Sega Sammy Set To Sell Majority Of Sega Entertainment

Ohh man... that Akihabara arcade was great and iconic. The arcades were expensive AF though. I remember trying out the Luigi’s Mansion and Mario Kart games there.

Sega, doing what Nintendon’t.... going out of business.

That sucks, because the history of Sega and Arcades in Japan are legendary, but they gotta do what they gotta do to stay afloat.

Mind you, this company doesn't make the best financial decisions anyway (I'm squinting my eye at the Game Gear Micro).

@fafonio very fun, but very expensive. Sucks that it shut down but these Sega arcades are all over Tokyo.

Sega World in London in the 90s used to be amazing! Lots of memories of that place and "Fun Land" in the 00s. Piccadilly Circus just isn't the same now.

Arcades have been in decline for years though and Covid won't help any. :-/

@Tendogamerxxx That’s true, but the Akihabara one is the one that fits there. You know, the neon and colors and just seeing that gigantic SEGA logo. But yeah, it was very expensive. Tried 2-3 games and got the hell out of there.

I see Microsoft swooping in and picking up Sega.

@Dirty0814 Sega entertainment isn’t part of their software division. Why on earth would they buy it?

Can’t say I give two toots about Sega’s amusement business. It’s not like the brawlers and the racers and the shooters were coming back in all their glory with ports for home consoles. The 90’s....are inside of us now, forever

While sad that their arcades are going, I'm actually all for it if it means they have to rely on making [hopefully better quality] video games.

Sad to see the arcade business go, Sega was always the top name in arcade gaming back in the 90's when I was growing up.

This is actually very related to Nintendo.

@Tasuki Same here (bowling alley) and they're mostly all trash games. Some of them are literally mobile games on a massive screen (Crossy Road and Doodle Jump)

So sad, was great seeing those big Sega logos plastered all over Tokyo. Glad I got to experience them on my trip there, and yes they were expensive!!

....Sega Sammy?
insert more text here so I can post

@Dirty0814 Nintendo owns Sega for the most part from what I’ve heard. Fat chance of crummy Microsoft getting their greasy mitts on it.

@0blivion You’ve heard wrong. Nintendo doesn’t and never did own any part of SEGA at all, and I don’t know why so many people seem to think that they ever did.

@Moon Not sure how Sega games could be much higher quality. The Yakuza games are absolutely fantastic.

That could have been a good deal for Nintendo.....

@Dirty0814 Japan has very strict rules against foreign companies buying Japanese companies, making it almost impossible in many instances. I don't think Microsoft is getting Sega, ever.

I loved Sega's arcade games back in the day (agree with Sega World in Piccadilly Circus being amazing), but gaming has moved on so much since then. Home consoles are now more than capable of arcade perfect ports for a start, so it just left the social aspect, which Covid has obviously put the dampeners on. It's almost certainly a smart move to sell this part of the business before it depreciates even further in value.

Every time I go to Tokyo, I visit that arcade. Quite sad, but maybe Sega will need to make some games in order to earn cash now.

Yikes sega.. yikes.. I loved you as a youngster

@Chamver Not necessary, they could easily enter an alliance like Nissan Renault. Seems like a likely situation, gaming companies make a lot of exclusivity deals, then again I am sure if Microsoft wanted to make an acquisition deal happen they would figure out a way to make it happen.

@RainbowGazelle Fair enough. I was thinking mostly Sonic tbh. I've not tried the Yakuza games, though I do hear good things.

Sad news. And yet Sega diehard fans will insist the release of the Dreamcast 2 is right around the corner, lol.

It's sad as a symbolic thing, but the old Sega actually disappeared from arcades a long time ago. For instance, the last big Sega IP that saw a release was Daytona 3, in 2018, and that doesn't even have console ports. In fact, console ports of its main franchises ended more than a decade ago.

Sad news anyway.

I don't know what "Sega sammy" is. I know the "sega" part, just not "sammy"

@Moon Yeah, fair. Sonic Mania was great, but I don't know why they seem to struggle with 3D Sonic so much.
Luckily there are other great Sega games, though! I'm looking forward to the newest Yakuza and Puyo Puyo Tetris 2! Plus I've still to get around to Sakura Wars and Valkyria Chronicles.

