Hmm... rumor I heard: Sega to be bought out?

Angrist · 09-29-2002, 07:17 AM

I heard this from another gamefreak. He said there are rumors that either Nintendo or Micro$oft is going to buy Sega. Don't ask me why Sega would want that (I think they are doing great), but that's what the guy heard.

Have you read anything about this??

I do have read the article on C-E saying that Capcom can be easily bought out because it made huge losses last year. Capcom to be the next Rare??

Crono · 09-29-2002, 10:24 AM

Capcom wouldnt be bought out. These "rumours" are obviously false. Neither would Sega, as you said, they are doing great. I am guessing that whoever told you this is a dumbass.

Bond · 09-29-2002, 10:25 AM

I highly doubt Sega or Capcom would be bought out. But it is possible, and Microosft would most likely buy them over Nintendo.

CrOnO_LiNk · 09-29-2002, 04:26 PM

What's going on in this world!? First Rare rumours hit up and become true, now it's Capcom, and by next year Sega too?

I just hope Nintendo aquires Capcom.

TheGame · 09-29-2002, 04:59 PM

I don't know if any of these rumors are true... but know this...

If any type of big name company with big name games is about to be sold, MS has the best chance of buying them out. They will put up a pointless amount of $$$ to buy any company

PuPPeT · 09-30-2002, 11:31 AM

I don't really think any one could really take them over Sega's assets alone are worth at least $2 billion (no way the US Gov would let Microsoft buy any one of that size). So Sega price would have to be some thing like $3 to $5 billion out of Nintendo's price range and for the most part out of Sony as well.

Shadow_Link · 09-30-2002, 02:15 PM

Just to elaborate on the Capcom issue. I don't know if the buy out rumours are true, but one thing is for certain, they made a 'loss' of around £100,000,000, that's 100 Million Pounds!

I think buying Sega would be non-benificial, as not only would they be worth an insane amount of money, the losses they are trying to make up for will also have to be taken care of by the respective buyer, which is also quite a hefty sum.

Sure Microsoft may have the money, but I assure you that it would be a decision that would never pay off (not this generation, let alone the next, or even the one after that one...), even though MS are in it for the 'long run'. Besides, as someone quite rightly pointed out, the US goverment would never sanction such a deal.

If a buy out was to occur, Capcom would probably be the company to be bought out.

Professor S · 09-30-2002, 03:12 PM

The best chance that anyone would haave had to buy out Sega would have been after the Dreamcast went under. That was their lowpoint, but they have rebounded nicely since then.

Capcom may be vulnerable, however. They may have fell to the same fate as Square by being starstuck by Hollywood, and then taking a beating at the box office (I'm not sure if RE lost money, but I don't think it made much of a profit). Then again I'm not sure if Capcom even funded RE, they may have just liscenced out their property.

But considering how much money they lost (how?), I'd have to imagine they put up some money to make that picture.

Xantar · 09-30-2002, 03:38 PM

I don't think Capcom pulled a Squaresoft, exactly. From what I hear, the movie played rather fast and loose with the Resident Evil, and looking over the credit list, I don't see any Capcom people involved. In fact, I see no Japanese names at all. This leads me to believe that Capcom merely sold the license. I'm not sure that the license is worth all that much, though. The Tomb Raider license certainly must have cost a pretty penny, but Resident Evil is not on the same level of recognition.

A quick search through the internet reveals that the total US gross for the movie was $39,532,308. I don't know how much the movie cost to make, but that's a pretty small gross. We can generally assume that the movie pulled in the same amount around the world as it did in the US.

Either way you look at it, the movie did not do well although it wasn't a Street Fighter style flop. But once again, that probably didn't affect Capcom.

I'm inclined to think that the problem may be more on the business side of things. Capcom's games certainly sell well enough. Resident Evil on the GameCube was somewhat of a disappointment, but Devil May Cry and Onimusha, to name a couple, are huge. The problem might not be with revenue but with cost. Maybe Capcom is spending too much money making these games.

And of course, they make some bizarre business decisions. For example, Steel Battalion. It appears to be a very well made game, on that Capcom is spending lots of resources on. But it's guaranteed to flop because it requires a $150 peripheral making the cost of the game about $200. Why is Capcom doing this? To show token support to the Xbox? They're a business. Businesses don't do things like that if they stay alive.

I have heard that this is Capcom's first big loss in a long time, though, so maybe they'll survive. I'm sure they've got a good amount of money stored up from profits past.

But if, and that's a very big if, Capcom gets bought out, I predict that it will be by Sony. Capcom's biggest sellers have been on the PS2, and Sony is a Japanese company. That matters. Given the amount of support that Capcom has given to the Xbox, I just don't think there is much love lost between Capcom and Microsoft. Nintendo is probably not just financially unable to purchase Capcom but probably won't even try. They tend to go after smaller groups and build them up into big ones (look at how big any of Nintendo's second parties were when they got purchased).

Shadow_Link · 09-30-2002, 04:27 PM

Well, Resident Evil has sold well over 750,000 wordwide, and that was before the release in Europe. Any profit is good profit right? If a product makes a profit, then I don't think it contributed to the companies loss in money. I am actually finidng it really difficult to find the cause of this loss in money.

Need more info.

TheGame · 09-30-2002, 04:44 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Shadow_Link
Well, Resident Evil has sold well over 750,000 wordwide, and that was before the release in Europe. Any profit is good profit right? If a product makes a profit, then I don't think it contributed to the companies loss in money. I am actually finidng it really difficult to find the cause of this loss in money.

Need more info.

They said bad investments... (sadly I lost the link yet again)

Plus, games sales don't mean Auto profit. If they hired too many developers, got too many development kits, advertized the games too hard, released too many units, plublished the wrong games and let others plublish the right games... I can see how a 3rd party could fall into debt.

As a 2nd/1st party, these expensesare taken care of by the console manufacture... meaning the only way for them to lose money is if the Manufacture bails out of the console wars (Sega)

Crono · 09-30-2002, 04:48 PM

The RE movie must have made enough money, because a sequel has already been announced.

Shadow_Link · 09-30-2002, 05:07 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by TheGame
They said bad investments... (sadly I lost the link yet again)

Plus, games sales don't mean Auto profit. If they hired too many developers, got too many development kits, advertized the games too hard, released too many units, plublished the wrong games and let others plublish the right games... I can see how a 3rd party could fall into debt.

As a 2nd/1st party, these expensesare taken care of by the console manufacture... meaning the only way for them to lose money is if the Manufacture bails out of the console wars (Sega)

The bad investments makes total sense.

I wasn't actually sure about the profits thing though, I was just reffering to Strangler's statement:

Quote:

but I don't think it made much of a profit

So if it did make profit, which I do 'think' it did, then there's nothing bad about that

. I don't think they were expecting it to be a million seller in either Japan or the USA, as they shipped well below that amount. But do think it will break a million eventually worldwide, which is always a good thing.

Anyways, is there anyway we could find out what Capcom have invested in?

CrOnO_LiNk · 10-01-2002, 01:27 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Crono
The RE movie must have made enough money, because a sequel has already been announced.

Yeah, the movie did make a few $$$. It was very good too. Some parts scared the living **** out of me like in the game but it's one of those movies where you must see it with a freind.

BlueFire · 10-01-2002, 08:31 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by CrOnO_LiNk
Yeah, the movie did make a few $$$. It was very good too. Some parts scared the living **** out of me like in the game but it's one of those movies where you must see it with a freind.

The movie was kind of stupid. Since when do Zombies hiss?