It's somewhat wild, considering FM2022 is launching on practically everything, including iOS and Android, while sidestepping PlayStation entirely. Football Manager 2022 has only been announced for Xbox consoles thus far, with no PlayStation version on the horizon. We're already seeing some "fruits" of Sega's partnership with Xbox already. The PR describes this as a partnership, however, and I've received many questions inquiring about what exactly it could mean for today's Xbox gamer. The biggest hurdle for Sega to grow its own "mega" online games is arguably cloud infrastructure, which this Azure partnership quite easily resolves. It's also not a stretch to imagine how the crime brawling Yakuza franchise could transition to online play, looking at Grand Theft Auto online. Franchises like Sonic still hold a ton of power and brand recognition, but the rate at which we see new games launch under this IP is anemic at best, and often fail to hit widespread acclaim to the same degree that Mario does, for comparison's sake. Sega also enjoys a ton of clout with their legacy brands, which are heavily underutilized right now I would argue. PSO2 and Football Manager are large games, but they aren't in the same league as the likes of Fortnite and Minecraft, which is undoubtedly where Sega is setting its sights. The company has already seen a great deal of online success with franchises like Phantasy Star Online 2 and Football Manager, but it's quite apparent that they could do far more. It's quite clear that Sega has very large ambitions in the online space.
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We can assume that this perhaps references online titles like Fortnite, Minecraft, and Super Smash Bros., which are all global and online games, full of the utilization of existing IP characters and franchises. Sega goes on to describe its "Super Game" initiative while referencing "global online community" and "IP utilization" as key pillars. You can read the full press release in English here, but to summarize, Sega and its parent group Sega Sammy revealed that they've agreed "in principle," a partnership that will see Sega build its next generation of online games using Azure technology.