This is SEGA Entertainment that's being sold, it's only the arcade locations , yes it's very sad that that famous SEGA branding will not be on those arcades ,unless GENDA keep it there for nostalgia .
Many seem to think across the internet and twitter that SEGA are over , SEGA are still making arcade games and all there mini consoles and console games and PC games. This is SEGA selling the buildings which house the arcades ,it's a separate business and hopefully will free up cash for more other ventures for SEGA in the Home console games and Arcade Machines they make.
SEGA is not over as the headline might suggest. Because Sega Sammy is a huge corporation and though sad , it's one of those things that was on the cards , Look how great Sega arcades where in the UK and ELSEWHERE in the Western World in the 90's , now there all gone.
Sega who make the games ,Arcade machines , mini consoles,Films , toys and and stuff are still here as the Iconic company they have always been.
And can any Switch / PS4 / Xbox One owner not agree that SEGA have been killing it with it's releases the past year or so.
LONG LIVE SEGA

@Slowdive , YES THE Trocodero, ( I was trying to think of the name ) I use to visit there in the 90'S , Played Scud Race there for the first time . Was never a cheap day out mind. But with home consoles being so powerful even from the Dreamcast era ,it was inevitable that Arcades where gonna suffer , why go to a arcade when you can play at home .

@JuiceMan_V Yes the Game Gear micro does seem absurd. But the Japanese buy into all this stuff. and i bet Sega make a profit of it no problem. , Look how expensive the Astro city complete set up is ,as much as a PS5 OR Xbox series X . But it has sold out and i bet the profit margin on those are very good unlike the next gen consoles .

@RainbowGazelle You're absolutely right, there's way more to Sega than Sonic. My bad, to be fair! If I were them though, I'd be giving Christian Whitehead and the gang very large sums of money to make something extra special.

I loved Puyo Tetris 1, but I can't imagine a sequel selling too well? I mean, they nailed it so well with the first game. That said, I'm sure it'll be just as good, if not better.

Streets of Rage 4 was great too.

I know it's been said a lot before but I hope they revive some more classics. Would LOVE another Jet Set Radio, but again I'm just worried they may not be able to do it justice. I'd even take ports though, ngl.

Better yet, get all their Dreamcast games up on the Switch, that should keep them going for a while.

Sorry for rambling.

Hope you have a nice day.

@faint Sega entertainment isn’t part of their software division. Why on earth would they buy it?

Possibly because Sega Samy as a whole is hurting. Make no mistake, if a Sega sale is on the table, MS will jump in like a starving lion.

Sega failed because of the Dreamcast GD-ROM instead of DVD. If back there Sega Dreamcast using d DVD, I think now is different. That's sucks because of those who plans for the system engineer is an *****. Nothing can bring back to the time. ***** the person who insist to using GD-ROM.

@Chamver making it almost impossible in many instances

Almost. If there is a company with the resources to get away with it, it's MS. They would not think twice about creating a new Japanese company to own them if that was what it took.

MS already owns a Japanese subsidiary (Microsoft Japan) with its own CEO. They could make any Japanese acquisition under that subsidiary.

@faint cos he dumb bruuuh

Ouch... Will this affect software development or is this a different division of the company?

@KITG_GROUP Actually they're keeping the SEGA branding on the buildings:

"Sega and game center business withdraw, but "SEGA" is inherited in the store name

While continuing arcade game development, it will shift some of the development personnel of amusement machines to the consumer business, which is a growth field." -translated by google

https://twitter.com/famitsu/status/1324239554195283968?s=21

I hope this doesn't mean Sega will get split up like the Atari situation.

@JuiceMan_V the game gear micros were pretty cool, stop it

Wonder if they’ll keep the Sega branding on the game centres. Very strong brand and iconic part of the Tokyo cityscape.

