SEGA and Microsoft: a strategic partnership around cloud gaming, first details

It’s no secret today that the future of video games lies in cloud gaming. With the explosion of streaming platforms such as Netflix, Disney + and Amazon Prime Video, full dematerialization is taking an increasingly important place in our homes. This will also be the case with video games and even if PlayStation has already placed itself in the niche with its PlayStation Now, it is clearly Microsoft which has a head start on the rest of the market with its Xbox Game Pass, service subscription that allows access to thousands of games to download. SEGA, historical publisher and former console manufacturer, aims to go further than its usual spectrum with the development of a new category internally: the “Super Game”. To achieve this, SEGA has partnered with Microsoft for a so-called strategic alliance that will allow the Japanese publisher to rely on the know-how and technologies already in place of the American giant with Azure, its cloud service. computing. The idea is indeed to develop new generation games which will be based on four pillars: global, online, community, and intellectual property. SEGA takes 5G as an example, which has facilitated and democratized everything that is content on demand and is now convinced that the future is playing on streaming, even in video games. We can therefore imagine the creation of an online and streaming platform for the SEGA catalog, which has grown enormously on the PC over the past 10 years.

The relationship between SEGA and Microsoft does not date from yesterday, since it had been a question of making the Dreamcast games compatible with the first Xbox when SEGA had suffered its failure with its last console. We also remember that Microsoft hosted the western version of Phantasy Star Online 2 and Phantasy Star Online 2: New Genesis on its Azure servers at the time. No wonder this idea of ​​”Super Game” trots in the heads of SEGA leaders, determined to shape the future of video games in any way. And if the former manufacturer of the Mega Drive and the Dreamcast suffered severe setbacks, it is not forbidden to come back in the race anticipating the future. Whatever happens, Microsoft will be of definite help in these new ambitions.

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