We now have concrete details as to the contract MS has with Sega and how they weaseled their way into Yakuza/Persona ports

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

Makes sense if they got it for cheap in exchange for access to their IPs.

Yeah Sega's deal with Azure is a "strategic partnership", meaning they are getting top-class Azure services in exchange for things other than purely upfront cash.

Such like, as we've seen, Day 1 Game Pass for many of their games, Xbox versions of previously PS-exclusive (apparently now clarified because Sega/Atlus simply chose of their own will to NOT prioritize Xbox as a platform in the past) titles, and Western marketing rights to various upcoming Sega/Atlus releases (simply for the optics, really).

 

[Yurinka]

Microsoft signed a 'parity' clause with RGG studio, which states that if RGG studio (or likely Sega entirely?) release a game for PlayStation, they must also release it for Xbox. I'm unsure if this extends beyond Yakuza games, (The documents were about RGG studio/ Yakuza Like a Dragon specifically) but it makes sense as to why Xbox is getting Persona ports and Unicorn Overlord from Vanillaware, but is skipped on Switch exclusives likes Etrian Odyssey collection and SMTV.

Nintendo's Sega exclusives weren't targetted or included in the clause, just PlayStation's.

With this news, Xbox will most likely be getting Persona 6 day one. It also goes to show MS's mentality: Undermine and destroy PlayStation's 3rd party relationships, by FORCING developers to support Xbox too, if they support PlayStation

This is a pretty damned devious deal and must have cost Xbox hundreds of millions of dollars. MS also sweetens the deal by paying a lump sum for gamepass inclusion, which negates the possible (and let's be honest -- likely) sales failures of these games on the Xbox platform.

Well, there it is.

TL,DR: Microsoft has signed a Parity clause with Sega moving forward from ~2020 that states if Sega develops a game for PlayStation, they must also develop it and release it for Xbox.

Sega's publicly mentioned strategy since since around a year or two ago is that they wanted to focus more on multiplatform, on worldwide releases, to make a bigger effort on localization and be harder on game subs, plus making "supergames" (AAA GaaS MP titles) and other initiatives like to resurrect ore classic IPs with different type to increase their revenue.

So yes, some series will stop being exclusive and more games will be included in GP, PS+, NSO, and maybe Amazon Prime/Luna and others.

What incentive was Sega given to sign such a deal? Doesn't make any since unless Microsoft gave them some cash to sign that deal.

We saw some leaked of samples of money that MS estimated to pay to get some games on GP in past deals. Sega games would be similar, pretty much in a mid to lower end of that range of prices.

Azure. They signed a deal and this was probably a part of that.

Yeah Sega's deal with Azure is a "strategic partnership", meaning they are getting top-class Azure services in exchange for things other than purely upfront cash.

Such like, as we've seen, Day 1 Game Pass for many of their games, Xbox versions of previously PS-exclusive (apparently now clarified because Sega/Atlus simply chose of their own will to NOT prioritize Xbox as a platform in the past) titles, and Western marketing rights to various upcoming Sega/Atlus releases (simply for the optics, really).

Sega + MS Azure deal was for a Japan only cloud platform that Sega related to their arcade business infrastructure (not home games) signed with the Azure team, which is not in the MS game division.

Sega games becoming multiplatform and being included is from Sega's strategy, not because of that Azure deal. That Azure deal was Sega using a tool for their servers, in the same way that their game dev teams can make a deal to use certain tools they could use, as Unreal Engine, Photoshop, Blender, Office, GIT, Slack, Discord, etc. To use a tool doesn't mean anything beyond that, and less that it breaks a console exclusivity with other brand or that they will include them on a game sub because of that.