Between Microsoft and Sega as publishers, which one has the better lineup of games/IPs?

Between Microsoft and Sega as publishers, which one has the better lineup of games/IPs?


  • Total voters
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LakeOf9

Member
Microsoft and Sega are similar in that they are platform holders who decided to adopt a third party publishing model to get their games to bigger audiences.

Which actually brings to mind an interesting question about which of the two is better as a publisher. They both have a massive portfolio oif games, franchises, and developers accrued over the years. Which of the two do you prefer the lineup for?

Some franchises owned by Microsoft:
  • The Elder Scrolls
  • Fallout
  • DOOM
  • Call of Duty
  • Overwatch
  • Diablo
  • Warcraft
  • Forza Horizon
  • Dishonored
  • Gears of War
  • Sea of Thieves
  • Fable
  • Halo
  • Age of Empires
  • Microsoft Flight Simulator
  • Crash Bandicoot
Some franchises owned by Sega:
  • Like A Dragon
  • Persona
  • Shin Megami Tensei
  • Total War
  • Bayonetta
  • Football Manager
  • Company of Heroes
  • Sonic the Hedgehog
  • Crazy Taxi
  • Jet Set Radio
  • Angry Birds
  • Judgment
  • Virtua Fighter
  • Phantasy Star
  • Streets of Rage
 
Gotta point out that almost all of Sega's list is also franchises and games they did not originally own and got by acquisitions.

Sega have making / produced all this IP you listed

This is absolutely not the case, Sega acquired Atlus, Creative Assembly, Relic, etc., and got all their IPs in the bargain. Sega did not make Football Manager or Persona themselves.
 
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I have better memories of SEGA games growing up etc.
Cant help but feel Microsoft owns the better games though. What they do with them lately is another story
 
Gotta point out that almost all of Sega's list is also franchises and games they did not originally own and got by acquisitions.
True, but you can Daytona, Outrun, Golden Axe, Skies of Acardia, Valkyria Chronicles, Panzer Dragoon, etc...
 
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True, but you can Daytona, Outrun, Golden Axe, Skies of Acardia, Valkyria Chronicles
Sure, and I can add a bunch of Microsoft owned franchises (Zoo Tycoon, Rise of Nations, Age of Mythology, MechCommander) to the MS list too. I did not do that for either, the point was to have a balanced list including some franchises they made themselves and some they acquired. For both.

Singling out just MS on that is inaccurate. And I am saying that as someone who voted for Sega on the poll btw.
 
It would be better to judge actual output, not IPs owned at this point.
That was actually the original plan, but then I realized for Microsoft it's messy, because a lot (most?) of the output b their acquired studios and publishers so far is actually stuff they had little to nothing to do with; assigning credit/blame to MS for last year's Call of Duty or Diablo 4 would be silly, and that creates issues in a comparison

So this was the next best thing
Both botch their flagship IP on a regular basis.
This is my favorite part about this comparison lol
 
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That was actually the original plan, but then I realized for Microsoft it's messy, because a lot (most?) of the output b their acquired studios and publishers so far is actually stuff they had little to nothing to do with; assigning credit/blame to MS for last year's Call of Duty or Diablo 4 would be silly, and that creates issues in a comparison

So this was the next best thing

This is my favorite part about this comparison lol
True, but you're comparing like 1 publisher's IPs to basically 3 publishers IPs. ha!
 
Since Microsoft has Activision, Blizzard and Bethesda, it's because of them. Microsoft itself is very weak on their feet nowadays and looses easily to Sega
 
Microsoft has two giants Halo and Forza but Microsoft made a lot of mistakes with these franchises but I think today there is a draw.
 
For my taste Saga without the doubt and also you better have good fucking reason why Valkyria Chronicles is not on that list.
 
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In terms of total IPs that sell ridiculous amounts, the winner is Microsoft. The problem is it took them spending $80b and consolidating a ton of the industry just to "win" this meaningless poll.
 
Ms games have been my GOTY since around 2019. Often more than one in top3. Sega? Probably never even if they do release kickass games on the regular basis.
 
I'd instinctively say Sega wins including the classic stuff they don't do anything with nowadays (Shining Force, Panzer Dragoon etc.) but then again MS probably also has a ton of classic stuff they don't do anything with, like Allegiance, MechWarrior and whatever ace PC stuff so Idk, probably equal🤷‍♂️
 
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10 years ago I would've been a whole lot more positive about those IPs that Microsoft owns. Especially Blizzard's stuff.
 
Not only did Microsoft not have anything to do with creating these aquired IPs, just a few days ago it was confirmed that they cancelled Crash Bandicoot before MS ever made a game in that IP - yet you still count it for a list war. Nonsensical thread.
 
