In moves which excite us all like excitable pre-pubescent girls at a boy band signing, the following has been reported during the week:

Namco wants to merge with Sega; Sammy wants to merge with Sega; Sega likes them both; Capcom wants to merge with someone.

Add all this to the following:

EA wants a new acquisition, and Microsoft wants everything and things get very interesting.

The problem at Sega is simply a split of desires. Management would rather merge with Sammy, whereas the programmers and designers would rather merge with Namco.

From a gaming perspective, Namco and Sega working together could mean the first 3D cross-pollinated beat-em up - Virtua Fighter Vs Tekken. Surely an exciting prospect in anyone's eyes, especially as they're both radically different in style. Sammy and Sega, well...
Guilty Gear XX with VF characters? Okay, the potential for excitement is far less, but let's face it, managers don't get where they are by making popular decisions. Or do they?

President of Square Enix, Yoichi Wada, felt it right to voice his opinion and also stated that he'd prefer Sega to merge with Namco. A decision will be made in mid-May, so that shareholders can approve the merger in a meeting slated for June. All three companies will announce their yearly earnings in May, with Namco being the last to do so, on May 21, so we imagine that an official announcement will swing at about the same time.

In regards to the Street Fighter stable, Capcom's current financial situation has led its advisors to suggest a merger for the company. Obviously, online reports are targeting one of the above for a prospective merger, but as Microsoft could well be left in the cold - or simply only aiming to buy a stake in Sega - there could still be room for the Redmond behemoth to devour Capcom as well.

A full buyout of Capcom by Microsoft was rumoured a while back, and if Microsoft do purchase the well-respected Japanese developer, it could well turn their fortunes - or lack thereof - in Japan, as we all know Capcom titles are immensely popular in the land of Sushi.

Another potential reason for this is the current relationship between Capcom and Nintendo, which may not be as strong, due to unsatisfactory sales on the Gamecube platform, for Resident Evil 0 and P.N.03.

Otherwise, the world's number one publisher - Electronic Arts - is looking for acquisitions. We assume whoever is left over will be prime target for the US giant.

All very, very exciting indeed. We'll be watching this like cyclopic hawks with half-binoculars.