Gaming veteran Sega turns to Microsoft to build cloud-based games

Japanese gaming veteran Sega has entered into a strategic partnership with Microsoft, to leverage the latter’s cloud services to build games based on the cloud. The company first announced the move in a stock exchange statement, which said that Sega was exploring Microsoft’s Xbox cloud gaming platform for future games.

In a press note yesterday, the company announced the partnership and said it was a part of Sega’s plans to produce “large-scale, global games” in a “next generation development environment” that is built using the Microsoft Azure Cloud platform. Sega added that the alliance is a key part of its mid to long term strategy to develop games that leverage 5G connectivity to reach global audiences.

“Together we will reimagine how games get built, hosted, and operated, with a goal of adding more value to players and SEGA alike,” said Sarah Bond, Corporate Vice President at Microsoft.

Sega, which has been responsible for some of the most iconic video games ever, calls this initiative Super Game, and said it’s meant to develop new and innovative titles which focus on being global, online, building community and utilize Sega’s intellectual property. The two companies will look to make breakthroughs in network infrastructure, communication tools and other technologies essential for growing cloud gaming infra around the world.

“By considering a strategic partnership with Microsoft, we seek to further advance our game development so that our titles can be enjoyed by fans all over the world. In this regard, we aim to build an alliance that utilizes both SEGA's powerful game development capabilities and Microsoft's cutting-edge technology and development environment,” said Yukio Sugino, President and COO, SEGA Corporation.