Sega and Xbox’s parent company Microsoft announce ‘strategic alliance’ for ‘Super Game’ initiative using Azure cloud platform

Sega announced it had entered a “strategic alliance” with Microsoft in a bid to produce “large-scale, global games” in a next-generation framework. Sega, however, emphasized that the partnership will specifically benefit its mysterious “Super Game” project, and it appears that Microsoft’s Azure cloud computing platform is key in making that happen.

The announcement comes from a press release from Sega on Monday, saying its alliance with Microsoft should help the Japanese video game company in carrying out its mid to long-term strategy. While Sega specifically noted that its partnership with Microsoft would help with the development of Super Game, the game developer and publisher did not provide specific details about the project.

Gaming fans first heard of Sega’s Super Game when it was uncovered in presentation slides for the fiscal year ending in March 2021 by VGC. One of the slides shows that Sega has identified two sets of “Priority Strategies” with goals they hope to accomplish in three and five years. There was only one item listed under the five-year key strategy for its global business — the Creation of Super Game.

The document suggested that Super Game did not just pertain to a single project as Sega’s presentation indicated it will involve the “creation of titles which can be expanded globally.” In its press release on Monday, the company did not offer more clarification about Super Game and only provided keywords, such as global, online, community, and IP utilization, as its primary focus areas.

The “online” aspect of Sega’s Super Game seems to be where Microsoft will help the most, thanks to its established Azure cloud platform. While the official statement did not mention Xbox or Xbox Game Pass, it appears that Sega’s plans and what made the new alliance necessary could lead to a product that resembles how Game Pass services work. That is to use cloud computing services to make games available to more devices (not just PCs and consoles) and more gamers around the world.

Sega also said it had considered the increasing availability of 5G mobile network and cloud services over the years, leading to its decision to ally with Microsoft. “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,” Sega added.

Photo by Jezael Melgoza on Unsplash