Sega & Microsoft team up for cloud based super game initiative

One step closer to that Sonic and Blinx the Time Sweeper crossover everyone wants (pic: Sega)

Turns out Sega’s super game isn’t a single project but an initiative to build multiple large scale games, and Microsoft is helping.

Remember when people thought Microsoft was going to buy out Sega? Well, that isn’t happening, but the two have entered a new alliance to build ‘large scale, global games’ on Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform.

This will be a key part of Sega’s ‘super game’ initiative. Back in May, Sega’s end-of-year financial report mentioned that the publisher was looking into creating a super game. At the time, no one had any idea what Sega meant by this, but now it turns out that it’s not just a single project.

The plan is to make multiple games with a focus on online, community, and IP utilisation. Sega is already committed to the initiative, with the financial report revealing that even the first of these super games won’t release until 2026.

‘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,’ says Sega.

‘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 optimise development processes and continue to bring high quality experiences to players using Azure cloud technologies.’

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While it’s still early days, some of these projects could involve dormant Sega franchises, such as Altered Beast, Crazy Taxi, and Jet Set Radio – titles which Sega has earmarked for a comeback before.

The May financial report listed a number of these as examples that could receive remasters, remakes, or reboots, with Sega repeating the term ‘IP utilisation’ in reference to them.

It’s not exactly clear yet whether this means any such projects will be exclusive to the Xbox platform. It does seem a possibility though, considering how heavily Microsoft is involved.

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