European Commission Targets Sega

In mid-July, Nintendo announced that it had eased up its licensing policy to adhere to European Union (EU) competition law. Now Sega has also conformed to European laws, and the European Commission today has informed Sega that its redrafted licensing agreements are now compatible with the laws.

Game developers and manufacturers are no longer limited to the number of games they can produce for any of Sega's systems (similar to the effect of Nintendo's redrafted licensing agreements on the industry). Games will no longer need Sega's approval of game titles unless a company elects to use the Sega trademark for a given title. Testing by Sega will now be limited only to bug checking, compatibility testing and ensuring that the games are in compliance with programming conventions. Licensees can also opt to have an independent tester check a software product.

Any possible infringement that Sega may have committed against European law has now been cleared. The remaining question is: Will these fixes to licensing options really make the market better? Without quality assurance and approval by Sega, the market could be flooded with games of substandard quality. On the other hand, the advantage of this kind of policy is that small game developers may be able to produce and market their games instead of having to spend extra money and time getting approval and licensing from Sega.

The Commission said in a statement that it thinks "Sega's new licensing agreements will allow much greater competition on the market for Sega-compatible games, and that this will be to the immediate benefit of European consumers."