as the network infrastructure and communication tools required for global online services being a key priority. Additionally, by shifting to a next-generation development platform, SEGA can effectively adapt to diversifying work styles and potential infrastructural changes.
SEGA President and COO Yukio Sugino included this message in the announcement:
We are very pleased to announce today that we are considering a strategic alliance with Microsoft to help develop SEGA's new “Super Game” initiative as well as build a next-generation game development environment. By considering a strategic partnership with Microsoft, we seek to further advance our game development so that our titles can be enjoyed by fans all over the world; in this regard, we aim to build an alliance that utilizes both SEGA's powerful game development capabilities and Microsoft's cutting-edge technology and development environment.
Microsoft CVP Sarah Bond added these comments:
SEGA has played such an iconic role in the gaming industry and has been a tremendous partner over the years. We look forward to working together as they explore new ways to create unique gaming experiences for the future using Microsoft cloud technologies. Together we will reimagine how games get built, hosted, and operated, with a goal of adding more value to players and SEGA alike.
This strategic alliance has been agreed to in principal, and both parties seem pretty jazzed about the news. It remains to be seen how this will impact both companies financially, but at the very least it is a strong signal on the part of SEGA that they are moving towards online gaming. There are some questions about just how this will affect new games forged out of this deal. Will we still be able to play newly-developed SEGA titles on Switch or PS5? Only time will tell. We are now just sitting here waiting for Super Game to come out folks.
What exactly is Super Game? It is worse than Mega Game, right? When does Ultra Game come out? These are the type of questions that really need to be asked following today's news. What we do know about Super Game is that it will be powered by the cloud. I am sure Sonic fans or even SEGA fans won't be thinking about this until it comes out. Nope, totally rational group of fans that won't spam Super Game everywhere until it is released.
It's probably going to be a new Seaman game that really harnesses the power of the Azure cloud platform to take SEGA development to levels never before seen. Seaman as a service will probably be Game of the Year whenever it launches.
Anyway, let's get to speculating. What do you think SEGA's first Super Game will be? Let us know in the Shacknews Chatty comments thread below. Please and thank you.
Header image in this article courtesy of JerryWest on YouTube. Check out his videos!