http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?section_name=pub&aid=2984

Hajime Satomi moves into top role as Sammy continues to plot Sega' s future

Japanese publisher Sega has announced that Sammy CEO Hajime Satomi is to take over the role of chairman at the company, replacing current chairman Hideki Sato, following Sammy' s purchase of the top shareholding in Sega last year.

Satomi had indicated shortly after the share purchase, which gave Sammy a 22 per cent holding, that he wanted to join the Sega board as soon as possible in order to pursue his company' s plans for the publisher.

As yet it' s not entirely clear what Sammy will do with Sega, although it' s been stated that the company - which specialises in arcade machines and Pachinko gambling machines, as well as operating a small but quite successful game publishing division of its own - wants Sega to focus increasingly on its profitable arcade game business and to develop games for the Sammy Atomiswave low cost arcade systems.

Sammy is also still considering how to consolidate its business interest in the firm, with options on the table including a full merger between the two companies or the formation of a holding company.

The appointment of Satomi as chairman is a key step in any of these plans, and the changes at Sega which he has hinted at so far are likely to accelerate in their implementation from now on.

Former Sega chairman Hideki Sato, who has stepped down to make way for Satomi, will now serve as vice chairman, while Hisao Oguchi will remain in his position as president at the company.

THIS MAY NOT BE A BAD THING!

At first I was like " Screw Sammy!!!" But really, name one truely negative impact Sammy has had thus far? None really. That' s why I' m taking a wait and see approach. Also, Sammy is showing some love towards the X-Box with both GGX and a FPS coming to the Box. So they' re definitely not trying to get out of the console market. This may prove to be very good for Sega. Afterall, we all know CSK was doing SO much to help Sega.... But like I said, this may prove to be very good for Sega.

I hope they dont buy more shares of SEGA because i really dont like the idea of SEGA being owned by them. SEGA owns about 10% of their company i think so they should buy shares themsleves before Sammy does. As long as we dont loose too many console games i am not bother too much and i think if SEGA co-operates with Sammy everything will be OK.

ORIGINAL: lotusson

This may prove to be very good for Sega. Afterall, we all know CSK was doing SO much to help Sega.... But like I said, this may prove to be very good for Sega.

All things considered it' s very unlikely to be a good thing. It might be yes, but based on everything known so far and based on comments from Satome himself, the plan is not exactly for Sega to make its priority great games.

Here' s our article: http://games.kikizo.com/news/200402/014.asp

I basically think that Sega fans will be OK for at least a year or two in terms of existing games being released. But the future is very uncertain. Sammy just wants Sega' s arcade space to further its own arcade model is the bottom line, whether or not it will care about Sega' s brands, fans and focus on quality games is pretty doubtful.

But it won' t happen overnight so we can only wait and see.

There is also a chance that with all the money sammy is spending on shares of sega and all that, that if they expand their arcade business using sega and they don' t make good money on it, which is unlikely but still, then who knows wot would happen to sega. Then again knowing the arcade market in japan i' m sure sammy is gonna make alotta money by expanding using sega. I still hate them for it though.

In an ideal world I believe the Namco and Sega union should have been the one to take place instead of the Sammy and Sega craziness.

Namco and Sega have ALOT more in common than Sega and Sammy and I' m not excited about the Sammy news at all. Just keeping my fingers crossed.

As was mentioned earlier, Sammy' s probably trying to further their own agenda, I don' t think they give much of a damn about Sega.

And given their comment- " if Sega doesn' t agree with our vision we' ll just have to buy more shares" , I don' t think I' ll look at Sammy in such a positive light anymore, which kind of sucks because of their arcade heritage.

Sammy are taking Sega in the right direction. Almost all of Sega' s profitable/popular games released over the past few years (with the exception of teh Sonic franchise) have originated in the arcades. Virtua Tennis, Crazy Taxi, Super Monkey Ball, Virtua Fighter 4, Initial D etc have all been very popular and all of them started life in the arcades before being ported to home consoles. It' s a simple model and one Sega should have concentrated on from the first day they turned 3rd party.