SEGA buys Rovio (Angry Birds dev) for $775 million

I don't have any strong thoughts, other than finding it intriguing that SEGA Sammy has that sort of cash at their disposal, but they have been on a turnaround for a decade at this point. As purely a business move, it's probably great for SEGA since the mobile market rakes in money like no other, and they haven't had a global hit despite many attempts (I liked Sonic Jump though). Rovio also makes $300 million annually, so the deal pays for itself, and they can now utilize SEGA IPs alongside Angry Birds, which you better believe will show up as a Like a Dragon mini game or in a Sonic movie crossover. Long term, this is likely going to be up there with the Creative Assembly, Relic, and Atlus acquisitions.

System Wars take: SEGA isn't getting bought out by Microsoft.

k. SEGA focusing more on mobile sounds super lame, but whatever.

What a waste of money.

@Litchie: They already have, like every other company, for a long time though. It's more about getting somebody who knows what they're doing, similarly as to how Atlus was able to cost efficiently localize their games. That acquisition essentially made Yakuza a thing in the west, because IPs like it and Valkyria Chronicles weren't coming anymore.

@mesome713: " What a waste of money."

Only time will tell.

@Renegade_Fury: "I don't have any strong thoughts, other than finding it intriguing that SEGA Sammy has that sort of cash at their disposal,"

The 1st thought I had too.

SEGA has been garbage for over a decade, so this is perfectly fitting.

Super moneky ball on phones where your gyroscope is used to steer the balls.

Think about it.

People on here will think it's lame or a waste of money, but the mobile sector is GROWING.

Someone is buying all of these microtransactions, even if it isn't SW posters.

Sony, Nintendo and MS are all making huge investments in mobile.

Come on Sega, Yu Suzuki needed like $20 million to make a decent Shenmue 3.

@R4gn4r0k: I'd play the shit out of that lol.

That's the truth, but system wars is comprised of 99.9% old fogies that don't (want to) comprehend the modern day gaming landscape. Teens and people in their 20's have grown up with phone games, loot boxes, gatchas, etc. Games like Fortnite too are essentially these people's Super Mario Bros. 1 equivalent.

Could work pretty well, I suppose. Phone games are designed to milk you as much as possible though, so it would most likely be crap.

Sonic x Angry Birds crossover mobile game incoming.

Sega Sammy have a ton of cash... from pachinko! Sega Sammy have been making billions from selling pachinko machines in Japan. Their most successful pachinko line, Fist of the North Star, has earned many billions for Sega Sammy.

But it's worth keeping in mind that Angry Birds is nowhere near as popular today as it was a decade ago. So it didn't cost Sega Sammy that much to acquire them today. Rovio would've demanded far more when they were at their peak.

I can see that happening in both games & movies as Angry Birds already had their own movie.

So, Sega has the best IP's sitting dormant and spend three quarters of a billion on this garbage 🤦‍♂️

Yeah, I didn't know how large their pachinko reserves were still after the pandemic, but it's likely back up again. Also with the somewhat departure from arcades, SEGA needs to invest in other areas.

That's true about the Angry Birds IP. A couple of days ago, I was reading $1 billion as the buyout price, but if this was ten years ago, it would have been $2 billion easy. That's why the acquisition is good for Rovio too, because now they can utilize SEGA IPs, and possibly up their niche value, so it's a potential win-win for both.

Yeah, we are absolutely the niche. Casuals will never care, and what kids have been indoctrinated in has given them a very different perspective on what games are. There are good Mobile games and decent implementations of GAAS though, so I think that is something the older generation needs to get over too.

That's true, the arcade and pachinko businesses took a hit during the pandemic. But they had large enough reserves from earlier years, and the pachinko business has been recovering:

Sega Sammy Holdings revises up FY23 guidance on strong pachinko, Korea IR results through December

Rovio probably would've charged a couple billions some 5-10 years ago. But nowadays, Rovio is worth less than $1 billion. As you said, however, this buyout could benefit both Sega and Rovio.

There's a clear generation gap between Millennials and Zoomers. While Millennials grew up with consoles, computers, and arcades, Zoomers have grown up with mobiles and tablets. As a result, Zoomers generally have very different gaming preferences to Millennials. Many traditional video game companies are trying to draw larger Zoomer audiences by entering the mobile market, which is by far the largest sector of the video game industry.

I certainly understand why they would do this but it definitely does nothing for me so, meh. 🤷‍♂️

Seems calculated like if Microsoft uses Candy Crush to try to launch its mobile store they'll want to acquire mobile IPs and they can either flip it at a profit, license it, or hope MS offers to buy Sega for it.

It's not EA buying them. It's not MS buying Activision. Meh...

Damn and here I am waiting for Skies of Arcadia and Shining Force remasters…. :(

Waste of money. Sega should've used that cash to bring back some older IPs instead.

@mesome713: 775 million does seem like a lot of money, but the mobile market IS very lucrative. At least 775 million completely pales in comparison to the ridiculous 70 billion price for Activision.