Microsoft rumored to be buying...... [2020-04, 2020-07, 2020-11]

My 'rhetoric' is actually Japan's 1949 Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Act which it updated frequently - twice last year.

But sure.. you can just pretend that doesn't exist and that Japan doesn't fiercely rejected any dissolution of Japanese companies. In 2019 they rejected even the notion of talks to discuss a merger between Renault and Toyota. Not even a deal, just even to allow talks to begin in the first place. It's not about size, or revenue, this has been a hardening Japanese government policy for over seventy years.

Don't become one of those posters who just dismisses reality and facts just because you want something to happen.

 

Toyota is important for Japanese economy. I am pretty sure that Japan won't allow to purchase Sony too. Completely different things.

To draw a parallel, Toyota one of the few food producers in Japan, while Sega produces soap. I think a lot of people who say that Sega cannot be bought, more afraid to lose games for Playstation. I can agree though that I am more optimistic regarding Sega purchase.

More interesting thing though, is that I wonder if in the future MS gaming division will be big enough to be considered a separate entity similar to Amazon marketplace. Windows already became free-for-consumers platform basically. I presume for Amazon shop something similar might happen in the future.

By the way, do regulators check the studio purchases too?

 

Nah, I'm done. You have a good day.

 

If you want to see a list of the companies that Japan considers protected go the the link below
Looking through there are some interesting additions, for instance there are several japanese publishers on the list, including capcom, Square enix and SEGA SAMMY are all on the list, however they have different levels of restricitions. There are 3 levels, labelled 1-3, 1 being the most permissive and 3 being the most restrictive

Capcom and square enix are both level 1, whereas SEGA SAMMY is level 2, the same level of restriction of nintendo and Konami

the levels of restriction arent absolute to be clear, it just affects what set of legislature applies to the sale.


page the link is on
Global Disclosures

Direct link to pdf
https://www.mof.go.jp/international_policy/gaitame_kawase/fdi/list.xlsx

 

Much of this only pertains to the changes Japan made last year. This legislation is 72 years old, it covers a lot more than this. As I was trying to explain to t'other guy, it's not all about money. There are a multitude of reasons Japan may want to regulate foreign investment and for Japan some of it is simply cultural and not necessarily economic. Not that SEGA is small.

A lot of countries have put similar legislation in place to protect against foreign interference by way of investment in anything related to 'national security' (which is a fairly broad term all things considered) over the past few years.

 

Square Enix would be the obvious target if I were looking to purchase a Japanese video game country, then. If they are level 1, and would have the least restriction, that's a plus. Also a plus is their back catalog, which includes plenty of fan favorite franchises, including all of the western Eidos IPs (Tomb Raider, Deus Ex, Just Cause). Hell, they might even get Daikatana in the deal. And, of course, Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest. And Rad Racer. This purchase would also allow for a Square Replay package of old Square and Enix games.

 

Are the FF games still big games ? I feel like it died off in the ps3 era of gaming.

I think the Eidos could be good and dragon quest is pretty big still from what I know.

I am not really a fan of JRPGS myself but more RPGs for the platform could be a good thing

 

Good luck in your new venture. Please remaster Final Fantasy XII

 

surely they have enough RPGs at this point, they have atleast 10 RPG/MMOs in development/ in the pipeline by my count!
I daresay they have enough RPG talent

its crazy how cheaply square enix acquired Eidos, they purchased them for £84m in 2009

I think they are going to move into another genre with their next acquisition, they have RPGs and FPS games more than well covered at this point, maybe strategy games or platformers are next. imo moving into strategy games makes the most sense, strategy games are played all around the world and are especially popular in regions where xbox is weak, like in mainland europe and asia

 

There can never be enough CRPGs liams... never. They could have a 100 studios working on CRPG and MMOs and its not enough !

Also yes more strategy games would be good. I like those too. Last weekend my wife and i put 15 hours into civ 6

 

We should agree to disagree.

JRPGs are different from WRPGs though.

 

at the ms town hall today Phil had a switch on his shelf. Microsoft buying Nintendo is back on the menu boys !

 

Sure it's a Nintendo Switch and not an XBoy?

 

lol yea its a switch , it was in the dock with the red and blue controllers lol. He had a bunch of other stuff too .It was blury but it was something like an astronaut with a spear and then some type of mask on a stand and a whole lot of stuff.

shhhh

 

hmmm, maybe starfield related?

 

maybe. I dunno like i said it wasn't the highest quality feed

 

Like Yvette Amos?

 

lol i didn't see anything like that, who is that lol

 

It's not gaming, but it is an American company outright owning a Japanese corporation. And not one that was defunct, Seiyu's had and continues to have a presence across Japan and have never ceased operations.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seiyu_Group

This one particularly stands out as I was confused back in the 2000's when a local Seiyu's in Japan had Walmart shopping carts. This is a corporation that was founded back in the 1940's. Walmart had 100% ownership, but have since sold most of their ownship to another foreign company with some minority shares getting sold to a Japanese company.

Some examples of majority ownership and possibility of future full 100% ownership.

Sharp (founded in 1912) - 65% ownership by the Taiwan based Foxconn group
Mitsubishi Fuso Truck and Bus - 89.2% owned by Germany's Daimler.

Toshiba was majority owned by General Electric way back in 1905, so this Foreign ownership isn't unknown.

Somewhere in one of the forums around here, I basically outlined what it takes for a Japanese corporation to eventually be approved for full foreign ownership. It's difficult, but not impossible.

Companies that will be as close to impossible to acquire would be ones that are tied to Japan's financial market or infrastructure (like utilities). Thus it would be difficult for a foreign company to acquire Sony, for example, as it's currently structured, but it becomes much easier if their financial arm were spun off into another company.

I can't remember where I was reading about it (one of the Japanese newspapers), but approximately 1/4 of Japanese businesses are foreign owned. Not foreign businesses with a presence in Japan (like Ford or Samsung), but actual ownership of businesses founded in Japan.

Just because it hasn't yet happened to a Japanese gaming company doesn't mean it can't or won't happen.

That said, Japan has recently (past few years) tightened up regulations for some business sectors specifically to slow down or preventing Chinese ownership of Japanese businesses.

Regards,
SB

 

As I said before I am pretty sure if MS wants to purchase Sega they will be able to do that just fine.Japanese government won't take out the katanas and Atlus or Sega employees won't commit seppuku. MS is actually kinda cozy with most of the governments (even with EU when EU does not need more money).