And if this is happening to Sega’s arcades, think how rough it must be for independents…

@masterLEON @KITG_GROUP

That answers that! Thank you. Good news IMO

I'm guessing coronavirus made it rough for the pachinko business. (of which I imagine that was a big part of Sammy's business)

But what does that say of the forecast for our other favorite pachinko manufacturer (Konami)?

@WoomyNNYes Sammy is a company that, much like Konami, once made video games but after a point became more heavily focused towards gambling/pachinko machines.
I know Sammy sometimes does still make games (sometimes even some that aren't the Guilty Gear fighting game franchise), but I don't think Sammy's video games otherwise were ever quite the same popularity as Konami. So when they cut back on games in like the '90s, probably not many people even noticed them.

@Chamver I think things might be a little different in this case. Sega was an American company, it wasnt founded in Japan.

https://kotaku.com/meet-the-four-americans-who-built-sega-5788468

Sega has been in talks in the past to be sold to American companies.

How is a company so rich in content continuously handled so badly?
It's like someone buying a goldmine but also banning the use of T.N.T.

Sill love sega after all these years
Just hope thay can get though it.

Welp at least they did there best and keep going forward..

@Joeynator3000, @WoomyNNYes, @RainbowGazelle, @YANDMAN, and anyone else who has or will ask about who Sega Sammy is, or about Sega's output of games.
Sega merged with Sammy Corp in the early 2000's, however it was viewed as a hostile takeover. I believe some of the management changed, and those changes seemed to hit the Sonic Team the most and affecting the rest of Sega, which sent Sega into a downward spiral, until the restructure in 2015.
EDIT: I made some changes to better inform you guys.

@Dirty0814 Doubtful since Japanese companies don't really sell to foreign corporations. Not to mention MS would be on the line of anti-trust.

@Chamver There are exceptions with Walmart buying off some super market chain or whatever it was, but those are extremely rare. Something like Sega, will never happen.

@0blivion Nintendo has never owned any part of Sega. It would be wise to not listen what you hear from people throwing out misinformation and actually do actual research. It's the most sensible thing to do.

@InsertUsername Jog right off; I do quite a bit of research. Your assumptions are asinine.

@Ninjalaislit They didn't buy anything. Sega and Sammy merged its holding companies to create Sega Sammy. Sega and Sammy as companies continue to exist to this day.

@Nemesis666
I know that they merged and that the companies act as separate companies, however insiders were saying they they felt that the Sega Sammy merger was a "hostile takeover", despite the fact that it was a merger and not a buyout.
EDIT: I made changes to my previous comment to better inform the users that I tagged.

Sega entertainment should move into the arcade 1up space and work on affordable arcade replicas for the home. Even at 500 bucks if you could get some kind of daytona USA sit-down machine I think people would bite.

Dang, the SEGA Akihabara arcade? End of an era.

@masterLEON Yes i saw that on Twitter later in day. I think what people don't understand is Sega Sammy are so huge a company and that there business are far and a field. Because one part is not doing fine does not mean another sector cant do ok. Even today's structural reform news though sad for some employees is what's being going on in Business worldwide .
Sega like many other companies will weather the storm . And it's improvements in Home console and PC area that will be it's big earner in the future and not the Pachinko ,Arcade business.
I think once this whole covid 19 clears ,hopefully in 2021.that they can get back to doing what they do best and that's entertain

Another question I have is, was Sega's arcade business doing fine before the pandemic, or was starting to struggle a bit before then? I always thought that their arcade was booming until the pandemic hit.

The article didn't clearly reiterate it but for anyone wondering, Sega Entertainment, the arcade operations subsidiary, is being sold. This has nothing to do with Sega, the video games company, or Atlus. At least not directly, but a parent company in bad financial straights won't bode well for them either.

@WoomyNNYes Others already answered, but before the takeover/"merge" Sammy was primarily a gambling equipment company that wanted Sega's arcade business. They're really the true parent of Sega. Which explains much.

@0blivion Hahaha....if you did, then you'd know that Nintendo has never owned Sega. Lol. Your research skills are nothing more than asinine. You jog off. ;P