Microsoft internal emails reveal company’s plan to buy SEGA and Bungie

Internal emails from Microsoft revealed that the company considered purchasing SEGA and Bungie, among other studios.

In 2022, Microsoft announced its plans to buy Activision Blizzard for almost $70 billion – much more than the $7.5 billion Bethesda purchase. However, the deal deadline between Microsoft and Activision Blizzard is slowly approaching.

Numerous obstacles have prevented the sale from happening – including the UK blocking the decisions. The two companies’ merger agreement expires on July 18, but Bloomberg declared it could be extended.

Besides Activision Blizzard, internal documents from the FTC v. Microsoft hearing have revealed the studio’s interest in buying out both SEGA and Bungie.

Microsoft considered buying SEGA to improve Xbox Game Pass

As reported by The Verge, Xbox chief Phil Spencer wrote Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and CFO Amy Hood. Spencer messaged the executives for approval on contacting Sega Sammy – a Japanese holding company – to acquire one of Sega’s gaming studios.

Microsoft

“We believe that Sega has built a well-balanced portfolio of games across segments with global geographic appeal, and will help us accelerate Xbox Game Pass both on and off-console,” said Spencer in the November 2020 email.

Microsoft claimed the purchase of SEGA would ” help expand Xbox Game Pass’s reach to new audiences around the world, most notably in Asia, where localized content is critical to success.”

In addition to SEGA, Microsoft expressed interest in acquiring Bungie – the developers behind Halo and Destiny. The document had identified Destiny 2 as one of the “highest hours generating titles on console Game Pass.” However, Microsoft had identified a “high burn-rate” risk for Bungie.

Also, Hitman studio IO Interactive was on Microsoft’s “final watchlist” in addition to Thunderful, Supergiant Games, Niantic, Playrix, and Zynga. Ultimately, Take-Two purchased the mobile game giant Zynga for $12.7b in May 2022.

At the time of writing, it’s unclear if Microsoft wanted to buy out any other gaming studios.