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Minus publisher shopping -
  • Sea of Thieves
  • Fable
  • Halo
  • Age of Empires
  • Microsoft Flight Simulator
But you forgot forza anyway.
 
Sega has the better ip but they don't DO enough with them so it feels like MS has better ip.

Sega seems to finally want to turn this around but I don't have confidence in their recently announced revival project ..we had that amazing trailer but they've been virtually silent ever since
 
I would go with SEGA anytime and every time. Like a Dragon, SMT, Persona, Daytona and Outrun (where are my modern arcade racers, SEGA???), and Total War franchises are just amazing (to be fair Total War has been going downhill).

The only two games from MS I enjoyed over last several years have been Forza Horizon and Flight Simulator.
 
Not only did Microsoft not have anything to do with creating these aquired IPs, just a few days ago it was confirmed that they cancelled Crash Bandicoot before MS ever made a game in that IP - yet you still count it for a list war. Nonsensical thread.
A lot of those IPs also weren't created by Sega.
 
This is not a balanced match just by pure amount if we took all into account, but power-wise its not too crazy. Havent even heard of half of the SEGAs list and i am on a gaming forum... but ill do my best.

Planes, Cars and Ships (or is it boats?) get countered by football players, theyll just claim insurance money with the help of Sae Nijima and Yagami from Judgment if they try to attack them, but the football players die in the process, theres just way too many vehicles, but Angry Birds could finish the job, ive seen them topple a castle, Boeing planes wont withstand their might, but theyll die in the process too.

COD, AoE, Overwatch and Gears are cooked, Fallout friendly fire destroys them along with Company of Heroes and Yakuza. UNSC is busy getting their asses kicked by aliens in their own universe, not sure they could waste resources to participate.

Problem is Doom Slayer solos just about everything SEGA has left (he friendly fires Diablo in the process) since we cant count Chaos Gods from Total War Warhammer entries, but then he would run into SMT which has way too many gods, hed win 1on1 easily, but theyll overwhelm him 100on1 and then its mutual self destruction of Atlus gods against Elder Scrolls and WoW from then on.

Not even going to bother verifying it because it sounds too ridiculous to not be fake, but no way Virtua Fighter and Crazy Taxi are real IPs that exist, youre pulling my leg.

I did do research on Crash Bandicoot, apparently the character is not licensed from Looney Tunes, terrible news all-around. Thought Taz could be a wildcard and beat Sonic, but no. If we take everything into account, especially my disappointment upon fiding out the last detail then SEGA should win the poll.
 
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What do we learn from this comparison? Absolutely nothing. If you want to examine portfolios comparatively based on Sega's transition from platform holder to third-party dev/publisher with Microsoft's potential transition, then you should be looking at Sega properties during the 2001 period in which they made that transition. Then we might actually have better talking points.
 
For my taste Saga without the doubt and also you better have good fucking reason why Valkyria Chronicles is not on that list.
You do disservice to mother Sega by misspelling her holy name.

Your punishment will be playing nothing but Bugsby 3D on ps1 for 55 hours.
 
Who has better IPs: Microsoft or Sony?

Difficulty: MS buys Nintendo, and Sony buys SEGA

I should be making threads. These are the pressing questions.
 
You do disservice to mother Sega by misspelling her holy name.

Your punishment will be playing nothing but Bugsby 3D on ps1 for 55 hours.
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Personally the only game I'd go out of my way for in both lists is the Atlus games

Classic Blizzard would have made it a different story

Microsoft list objectively has far, far, far more important games
 
Microsoft and Sega are similar in that they are platform holders who decided to adopt a third party publishing model to get their games to bigger audiences.

Which actually brings to mind an interesting question about which of the two is better as a publisher. They both have a massive portfolio oif games, franchises, and developers accrued over the years. Which of the two do you prefer the lineup for?

Some franchises owned by Microsoft:
  • The Elder Scrolls
  • Fallout
  • DOOM
  • Call of Duty
  • Overwatch
  • Diablo
  • Warcraft
  • Forza Horizon
  • Dishonored
  • Gears of War
  • Sea of Thieves
  • Fable
  • Halo
  • Age of Empires
  • Microsoft Flight Simulator
  • Crash Bandicoot
Some franchises owned by Sega:
  • Like A Dragon
  • Persona
  • Shin Megami Tensei
  • Total War
  • Bayonetta
  • Football Manager
  • Company of Heroes
  • Sonic the Hedgehog
  • Crazy Taxi
  • Jet Set Radio
  • Angry Birds
  • Judgment
  • Virtua Fighter
  • Phantasy Star
  • Streets of Rage

Sega because more than half of the games listed for Microsoft is not made by them.
 
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