Sega and Microsoft to develop big-budget video games

Sega and Microsoft to develop big-budget video games

NEW-YORK: Japanese entertainment company Sega announced it had agreed to a strategic alliance with Xbox maker Microsoft to develop video games on the American giant’s Azure cloud platform.

The partnership is part of Sega’s long-term “Super Game” project to develop titles with big-budget international ambition, said the company, originator of the famed “Sonic the Hedgehog” series.

“With the world now more connected than ever following the widespread deployment of 5G and cloud services in recent years, consumers can more easily enjoy high-quality entertainment content at any time,” the Japanese game-maker said in a statement.

“By working with Microsoft to anticipate such trend as they accelerate further in future, the goal is to optimize development processes and continue to bring high-quality experiences to players using Azure cloud technologies.”

Titles developed by Sega specially for Azure servers cloud appear in coming years on Xbox Games Pass, a monthly subscription service that gives users access to a large catalog of games via the Xbox console.

Several Sega games including the popular “Yakuza” franchise are already available on Games Pass. Some are also available through Sony’s Playstation. Now Subscription, or on Nintendo’s digital store.

Sega shares jumped nearly six percent in Monday trade in Tokyo.